Edmund Hillary quotes - page 2

Edmund Hillary was a New Zealand mountaineer and philanthropist, best known as one of the first two climbers to reach the summit of Mount Everest. His achievement marked a historic milestone in the field of exploration and inspired countless adventurers around the world. He dedicated much of his later life to helping the Sherpa people of Nepal through charitable projects. Here are 60 of his quotes:

Human life is far more important than just getting to the top of a mountain.

Edmund Hillary

I think it all comes down to motivation. If you really want to do something, you will work hard for it.

Edmund Hillary

No one remembers who climbed Mount Everest the second time.

Edmund Hillary

The explorers of the past were great men and we should honour them. But let us not forget that their spirit lives on. It is still not hard to find a man who will adventure for the sake of a dream or one who will search, for the pleasure of searching, not for what he may find.

Edmund Hillary

It's not a real adventure when you have to pay for it.

Edmund Hillary

I really haven't liked the commercialization of mountaineering, particularly of Mt. Everest. By paying $65,000, you can be conducted to the summit by a couple of good guides.

Edmund Hillary

When you're climbing at high altitudes, life can get pretty miserable.

Edmund Hillary

My most important projects have been the building and maintaining of schools and medical clinics for my dear friends in the Himalaya and helping restore their beautiful monasteries, too.

Edmund Hillary

Adventuring can be for the ordinary person with ordinary qualities, such as I regard myself.

Edmund Hillary

When I was 50 years old, I actually decided to draw up a list of half a dozen things that I really hadn't done very well, and I was going to make efforts to improve. One of them was skiing, and I really did become a very much better skier.

Edmund Hillary

My mother was a schoolteacher and very keen that I go to a city school, so although it was fairly impoverished times, I traveled every day to the Auckland Grammar School.

Edmund Hillary

I hate being called an 'icon.' I just don't like it. That's all there is to it.

Edmund Hillary

On the summit of Everest, I had a feeling of great satisfaction to be first there.

Edmund Hillary

I think that a good mountaineer is usually a sensible mountaineer.

Edmund Hillary

Many people have been getting too casual about climbing Everest. I forecast a disaster many times.

Edmund Hillary

I think Himalayan climbers tend to mature fairly late. I think most of the successful Himalayan climbers have ranged from 28 to just over 40, really.

Edmund Hillary

The Sherpas play a very important role in most mountaineering expeditions, and in fact many of them lead along the ridges and up to the summit.

Edmund Hillary

The explorers of the past were great men and we should honour them. But let us not forget that their spirit lives on.

Edmund Hillary

We didn't know if it was humanly possible to reach the top of Mt. Everest.

Edmund Hillary

On my expedition there was no way that you would have left a man under a rock to die. It simply would not have happened.

Edmund Hillary

Despite all I have seen and experienced, I still get the same simple thrill out of glimpsing a tiny patch of snow in a high mountain gully and feel the same urge to climb towards it.

Edmund Hillary

Good planning is important. I've also regarded a sense of humor as one of the most important things on a big expedition. When you're in a difficult or dangerous situation, or when you're depressed about the chances of success, someone who can make you laugh eases the tension.

Edmund Hillary