The Wild Truth Quotes

“Keep moving forward and be true to yourself. You are the only one who can ensure your own happiness.”
― Carine McCandless, The Wild Truth

“Perhaps strength doesn’t reside in having never been broken, but in the courage required to grow strong in the broken places.”
― Carine McCandless, The Wild Truth: The secrets that drove Chris McCandless into the wild

“Why can’t you just understand that not having a plan is my plan?” Chris implored. “I don’t know exactly where I’ll be. That’s the whole point, the freedom of it. I’ve been so structured with school and sports and work—everything has been scheduled and laid out for me. I just want to get out of that mundane existence and purely enjoy life for a while. I’ll decide on the fly where I want to go next.”
― Carine McCandless, The Wild Truth: The secrets that drove Chris McCandless into the wild

“Chris loved to look at every type of plant, animal, and bug he hadn’t seen before on the trail and point out those he did recognize. He enjoyed walking along small streams, listening to the water as it traveled, and searching for eddies where we could watch the minnows scurry amongst the rocks. On one Shenandoah trip, while we were resting at a waterfall, eating our chocolate-covered granola bars and watching the water pummel the rocks below, he said, “See, Carine ? That’s the purity of nature. It may be harsh in its honesty, but it never lies to you”.

Chris seemed to be most comfortable outdoors, and the farther away from the typical surroundings and pace of our everyday lives the better. While it was unusual for a solid week to pass without my parents having an argument that sent them into a negative tailspin of destruction and despair, they never got into a fight of any consequence when we were on an extended family hike or camping trip. It seemed like everything became centered and peaceful when there was no choice but to make nature the focus. Our parents’ attention went to watching for blaze marks on trees ; staying on the correct trail ; doling out bug spray, granola bars, sandwiches, and candy bars at proper intervals ; and finding the best place to pitch the tent before nightfall. They taught us how to properly lace up our hiking boots and wear the righ socks to keep our feet healthy and reliable. They showed us which leaves were safe to use as toilet paper and which would surely make us miserable downtrail. We learned how to purify water for our canteens if we hadn’t found a safe spring and to be smart about conserving what clean water we had left.

At night we would collect rocks to make a fire ring, dry wood to burn, and long twigs for roasting marshmallows for the s’more fixings Mom always carried in her pack. Dad would sing silly, non-sensical songs that made us laugh and tell us about the stars.”
― Carine McCandless, The Wild Truth: A Memoir

“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.”
― Carine McCandless, The Wild Truth

“...if you plan everything out completely from beginning to end, you destroy your chance for adventure.”
― Carine McCandless, The Wild Truth: A Memoir

“It is a bad thing,” he said, “not to be able to stand solitude.”
― Carine McCandless, The Wild Truth

“It’s not about the things he gave us, Carine,” he said softly. “It’s about the memories. You can’t touch those with your hands. Everything you can touch with your hands is just stuff.”
― Carine McCandless, The Wild Truth

“I believe Chris went into the wilderness in search of what was lacking in his childhood: peace, purity, honesty. And he understood there was nowhere better for him to find that than in nature.”
― Carine McCandless, The Wild Truth

“It is a bad thing not to be able to stand solitude. It is a wonderful thing to embrace it, and I was ready.”
― Carine McCandless, The Wild Truth

“I was seeing too many Walt McCandlesses in the world and not enough Chrises.”
― Carine McCandless, The Wild Truth

“That’s the purity of nature. It may be harsh in its honesty, but it never lies to you.”
― Carine McCandless, The Wild Truth

“I saw leaving any situation where I was treated with disrespect as evidence of my courage. I wanted my daughters to learn that lesson of worth from me.”
― Carine McCandless, Wild Truth

“There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One of these is roots; the other, wings.”
― Carine McCandless, The Wild Truth

“change doesn’t come to someone who doesn’t really want it.”
― Carine McCandless, The Wild Truth

“Although I could see the intense pain on my parents’ faces, I could not bring myself to take them into my arms. To mourn and cry with them should have been the natural thing to do, but even the thought of it felt illusory. Those emotions only felt honest and cleansing when shared with my siblings, with Fish, or in quiet solitude.”
― Carine McCandless, The Wild Truth

“When you know it’s time to move on from a bad situation, just do it. Keep moving forward and be true to yourself. You are the only one who can ensure your own happiness.”
― Carine McCandless, The Wild Truth

“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are,” wrote Theodore Roosevelt,”
― Carine McCandless, The Wild Truth

“Easy is boring,”
― Carine McCandless, The Wild Truth

“It is a bad thing not to be able to stand solitude.”
― Carine McCandless, The Wild Truth

“I had asked Mr. Forsberg for a suggestion as to where to donate the three hundred dollars, and we had agreed that Chris would want it to go to support nature conservation in Alaska. I put my head down amongst the collection and wept.”
― Carine McCandless, The Wild Truth: The secrets that drove Chris McCandless into the wild

“would read through one of Chris’s books until my eyes gave in to my exhaustion and I could no longer focus. One night as I read from Leo Tolstoy’s Family Happiness, I came across a section where Chris had placed an asterisk in the margin and brackets around the following excerpt: “It is a bad thing,” he said, “not to be able to stand solitude.”
― Carine McCandless, The Wild Truth: The secrets that drove Chris McCandless into the wild

“I knew that while I headed south, Chris was heading west. Although we had no way to keep in touch, we remained connected as we always had. Neither one of us knew exactly where we were going or what would unfold before us. But we were both absolutely certain of what we must leave behind.”
― Carine McCandless, The Wild Truth: The secrets that drove Chris McCandless into the wild

“He was right in saying that the only certain happiness in life is to live for others.”
― Carine McCandless, The Wild Truth

“We passed the scrambled eggs, toast, and bacon in silence. Fresh fruit and pastries were piled up on silver trays. It felt wrong to have this abundance of food traveling across the same surface that twelve hours earlier had displayed images of my brother slowly starving to death.”
― Carine McCandless, The Wild Truth

“It seemed like everything became centered and peaceful when there was no choice but to make nature the focus.”
― Carine McCandless, The Wild Truth

“Never does a search for truth seem more compelling, and more crucial, than when it involves probing the personal enigmas that exist within each of us. Some people need to seek that truth and share it, regardless of the consequences.”
― Carine McCandless, The Wild Truth: A Memoir

“Chris had known exactly who he was. I believe he had ultimately wanted to find a place in society he fit into while remaining true to that knowledge.”
― Carine McCandless, The Wild Truth

“He was right in saying that the only certain
happiness in life is to live for others. —Leo Tolstoy, Family Happiness,
passage highlighted by Chris”
― Carine McCandless, The Wild Truth

“we covered more distance by tires on pavement than with boots on dirt.”
― Carine McCandless, The Wild Truth