"[Age] is in your head. It’s whatever you believe. You know, my parents were old when they were in their 40s; that’s the way they thought. The way they acted. It was their assumptions about life. I’m not like that; I think you can talk yourself into anything. Age is just a number, as long as your body is willing. Age is meaningless." — Dierdre Wolownick (Alex Honnold's mom) Adventure Journal
"The trick is to die young as late as possible." — Wolf Bauer via Lowell Skoog Written in the Snows
"But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough, can you see the stars." — Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
"The journey you travel on your feet is less important than the distance you cover in your head." — Mishka Shubaly
"If you cultivate your ability to create Adventure, wherever you are, you will feel alive." — Paul Ramer Backcountry Magazine, Issue 2, "Where's the Adventure?"
"The pilgrim contents herself always with looking along and inwards to mystery, where the mountaineer longs to look down and outwards onto total knowledge." — Nan Shepherd The Living Mountain
"To pit oneself against the mountain is necessary for every climber: to pit oneself merely against other players, and make a race of it, is to reduce to the level of a game what is essentially an experience… the mere setting up of a record is of very minor importance. What he values is a task that, demanding of him all he has and is, absorbs and so releases him entirely." — Nan Shepherd The Living Mountain
"Through my twenties I was potting little plants all over. Some I was watering more than others; some I was harvesting from more than others. But by my thirties I could see which plants were still alive and flourishing." — Unknown heard on a podcast
"This present moment / that lives on / to become / long ago." — Gary Snyder This Present Moment, “Go Now”
"...how quickly our moment together had already become a memory." — James Campbell Braving It: A Father, a Daughter, and an Unforgettable Journey into the Alaskan Wild
"The journey is the reward...Embracing the journey, focusing on things in my control, accepting what I have no control over, acknowledging missteps, doing the best with the hand I am dealt, and focusing on the process not the end result—this is the essential mindset." — Jeremy Jones The Art of Shralpinism
"There's usually a great outcome if you train your mind to look for one." — Jeremy Jones The Art of Shralpinism
"What surprises me most is 'Man,' because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices his money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he doesn't enjoy the present; the result being he doesn't live in the present or the future; he lives as if he's never going to die, and then he dies having never really lived." — The Dalai Lama
"Never let your memories be bigger than your dreams" — Unknown
"[Art] is getting on the other side of your brain and letting it take you for a ride." — Jeremy Jones The Art of Shralpinism
"I couldn't reach this moment any sooner than now, because I've needed all my knowledge and experience to be standing here." — Jeremy Jones The Art of Shralpinism
"...each footstep isn't just a means to an end but a unique event in itself...To live only for some future goal is shallow. It's the sides of the mountain which sustain life, not the top." — Robert M. Pirsig Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
"We are mirrors reflecting onto each other. The people we surround ourselves with shape us, and we shape those around us, too." — Brad Stulberg Outside Online, "Good Vibes Are Contagious"
"I am alone like an arrow in flight, but I remember the bow and the strong arm that pulled it." — Jim Reynolds
