It is a truism to say that the dog is largely what his master makes of him: he can be savage and dangerous, untrustworthy, cringing and fearful; or he can be faithful and loyal, courageous and the best of companions and allies.
Ranulph FiennesRead
As a rule, anything that is pretty you avoid when on an expedition in the polar extremes. Normally anything other than white means a hazard such as a crevasse.
Interpretation
What this quote means
In extreme environments, beauty can often signal danger.
Ranulph Fiennes warns that in harsh conditions like polar expeditions, visual cues can be misleading; beauty, often associated with safety, can instead indicate peril. The quote underscores the importance of caution and vigilance in understanding one's environment, particularly in life-threatening situations where appearances can be deceptive.
Themes
ExpeditionDangerBeautyHazardPolar
In practice
Example use cases
During a presentation on the risks of mountaineering, this quote can emphasize safety versus beauty.
More from Ranulph Fiennes
All quotes βThere's no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing
Ranulph FiennesRead
Similar quotes
The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.
Christopher MccandlessRead
The future of Yosemite climbing lies not in Yosemite, but in using the new techniques in the great granite ranges of the world.
Yvon ChouinardRead
For me, climbing has always been about adventure and that involves difficulties, danger and exposure, so I deliberately set out to climb with as little equipment as possible.
Reinhold MessnerRead
Am going to cross Pacific on a wooden raft to support a theory that the South Sea islands were peopled from Peru. Will you come? I guarantee nothing but a free trip to Peru and the South Sea islands and back, but you will find good use for your technical abilities on the voyage. Reply at once.' Next day the following telegram arrived from Torstein: COMING. TORSTEIN.
Thor HeyerdahlRead
I have lifted my plane . . . for perhaps a thousand flights and I have never felt her wheels glide from the Earth into the air without knowing the uncertainty and the exhilaration of first-born adventure.
Beryl MarkhamRead
Ninety per cent of the tourists climbing big mountains are on 10 mountains - and one million mountains in the world are empty.
Reinhold MessnerRead