Edmund Hillary Quotes

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

While standing on top of Everest, I looked across the valley, towards the other 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 for me, by any means. I was still looking beyond to other interesting challenges.

I’ve always hated the danger part of climbing, and it’s great to come down again because it’s safe … But there is something about building up a comradeship — that I still believe is the greatest of all feats — and sharing in the dangers with your company of peers. It’s the intense effort, the giving of everything you’ve got. It’s really a very pleasant sensation.

Bukan gunung yang kita taklukkan, tetapi diri kita sendiri.

I was just an enthusiastic mountaineer of modest abilities who was willing to work quite hard and had the necessary imagination and determination. I was just an average bloke; it was the media that transformed me into a heroic figure. And try as I did, there was no way to destroy my heroic image. But as I learned through the years, as long as you didn’t believe all that rubbish about yourself, you wouldn’t come to much harm.

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.

In some ways I believe I epitomise the average New Zealander: I have modest abilities, I combine these with a good deal of determination, and I rather like to succeed.

We didn’t know if it was humanly possible to reach the top of Mt. Everest. And even using oxygen as we were, if we did get to the top, we weren’t at all sure whether we wouldn’t drop dead or something of that nature.

Having just paid our respects to the highest mountain in the world, I then had no choice but to urinate on it.

It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.

Well, we knocked the bastard off!

If you only do what others have already done, you will only feel what others have already felt. However, if you choose to achieve something that no one has ever done, then you will have a satisfaction that no one else has ever had.

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.

With all respect, Sahib, you have little to teach us in strength and toughness. And we do not envy you your restless spirits. Perhaps we are happier than you? But we would like our children to go to school. Of all the things you have, learning is the one we most desire for our children.

Petualangan bukanlah tentang menaklukkan alam, tetapi tentang menaklukkan diri sendiri.