An extended stay in the wilderness inevitably directs one’s attention outward as much as inward, and it is impossible to live off the land without de… - Jon Krakauer

He must have been very brave and very strong, at the end, not to do himself in.

But there are men for whom the unattainable has a special attraction. Usually they are not experts: their ambitions and fantasies are strong enough to brush aside the doubts which more cautious men might have. Determination and faith are their strongest weapons. At best such men are regarded as eccentric; at worst, mad. . . . Everest

the sad end he met in Afghanistan was more accurately a function of his stubborn idealism — his insistence on trying to do the right thing. In which case it wasn't a tragic flaw that brought Tillman down, but a tragic virtue.