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“In the anointed we find a whole class of supposedly “thinking people” who do remarkably little thinking about substance and a great deal of verbal expression. In order that this relatively small group of people can believe themselves wiser and nobler than the common herd, we have adopted policies which impose heavy costs on millions of other human beings, not only in taxes but also in lost jobs, social disintegration, and a loss of personal safety. Seldom have so few cost so much to so many.”
― Thomas Sowell, The Vision Of The Annointed: Self-congratulation As A Basis For Social Policy

“I buy a book, Yvon Chouinard’s Climbing Ice. The book is already dated but is the only guide to ice climbing techniques I can find. One thing Chouinard says resonates with me. Real adventure is defined best as a journey from which you may not come back alive, and certainly not as the same person.”
― John D. Burns, The Last Hillwalker: A sideways look at forty years in Britain's Mountains

“This is what parents did. They told you stories about children and were outraged or delighted by some odd detail and were perplexed if you were not appropriately outraged or delighted as well. They lived so entirely in that sphere, that sphere of people with kids, that they forgot that people could have no kids and have no idea what they were talking about.”
― Janice Y.K. Lee, The Expatriates

“There is something unique about taking a linear multi-day journey on foot. The day walker starts and finishes at the same spot – after his walk’s end he will return to the familiar, to his routine, to a place where nothing has changed. If you take a longer journey – let’s call it a trek – your home comes with you on your back, every day’s end is different, and every morning you wake up somewhere else. The routine you follow is decided in a dialogue between you and the land you walk through. The trekker is constantly asking questions. How long will it take to get to the next shelter? Can I make it to that village? Will I run out of food? The answers to those questions decide where the trekker sleeps, the view he sees when he wakes in the morning, what challenges the coming day will bring.”
― John D. Burns, The Last Hillwalker: A sideways look at forty years in Britain's Mountains