Theories are like a stairway; by climbing, science widens its horizon more and more, because theories embody and necessarily include proportionately more facts as they advance.
My once-keen analytical mind has become so dulled by endless hours of baking in the hot sun, thrashing about in tight chimneys, pulling at impossibly heavy loads, freezing my ass off. . . . so that now my mental state is comparable to that of a Peruvian Indian, well stoked on coca leaves.
Half the charm of climbing mountains is born in visions preceding this experience - visions of what is mysterious, remote, inaccessible.
I looked back at the summit of the mountain, which seemed but a cubit high in comparison with the height of human contemplation, were in not too often merged in the corruptions of the earth.
Had I listened to my agent, I'd be running around in tights, climbing buildings and stuff.
We are members of a strange species that devotes its energies to climbing the ladder of success in order to make money to buy things we don't like.
If you are under control you're going too slow.
To use an image, making a film is like climbing a mountain or crossing an ocean. Every day has its challenges.
Make time less precious. We are way too efficient, making use of every hour, every minute. When you were a kid, didn’t you just spend hours poking sticks in the mud, climbing trees and sitting in them, looking at shells and seaweed that washed up on the shoreline? Time was not precious then, we weren’t trying to stuff an accomplishment into every minute every day, we had time for thoughts and feelings. That was good!
A man's passion for the mountain is, above all, his childhood which refuses to die.
Personally, I would rather climb in the high mountains. I have always abhorred the tremendous heat, the dirt-filled cracks, the ant-covered foul-smelling trees and bushes which cover the cliffs, the filth and noise of Camp 4 (the climbers' campground), and worst of all, the multitudes of tourists which abound during the weekends and summer months.
The greatest risk in life is to risk nothing. The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing and becomes nothing.
Evolution ever climbing after some ideal good, And Reversion ever dragging Evolution in the mud.
Isn't a person who can live on nothing much stronger? I try to nurture that transformation in myself.
Height has nothing to do with it, it is your strength that counts.
If there is such a thing as spiritual materialism, it is displayed in the urge to possess the mountains rather than to unravel and accept their mysteries.
O for a life of Sensations rather than of Thoughts!
Climbing is a full-body sport from your fingers to your toes, but at the same time, it's like a dance on the rock. It's about being strong and fit but also graceful and elegant and efficient on the rock.
Now I approach climbing differently. I have learned less effort and energy, less obsession, and more feeling, as with piano, more emphasis and less frenzy.
The goal of climbing big, dangerous mountains should be to attain some sort of spiritual and personal growth, but this won't happen if you compromise away the entire process.