I learned a lot from more experienced mountaineers, such as Peter Habeler, but by the time I was about 21 I reckoned I had learned all that I needed to make me technically self-sufficient anywhere.
Interpretation
Experience is crucial for growth and self-sufficiency.
In this quote, Reinhold Messner reflects on the importance of learning from those more experienced in a particular field, in his case, mountaineering. He conveys how at a young age, he absorbed valuable knowledge that allowed him to feel confident and self-sufficient in technical skills, emphasizing the balance between learning from mentors and trusting one's own capabilities.
In practice
This quote could inspire young adventurers to seek mentorship while honing their skills.
I became famous for the fact that I would break many, many limits. People said, 'He does all these crazy things.' But oddly it was a crazy thing only because scientists and climbers said, 'Everest and the 8,000-meter peaks without oxygen - impossible. Messner is becoming sick in his head.'
A 30-year-old rock climber is an old man. At 40, one is in the middle of his high-altitude power. At 50, a crosser of deserts is at his best age. But at 60, each of us is out of the game.
I think my cultural work is more important than the adventures I did. The adventures are not important for human beings. It's the conquering of the useless.
In mountaineering, there is not only the activity, but the philosophy behind it. Some say a moral, but I am against that because all morality is dangerous.
I was the first man to climb the world's 14 tallest peaks without supplementary oxygen, but I never asked how high I would go, just how I would do it.
In my state of spiritual abstraction, I no longer belong to myself and to my eyesight. I am nothing more than a single narrow gasping lung, floating over the mists and summits.
Compassion is not feeling sorry for others. It's not soft. It requires an intellectual effort.
I have always loved truth so passionately that I have often resorted to lying as a way of introducing it into the minds which were ignorant of its charms.
What a sense of security in an old book which Time has criticized for us!
May we be enlightened by a ray of the light that comes from Bethlehem, the light of He who is 'The Greatest' and made himself small.
Hopeless emptiness. Now you've said it. Plenty of people are onto the emptiness, but it takes real guts to see the hopelessness.
How gentle and tender ought we to be with others who are foolish when we remember how foolish we are ourselves
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