HAPPINESS is ONLY REAL WHEN SHARED

Mountains make poor receptacles for dreams.

Short form media is reductionist by nature.

Common sense is no match for the voice of God.

The way to Everest is not a Yellow Brick Road.

The core of mans' spirit comes from new experiences.

If you're not a feminist, you're part of the problem.

That's what was great about him. He tried. Not many do.

Its not always necessary to be strong, but to feel strong.

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

Military investigations are designed not to find anyone guilty.

If you want a blank spot on the map, you gotta leave the map behind.

I'm not even religious, but I get fanaticism. I get the appeal of it.

Happiness means nothing to me. I just want to have meaning and purpose.

Rob Hall was, without doubt, the most competent guide in mountaineering.

Heaven, for me, is one focused project - it's like a weird form of autism.

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

Mr. Franz, I think careers are a 20th century invention and I don't want one.

Once you believe that God is speaking directly to you, there is no discussion.

When you forgive, you love. And when you love, God’s light shines through you.

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

I really enjoy researching, and for almost every piece, I research enough to write a book.

Children can be harsh judges when it comes to their parents, disinclined to grant clemency.

Don't settle down and sit in one place. Move around, be nomadic, make each day a new horizon.

When I write books, I've learned not to have any expectations that I'm going to change the world.

The only person you are fighting is yourself and your stubbornness to engage in new circumstances.

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

I never studied writing, but I'd always been a reader and had a secret fantasy about being a writer.

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

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

weeping...betraying a sense of loss so huge and irreparable that the mind balks at taking its measure.

There's something about being afraid, about being small, about enforced humility that draws me to climbing.

I think part of the appeal of Antarctica is experiencing some sort of power, the forces of the natural world.

The trip was to be an odyssey in the fullest sense of the word, an epic journey that would change everything.

Almost every magazine piece I've ever written, I felt like I haven't done it justice, like it was just a gloss.

Sometimes he tried too hard to make sense of the world, to figure out why people were bad to each other so often.

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

But now that I was finally here, standing on the summit of Mount Everest, I just couldn't summon the energy to care.

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

I mean, how can you not be a feminist if you have a brain in your head? If you’re not a feminist, then you’re a problem.

The pieces I've written for 'Outside' magazine are definitely my best work, and they're virtually all about the outdoors.

Everest has always been a magnet for kooks, publicity seekers, hopeless romantics and others with a shaky hold on reality.

I'm going to paraphrase Thoreau here... rather than love, than money, than faith, than fame, than fairness... give me truth.

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

Some people feel like they don't deserve love. They walk away quietly into empty spaces, trying to close the gaps of the past.

As I point out in the very first pages of 'Into the Wild,' I approached this book not as a normal, you know, unbiased journalist.

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

In climbing, having confidence in your partners is no small concern. One climber's actions can affect the welfare of the entire team.

I read somewhere... how important it is in life not necessarily to be strong, but to feel strong... to measure yourself at least once.

You get a compound fracture in Colorado where I live, and you can probably be in a hospital within a matter of hours, certainly within a day.

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