Allow these Into The Wild quotes to capture the essence of Jon Krakauer’s introspective writing style about one man’s quest to find himself.
Into the Wild is one of the most influential books ever written about hiking and the outdoors, Jon Krakauer. It tells the story of Christopher McCandless, an American college student who went on a wild journey across Alaska in 1992. The book has been praised for its descriptive writing and its portrayal of McCandless’ journey into his own identity.
Intro
McCandless was an intelligent and gifted young man, but he was also reckless and rebellious. He was never content with what he had and always looked for new challenges.
“Immediately after graduating, with honors, from Emory University in the summer of 1990, McCandless dropped out of sight. He changed his name, gave the entire balance of a twenty-four-thousand-dollar savings account to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet. And then he invented a new life for himself, taking up residence at the ragged margin of our society, wandering across North America in search of raw, transcendent experience.”
Jon Krakauer
McCandless became convinced that the best way to experience life was to go into the wilderness and live off the land. He had no money, no food, and no supplies, but he was ready to adventure. He found himself in a desperate struggle for survival and died in the wild.
But his story offers a unique and compelling look at the power of independence, the allure of uncharted territory, and the harshness of nature.
“In coming to Alaska, McCandless yearned to wander uncharted country, to find a blank spot on the map. In 1992, however, there were no more blank spots on the map – not in Alaska, not anywhere. But Chris, with his idiosyncratic logic, came up with an elegant solution to this dilemma: He simply got rid of the map. In his own mind, if nowhere else, the terra would thereby remain incognita.”
Jon Krakauer
The book is a gripping read that will leave you questioning your own motivations and beliefs. Here are the best “Into the Wild quotes” that illustrate this point perfectly.
Into the Wild Quotes
Adventure is in the air! It’s in the blood. It courses through your veins like an electrical current. You can’t help but be drawn to it. Here are some Into the Wild quotes that capture the essence of adventure and why we should all strive for more of it in our lives:
“Make a radical change in your lifestyle and begin to boldly do things which you may previously never have thought of doing, or been too hesitant to attempt.”
“So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservation.”
“All of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future.”
“The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure.”
“The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.”
“If you want to get more out of life, you must lose your inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter style of life that will at first appear to you to be crazy. But once you become accustomed to such a life you will see its full meaning and its incredible beauty.”
“Don’t settle down and sit in one place. Move around, be nomadic, make each day a new horizon.”
“You are still going to live a long time, and it would be a shame if you did not take the opportunity to revolutionize your life and move into an entirely new realm of experience.”
“I now walk into the wild.”
Into the Wild Quotes about Nature
Check out these Jon Krakauer Into the wild quotes to embrace the natural world around us.
“You had a wonderful chance on your drive back to see one of the greatest sights on earth, the Grand Canyon, something every American should see at least once in his life.”
“But for some reason incomprehensible to me you wanted nothing but to bolt for home as quickly as possible, right back to the same situation which you see day after day after day.”
“The experience of wildness is not a goal to be achieved but something that must be accepted as part of the natural order.”
“To appreciate wildness is not to escape civilization but to return to it.”
“The sea’s only gifts are harsh blows, and occasionally the chance to feel strong. Now I don’t know much about the sea, but I do know that that’s the way it is here.”
“The trip was to be an odyssey in the fullest sense of the word, an epic journey that would change everything.”
“I thought climbing the Devils Thumb would fix all that was wrong with my life. In the end, of course, it changed almost nothing. But I came to appreciate that mountains make poor receptacles for dreams. And I lived to tell my tale.”
“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.”
“Unlike Muir and Thoreau, McCandless went into the wilderness not primarily to ponder nature or the world at large but, rather, to explore the inner country of his own soul.”
Into the Wild Quotes about Freedom
Regardless of where one lives, there are always opportunities for exploration and adventure if we’re willing to let go and take risks. Here are some Into the Wild quotes about living an unrestricted life.
“All I know is that I want to be free. Free to run, free to climb, free to swim. I want to be alive and wild.”
“I fear you will follow this same inclination in the future and thus fail to discover all the wonderful things that God has placed around us to discover.”
“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.”
“The only person you are fighting is yourself and your stubbornness to engage in new circumstances.”
“I read somewhere…how important it is in life not necessarily to be strong, but to feel strong…to measure yourself at least once.”
“The core of mans’ spirit comes from new experiences.”
“It is easy, when you are young, to believe that what you desire is no less than what you deserve, to assume that if you want something badly enough, it is your God-given right to have it.”
“We like companionship, see, but we can’t stand to be around people for very long. So we go get ourselves lost, come back for a while, then get the hell out again.”
