The marvelous richness of human experience would lose something of rewarding joy if there were no limitations to overcome. The hilltop hour would not be half so wonderful if there were no dark valleys to traverse.

The marvelous richness of human experience would lose
something of rewarding joy if there were no limitations to
overcome. The hilltop hour would not be half so wonderful if
there were no dark valleys to traverse.

Who would attain to summits still and fair, Must nerve himself through valleys of despair.

Perhaps without the lows, the highs could not be reached.

... there are shadows because there are hills.

Light still lingered in the sky; the hills, that had been dissolved in its splendour, like floating shapes of light themselves, grew dark again.

I would advise sitting from morning till night under some willow bush on the river bank where there is a wide view. This will be "doing the valley" far more effectively than riding along trails in constant motion from point to point. The entire valley is made up of "points of interest."

A lot of people don’t realize that without a valley, there is no peak. Without information, there is no joke. You’ve got to set things up.

The brilliance of the stars would be invisible without the vast darkness of space behind them.

Do not wish away the difficult portions of life. They provide the contrast needed to appreciate the joyful moments.

Sadly, almost with terror, I often looked at the threadlike path which I saw, lower down, winding in the valleys and disappearing between the mountains. The day would come when it would lead me back to the sorrowful world that existed beyond the distant hill ranges, and so thinking, an indescribable suffering lay hold of me.

Grief is like a long valley, a winding valley where any bend may reveal a totally new landscape.

Learn to deal with the valleys, the hills will take care of themselves.

They travelled for thirteen hours down-hill, whilst the streams broadened and the mountains shrank, and the vegetation changed, and the people ceased being ugly and drinking beer, and began instead to drink wine and to be beautiful.

There’s no escape from the shadows that mount, inexorably, in this darkening season. Nor can we escape the shadows our families cast. That said, there are times I miss the pleasant shade a companion might provide.