How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Fawcett, however, was certain that the Amazon contained a fabulous kingdom, and he was not another soldier of fortune or a crackpot. (1.10)
Many men have comparatively easy missions into the Amazon, usually to take something from it, like rubber or wood. Fawcett has a much more difficult quest in mind: to find a lost civilization. You wouldn't think an entire city could go missing. Maybe it's in the couch cushions? That's where we always find out phone.
Quote #2
Fawcett and Chivers eventually abandoned their pack animals for a raft made from sticks and twine and drifted into the Amazon frontier, a collection of Dodge-like towns with mocking names, such as Hope and Beautiful Village. (8.15)
You know you're driven when you're riding on a raft literally made from sticks and string. Fawcett has ambition and the confidence to succeed. Even when the only hope is a crappy ramshackle town, he keeps going.
Quote #3
Despite cutting, chopping, pulling, and pushing through jungle from morning till night, they usually advanced no more than half a mile per day. Their legs sank in mud. Their shoes disintegrated. Their eyes blurred from a tiny species of bee that is drawn to sweat, and that invaded their pupils. (10.13)
Ambition + determination = success. Here we see the determination part of that equation. Fawcett's sky-high ambitions to find a lost city would mean nothing if he turned tail and ran at the first sign of an eyeball-eating bug.