Get busy living, or get busy dying.

“Suck it up, cream puff”
“Adversity doesn’t build character, it reveals it.”

“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.”
-Theodore Roosevelt

“Embrace the Suck”
-Navy SEALs

“There are old mountaineers and there are bold mountaineers, but there are no old, bold mountaineers.”

‘Bear and endure: This sorrow will one day prove to be for your good.’ –Ovid

“True commitment begins when we reach the point of not knowing how we can possibly go on, and decide to do it anyway.”

“Never give up on something that you can’t go a day without thinking about.”

“You could die on each climb and that meant you were responsible for yourself. We were real mountaineers: careful, aware and even afraid. By climbing mountains we were not learning how big we were. We were finding out how breakable, how weak, and how full of fear we are. You can only get this if you expose yourself to high danger. I have always said that a mountain without danger is not a mountain.” -Reinhold Messner

When in doubt, just take the next small step

Chance favors the prepared mind

The summit is optional, descent is mandatory. -ed viesturs

One day I would look back on this moment and realize that it encapsulated all that it means to climb, to push yourself in a way you might not normally imagine is possible. That if your stamina skill and luck were sound, you would get to stand on top. That if you weakened, or your resolve faltered, or conditions worsened, the summit would elude you. I came to understand that respecting the landscape around me, and the landscape within me were both key. If I was to wisely balance desire, risk, and self preservation, I would have to expand my external skills and deepened my internal knowledge. I would have to learn who I was, who my companions were, and what we were capable of achieving. The challenge was harsh, the outcome uncertain, and the growth potential unlimited. I realized that with climbing I’d found something that nourished my soul and could forge me into a better version of myself.  – Jim Davidson (The Ledge)

 

“You have to get lost before you can be found.”
― Jeff Rasley, Bringing Progress to Paradise: What I Got from Giving to a Mountain Village in Nepal

After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.
Nelson Mandela

I thought climbing the Devil’s Thumb would fix all that was wrong with my life. In the end, of course, it changed almost nothing. But I came to appreciate that mountains make poor receptacles for dreams.”
― Jon Krakauer, Into the Wild

 

“Climb if you will, but remember that courage and strength are nought 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, Scrambles Amongst the Alps

“[In mountaineering, if] we look for private experience rather than public history, even getting to the top becomes an optional narrative rather than the main point, and those who only wander in high places become part of the story.”
― Rebecca Solnit, Wanderlust: A History of Walking

“Climbing is one of the few sports in which the arena (the cliffs, the mountains and their specific routes) acquire a notoriety that outpopulates, outshines and outlives the actual athletes.”    — Jonathan Waterman

“Mountains have a way of dealing with overconfidence.”    — Hermann Buhl.

“In the mountains there are only two grades: You can either do it, or you can’t.”    — Rusty Baille.

“The events of the past day have proven to me that I am wholly alive, and that no matter what transpires from here on in, I have truly lived.”    — Anonymous climber.

“I refuse to believe in a risk free society where the thrill of living is traded for the safety of existence.”

“Today is your day ! Your mountain is waiting. So… get on your way.”    — Dr. Seuss

“The true object, as always, is not simply to get up things and check them off in our guidebook — it is to challenge ourselves.”    — Doug Robinson.

The mountains will always be there, the trick is to make sure you are too – Hervey Voge

Rise early. Fix a time-table to which you must try to keep. One seldom regrets having made an early start, but one always regrets having set off too late; first for reasons of safety-the adage ‘it is later than you think’ is very true in the mountains-but also because of the strange beauty of the moment: the day comes to replace the night, the peaks gradually lighten, it is the hour of mystery but also of hope. Setting off by lantern-light, witnessing the birth of a new day as one climbs to meet the sun, this is a wonderful experience – Gaston Rebuffat, from On Snow and Rock, 1959

 

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.”

“The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender.” – Vince Lombardi – See more at: http://adventured.com/100-hiking-mountain-climbing-quotes/#sthash.OimzxTrz.dpuf