Ernest Shackleton quotes

Ernest Shackleton was a renowned Anglo-Irish explorer, best known for his expeditions to Antarctica. His leadership during the ill-fated Endurance expedition demonstrated remarkable courage and determination. He is celebrated as one of the principal figures of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. Here are 19 of his quotes:

Superhuman effort isn't worth a damn unless it achieves results.

Ernest Shackleton

Optimism is true moral courage.

Ernest Shackleton

Better a live donkey than a dead lion.

Ernest Shackleton

I seemed to vow to myself that some day I would go to the region of ice and snow and go on and on till I came to one of the poles of the earth, the end of the axis upon which this great round ball turns.

Ernest Shackleton

The noise resembles the roar of heavy, distant surf. Standing on the stirring ice one can imagine it is disturbed by the breathing and tossing of a mighty giant below.

Ernest Shackleton

After months of want and hunger, we suddenly found ourselves able to have meals fit for the gods, and with appetites the gods might have envied.

Ernest Shackleton

The outstanding feature of today's march is that we have seen new land to the South never seen by human eyes before great snow clad heights [which] we did not see on our journey South on the last Expedition for we were too close to the land or rather foothills and now at the great distance we are out they can plainly be seen.

Ernest Shackleton

We had seen God in His splendors, heard the text that Nature renders. We had reached the naked soul of man.

Ernest Shackleton

I called to the other men that the sky was clearing, and then a moment later I realized that what I had seen was not a rift in the clouds but the white crest of an enormous wave.

Ernest Shackleton

Now my eyes are turned from the South to the North, and I want to lead one more Expedition. This will be the last... to the North Pole.

Ernest Shackleton

My good friend the Governor said I could settle down at Port Stanley and take things quietly for a few weeks. The street of that port is about a mile and a half long. It has the slaughterhouse at one end and the graveyard at the other. The chief distraction is to walk from the slaughterhouse to the graveyard. For a change one may walk from the graveyard to the slaughterhouse.

Ernest Shackleton

The difficulties of the journey lay behind us.

Ernest Shackleton

We had "suffered, starved and triumphed, groveled down yet grasped at glory, grown bigger in the bigness of the whole. We had seen God in His splendours, heard the text that Nature renders." We had reached the naked soul of man.

Ernest Shackleton

At the bottom of the fall we were able to stand again on dry land.

Ernest Shackleton

I have been thinking much of our prospects.

Ernest Shackleton

Men Wanted: For hazardous journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success.

Ernest Shackleton

At the bottom of the fall we were able to stand again on dry land. The rope could not be recovered. We had flung down the adze from the top of the fall and also the logbook and the cooker wrapped in one of our blouses. That was all, except our wet clothes, that we brought out of the Antarctic, which we had entered a year and a half before with well-found ship, full equipment, and high hopes. That was all of tangible things; but in memories we were rich. We had pierced the veneer of outside things. We had "suffered, starved and triumphed, groveled down yet grasped at glory, grown bigger in the bigness of the whole. We had seen God in His splendours, heard the text that Nature renders." We had reached the naked soul of man.

Ernest Shackleton