Climbing is not a competition, and you cannot talk in terms of 'greatest,' it means nothing.
Interpretation
Climbing should be seen as a personal journey rather than a competition with others.
Reinhold Messner emphasizes that the act of climbing should not be measured against others or compared to notions of who is the 'greatest.' Instead, it is a deeply personal experience that focuses on individual growth, challenges, and the connection with the mountains rather than the accolades or rankings one might achieve in a competitive context.
In practice
Use this quote in a motivational speech to inspire climbers to focus on their personal growth.
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.
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.
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.
The life of our city is rich in poetic and marvelous subjects. We are enveloped and steeped as though in an atmosphere of the marvelous; but we do not notice it.
It appears to be in the nature of religion itself to be prejudiced against those who are different.
To make someone an icon is to make him an abstraction, and abstractions are incapable of vital communication with living people.
Esteem must be founded on preference: to hold everyone in high esteem is to esteem nothing.
Yes, thou art ever present, power divine; not circumscribed by time, nor fixed by space, confined to altars, nor to temples bound. In wealth, in want, in freedom, or in chains, in dungeons or on thrones, the faithful find thee.
A free, virtuous, and enlightened people must know full well the great principles and causes upon which their happiness depends.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.