Mountain Climbers Quotes

• The experienced mountain climber is not intimidated by a mountain - he is inspired by it.

  William Arthur Ward

  Hiking, Mountain, Inspired

  15 Copy quote

• You've climbed the highest mountain in the world. What's left ? It's all downhill from there. You've got to set your sights on something higher than Everest.

  Willi Unsoeld

  Nature, Travel, Sight

  9 Copy quote

• To the sober person adventurous conduct often seems insanity.

  Aristotle

  Climbing, Insanity, Anarchy

  21 Copy quote

• Mountains are not fair or unfair, they are just dangerous.

  Reinhold Messner

  Nature, Travel, Climbing

  "All Fourteen 8,000ers". Book by Reinhold Messner, 1987.

  39 Copy quote

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• What we get from this adventure is just sheer joy. And joy is, after all, the end of life. We do not live to eat and make money.

  George Leigh Mallory

  Life, Motivational, Travel

  "We knocked the bastard off" by David Fickling, www.theguardian.com. March 13, 2003.

  83 Copy quote

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• Many climbers become writers because of the misconceptions about climbing.

  Jonathan Waterman

  Climbing, Hiking, Mountaineering

  7 Copy quote

• Whenever a climber leaves the known paths, he enters an area without rules or routines... The only advice comes from deep inside the self.

  Wojciech Kurtyka

  Climbing, Self, Advice

  11 Copy quote

• Short is the little which remains to thee of life. Live as on a mountain.

  Marcus Aurelius

  Climbing, Mountain, Littles

  "Meditations".

  35 Copy quote

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• If we ever have children and they become climbers I'll tell them, Stay away from expeditions. They'll make you poor and neurotic.

  Greg Child

  Children, Climbing, Poor

  Greg Child (1998). “Thin Air: Encounters in the Himalayas”, p.158, Mountaineers Books

  7 Copy quote

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• We took risks. We knew we took them. Things have come out against us. We have no cause for complaint.

  Robert Falcon Scott

  Risk, Causes, Last Words

  Robert Falcon Scott, Max Jones (2008). “Journals: Captain Scott's Last Expedition”, p.422, Oxford University Press

  29 Copy quote

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• I am too slow to be a good climber, so I film instead.

  Wanda Rutkiewicz

  Climbing, Film, Mountaineering

  8 Copy quote

• Climbing at altitude is like hitting your head against a brick wall - it's great when you stop.

  Chris Darwin

  Wall, Climbing, Bricks

  7 Copy quote

• I've climbed with some of the best climbers in the world, more importantly, to me, they are some of the best people in the world. That's another reason why I climb.

  Jim Wickwire

  Funny, Climbing, People

  46 Copy quote

• So, if you cannot understand that there is something in man which responds to the challenge of this mountain and goes out to meet it, that the struggle is the struggle of life itself upward and forever upward, then you won’t see why we go. What we get from this adventure is just sheer joy. And joy is, after all, the end of life. We do not live to eat and make money. We eat and make money to be able to enjoy life. That is what life means and what life is for.

  George Leigh Mallory

  Struggle, Mean, Adventure

  42 Copy quote

• Life is brought down to the basics: if you are warm, regular, healthy, not thirsty or hungry, then you are not on a mountain... Climbing at altitude is like hitting your head against a brick wall - it's great when you stop.

  Chris Darwin

  Funny, Wall, Climbing

  46 Copy quote

• 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.

  Al Alvarez

  Mistake, Climbing, Routine Life

  "Our enduring desire to court deadly risk" by Peter Beaumont, www.theguardian.com. July 14, 2012.

  7 Copy quote

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• The first question which you will ask and which I must try to answer is this; What is the use of climbing Mount Everest? and my answer must at once be, it is no use. There is not the slightest prospect of any gain whatsoever.

  George Leigh Mallory

  Climbing, Perspective, Trying

  12 Copy quote

• If the conquest of a great peak brings moments of exultation and bliss, which in the monotonous, materialistic existence of modern times nothing else can approach, it also presents great dangers. It is not the goal of ‘grand alpinisme’ to face peril, but it is one of the tests one must undergo to deserve the joy of rising for an instant above the state of crawling grubs.

  Lionel Terray

  Mountain Peaks, Climbing, Goal

  14 Copy quote

• I do recall that El Cap seemed to be in much better condition than I was.

  Warren G. Harding

  Climbing, Yosemite, Caps

  10 Copy quote

• Doubly happy, however, is the man to whom lofty mountain tops are within reach.

  John Muir

  Men, Hiking, Climbing

  John Muir (2015). “JOHN MUIR’S CALIFORNIA COLLECTION: My First Summer in the Sierra, Picturesque California, The Mountains of California, The Yosemite & Our National Parks (Illustrated): Adventure Memoirs, Travel Sketches, Nature Writings and Wilderness Essays”, p.276, e-artnow

  10 Copy quote

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• On this proud and beautiful mountain we have lived hours of fraternal, warm and exalting nobility. Here for a few days we have ceased to be slaves and have really been men. It is hard to return to servitude.

  Lionel Terray

  Beautiful, Men, Climbing

  20 Copy quote

• I climb upon the highest mountains, laughing at all tragedies - whether real or imaginary.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Real, Climbing, Hiking

  "Hammer of the Gods: Selected Writings".

  29 Copy quote

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• The reason it was so scary was that there was only one climber capable of rescuing us, and that was Layton Kor, and he was in Colorado.

  Yvon Chouinard

  Climbing, Scary, Colorado

  7 Copy quote

• We don't live to eat and make money. We eat and make money to be able to enjoy life. That is what life means, and that is what life is for.

  George Leigh Mallory

  Happiness, Mean, Climbing

  34 Copy quote

• As I hammered in the last bolt and staggered over the rim, it was not at all clear to me who was the conqueror and who was the conquered. I do recall that El Cap seemed to be in much better condition than I was.

  Warren Harding

  Climbing, Yosemite, Lasts

  8 Copy quote