Top 40 Edmund Hillary Quotes

Nobody climbs mountains for scientific reasons. Science is used to raise money for the expeditions, but you really climb for the hell of it.

Once I’ve decided to do something, I do usually try to carry it through to fruition.

I can remember when I first went into the Himalayan area way back in 1951. Money, for instance, was not important at all to the local people. But now, finance has become just as important to them as it is to us, and this is a change maybe not for the better.

While on top of Everest, I looked across the valley towards the great peak Makalu and mentally worked out a route about how it could be climbed. It showed me that even though I was standing on top of the world, it wasn’t the end of everything. I was still looking beyond to other interesting challenges.

I have never regarded myself as a hero, but Tenzing undoubtedly was.

I believe that of all the things I have done, exciting though many of them have been, there’s no doubt in my mind that the most worthwhile have been the establishing of schools and hospitals, and the rebuilding of monasteries in the mountains.

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

I don’t know if I particularly want to be remembered for anything. I personally do not think I’m a great gift to the world. I’ve been very fortunate.

When I was climbing, I built up a close relationship with the Sherpa people.

The truth is, I’m just a rough old New Zealander who has enjoyed many challenges in his life.

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.

I like to think of Everest as a great mountaineering challenge, and when you’ve got people just streaming up the mountain – well, many of them are just climbing it to get their name in the paper, really.

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

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

I was extremely lucky that I had two great wives. It sounds a bit funny to say that, but it’s absolutely true.

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.

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.

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

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

People do not decide to become extraordinary. They decide to accomplish extraordinary things.

I’m sure the feeling of fear, as long as you can take advantage of it and not be rendered useless by it, can make you extend yourself beyond what you would regard as your capacity. If you’re afraid, the blood seems to flow freely through the veins, and you really do feel a sense of stimulation.

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.

If you cannot understand that there is something in man which responds to the challenge of this mountain and goes out to meet it, that the struggle is the struggle of life itself upward and forever upward, then you won‘t see why we go.

My relationship with the mountains actually started when I was 16. Every year, a group used to be taken from Auckland Grammar down to the Tangariro National Park for a skiing holiday.

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.

If I wished to do something, even if I couldn’t find anyone who wanted to make the effort with me, I would go out solo climbing. I did find solo climbing very challenging and a little frightening. You knew that you were completely on your own, and you had to overcome all the problems and possible dangers.

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

I realised a little bit to my astonishment that I can give a lecture for a thousand people, and there will be this tumultuous applause, so, you know, I have the feeling well, it can’t be all that bad.

I’ve always hated the danger part of climbing, and it’s great to come down again because it’s safe.

Becoming a ‘Sir‘ is slightly uncomfortable at first, although it is a considerable honor. It is amazing how quickly you become accustomed to it.

I think the really good mountaineer is the man with the technical ability of the professional and with the enthusiasm and freshness of approach of the amateur.

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.

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

There is precious little in civilization to appeal to a Yeti.

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.

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

I enjoyed climbing with other people, good friends, but I did quite a lot of solo climbing, too.

Take advantage of the years of pioneering efforts. You might find this boring, as the young want to rush head on, as it were.

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.

No one remembers who climbed Mount Everest the second time.