Climbing Quotes 

I have discovered the secret that after climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.
Nelson Mandela
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More Climbing Quotes 

Tenderly Kala nursed her little waif, wondering silently why it did not gain strength and agility as did the little apes of other mothers. It was nearly a year from the time the little fellow came into her possession before he would walk alone, and as for climbing — my, but how stupid he was!

Edgar Rice Burroughs

— Ch. 5 : The White Ape

Tags: Tenderly, Kala, nursed, little, waif, wondering, silently, gain, strength

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I’d like to go by climbing a birch tree, And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more, But dipped its top and set me down again. That would be good both going and coming back. One could do worse than be a swinger of birches.

robert frost

— "Birches" (1920)

Tags: birch, tree, climb, black, branches, snowwhite, trunk, heaven, bear

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I plucked a honeysuckle where The hedge on high is quick with thorn, And climbing for the prize, was torn, And fouled my feet in quag-water; And by the thorns and by the wind The blossom that I took was thinn'd, And yet I found it sweet and fair.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

— Dante Gabriel Rossetti, The Honeysuckle; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 372.

Tags: plucked, honeysuckle, hedge, high, quick, thorn, prize, torn, fouled

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Hungry gentry now pillage, maraud as they please, In the barn Baptist greatly beasts' numbers decreased 'Sprinkling' heads of two oxen, two calves and one goat, While Razor his sabre sank deep in each throat. Awl, with his rapier, also ran up to their aid Sticking old boars and piglets below shoulder blade. Now death threatens the poultry – the geese, alert flocks, Which once saved Rome from Gauls in the dark climbing rocks, Vainly cackle for succour; no Manlius will come...


— Book Eight, The Foray

Tags: Hungry, gentry, now, pillage, barn, Baptist, greatly, beasts', numbers

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Asthe climbing up a sandy way isto the feet of the aged, so is a wife full of words to a quiet man.

Bible (Apocrypha)

— Ecclesiasticus 25:20.

Tags: Asthe, sandy, isto, feet, aged, wife, full, words, quiet

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Doing time is like climbing a mountain wearing roller skates.

john dean

— 1977  On conviction after the Watergate scandal. In Newsweek, 4  Jul.

Tags: Doing, time, mountain, wearing, roller, skates

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I'd like to go by climbing a birch tree And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more, But dipped its top and set me down again. That would be good both going and coming back. One could do worse than be a swinger of birches.

robert frost

— 'Birches' (1916)

Tags: birch, tree, climb, black, branches, snowwhite, trunk, heaven, bear

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Nature that framed us of four elements, Warring within our breasts for regiment, Doth teach us all to have aspiring minds: Our souls, whose faculties can comprehend The wondrous architecture of the world, And measure every wandering planet's course, Still climbing after knowledge infinite, And always moving as the restless spheres, Wills us to wear ourselves, and never rest, Until we reach the ripest fruit of all, That perfect bliss and sole felicity, The sweet fruition of an earthly crown.

Christopher Marlowe

— 1587  Tamburlaine the Great (published1590), pt.1, act 2, sc.7.

Tags: Nature, framed, us, four, elements, Warring, within, our, breasts

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They were always?getting more credit than they deserved, more sorrow than they could bear, climbing into jobs before they were ready and failing just when they were succeeding.


— 1991  Of John F, Robert F and Edward M Kennedy. Deadline.

Tags: more, credit, deserved, sorrow, bear, jobs, before, ready, failing

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(I was) happily contended to be climbing the heights and the clouds by the brush method.. .. rendering the God-spirit in the mountains.

marsden hartley

— letter to Horace Traubel around 1908, as quoted in Marsden Hartley, by Gail R. Scott, Abbeville Publishers, Cross River Press, 1988, New York p. 18

Tags: happily, contended, heights, clouds, brush, method, rendering, mountains

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I think the whole attitude towards climbing Mount Everest has become rather horrifying. The people just want to get to the top. They don't give a damn for anybody else who may be in distress and it doesn't impress me at all that they leave someone lying under a rock to die.

edmund hillary

— As quoted in The Age (25 May 2006)

Tags: think, whole, attitude, Mount, Everest, become, horrifying, people, want

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On a trip to Germany, Lange and his entourage were climbing the tower of an ancient castle when they stopped to catch their breath. "How old is this ruin?" someone asked a guide. "Forty-two years," said Lange.

david lange

— Source: A New Zealand Dictionary of Political Quotations, p. 94.

Tags: trip, Germany, Lange, entourage, tower, ancient, castle, when, stopped

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After that I was infused with a pleasant sense of abandon. Our rope was not long enough for us to abseil down the red step, and the idea of climbing down it without support from above was not to be contemplated; therefore we just had to reach the summit.

eric shipton

— Eric Shipton (1977). That Untravelled World. Illustrations by Biro (2nd edition ed.). London: Hodder and Stoughton. ISBN 0-340-21609-3. 
— Shipton was climbing with the novice Bill Tillman on the first ascent of the difficult West Ridge Route up Batian.

