I was scared many times on Everest, but this is all part of the challenge. When I fell down a crevasse, it was pretty scary.
Interpretation
Facing fears is integral to overcoming challenges.
Edmund Hillary reflects on his experiences climbing Everest, acknowledging that fear is a natural part of tackling formidable challenges. His statement emphasizes the idea that fear should not deter us; rather, it is a component of the journey towards achieving greatness and conquering the unknown.
In practice
In a motivational speech to inspire climbers to embrace their fears.
I think I mainly climb mountains because I get a great deal of enjoyment out of it. I never attempt to analyze these things too thoroughly, but I think that all mountaineers do get a great deal of satisfaction out of overcoming some challenge which they think is very difficult for them, or which perhaps may be a little dangerous.
Despite all I have seen and experiences, I still get the same thrill out of glimpsing a tiny patch of snow in a high mountain gully and feel the same urge to climb toward it.
I've always hated the danger part of climbing, and it's great to come down again because it's safe.
Even when you're 50, you can make the effort to improve your standards.
Many people have been getting too casual about climbing Everest. I forecast a disaster many times.
I am a lucky man. I have had a dream and it has come true, and that is not a thing that happens often to men.
A great dread fell on him, as if he was awaiting the pronouncement of some doom that he had long foreseen and vainly hoped might after all never be spoken. An overwhelming longing to rest and remain at peace by Bilbo's side in Rivendell filled all his heart. At last with an effort he spoke, and wondered to hear his own words, as if some other will was using his small voice. "I will take the Ring," he said, "though I do not know the way.
When people are suicidal, their thinking is paralyzed, their options appear spare or nonexistent, their mood is despairing, and hopelessness permeates their entire mental domain. The future cannot be separated from the present, and the present is painful beyond solace. βThis is my last experiment,β wrote a young chemist in his suicide note. βIf there is any eternal torment worse than mine Iβll have to be shown.
Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others.
The true courage of civilized nations is readiness for sacrifice in the service of the state, so that the individual counts as only one amongst many. The important thing here is not personal mettle but aligning oneself with the universal.
Fear is never a reason for quitting; it is only an excuse.
As someone who wasn't heavily supported or resourced as a young person when I was going through the hardest times of my life, I'm used to operating outside of systems. The trans movement has always been that way.
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