{"author":"Jon Krakauer","author_id":"Jon+Krakauer","total_quotes":53,"quotes":[{"text":"When Alex left for Alaska,' Franz remembers, 'I prayed. I asked God to keep his finger on the shoulder of that one; I told him that boy was special. But he let Alex die. So on December 26, when I learned what happened, I renounced the Lord. I withdrew my church membership and became an atheist. I decided I couldn't believe in a God who would let something that terrible happen to a boy like Alex.","author":"Jon Krakauer","tags":["atheism","inspirational","religious"],"id":540,"author_id":"Jon+Krakauer"},{"text":"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.","author":"Jon Krakauer","tags":["conformity","life","novelty","security"],"id":9770,"author_id":"Jon+Krakauer"},{"text":"Rape and war, she explained are among the most common causes of post-traumatic stress disorder, and survivors of sexual assault frequently exhibit many of the same symptoms and behaviors as survivors of combat: flashbacks, insomnia, nightmares, hypervigilance, depression, isolation, suicidal thoughts, outbursts of anger, unrelenting anxiety, and an inability to shake the feeling that the world is spinning out of control.","author":"Jon Krakauer","tags":["rape","rape-culture"],"id":11236,"author_id":"Jon+Krakauer"},{"text":"When you forgive, you love. And when you love, God's light shines on you..","author":"Jon Krakauer","tags":["christopher-mccandless","inspirational-attitude","into-the-wild","life","wisdom"],"id":12234,"author_id":"Jon+Krakauer"},{"text":"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...","author":"Jon Krakauer","tags":["life-and-living"],"id":15654,"author_id":"Jon+Krakauer"},{"text":"I didn't doubt the potential value of paying attention to subconscious cues...Problem was, my inner voice resembled Chicken Little: it was screaming that I was about to die, but it did that almost every time I laced up my climbing boots.","author":"Jon Krakauer","tags":["anxiety","everest","fear","mountains","nature"],"id":23447,"author_id":"Jon+Krakauer"},{"text":"The revelation that he was merely human, and frightfully so, was beyond my power to forgive.","author":"Jon Krakauer","tags":["forgiveness","humanity","into-the-wild"],"id":51214,"author_id":"Jon+Krakauer"},{"text":"But [Everett] and McCandless, at least they tried to follow their dream. That’s what was great about them. They tried. Not many do.","author":"Jon Krakauer","tags":["dreams","inspirational","into-the-wild"],"id":52158,"author_id":"Jon+Krakauer"},{"text":"I'd like to repeat the advice that I gave you before, in that I think you really should 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 conservatism, 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, Ron, 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. And so, Ron, in short, get out of Salton City and hit the Road. I guarantee you will be very glad you did. But I fear that you will ignore my advice. You think that I am stubborn, but you are even more stubborn than me. 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. 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.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, Ron, 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.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.My point is that you do not need me or anyone else around to bring this new kind of light in your life. It is simply waiting out there for you to grasp it, and all you have to do is reach for it. The only person you are fighting is yourself and your stubbornness to engage in new circumstances.","author":"Jon Krakauer","tags":["adventure","change-your-life","christopher-mccandless","life"],"id":55508,"author_id":"Jon+Krakauer"},{"text":"Because I was alone, however, even the mundane seemed charged with meaning. The ice looked colder and more mysterious, the sky a cleaner shade of blue. The unnamed peaks towering over the glacier were bigger and comelier and infinitely more menacing than they would have been were I in the company of another person. 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.","author":"Jon Krakauer","tags":["adventure","inspirational","travel"],"id":69674,"author_id":"Jon+Krakauer"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":53,"pages":6,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}