You do the right thing even if it makes you feel bad. The purpose of life is not to be happy but to be worthy of happiness.

The hardest thing was learning to write. I was 13, and the only writing I had done was for Social Studies. It consisted of copying passages right out of the encyclopedia

I've gotta keep life and computers separate, or else I'm gonna go mad.

Don't worry about being worried. You're heading out on an adventure and you can always change your mind along the way and try something else.

I'm going to a commune in Vermont and will deal with no unit of time shorter than a season.

And I can imagine Farmer saying he doesn't care if no one else is willing to follow their example. He's still going to make these hikes, he'd insist, because if you say that seven hours is too long to walk for two families of patients, you're saying that their lives matter less than some others', and the idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that's wrong with the world.

In a very basic way, a prominent landmark such as Mt. Holyoke tells you where you are. They let you know that you're not the first person in a place