Robert Falcon Scott quotes

Robert Falcon Scott was a British Royal Navy officer and explorer, known for leading expeditions to Antarctica. His most famous journey was the Terra Nova Expedition, which aimed to reach the South Pole. He died during his return from the pole, becoming a symbol of courage and endurance in the face of adversity. Here are 35 of his quotes:

Make the boy interested in natural history if you can; it is better than games; they encourage it in some schools.

Robert Falcon Scott

Great God! this is an awful place and terrible enough for us to have laboured to it without the reward of priority.

Robert Falcon Scott

I may not have proved a great explorer, but we have done the greatest march ever made and come very near to great success.

Robert Falcon Scott

We are very near the end, but have not and will not lose our good cheer.

Robert Falcon Scott

I can imagine few things more trying to the patience than the long wasted days of waiting.

Robert Falcon Scott

Every day some new fact comes to light - some new obstacle which threatens the gravest obstruction. I suppose this is the reason which makes the game so well worth playing.

Robert Falcon Scott

The Beardmore Glacier is not difficult in fine weather, but on our return we did not get a single completely fine day; this with a sick companion enormously increased our anxieties.

Robert Falcon Scott

We are weak, writing is difficult, but for my own sake I do not regret this journey, which has shown that Englishmen can endure hardships, help one another, and meet death with as great a fortitude as ever in the past.

Robert Falcon Scott

I have done this to show what an Englishman can do.

Robert Falcon Scott

Slowly but surely the sea is freezing over.

Robert Falcon Scott

Each man in his way is a treasure.

Robert Falcon Scott

But we have been to the Pole and we shall die like gentlemen. I regret only for the women we leave behind.

Robert Falcon Scott

Hunger and fear are the only realities in dog life: an empty stomach makes a fierce dog.

Robert Falcon Scott

The dog is almost human in its demand for living interest, yet fatally less than human in its inability to foresee.

Robert Falcon Scott

As one looks across the barren stretches of the pack, it is sometimes difficult to realise what teeming life exists immediately beneath its surface.

Robert Falcon Scott

Certainly dog driving is the most terrible work one has to face in this sort of business.

Robert Falcon Scott

But if we have been willing to give our lives to this enterprise, which is for the honour of our country, I appeal to our countrymen to see that those who depend on us are properly cared for.

Robert Falcon Scott

But take comfort in that I die at peace with the world and myself - not afraid.

Robert Falcon Scott

We arrived within 11 miles of our old One Ton Camp with fuel for one hot meal and food for two days. For four days we have been unable to leave the tent - the gale howling about us. We are weak, writing is difficult, but for my own sake I do not regret this journey, which has shown that Englishmen can endure hardships, help one another, and meet death with as great a fortitude as ever in the past. We took risks, we knew we took them; things have come out against us, and therefore we have no cause for complaint, but bow to the will of Providence, determined still to do our best to the last.

Robert Falcon Scott

self-assertion is a mask which covers many a weakness. As a rule we have neither the time nor the desire to look beneath it, and so it is that commonly we accept people on their own valuation. Here the outward show is nothing, it is the inward purpose that counts. So the gods dwindle and the humble supplant them. Pretence is useless.

Robert Falcon Scott

What lots and lots I could tell you of this journey. How much better has it been than lounging in too great comfort at home. What tales you would have for the boy. But what a price to pay.

Robert Falcon Scott

I fear we must go and that it leaves the Expedition in a bad muddle.

Robert Falcon Scott