In mountaineering, there is not only the activity, but the philosophy behind it. Some say a moral, but I am against that because all morality is dangerous.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that mountaineering is not just a physical endeavor, but also an exploration of deeper philosophical ideas, which can sometimes conflict with conventional morality.
Reinhold Messner emphasizes that mountaineering transcends mere physical activity; it encompasses a way of thinking and understanding the world. He challenges the idea that morality should govern such pursuits, arguing that strict moral frameworks can be limiting or detrimental to the authentic experience of adventure and exploration in nature. This perspective highlights the importance of personal interpretation and the subjective nature of values in the pursuit of extreme challenges.
In practice
During a motivational speech at a mountaineering conference.
I became famous for the fact that I would break many, many limits. People said, 'He does all these crazy things.' But oddly it was a crazy thing only because scientists and climbers said, 'Everest and the 8,000-meter peaks without oxygen - impossible. Messner is becoming sick in his head.'
A 30-year-old rock climber is an old man. At 40, one is in the middle of his high-altitude power. At 50, a crosser of deserts is at his best age. But at 60, each of us is out of the game.
I think my cultural work is more important than the adventures I did. The adventures are not important for human beings. It's the conquering of the useless.
I was the first man to climb the world's 14 tallest peaks without supplementary oxygen, but I never asked how high I would go, just how I would do it.
In my state of spiritual abstraction, I no longer belong to myself and to my eyesight. I am nothing more than a single narrow gasping lung, floating over the mists and summits.
I go to the mountains for an adventure and each time I pray I will get up and down again.
Laws without morals are in vain.
In a society where the rights and potential of women are constrained, no man can be truly free. He may have power, but he will not have freedom.
Whenever you find yourself getting angry about a difference of opinion, be on your guard; you will probably find, on examination, that your belief is going beyond what the evidence warrants.
The most loathsome materialism is not the kind people usually think of, but the sort that attempts to let dead ideas pass for living realities, diverting into sterile myths the stubborn and lucid attention we give to what we have within us that must forever die.
Our knowledge of God is perfected by gratiitude: we are thankful and rejoice in the experience of the truth that He is love.
However many blessings we expect from God, His infinite liberality will always exceed all our wishes and our thoughts.
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