I am my own home, and my handkerchief is my flag.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes self-sufficiency and personal identity. It suggests that one's inner self and personal symbols define their sense of belonging.
In this quote, Reinhold Messner expresses the idea that true home and identity come from within rather than from external sources or locations. By declaring his handkerchief as his flag, he suggests that personal symbols and meanings can represent one's unique essence, autonomy, and spirit. This reflects a broader philosophical notion of self-reliance and the importance of inner strength in shaping our identities.
In practice
During a motivational speech about finding inner strength.
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.
Democracy will prevail when men believe the vote of Judas as good as that of Jesus Christ.
Glory paid to our ashes comes too late.
Every fact in the universe will fit every other fact in the universe. A lie never did, never will fit anything but another lie made to fit it. Never, never!
We all need someone to look at us. We can be divided into four categories according to the kind of look we wish to live under . . . The fourth category, the rarest, is the category of people who live in the imaginary eyes of those who are not present. They are the dreamers.
Prejudice: Sometimes it's like a hair across your cheek. You can't see it, you can't find it with your fingers, but you keep brushing at it because the feel of it is irritating.
Let us follow the truth whither so ever it leads.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.