Quotes about climbing

[iain]

" "

[cj001f]

snoboy said:

Since 1999, the Hemingway Quote Finder has fielded more than 5000 quote source requests and has become a phenomenon in its own right. People from all walks of life have e-mailed in quotations: professors, film production companies, government officials, and authors. If I had a dollar for each time the following quotation was submitted, I would soon corral enough money to pay my web hosting fees until the next millennium: "There are only three sports: bullfighting, motor racing, and mountaineering; all the rest are merely games."8 I've received this inquiry so many times that it prompted me to e-mail back a standard reply:

 

This is one in a long list of quotations mysteriously attributed to Ernest Hemingway. While the general public seem to agree that this is in fact a Hemingway quotation, scholars have some reservations and for good reason. The early Hemingway did not believe that bullfighting was a sport. For him it was a tragedy. See his October 20, 1923 article titled "Bullfighting A Tragedy" reprinted in By-Line: Ernest Hemingway Selected Articles and Dispatches of Four Decades edited by William White. Hemingway reiterates his beliefs regarding the tragedy of bullfighting in his 1932 book, Death in the Afternoon.

 

Source

 

I'm pretty sure it was in "Death in the afternoon" somewhere's towards the beginning.

 

For a good story has anyone read "Cross-Country Snow"?

[Alpinfox]

[iain]

hey a picture of Dru.

[Dru]

pre-rockfall too!

[Alpinfox]

 

"When you ride your bike, you're working your legs, but your mind is on a treadmill. When you play chess, your mind is clicking along, but your body is stagnating. Climbing brings it together in a beautiful, magical way. The adrenaline is flowing, and it's flowing all the time." — Pat Ament.

 

 

"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.

[Jedi]

"If a sport has bleachers, it is not for me as I am not a very good spectator."

Jedi

 

"Dare to fail"

I dunno but it is one to live by.

 

That Hemmingway quote is flawed (only my opinion). BullFIGHTING is what they call it? Shit if they were fighting bulls, they would stop hiding behind that silly sword. Just a fancy way to kill an animal. Someone should tell them about guns, it would be faster. But he is right, the rest are games

 

The old bold quote. Someone told me that the other night after watching Touching the Void. Old bold climbers are not sending 14d so you don't hear about them, they're around.

 

Not so much a quote as an excuse.

Jedi

[Gripped]

"Dare to fail"

I dunno but it is one to live by.

 

Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.

 

Robert F. Kennedy

[cancxr]

"Life shrinks and expands in proportion to one's courage."

anias nin

[JackY]

"If you bring emergency gear it will slow you down, then you may actually need it."

[Jason_Martin]

"Dirtbags are people Too"

 

A bumper sticker.

[Jason_Martin]

I'm going to throw in my two cents on a few misquotes like everyone else.

 

"There are old climbers and bold climbers but there are no old bold climbers."

 

I've recently been doing A LOT of research on Paul Petzoldt and it appears that the line can be attributed to him on multiple occasions in multiple discussions and pieces of writing. The most famous time he said it was when he tried to repeat the Grand on the seventieth anniversiary of his 1924 ascent. Unfortunately, Petzoldt was dealing with cancer when he attempted to do this and was unable to climb to the top. This is when he said the line to a number of people in the press and it appeared in the media at large for the first time. He said the line a lot prior to this, but this is when it became a "famous" quote.

 

The reference about drytooling and mastrubation can be traced directly to Jim Donini. This is HIS VERY FAVORITE LINE. In fact I was at a slide show at the AMGA annual meeting with Donini as a presenter when he said this. Afterwards a number of people who have seen him on multiple occasions -- including Alan Kearney who did a bunch of research on Donini's ascents in Patigonia -- made comments about how he's been saying this line for years and years. No one seemed to think that he ripped it off from anybody else.

 

I've seen a Jim Birdwell slideshow. Nothing funny was said. In fact it was maybe the worst slideshow I've ever seen. Which brings me to another quote:

 

"Death by slideshow."

 

I have no idea who said this, but it's been floating around for awhile.

 

Jason

[dlofgren]

Who was it who said something to the effect:

 

"Mountaineering is hour after hour of sheer drudgery punctuated by moments of sheer terror!"

[Dru]

This one is for Mike_Laytent

 

"The world's best climber is the one having the most fun"

[scrambler]

To the people who push their limits:

 

"The Edge... there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over"

 

- Hunter S. Thompson

[Cairns]

snoboy said:

Since 1999, the Hemingway Quote Finder has fielded more than 5000 quote source requests and has become a phenomenon in its own right. People from all walks of life have e-mailed in quotations: professors, film production companies, government officials, and authors. If I had a dollar for each time the following quotation was submitted, I would soon corral enough money to pay my web hosting fees until the next millennium: "There are only three sports: bullfighting, motor racing, and mountaineering; all the rest are merely games."8 I've received this inquiry so many times that it prompted me to e-mail back a standard reply:

 

This is one in a long list of quotations mysteriously attributed to Ernest Hemingway. While the general public seem to agree that this is in fact a Hemingway quotation, scholars have some reservations and for good reason. The early Hemingway did not believe that bullfighting was a sport. For him it was a tragedy. See his October 20, 1923 article titled "Bullfighting A Tragedy" reprinted in By-Line: Ernest Hemingway Selected Articles and Dispatches of Four Decades edited by William White. Hemingway reiterates his beliefs regarding the tragedy of bullfighting in his 1932 book, Death in the Afternoon.

