Quotes and passages

"These mountains that you are carrying, you were only supposed to climb." — Najwa Zebian

"'Asking for help isn’t giving up,' said the horse. 'It’s refusing to give up.'" — Charlie Mackesy The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse

"Life isn’t a cognitive exercise. It’s an action sport. Understanding isn’t enough. You have to go out and do the damn thing." — Psychedelic therapist Lauren Taus via Cory Richards The Color of Everything: A Journey to Quiet the Chaos Within

"Hard as it might be to accept, trying to fix someone is deeply narcissistic behavior." — Cory Richards The Color of Everything: A Journey to Quiet the Chaos Within

"Breathing is the first thing we are given and the last thing that’s going to leave." — Cory Richards The Color of Everything: A Journey to Quiet the Chaos Within

"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

"It’s strange how we miss things the most just as they’re about to end." — Katie Arnold Brief Flashings in the Phenomenal World

"[ironically] Do what you love, but stay on the assembly line. There’s no time to find what you love, you should be building your credit score. Take risks, but don’t be foolish. Believe in yourself, but only if you’ve proven you should...Don’t embarrass yourself. Don’t waste time at a job you hate, but magically manifest money to leave that job and chase a dream. Got it? Perfect." — Jedidiah Jenkins To Shake the Sleeping Self: A Journey from Oregon to Patagonia, and a Quest for a Life with No Regret

"I am and always will be the optimist. The hoper of far-flung hopes and the dreamer of improbable dreams." — 11th Doctor Doctor Who, "The Almost People"

"One good solid hope's worth a cart-load of certainties." — 4th Doctor Doctor Who, "Warrior's Gate"

"All I can say is to never, ever stop believing that things are possible. It may be cliché, but don’t be afraid to dream. Someone once said that luck is simply preparedness meets opportunity. Be prepared. And dream away." — Rebecca Nimerfroh Stay Wild Magazine, Winter 2016, "Slurpee Waves"

"We’re all stories, in the end… just make it a good one, eh?" — 11th Doctor Doctor Who, "The Big Bang"

"Dreams have a funny way of becoming reality when you put yourself in the position for them to happen." — Katie Lambert Alpinist Magazine, Issue 66, "Magic Line"

"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." — Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Airman's Odyssey

"If you set out with purpose to do something amazing, you invariably find that circumstance will lend a hand." — Andy Kirkpatrick Kirkpatrick's Climbing Notes, "Hard Things Easy"

"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

"To the oldest part of our brain, the experience of climbing is interpreted as an act of survival and survival is stressful work...We fight with our conscious and subconscious minds alike and the whole game is learning to manage the stress response and ultimately work in tandem with our brain and body in pursuit of a goal. In that way, it becomes an act of mindfulness because in order to survive, we’re forced to distill order from chaos and focus on the now. The discomfort of it all is offset by the highs that come with it. It’s beautiful and breathtaking and life-affirming in a way that few other sports can ever be." — Cory Richards The Color of Everything: A Journey to Quiet the Chaos Within

"I secure a short length of rope in a coil over my neck and look up the slope until the light fades into a black question mark." — Cory Richards The Color of Everything: A Journey to Quiet the Chaos Within