Tags: After, infused, pleasant, sense, abandon, Our, rope, long, enough

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I am overwhelmed by an irresistible temptation to do my climb by moonlight and unroped. This is contrary to all my rock climbing teaching & does not mean poor training, but only a strong-headedness.

william shockley

— Memo to himself in 1947, regarding work on the transistor, as quoted in Broken Genius : The Rise and Fall of William Shockley, Creator of the Electronic Age (2006) by Joel N. Shurkin, Ch. 7, p. 125

Tags: overwhelmed, irresistible, temptation, climb, moonlight, unroped, contrary, rock, teaching

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The window-lights, myriads and myriads,Bloom from the walls like climbing flowers.

sara teasdale

— Evening: New York

Tags: myriads, walls, flowers

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Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.

stephen covey

— p. 101 (The Seven Habits Of Highly Effective People (1989))

Tags: Management, efficiency, ladder, success, leadership, determines, leaning, against, right

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My rhyming skills got you climbing hills, I'll travel through your mind into your spine like siren drills.

eminem

— "Infinite" (Infinite (1996))

Tags: rhyming, skills, you, hills, travel, mind, spine, siren, drills

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"I once saw a man hanging from a cliff," he said slowly. "The brink was crumbling beneath his fingers, and the only thing near enough to grasp was a tuft of grass, a few long blades with roots barely clinging to the rock. The only chance he had of climbing back up on the cliff. So he grabbed it." His abrupt chuckle held no mirth. "He had to know it would pull free."

robert jordan

— The Fires of Heaven (15 October 1993), Asmodean to Rand al'Thor.

Tags: once, saw, man, hanging, cliff, slowly, brink, crumbling, beneath

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If it had been possible to build the Tower of Babel without climbing it, it would have been permitted.

Franz Kafka

— 18; (9 November 1917) a slight variant of this was published in Parables and Paradoxes (1946): If it had been possible to build the Tower of Babel without ascending it, the work would have been permitted.

Tags: been, possible, build, Tower, Babel, without, permitted

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Celebrate we will Because life is short But sweet for certain We're climbing two by two To be sure these days continue.

dave matthews

— Two Step

Tags: we, life, short, sweet, certain, two, days, continue

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Man's books are but a climbing stair, Lain step by step, like stairs of stone; The stairway here, the temple there Man's lampad honor, and his trust, The God who called him from the dust.

joaquin miller

— "The Larger College".

Tags: Man's, books, stair, step, stairs, stone, stairway, here, temple

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The lark now leaves his watery nest, And climbing, shakes his dewy wings. He takes your window for the East And to implore your light he sings.


— Sir William Davenant, The Lark now Leaves his Watery Nest.

Tags: lark, now, leaves, watery, nest, shakes, dewy, wings, window

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The pretty Lark, climbing the Welkin cleer, Chaunts with a cheer, Heer peer I neer my Deer; Then stooping thence (seeming her fall to rew) Adieu (she saith) adieu, deer Deer, adieu.

guillaume de salluste du bartas

— Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas, Weekes and Workes, Fifth Day.

Tags: pretty, Lark, cleer, cheer, Heer, peer, neer, Deer, Then

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When you reach the top of the mountain, keep climbing.


— Quoted as a Zen koan in Kevin Grange, "Beneath Blossom Rain: Discovering Bhutan on the Toughest Trek in the World" (2011), p.284

Tags: When, you, reach, top, mountain, keep

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I am overwhelmed by an irresistible temptation to do my climb by moonlight and unroped. This is contrary to all my rock climbing teaching & does not mean poor training, but only a strong-headedness.


— William Shockley (1947) in memo to himself, regarding work on the transistor, as quoted in Broken Genius : The Rise and Fall of William Shockley, Creator of the Electronic Age (2006) by Joel N. Shurkin, Ch. 7, p. 125

Tags: overwhelmed, irresistible, temptation, climb, moonlight, unroped, contrary, rock, teaching

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Love's tongue proves dainty Bacchus gross in taste: For valour, is not Love a Hercules, Still climbing trees in the Hesperides?


— Act IV, scene 3, line 339.

Tags: tongue, proves, dainty, Bacchus, gross, taste, valour, Love, Hercules

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There are the breezes of early morning; for the sun on emerging from beneath the earth strikes humid air as he returns, and as he goes climbing up the sky he spreads it out before him, extracting breezes from the vapor that was there before the dawn.


— Chapter VI, Sec. 11 (Book I)

Tags: There, breezes, early, morning, sun, emerging, beneath, earth, strikes

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Evolution ever climbing after some ideal good And Reversion ever dragging Evolution in the mud.


— Alfred Tennyson, Locksley Hall Sixty Years After (1886), line 200; Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 241-42.

Tags: Evolution, after, ideal, good, dragging, mud

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When you go to the mountains, you see them and you admire them. In a sense, they give you a challenge, and you try to express that challenge by climbing them.

edmund hillary

— Article in "The Guardian" from March 13, 2003

Tags: when, mountains, See, them, admire, sense, challenge, try, express

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