I can remember when I first went into the Himalayan area way back in 1951. Money, for instance, was not important at all to the local people. But now, finance has become just as important to them as it is to us, and this is a change maybe not for the better.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the shift in values of a community, emphasizing the negative impact of commercialization.
Edmund Hillary's quote highlights the transformation of local communities in the Himalayan region, noting that in the past, money held little importance to them. However, with the influence of modernity and external values, finance has become a crucial factor, suggesting that such a change may not necessarily be beneficial for the community's well-being and traditional values.
In practice
This quote could be used in a discussion about the impact of globalization on indigenous cultures.
I think I mainly climb mountains because I get a great deal of enjoyment out of it. I never attempt to analyze these things too thoroughly, but I think that all mountaineers do get a great deal of satisfaction out of overcoming some challenge which they think is very difficult for them, or which perhaps may be a little dangerous.
Despite all I have seen and experiences, I still get the same thrill out of glimpsing a tiny patch of snow in a high mountain gully and feel the same urge to climb toward it.
I've always hated the danger part of climbing, and it's great to come down again because it's safe.
Even when you're 50, you can make the effort to improve your standards.
Many people have been getting too casual about climbing Everest. I forecast a disaster many times.
I am a lucky man. I have had a dream and it has come true, and that is not a thing that happens often to men.
One white man on the platform in South Carolina asked us where we were going--we had got off the train to get some fresh air and to dust the grit and dust out of our clothes. When we said Africa he looked offended and tickled too. Niggers going to Africa, he said to his wife. Now I have seen everything.
Perhaps it's true that things can change in a day. That a few dozen hours can affect the outcome of whole lifetimes. And that when they do, those few dozen hours, like the salvaged remains of a burned house---the charred clock, the singed photograph, the scorched furniture---must be resurrected from the ruins and examined. Preserved. Accounted for. Little events, ordinary things, smashed and reconstitutred. Imbued with new meaning. Suddenly they become the bleached bones of a story.
Remember that the revolution is what is important, and each one of us, alone, is worth nothing.
What is the most rigorous law of our being? Growth. No smallest atom of our moral, mental, or physical structure can stand still a year. It grows - it must grow; nothing can prevent it.
How do you move on? You move on when your heart finally understands that there is no turning back.
Economic, social, and other kinds of regional cooperation are not possible so long as there is apartheid. Therefore, it seems the duty of all mankind to destroy it.
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