Short and Sweet Quotes
"There are only 3 real sports: bull-fighting, car racing and mountain climbing. All the others are mere games." — Hemingway
"We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard." — JFK
"If you can do something about a situation, why worry? And if you can't do something about a situation, why worry?" — Dali Lama
"Carelessness and overconfidence are usually far more dangerous than deliberately accepted risks." — Wilber Wright
"Suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope." — St. Paul
"Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgment." — Mulla Nasrudin
"Mountains have a way of dealing with overconfidence." — Hermann Buhl
"When the going gets tough, the tough get going."
"Take only pictures; leave only footprints."
"If everything's under control, you're going too slow." — Mario Andretti
"One who can move mountains start with the little stones." — Confucius
"Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So...get on your way." — Dr. Seuss
"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go." — T. S. Eliot
"It's a round trip. Getting to the summit is optional, getting down is mandatory." — Ed Viesturs
"Be careful down there on Earth. It's close to the ground and somebody could get hurt." — Mir Crew
"Being defeated is often a temporary condition. Giving up is what makes it permanent." — Marilyn vos Savant
"I refuse to believe in a risk free society where the thrill of living is traded for the safety of existence." — Nick Ienatsch
"Never measure the height of a mountain until you reach the top. Then you will see how low it was." — Dag Hammerskjold
"Duct tape is like the Force. It has a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together." — Carl Zwanzig
"Got a bad memory? Have I got a sport for you!" — Alan Barb, late climber and mountaineering guide
"I love climbing because it feels so good when I stop..." — Karl Baba
"Maybe true. Maybe not true. Better you believe." — Sherpa saying
"You only die once, but you're maimed forever. So if you're going to fall, take a big one." — Anonymous
Wordy Quotes
"Climbing is the lazy man's way to enlightenment. It forces you to pay attention, because if you don't, you won't succeed, which is minor — or you may get hurt, which is major. Instead of years of meditation, you have this activity that forces you to relax and monitor your breathing and tread that line between living and dying. When you climb, you always are confronted with the edge. Hey, if it was just like climbing a ladder, we all would have quit a long time ago." — Duncan Ferguson
"You cannot stay on the mountain forever. You have to come down again. So why bother in the first place? Just this: What is above knows what is below, but what is below does not know what is above. One climbs, one sees. One descends, one sees no longer, but one has seen. There is an art of conducting oneself in the lower regions by the memory of what one saw higher up. When one can no longer see, one can at least still know." — Rene Daumel, Mont Analogue
"Climb if you will, but remember that courage and strength are naught without prudence, and that a momentary negligence may destroy the happiness of a Lifetime. Do nothing in haste; look well to each step; and from the beginning think what may be the end." — Edward Whymper
"To put yourself into a situation where a mistake cannot necessarily be recouped, where the life you lose may be your own, clears the head wonderfully. It puts domestic problems back into proportion and adds an element of seriousness to your drab, routine life. Perhaps this is one reason why climbing has become increasingly hard as society has become increasingly, disproportionately, coddling." — A. Alvarez
"But risks must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing. The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing. He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he cannot learn, feel, change, grow or live. Chained by his servitude he is a slave who has forfeited all freedom. Only a person who risks is free. The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; and the realist adjusts the sails." — William Arthur Ward.
"To those who have struggled with them, the mountains reveal beauties that they will not disclose to those who make no effort. That is the reward the mountains give to effort. And it is because they have so much to give and give it so lavishly to those who will wrestle with them that men love the mountains and go back to them again and again. The mountains reserve their choice gifts for those who stand upon their summits." — Sir Francis Younghusband
"If I have learned one thing in my 54 years, it is that it is very good for the character to engage in sports which put your life in danger from time to time. It breeds a saneness in dealing with day to day trivialities which probably cannot be got in any other way, and a habit of quick decisions." — Neville Shute.
"Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air. . . .
Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or ever eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God." — High Flight, John Gillespie Magee, Jr
