"We can't fail if we never give it an honest try, or whatever Yoda didn't say." — Aidan Multhauf Alpinist Magazine, Issue 87, "Twenty Classic Climbs in Twenty Days"
"He was an artist and life was his medium." — Derek Franz Alpinist Magazine, Issue 87, "Fabulous Roman Candles"
"When you talk about rules, you can sound like a fuddy-duddy, but Rules are actually very creative. They are not just for rule-followers. In fact, often as soon as I make a Rule, I realize I will eventually have to—will want to— break it. It’s only a matter of time. Rules are the structure that enable us to go a little wild on a regular basis. Preferably every day." — Katie Arnold The Rules, Work in Process
"A rottener mass of rock is inconceivable. The core may still be solid but the "surrounding tuffs" are seeking a lower level in large quantities." — Albert Ellingwood First to Climb Lizard Head, Outing Magazine
"[C]ontent will not make us content. (Talking about how there's too much meaningless content online, and the ever-present urge to consume it all won't make us content, aka happy. I need to work on this one!)" — Katie Arnold Content, Work in Process
"Kai Whaley during his unplanned descent of Shaolin (V17), Red Rock National Conservation Area, NV. (I love the phrase "unplanned descent" to describe falling!)" — American Alpine Club Guidebook XIV
"If I went into a story or assignment with a preconceived idea of what would happen, or worse, a meticulous outline, I’d get stuck even before I began. Over time, I learned to write not to make something happen, but to find out what happens—to write my way into knowing." — Katie Arnold Brief Flashings in the Phenomenal World
"Getting a permit to float the Middle Fork without a guide, as our friends did, isn’t like winning the lottery. It is winning the lottery." — Katie Arnold Brief Flashings in the Phenomenal World
"Photography is an art of hundredths and thousandths of seconds, which makes for slim odds at perfection. The moment of any image is preceded by an infinite number of events that coalesce in a single instant, and it evaporates just as quickly as it appears." — Cory Richards The Color of Everything: A Journey to Quiet the Chaos Within
"What’s the point of being grown up if you can’t be childish sometimes?" — 4th Doctor Doctor Who, "Robot"
"The trick is to die young as late as possible." — Wolf Bauer via Lowell Skoog Written in the Snows
"[Art] is getting on the other side of your brain and letting it take you for a ride." — Jeremy Jones The Art of Shralpinism
"One final paragraph of advice: do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am—a reluctant enthusiast….a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much; I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk-bound men and women with their hearts in a safe deposit box, and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this; You will outlive the bastards." — Edward Abbey
"You can tell how smart people are by what they laugh at." — Tina Fey
"If you spent less time bitching about your life, you’d possibly enjoy it more." — Unknown
"Just be your natural, horrid self." — 4th Doctor Doctor Who, "The Masque of Mandragora"
"Be yourself, because everyone else is taken." — Oscar Wilde
"There is no shortage of water in the desert but exactly the right amount, a perfect ratio of water to rock, of water to sand, ensuring that wide, free, open, generous spacing among plants and animals, homes and towns and cities, which makes the arid west so different from any other part of the nation. There is no lack of water here, unless you try to establish a city where no city should be." — Edward Abbey Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness
"We are animals. We, like the otter, can digest the flesh of smelt in our gut and can roll to our backs, hands clutched over our chests. We, like the smelt, come to the edge of the sea to live and we scatter when there is fear. We lick our fingers clean, sleep when we must, and dream when we sleep, like any animal. We are also animals who are taking up an incredible amount of space for our size." — Craig Childs The Animal Dialogues: Uncommon Encounters in the Wild
"I’m a spokesperson not only for myself and my people but for those that aren’t able to speak for themselves. And that’s the land, the water, the air, and the animals. They’re not able to speak for themselves or advocate." — Regina Lopez-Whiteskunk