“It is true that I miss intelligent companionship, but there are so few with whom I can share the things that mean so much to me that I have learned to contain myself. It is enough that I am surrounded with beauty.”
Into the Wild Quotes about Life Lesson
Too often, we take life for granted. We focus on the things that make us happy, and we forget about the lesson life has to teach. Here are some Into the Wild quotes about the subject:
“Some people feel like they don’t deserve love. They walk away quietly into empty spaces, trying to close the gaps of the past.”
“When you forgive, you love. And when you love, God’s light shines upon you.”
“At such moments something resembling happiness actually stirs in your chest, but it isn’t the sort of emotion you want to lean on very hard.”
“The pursuit of knowledge, he maintained, was a worthy objective in its own right and needed no external validation.”
“All true meaning resides in the personal relationship to a phenomenon, what it means to you.”
“It was the masterful and incommunicable wisdom of eternity laughing at the futility of life and the effort of life.”
“The fragility of crystal is not a weakness but a fineness.”
“It’s not always necessary to be strong, but to feel strong.”
“Happiness [is] only real when shared.”
“It is easy, when you are young, to believe that what you desire is no less than what you deserve, to assume that if you want something badly enough, it is your God-given right to have it. I was a raw youth who mistook passion for insight and acted according to an obscure, gap-ridden logic.”
Inspiring Into the Wild Quotes
Danger has always held a certain allure. That, in large part, is why so many teenagers drive too fast and drink too much and take too many drugs, why it has always been so easy for nations to recruit young men to go to war.
“Early on a difficult climb, especially a difficult solo climb, you constantly feel the abyss pulling at your back.”
“To resist takes a tremendous conscious effort; you don’t dare let your guard down for an instant.”
“The siren song of the void puts you on edge; it makes your movements tentative, clumsy, herky-jerky.”
“But as the climb goes on, you grow accustomed to the exposure, you get used to rubbing shoulders with doom, you come to believe in the reliability of your hands and feet and head.”
“You learn to trust your self-control. By and by your attention becomes so intensely focused that you no longer notice the raw knuckles, the cramping thighs, the strain of maintaining nonstop concentration.”
“A trancelike state settles over your efforts; the climb becomes a clear-eyed dream. Hours slide by like minutes.”
“And my emotions were similarly amplified: The highs were higher; the periods of despair were deeper and darker. To a self-possessed young man inebriated with the unfolding drama of his own life, all of this held enormous appeal.”
“An extended stay in the wilderness inevitably directs one’s attention outward as much as inward, and it is impossible to live off the land without developing both a subtle understanding of, and a strong emotional bond with, that land and all it holds.”
“I was stirred by the dark mystery of mortality. I couldn’t resist stealing up to the edge of doom and peering over the brink (…) That was a very different thing from wanting to die.”
Into the Wild Quotes Chris McCandless
Check out these Into the Wild quotes to describe McCandless’s thoughts and his views on the life he lives:
“He read a lot. He used a lot of big words. I think maybe part of what got him into trouble was that he did too much thinking.”
“Sometimes he tried too hard to make sense of the world, to figure out why people were bad to each other so often.”
“A couple of times I tried to tell him it was a mistake to get too deep into that kind of stuff, but Alex got stuck on things. He always had to know the absolute right answer before he could go on to the next thing.”
“That’s what was great about him. He tried. Not many do.”
“And I also know how important it is in life not necessarily to be strong but to feel strong. To measure yourself at least once. To find yourself at least once in the most ancient of human conditions.”
“Facing the blind death stone alone, with nothing to help you but your hands and your own head.”
“Sometimes he tried too hard to make sense of the world, to figure out why people were bad to each other so often.”
“He was unheeded, happy, and near to the wild heart of life. He was alone and young and wilful and wildhearted, alone amid a waste of wild air and brackish waters and the seaharvest of shells and tangle and veiled grey sunlight.”
“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.”
“It is the experiences, the memories, the great triumphant joy of living to the fullest extent in which real meaning is found. God it’s great to be alive! Thank you.”
Final Thought
These Inti the Wild quotes show that the process of living in the wild is not for everyone. The risks are great, but the rewards can be even greater. It is important to be prepared for anything, including getting lost and having to find food and shelter on your own.
These words can serve as a reminder that life is full of surprises – some good, some bad. But ultimately, it’s up to each individual to decide how to deal with the challenges and opportunities that come their way. So, go out there and explore! It’s the best way to learn about yourself and the world around you.
We hope this collection of Into the Wild quotes will make you to see the beauty and majesty of nature, and that you’ll take steps to protect it. As Jon Krakauer writes, “Wilderness isn’t a place – it’s a way of life. And the more we learn to appreciate the wild, the more we’ll want to protect it.” Thank for reading!
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