In the West, the art of rock climbing is growing because it has to do with less risk, good muscles. But the people seeking high goals in high places are in Eastern Europe, and they reach their goals because they are willing to suffer more.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the difference in attitudes toward challenges between the West and Eastern Europe, highlighting the willingness to endure hardship for greater achievements.
Reinhold Messner's quote reflects on the contrasting approaches to rock climbing and goal achievement between the West and Eastern Europe. While Western climbers often prioritize safety and physical fitness, those in Eastern Europe demonstrate a remarkable resilience and willingness to endure suffering, thereby reaching higher goals. This speaks to a broader theme of how the pursuit of excellence often requires sacrifice and courage.
In practice
This quote could be used in a motivational speech about the importance of perseverance.
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.
The vote is the most powerful nonviolent tool we have.
I'm not the sort to back away from a fight. I don't believe in shrinking from anything. It's not my speed; I'm a guy who meets adversities head on.
I would say that I'm a nonviolent soldier. In place of weapons of violence, you have to use your mind, your heart, your sense of humor, every faculty available to you...because no one has the right to take the life of another human being.
I could be a bit of a pain in the arse. Since I've come out of my cancer, I must say I intend to be even more of a pain in the arse.
Actually, it was only part of myself I wanted to kill: the part that wanted to kill herself, that dragged me into the suicide debate and made every window, kitchen implement, and subway station a rehearsal for tragedy.
If we have anything in common as humans it's the instinct to survive. When you go in the ring you are going against that instinct. You're running into conflict instead of away from That's when the complexity really begins.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.