Jon Krakauer Quotes

Especially these days where everything is so polite and so proper, I think that rites of passage are good.

In times past there were rituals of passage that conducted a boy into manhood, where other men passed along the wisdom and responsibilities that needed to be shared. But today we have no rituals. We are not conducted into manhood; we simply find ourselves there.

I'm only interested in rites of passage stories.

I think when you're really passionate about something, and maybe not every person is like this, but I think there's a large group that feels deep inside, I want something different, I want something more, I want to go on my own path. It's being comfortable being uncomfortable. Because to do that, you're going to have to jump outside of the comfort zone and it isn't going to be perfect. It's going to be scary. And to me, that's when great things happen.

When you're a kid going on being an adult, everything radiates so deeply and resonates so passionately, and I like the opportunity to tell those stories.

I don't think that my twenties were any more dramatic than those of most people I know. I was never that bad and I never became that good.

I have a lot of responsibilities, but I don't think I've grown up.

I've always been confident with who I was, but my twenties were hard. I had to learn a lot of life lessons and I think my thirties will be a little easier because of all the wrong turns I took.

In all times and in all places--in Constantinople, northwestern Zambia, Victorian England, Sparta, Arabia, . . . medieval France,Babylonia, . . . Carthage, Mahenjo-Daro, Patagonia, Kyushu, . . . Dresden--the time span between childhood and adulthood, however fleeting or prolonged, has been associated with the acquisition of virtue as it is differently defined in each society. A child may be good and morally obedient, but only in the process of arriving at womanhood or manhood does a human being become capable of virtue--that is, the qualities of mind and body that realize society's ideals.

You've got to remember that 25 is a great time because, you know, you're passed that 21 thing and it's a high point, a high peak, in life where you're old enough to say what you have discovered, but you're still open to discovering more.

I have a lot of growing up to do. I realized that the other day inside my fort.

I think that at a certain age, say fifteen or sixteen, poetry is like masturbation. But later in life good poets burn their early poetry, and bad poets publish it. Thankfully I gave up rather quickly.

There is no miraculous change that takes place in a boy that makes him a man. He becomes a man by being a man.

Traditions are neither good nor bad, they simply are... Rationality is not an arbiter of traditions, it is itself a tradition or an aspect of a tradition.

I kind of grew up and started maturing.

A lot of the times we don't see enough of strength. Imagery is obviously a large part of it. I think it's important to see her [Michelle Obama] passion, her complexity, and to see her be challenged. Whether it's about forgiveness, or wanting to do more, it's what it is.

When you were in love, you were capable of learning everything and of knowing things you had never dared even to think, because love was the key to understanding all of the mysteries.

Success will come. Or it won't. But I think you can only make a go at it in a big way by fully being yourself and taking risks. People can feel risks.

I honestly think vulnerability is a beautiful thing: it's tenderness, authenticity, and risk-taking. It means you're living a life where the stakes are high and you are continuing to push your own boundaries and learn new things. It keeps you flexible and young.

Grown up? Me? I suppose I have. Killing things, and almost killing myself, must have changed me some, after all.

I realized I was growing up or something like that. You have responsibilities...you've got to think about getting your act together. I didn't even know what it had been doing to me. I didn't realize how dangerous it was. People talked in terms of drugs and I used to think in terms of...well in Ireland, everybody drinks. Nobody gives it a second thought. You're Irish number one and you're a drinker number two. That's the first two things about us Irish.

Caution is the path to mediocrity. Gliding, passionless mediocrity is all that most people think they can achieve.

The whole point of being alive is to evolve into the complete person you were intended to be. I believe you can only do this when you stop long enough to hear the whisper you might have drowned out, that small voice compelling you toward the kind of work you'd be willing to do even if you weren't paid. Once you tune out the noise of your life and hear that call, you face the biggest challenge of all: to find the courage to seek out your big dream, regardless of what anyone else says or thinks.

Between childhood, boyhood, adolescence & manhood (maturity) there should be sharp lines drawn w/ Tests , deaths, feats, rites stories, songs, & judgements.

I think Buffy was a grown-up. One of the amazing things about the show was that I was able to grow with her. Yes, she started in high school, and then she went to college, and then essentially she was a mother to all the other Slayers, so I always felt like Buffy was a grown-up.