Top 35 Edmund Hillary Quotes

I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about dying, but I like to think that I’ve – if it did occur – that I would die peacefully and not make too much of a fuss about it.

While on top of Everest, I looked across the valley towards the great peak Makalu and mentally worked out a route about how it could be climbed. It showed me that even though I was standing on top of the world, it wasn’t the end of everything. I was still looking beyond to other interesting challenges.

My most important projects have been the building and maintaining of schools and medical clinics for my dear friends in the Himalaya and helping restore their beautiful monasteries, too.

When I was climbing, I built up a close relationship with the Sherpa people.

When I was 50 years old, I actually decided to draw up a list of half a dozen things that I really hadn’t done very well, and I was going to make efforts to improve. One of them was skiing, and I really did become a very much better skier.

I was extremely lucky that I had two great wives. It sounds a bit funny to say that, but it’s absolutely true.

Becoming a ‘Sir’ is slightly uncomfortable at first, although it is a considerable honor. It is amazing how quickly you become accustomed to it.

I was definitely very much a country boy.

I have enjoyed great satisfaction from my climb of Everest and my trips to the poles. But there’s no doubt that my most worthwhile things have been the building of schools and medical clinics.

My relationship with the mountains actually started when I was 16. Every year, a group used to be taken from Auckland Grammar down to the Tangariro National Park for a skiing holiday.

Human life is far more important than just getting to the top of a mountain.

Once I’ve decided to do something, I do usually try to carry it through to fruition.

Take advantage of the years of pioneering efforts. You might find this boring, as the young want to rush head on, as it were.

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.

Good planning is important. I’ve also regarded a sense of humor as one of the most important things on a big expedition. When you’re in a difficult or dangerous situation, or when you’re depressed about the chances of success, someone who can make you laugh eases the tension.

Many people have been getting too casual about climbing Everest. I forecast a disaster many times.

I have never regarded myself as a hero, but Tenzing undoubtedly was.

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.

On the summit of Everest, I had a feeling of great satisfaction to be first there.

No one remembers who climbed Mount Everest the second time.

I think my first thought on reaching the summit- of course, I was very, very pleased to be there, naturally – but my first thought was one of a little bit of surprise. I was a little bit surprised that here I was, Ed Hillary, on top of Mt. Everest. After all, this is the ambition of most mountaineers.

My mother was a schoolteacher and very keen that I go to a city school, so although it was fairly impoverished times, I traveled every day to the Auckland Grammar School.

It’s not a real adventure when you have to pay for it.

I hate being called an ‘icon.’ I just don’t like it. That’s all there is to it.

I really haven’t liked the commercialization of mountaineering, particularly of Mt. Everest. By paying $65,000, you can be conducted to the summit by a couple of good guides.

The truth is, I’m just a rough old New Zealander who has enjoyed many challenges in his life.

There is precious little in civilization to appeal to a Yeti.

I like to think of Everest as a great mountaineering challenge, and when you’ve got people just streaming up the mountain – well, many of them are just climbing it to get their name in the paper, really.

It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.

People do not decide to become extraordinary. They decide to accomplish extraordinary things.

I think the really good mountaineer is the man with the technical ability of the professional and with the enthusiasm and freshness of approach of the amateur.

Even when you’re 50, you can make the effort to improve your standards.

I enjoyed climbing with other people, good friends, but I did quite a lot of solo climbing, too.

I’ve always hated the danger part of climbing, and it’s great to come down again because it’s safe.

I realised a little bit to my astonishment that I can give a lecture for a thousand people, and there will be this tumultuous applause, so, you know, I have the feeling well, it can’t be all that bad.