 

Source

 

I'm pretty sure it was in "Death in the afternoon" somewhere's towards the beginning.

 

For a good story has anyone read "Cross-Country Snow"?

 

 

I think the Hemingway quote culprit may be this guy:

 

 

But more likely John Baird from The Hemingway Hoax, by Joe Haldeman.I think it ties in with

Mounties

[Alpine_Tom]

"Death by slideshow."

 

I have no idea who said this, but it's been floating around for awhile.

 

Jason

"Power corrupts, and Powerpoint corrupts absolutely."

[iain]

gotta remember that one

[lummox]

I'm going to throw in my two cents on a few misquotes like everyone else.

 

"There are old climbers and bold climbers but there are no old bold climbers."

 

I've recently been doing A LOT of research on Paul Petzoldt and it appears that the line can be attributed to him on multiple occasions in multiple discussions and pieces of writing. The most famous time he said it was when he tried to repeat the Grand on the seventieth anniversiary of his 1924 ascent. Unfortunately, Petzoldt was dealing with cancer when he attempted to do this and was unable to climb to the top. This is when he said the line to a number of people in the press and it appeared in the media at large for the first time. He said the line a lot prior to this, but this is when it became a "famous" quote.

 

The reference about drytooling and mastrubation can be traced directly to Jim Donini. This is HIS VERY FAVORITE LINE. In fact I was at a slide show at the AMGA annual meeting with Donini as a presenter when he said this. Afterwards a number of people who have seen him on multiple occasions -- including Alan Kearney who did a bunch of research on Donini's ascents in Patigonia -- made comments about how he's been saying this line for years and years. No one seemed to think that he ripped it off from anybody else.

 

I've seen a Jim Birdwell slideshow. Nothing funny was said. In fact it was maybe the worst slideshow I've ever seen. Which brings me to another quote:

 

"Death by slideshow."

 

I have no idea who said this, but it's been floating around for awhile.

 

Jason

you go to slide shows then bitch that they suck. wtf did you expect? slide show=boredom.

[Jason_Martin]

Lummox,

 

I loved the Donini slide show! I actually enjoy most slide shows and I've been to quite a few of them. I think I'm an easy audience... But the Birdwell slideshow was just plain bad.

 

Jason

[gmknight]

There are definitely bad slideshow floating around (Steve Schneider is one) but after seeing a few Greg Crouch shows i know that there is a saving grace.

 

One of my favorite quotes:

Norman Clyde fell while soloing one of the palisade gullies. As he slid at a break-neck pace toward the berg. he launched into the air and yelled "Here I go to HELL!!!"

[Alpinfox]

"Maybe true. Maybe not true. Better you believe." — Sherpa saying.

 

"As far as I'm concerned, if someone eliminates the mental part of climbing, then we might as well all go play miniature golf." — Greg Opland.

 

"I climb as hard as anyone on earth. I just do it on easier routes." — Mad Dog.

 

"As a member of an escorted tour, you don't even have to know the Matterhorn isn't a tuba." — Temple Fielding.

 

"One does not climb to attain enlightenment, rather one climbs because he is enlightened." — Zen Master Futomaki

 

"Doubly happy is the man to whom lofty mountaintops are within reach". -John Muir

 

[selkirk]

"For god could no longer be found in his traditional steeple houses. But seemed to dwell more vividly in the bare austerities of his earths high places"

Not sure if it was Willi Unsoeld or not but it was in his biography.

[dukiebird]

"Experience is the name every one gives to their mistakes."

-Oscar Wilde

 

"The fear of death is the most unjustified of all fears, for there's no risk of accident for someone who's dead."

-Albert Einstein.

 

My girlfriend's favorite: "You'll never find the edge unless you're willing to go over it." -I dunno

 

"Shit happens"

-I dunno that one either

 

Not climbing related, but good news for me:

"The ability to quote is a servicable substitute for wit."

-I think it was Mark Twain

[Alpinfox]

My girlfriend's favorite: "You'll never find the edge unless you're willing to go over it." -I dunno

 

The Edge... there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over.

-Hunter S. Thompson

 

 

More Hunter:

 

When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.

 

You can turn your back on a person, but never turn your back on a drug, especially when its waving a razor sharp hunting knife in your eye.

 

I wouldn't recommend sex, drugs or insanity for everyone, but they've always worked for me.

 

America is just a nation of two hundred million used car salesmen with all the money we need to buy guns and no qualms about killing anybody else in the world who tries to make us uncomfortable.