"It used to be, on many days, that I could close my eyes and sense myself being perfectly happy. It’s a worthy thing to ponder, but maybe being perfectly happy is not really the point. Maybe that is only some modern American dream of the point, while the truer measure of humanity is the distance we must travel in our lives, time and again, 'twixt two extremes of passion—joy and grief,' as Shakespeare put it. However much I’ve lost, what remains to me is that I can still speak to name the things I love." — Barbara Kingsolver Small Wonders
"Worrying that you are crap is a waste of time. Worrying that you can’t do it is a waste of time. Worrying that you failed is a waste of time. No one cares. Just get on with it." — Peter Capaldi
"The universe has to move forward. Pain and loss, they define us as much as happiness or love. Whether it's a world, or a relationship... Everything has its time. And everything ends." — Sarah Jane Smith Doctor Who, "School Reunion"
"Courage isn’t a matter of not being frightened, you know. It’s being afraid and doing what you have to do anyway." — 3rd Doctor Doctor Who, "Planet of the Daleks"
"We are all existing on thin ice, not only in the mountains. Each loss evokes the often-invisible voids beneath our feet. Each threshold moment can seem to open a multitude of branching, alternative timelines, like the patterns of frost on a window, curling into infinite fractal forms, tracing phantom narratives of falls untaken, ice unbroken, illnesses uncaught, decisions unmade." — Katie Ives Alpinist Magazine, Issue 77, "Of Thin Ice"
"You are refined, not defined, by defeat." — Aaron Eveland
"Whenever you fall, pick up something." — Oswald Theodore Avery
"'We can’t restore the river because it would require taking out the dam, but we can understand how the dam impacts ecosystems, then try to understand how to best manage it,' [Anya] says. 'You can’t always manage for restoration, but you can try to manage for a healthy ecosystem.' Healthy is a tricky, subjective goal. Jack believes that for the future of healthy rivers, and to hold onto some modicum of pristineness, we should try to keep the Green as wild as we can. The dams have broken the rivers, that’s inarguable, but they’re there. So now, he says, it’s important to try to manage the rivers in as natural a way as possible and to gather as much data as possible to try to figure out what natural looks like. It’s a combination of looking realistically at the ecosystem and working smartly within the bounds of what we need to exist." — Heather Hansman Downriver: Into the Future of Water in the West
"I’d had this idea that I could push myself physically through anything if I was tough and smart and rugged, and that the push would show me something about myself and my place on the river. That being able to do things alone was a sign of strength, not fear. I’d thought I could conquer the landscape and fully understand the problem of water use. But none of that is true. The tough part is connection, looking across lines and knowing when to push the lever on what you think is right." — Heather Hansman Downriver: Into the Future of Water in the West
"Keep close to Nature’s heart, yourself; and break clear away, once in a while, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean." — John Muir via Samuel Hall Young Alaska Days With John Muir
"I’m increasingly interested in making myself a sheet of paper, in forfeiting my privileged status as author and allowing stacked stones, mud mortar, surrounding geology, encompassing weather...to do the writing." — Leath Tonino Adventure Journal, "The Wild and the Old Places Do Not Need You"
"So we are left with a stark choice: allow climate disruption to change everything about our world, or change pretty much everything about our economy to avoid that fate." — Naomi Klein This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate
"All that the sun shines on is beautiful, so long as it is wild." — John Muir "The Scenery of California"
"Rational (or conscious) thought always lags behind the emotional reaction." — Laurence Gonzales Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why
"Fear puts me in my place. It gives me the humility to see things as they are." — Laurence Gonzales Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why
"In a true survival situation, you are by definition looking death in the face, and if you can’t find something droll and even something wondrous and inspiring in it, you are already in a world of hurt." — Laurence Gonzales Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why
"The first rule is: Face reality. Good survivors aren’t immune to fear. They know what’s happening, and it does 'scare the living shit out of' them. It’s all a question of what you do next." — Laurence Gonzales Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why
"We realize that every day is a gift. To become who we are and share what we do is a gift. To help one another is a gift." — Lonnie Kauk Alpinist Magazine, Issue 66, "Magic Line"
"The more intensely we want something, the more reasons we will likely find that make it okay." — Jill Fredston Snowstruck: In the Grip of Avalanches
"Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit, and as vital to our lives as water and good bread. A civilization which destroys what little remains of the wild, the spare, the original, is cutting itself off from its origins and betraying the principle of civilization itself." — Edward Abbey Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness
