Quotes from One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey

224 pages

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“There is always a sadness about packing. I guess you wonder if where you're going is as good as where you've been.”
― quote from One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey


“Needs? I guess that is what bothers so many folks. They keep expanding their needs until they are dependent on too many things and too many other people... I wonder how many things in the average American home could be eliminated if the question were asked, "Must I really have this?" I guess most of the extras are chalked up to comfort or saving time.

Funny thing about comfort - one man's comfort is another man's misery. Most people do't work hard enough physically anymore, and comfort is not easy to find. It is surprising how comfortable a hard bunk can be after you come down off a mountain.”
― quote from One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey


“Chores are easier if forethought is given to them and they are looked upon as little pleasures to perform instead of inconveniences that steal time and try the patience.”
― quote from One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey


“I enjoy working for my heat. I don't just press a button or twist a thermostat dial. I use the big crosscut saw and the axe, and while I'm getting my heat supply I'm working up an appetite that makes simple food just as appealing as anything a French chef could create.”
― quote from One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey


“The price was physical toll. Money does little good back here. It could not buy the fit feeling that surged through my arms and shoulders. It could not buy the feeling of accomplishment. I had been my own tour guide, and my own power had been my transportation. This great big country was my playground, and I could afford the price it demanded.”
― quote from One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey



“Why worry about something that isn’t? Worrying about something that might happen is not a healthy pastime. A man’s a fool to live his life under a shadow like that. Maybe that’s how an ulcer begins. I”
― quote from One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey


“This country makes a man younger than his birthdays.”
― quote from One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey


“Eight and a half miles can be covered in minutes in a car on an expressway, but what does a man see? What he gains in time he loses in benefit to his body and mInd.”
― quote from One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey


“The more I see as I sit here among the rocks, the more I wonder about what I am not seeing.”
― quote from One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey


“Sometimes I get lost in the rhythm of the paddling. I even count the strokes it takes to get me to a point of land, The play of the muscles in one's arms and shoulders, and the feel of palm against worn wood, are preferable to glancing at a speedometer”
― quote from One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey



Popular quotes

“The moon and sun are eternal travelers. Even the years wander on. A lifetime adrift in a boat or in old age leading a tired horse into the years, every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home. —Bashō: Oku-no-hosomichi”
― Matsuo Bashō, quote from Backroads to Far Towns: Basho's Travel Journal


“I can't work in a house where there's saints. The minute there's saints, the devil sends messengers”
― Timothy Findley, quote from The Piano Man's Daughter


“An oblong puddle inset in the coarse asphalt; like a fancy footprint filled to the brim with quicksilver; like a spatulate hole through which you can see the nether sky. Surrounded, I note, by a diffuse tentacled black dampness where some dull dun dead leaves have stuck. Drowned, I should say, before the puddle had shrunk to its present size.”
― Vladimir Nabokov, quote from Bend Sinister


“didn't think of it.” She supposed she should have”
― Iris Johansen, quote from The Killing Game


“Whaddaya mean 'old maids,' ha? The term is 'unclaimed treasure,' buddy, 'unclaimed treasure!”
― Laurie Notaro, quote from Autobiography of a Fat Bride: True Tales of a Pretend Adulthood


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BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

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