My one N only

Christopher McCandless aka Alexander Supertramp in Modern-Day Hitchhikers

Chris McCandless Quotes
The following quotes by Chris McCandless are attributed to him by Jon Krakauer in Into the Wild book, through letters and postcards to friends, and excerpted from Chris McCandless’ journal entries.

“I read somewhere… how important it is in life not necessarily to be strong… but to feel strong.”
— Read more about this reference by Chris McCandless from a short story called Bear Meat by Primo Levi

Two years he walks the earth.
No phone, no pool, no pets, no cigarettes. Ultimate freedom. An extremist. An aesthetic voyager whose home is the road. Escaped from Atlanta. Thou shalt not return, ’cause “the West is the best.” And now after two rambling years comes the final and greatest adventure. The climactic battle to kill the false being within and victoriously conclude the spiritual pilgrimage. Ten days and nights of freight trains and hitchhiking bring him to the Great White North. No longer to be poisoned by civilization he flees, and walks alone upon the land to become lost in the wild.
— Alexander Supertramp
May 1992

“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 dangerous 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.”
— Chris McCandless

“Surely all Americans have the right to give their money only to those causes which they support. But what kind of society has this created? A society where the ignorant reign. A society where enlightened must hold their tongues. A nation whose politicians must profess half-hearted devotion to an ancient fable or face the disastrous consequences of speaking their true mind.”
Chris McCandless writing on religious fanaticism in The Emory Wheel student newspaper, October 1987

“Some people feel like they don’t deserve love. They walk away quietly into empty spaces, trying to close the gaps of the past.”
— Chris McCandless

“The core of mans’ spirit comes from new experiences.”
— Chris McCandless

“If we admit that human life can be ruled by reason, then all possibility of life is destroyed.”
— Chris McCandless

“Rather than love, than money, than faith, than fame, than fairness… give me truth.”
— Chris expanded on the original quote by Henry David Thoreau

“Mr. Franz I think careers are a 20th century invention and I don’t want one.”
— Chris McCandless in Into the Wild movie, speaking to Ronald Franz.

“Greetings from Fairbanks!
This is the last you shall hear from me Wayne. Arrived here 2 days ago. It was very difficult to catch rides in the Yukon Territory. But I finally got here. Please return all mail I receive to the sender.
It might be a very long time before I return South. If this adventure proves fatal and you don’t ever hear from me again, I want you to know your a great man. I now walk into the wild. Might be a very long time before I return South…
I now walk into the wild.”
— Chris McCandless, in postcard sent to Wayne Westerberg in Carthage, South Dakota, from Alaska

“…henceforth will learn to accept my errors, however great they be…”
— Chris McCandless’ journal from Alaska, written weeks before he died

“I have had a happy life and thank the Lord. Goodbye and may God bless all!” — Chris McCandless’ journal from Alaska

Quotes associated with Into the Wild movie and/or read by Christopher McCandless

“There is pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society where none intrudes,
By the deep sea and the music in its roar;
I love not man the less, but Nature more.”
— Lord Byron

“Rather than Love, than Money, than Fame, give me Truth.”
— Henry David Thoreau

“It should not be denied… that being footloose has always exhilarated us. It is associated in our minds with escape from history and oppression and law and irksome obligations, with absolute freedom, and the road has always led West.”
— Wallace Stegner

“I want to go up to them and say Stop,
don’t do it— she’s the wrong woman,
he’s the wrong man, you are going to do things
you cannot imagine you would ever do.”
— Sharon Olds, May 1937
(In the movie, Chris reads this to his sister, Carine, outside the restaurant)

“If we admit that human life can be ruled by reason, the possibility of life is destroyed.”
Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace

“I have lived through much and now I think I have found what is needed for happiness. A quiet, secluded life in the country with the possibility of being useful to people…”
— Leo Tolstoy

“…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. 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 blind, deaf stone alone, with nothing to help you but your own hands and your own head…”
— Bear Meat by Primo Levi
(thanks to K. Hill for the book reference!)

Death’s a fierce meadowlark: but to die having made
Something more equal to the centuries
Than muscle and bone, is mostly to shed weakness
— From “Wise Men in Their Bad Hours” by poet Robinson Jeffers (As quoted by Louis L’Amour in his memoir, Education of A Wandering Man, a book Chris had with him in Alaska)

http://movies.digihitch.com/intothewild/chris-mccandless

“Sometimes I wish I hadn’t met you though. Tramping is too Easy with all this money. My days were more exciting when I was penniless and had to Forage Around for my next meal… I’ve decided that I’m going to live this Life for some time to come. The Freedom and Simple Beauty of it is just too good to pass up.”

Christopher Johnson McCandless (12 February 1968 – 18 August 1992) was an American wanderer who died near Denali National Park after hiking alone into the Alaskan wilderness with little food or equipment. Jon Krakauer wrote a book about his life, Into the Wild, in 1996, which inspired a 2007 film of the same name directed by Sean Penn and starring Emile Hirsch as McCandless.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_McCandless

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