Edmund Hillary

“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 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.”

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

“Ever since the morning of May 29, 1953, when Tenzing Norgay and I became the first climbers to step onto the summit of Mount Everest, I've been called a great adventurer.”

“It's not a real adventure when you have to pay for it.”

“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.”

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

“Human life is far more important than just getting to the top of a mountain.”

“No one remembers who climbed Mount Everest the second time.”

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

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

“I don't regard myself as a cracking good climber. I'm just strong in the back. I have a lot of enthusiasm, and I'm good on ice.”

“You don't have to be a hero to accomplish great things---to compete. You can just be an ordinary chap, sufficiently motivated to reach challenging goals.”

“Tourism is a very big economic benefit to the Sherpa people, and also, they have very strong ties to their own social attitudes and their own religion, so fortunately, they're not too influenced by many of our Western attitudes.”

“When I was 50 years old, I actually decided to draw up a list of half a dozen things that I really hadn't done very well, and I was going to make efforts to improve. One of them was skiing, and I really did become a very much better skier.”

“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.”

“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.”

“I have discovered that even the mediocre can have adventures and even the fearful can achieve.”

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