Most climbers aren't in fact deranged, they're just infected with a particularly virulent strain of the Human Condition.

Common sense is no match for the voice of God.

What if I were smiling and running into your arms? Would you see then what I see now?

To the contrary: His life hummed with meaning and purpose. But the meaning he wrested from existence lay beyond the comfortable path: McCandless distrusted the value of things that came easily.

I'm intrigued by fanatics - people who are seduced by the promise, or the illusion, of the absolute.

But somethings in life are more important than being happy. Like being free to think for yourself.

Above the comforts of Base Camp, the expedition in fact became an almost Calvinistic undertaking. The ratio of misery to pleasure was greater by an order of magnitude than any mountain I'd been on; I quickly came to understand that climbing Everest was primarily about enduring pain. And in subjecting ourselves to week after week of toil, tedium and suffering, it struck me that most of us were probably seeking above all else, something like a state of grace.