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

You are wrong if you think Joy emanates only or principally from human relationships. God has placed it all around us. It is in everything and anything we might experience. We just have to have the courage to turn against our habitual lifestyle and engage in unconventional living.

According to the moral absolutism that characterizes McCandless's beliefs, a challenge in which a successful outcome is assured isn't a challenge at all.

When I start any book, I have no idea what I'm going to do.

My reasoning, if one can call it that, was inflamed by the scatter shot passions of youth and a literary diet overly rich in the works of Nietzshe, Kerouac, and John Menlove Edwards.

...books possess an ounce-of-weight to minute-of-entertainment ratio that compares quite favorably to intoxicants.

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