Quote #159
The first question which you will ask and which I must try to answer is
this, "What is the use of climbing Mount Everest?" and my answer must at
once be, "It is no use." There is not the slightest prospect of any gain
whatsoever.
Oh, we may learn a little about the behavior of the human body at high
altitudes, and possibly medical men may turn our observation to some account
for the purposes of aviation. But otherwise nothing will come of it.
We shall not bring back a single bit of gold or silver, not a gem, nor any
coal or iron. We shall not find a single foot of earth that can be planted
with crops to raise food. It's no use.
So, 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. What we get from this adventure is just sheer joy. And joy is,
after all, the end of life. We do not live to eat and make money. We eat and
make money to be able to enjoy life. That is what life means and what life
is for.
-- --George Leigh Mallory, 1922
The first question which you will ask and which I must try to answer is
this, "What is the use of climbing Mount Everest?" and my answer must at
once be, "It is no use." There is not the slightest prospect of any gain
whatsoever.
Oh, we may learn a little about the behavior of the human body at high
altitudes, and possibly medical men may turn our observation to some account
for the purposes of aviation. But otherwise nothing will come of it.
We shall not bring back a single bit of gold or silver, not a gem, nor any
coal or iron. We shall not find a single foot of earth that can be planted
with crops to raise food. It's no use.
So, 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. What we get from this adventure is just sheer joy. And joy is,
after all, the end of life. We do not live to eat and make money. We eat and
make money to be able to enjoy life. That is what life means and what life
is for.
-- --George Leigh Mallory, 1922
Related:
- Jacques: First, you must get to know your lane. Feel the slickness,
feel the slippery finish. Caresses it, experience it... - saga n.
[WPI] A cuspy but bogus raving story about N
random broken people.
Here is a classic example of the saga form, as told... - Most of what I really need to know about how to live,
and what to do, and how to be, I learned in kindergarten... - My own life has been spent chronicling the rise and fall of
human systems,
and I am convinced that we are terribly vulnerable... - My own life has been spent chronicling the rise and fall of
human systems,
and I am convinced that we are terribly vulnerable... - Come live with me and be my love,
And we will some new pleasures prove
Of golden sands and crystal brooks
With silken lines,
and silver hooks. There's nothing that I wouldn't do... - We may mount from this dull Earth, and viewing it from on high,
consider whether Nature has laid out all her cost and... - From what we get, we can make a living; what we give,
however, makes a life." -- Arthur...
