I knew that you couldn't make a living simply writing about the outdoors, so I made an effort from the beginning of my freelance career to write about other subjects.
Jon KrakauerRead
Happiness means nothing to me. I just want to have meaning and purpose.
Interpretation
Happiness is less significant than having a meaningful purpose in life.
In this quote, Jon Krakauer expresses his belief that the pursuit of happiness is not as important as finding deeper meaning and purpose in life. He suggests that true fulfillment comes not from transient joys but from engaging in pursuits that give our lives significance and direction.
In practice
In a motivational speech about finding purpose in life.
I knew that you couldn't make a living simply writing about the outdoors, so I made an effort from the beginning of my freelance career to write about other subjects.
Getting to the top of any given mountain was considered much less important than how one got there: prestige was earned by tackling the most unforgiving routes with minimal equipment, in the boldest style imaginable.
He read a lot. He used a lot of big words. I think maybe part of what got him into trouble was that he did too much thinking. Sometimes he tried too hard to make sense of the world, to figure out why people were bad to each other so often. A couple of times I tried to tell him it was a mistake to get too deep into that kind of stuff, but Alex got stuck on things. He always had to know the absolute right answer before he could go on to the next thing.
Having stumbled upon a tolerable career, for the first time in my life I was actually living above the poverty line. My hunger to climb had been blunted, in short, by a bunch of small satisfactions that added up to something like happiness.
The way Everest is guided is very different from the way other mountains are guided, and it flies in the face of values I hold dear: self-reliance, taking responsibility for what you do, making your own decisions, trusting your judgment - the kind of judgment that comes only through paying your dues, through experience.
Mountains make poor receptacles for dreams.
One must laugh before one is happy, or one may die without ever laughing at all.
I've gone through stages where I hate my body so much that I won't even wear shorts and a bra in my house because if I pass a mirror, that's the end of my day.
One thing is certain: you can never become anything other than yourself, and unless you become yourself you cannot be happy. Happiness happens only when a rosebush grows roseflowers; when it flowers, when it has its own individuality. You may be a rosebush and trying to flower as lotus flower - that is creating insanity. Erase the mind. And the way to erase it is not by fight: the way to erase it is just to become aware.
The more we allow ourselves to enjoy, the more reasons we find to be joyful.
Real joy seems to me almost as unlike security or prosperity as it is unlike agony.
The man is happiest who lives from day to day and asks no more, garnering the simple goodness of life.
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