Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer

" I wanted movement and not a calm course of existence. I wanted excitement and danger and the chance to sacrifice myself for my love, I felt in myself a superabundance of energy which found no outlet in our quite life." -- Leo Tolstoy (p.g. 15)

"... 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." (p.g. 57)

"Climb if you will, but remember that courage and strength are nought without prudence, and that a momentary negligence may destroy the happiness of a lifetime. Do nothing in haste; look well into each step; and from the beginning think what may be the end." -- Edward Whymper (p.g. 200)

Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

" ... if I can survive on three continents, then there is no obstacle he cannot conquer. While the astronauts, heroes forever, spent mere hours on the moon, I have remanied in this new world for nearlyu thirty years. I know that my achievement is quite ordinary. I am not the only man to seek his fortune far from home, and certainly I am not the first. Still, there are times I am bewildered by each mile I have traveled, each meal I have eaten, each person I have known, each room in which I have slept. As ordinary as it all appears, there are times when it is beyond my imagination. " (p.g. 197)

The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller

" Custom brings predictability, and predictability carries its own comforts...
Predictability is one thing, fear of change is something else." (p.g.89)

" The curse of modern times is the preponderance of male hormones in places where they can do long-term damage. Even if we're not talking about wars between nations or assaults on nature, there's still that aggressiveness that keeps us apart from each other and the problems we need to be working on. We have to somehow sublimate those male hormones, or at least get them under control." (p.g. 102)

" Complex things are easy to do. Simplicity's the real challenge." (p.g. 168)

Dawn by Elie Wiesel

"Being afraid, ... , is nothing. Fear is only a color, a backdrop, a landscape. The fear of either the victim or the executioner is unimportant. What matters is the fact that each of them is playing a role which has been imposed upon him. The two roles are the extremities of the estate of man. The tragic thing is the imposition. " (p.g. 52)

"Why must you try to hate me? " " In order to give my action a meaning which may somehow transcent it. " (p.g. 77)

Dispatches from the Edge: A memoir of war, disasters, and survival by Anderson Cooper

" Freedom's great, but so is security, and right now most Iraqis would trade a lot of the first for even some of the second."(p.g. 52)

"Fear alters eveything."(p.g. 56)

"We like to think we can predict the furute. We like to think we understand the present. I'm not sure we ever do."(p.g. 81)

"The world has many edges, and all of us dangle from them by a very delicate thread. The key is to not let go." (p.g. 207)

The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald

“Not everyone can speak about what they suffer. Some are separated from the only one they love, but are obliged to remain silent.” (p.g. 74)

August Schlegel wrote that “form is mechanical when, through external force, it is imparted merely as an accidental addition without reference to its quality: as, for example, when we give a particular shape to a soft mass so that it may retain the same when it hardens. Organic form is innate: it unfolds itself from within, and acquires its determination at the same time as the perfect development of the germ.” (p.g. 86)

“I think, indeed, that women have a better grasp on the whole business of life than we men have. We are morally better than they are, but they can reach perfection, we can’t. And that is in spirit of the fact that they particularise, we generalise.” (p.g. 100)

“Pure sensation can never be in contradiction to nature.” (p.g. 123)

“Courage when you don’t understand what it is that you have to face is no better than ignorance.” (p.g. 157)

“Courage is more than endurance, it is the power to create your own life in the face of all that man or God can inflict, so that every day and every night is what you imagine it. Courage makes us dreamers, courage makes us poets.” (p.g. 157)

My Remarkable Journey by Larry King

"The reason there’s nothing better than fatherhood is what it produces. In my case, it produced: Andy, Larry Jr., Chaia, Chance, and Cannon. They are my reason for being."

"Memories are all we have. Lose them, and we have nothing. But memories touched by humor, those are the best of all. " (p.g. 2)

"They say that discipline is a father’s way of showing love." (p.g. 17)

"If there were anybody here exactly like you there would be no reason for being here." (p.g. 39)

"One of my major slogans in life is: A nose that can hear is worth two that can smell." (p.g. 39)

"Miami was one of the few places where Lenny Bruce didn’t have a lot of trouble with the cops. I said, “ Lenny, why are you wearing this?”

He said , “ I like to wear prison uniforms.”

“Why?”

“ I like to walk up to cops and ask them directions.”

“Why?”

“To see their reactions. Because you know what they’re thinking. The first thing they’re thinking is, Is this an escaped con asking for directions? The second thing they’re thinking is, Nah, can’t be an escaped con. Why would an escaped con ask a policeman for directions? Third thing they’re thinking is, What if he’s a brilliant escaped con who thinks that I’m not thinking what he’s thinking?” (p.g. 65)

"When you develop an attachment to a team, your emotional well-being is dependent on the actions of others." (p.g. 90)

"If you take a risk and you love somebody, if you’re really committing yourself, you’re opening yourself to be hurt." (p.g. 96)

Imperfect Endings by Joe Fitzgerald Carter

"You are nobody till somebody loves you."
p.g. 74

The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill

"Beauty comes and goes. Strength, you keep forever."
"Old people are the strongest of all, for they have lived longer than all of us, and they have wisdom." (p.g. 19)


"You must learn to respect her," Papa said.
"But I do not respect her," I said.
Papa said, "Then you must learn to hide your disrespect. " (p.g.21)

"To gaze into another person's face is to do two things: to recognize their humanity, and to assert your own." (p.g. 29)