You should own nothing except what you can carry on your back at a dead run.

I understood what he was doing, that he had spent four years fulfilling the absurd and tedious duty of graduating from college and now he was emancipated from that world of abstraction, false security, parents, and material excess.

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

I was dimly aware that I might be getting in over my head. But that only added to the scheme’s appeal. That it wouldn’t be easy was the whole point.

There is nothing glamorous or romantic about war. It's mostly about random pointless death and misery.

But [Everett] and McCandless, at least they tried to follow their dream. That’s what was great about them. They tried. Not many do.

The desert sharpened the sweet ache of his longing, amplified it, gave shape to it in sere geology and clean slant of light.