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.
Interpretation
The essence of cultural work outweighs personal adventures as it contributes more profoundly to humanity.
Reinhold Messner emphasizes the significance of cultural contributions over personal adventures, suggesting that the work one does to enrich culture and society is of greater value than individual experiences. He posits that true achievement lies in overcoming trivial pursuits and fostering meaningful development that benefits humanity as a whole.
In practice
In a discussion about priorities in life, one might quote Messner to stress the importance of contributing to society over personal gains.
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.
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.
I go to the mountains for an adventure and each time I pray I will get up and down again.
A man is as much affected pleasurably or painfully by the image of a thing past or future as by the image of a thing present.
The release of atomic power has changed everything except our way of thinking ... the solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind. If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker. (1945)
Status anxiety definitely exists at a political level. Many Iraqis were annoyed with the US essentially for reasons of status: for not showing them respect, for humiliating them.
Can you nominate in order now the degrees of the lie? I will name you the degrees. The first, the Retort Courteous; the second, the Quip Modest; the third, the Reply Churlish; the fourth, the Reproof Valiant; the fifth; the Countercheck Quarrelsome; the sixth, the Lie with Circumstance; the seventh, the Lie Direct. All these you may avoid but the Lie Direct; and you may avoid that too, with an If. . . . Your If is the only peace-maker; much virtue in If.
Whenever I'm in trouble, I pray. And because I'm in trouble all of the time, I pray almost constantly.
Whenever power is used for evil, it becomes diabolical; it must be used for good only.
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