"I think careers are a 20th century invention and I don't want one."

Well said Alexander Supertramp. I'm sure Christopher McCandless would agree.

"Death will give us back to God,

just like the setting sun is returned to the lonesome ocean.

And then they splashed into the deep blue sea,
Oh, it was a wonderful Splash!"

-Conor Oberst

"If you label it this, then it can't be that."

Some Zen from the Merry Pranksters and Tom Wolfe.

Speaking of which, what is the sound of one hand clapping?

"Always do what you are afraid to do."

Where's (Ralph) Waldo (Emerson)?

"I don't think nostalgia has to be negative."

-Van Morrison

"Because here's something else that's weird but true:

in the day-to day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And the compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of god or spiritual-type thing to worship -- be it JC or Allah, bet it YHWH or the Wiccan Mother Goddess, or the Four Noble Truths, or some inviolable set of ethical principles -- is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never have enough, never feel you have enough. It's the truth. Worship your body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly. And when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally grieve you. On one level, we all know this stuff already. It's been codified as myths, proverbs, clichés, epigrams, parables; the skeleton of every great story. The whole trick is keeping the truth up front in daily consciousness."

From an amazing graduation speech David Foster Wallace gave at Kenyon, found here.

“The only people for me are the mad ones,

the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes "Awww!”

Wayward Gent. For example, Kerouac.