Words matter. These are the best Ben Fogle Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
When I reached the summit of Everest, I scooped some ice into my drinking bottle as I’d run out of water and hoped it would melt. After I got back to base camp, I decided to keep it, so I had a special bottle made with an inscription – it’s my lucky water.
I have an overactive mind and I find that doing exercise clears it.
Although I’m a city boy, I am a rural person at heart – and that comes from school. I’d lived near Marble Arch in London and it was fantastic to be surrounded by fields and trees.
In the presenting area, there’s nothing that really sets me apart from anyone else. It’s something I enjoy but I was never going to set the world on fire.
If you look at the positives, if you test yourself and challenge yourself… I describe myself as a ‘yes’ person. If you say no to too many things, you think ‘what if’.
We tend to default to complacency. Stick to the easy option. We all do it. We’ve tried to create a business model and society around us that is as easy and boxed as possible. We love creating boundaries and borders.
I like collecting things, much to my wife’s annoyance. I keep mementoes because I’m proud of all the things I’ve done, but also to remind myself, when I’m having a difficult time at home, that there are always tougher, harder things to get through in life.
It’s not a surprise that the mental health epidemic is affecting so many people because we can’t escape this bubble from being on our phones and tablets.
I have a terrible memory. I never remember names or faces. It’s incredibly embarrassing.
In many people’s minds, Everest has lost her crown. She has become a mountain synonymous with death, exploitation and pollution.
Part of the beauty of wilderness schooling is that the overheads are very low. You want a classroom? Build a shelter from nature’s store. You want to eat? Forage for it.
London really is my city; I was born within a breath of Marble Arch.
You learn so much about how far you can push yourself and what you can do. How an experience like Antarctica helps you, it boosts your confidence.
I’m acutely aware of the environment but I’m far from perfect – I love Land Rovers and fly too much.
I don’t want my children to feel the same sense of failure I did growing up because they’re not good at passing tests.
As our focus turns to the oceans and the seemingly impossible task of repairing our marine habitat, we could look at Everest as a fine example of turning back the clock.
The jungle is my least favourite environment. It’s always damp, and everything tries to bite you, whether it’s flora or fauna. But I think it’s important to face your fears and not just go for the comfortable option.
Hopepunk works. Try it and I guarantee you will feel better – and so will the people around you. It’s positively infectious.
Holidays are our one big family indulgence.
Whenever I leave home to film, my wife Marina gets terrified that I’m going to come back having bought a tiny plot of land in rural Alaska.
At 19 I left school and embarked on a 9-day bike ride with friends from London to Monte Carlo.
In some ways, I’m in danger of doing too many things to be able to appreciate and enjoy them. I look forward to thinking back to carrying the Olympic torch, or going to the Royal Wedding, when I’m in the middle of the ocean on my own far from anywhere – that’s when I’ll relive those moments.
We’re a much more touchy-feely, hands-on generation than our fathers but juggling work, family and social life and trying to be romantic and keep yourself fit is really hard. I want to be the perfect dad but you can’t be the perfect dad unless you compromise elsewhere.
The majority of the time I live out of a rucksack in some jungle or stuck up some mountain. The luxury tends to be when my wife and children are there.
I’m a naturally upbeat person. Friends sometimes compare me to a labrador puppy, and I take that as a great compliment. I love life, I love people and I’ve got loads of energy right up to the moment when I’m suddenly asleep.
I can’t even cook an egg. The only thing I can do well is baking bread. I love it and find it incredibly therapeutic.
Often, a seemingly clear clean beach has a huge amount of hidden litter.
I really, really loved Fair Isle. I’d always wanted to go there. It’s so beautiful and a very small but very international community. Every nationality that you can imagine have settled there.
My wife Marina likes salad and fish and I have reduced my meat consumption to just three times a week. It wouldn’t take much to go vegetarian and I may well make that decision soon.
I would hide behind my parents’ legs at social events, I was even shy in front of my sisters. I was a really, really ridiculously shy boy. But the one thing I took from my public school education was confidence.
After all, island living is where I began on Taransay, and I have such fond memories of it.
Hopepunk is a spirit or a mood. It isn’t an actual thing. It is a feeling. It is the Scandinavian concept of ‘hygge’ or ‘coziness’ of the mind. It is a warm, happy, charming, uplifting concept that leaves you with a fuzzy feeling in your tummy.
I got rounded up by the police in Quito as I didn’t have my passport with me. I was in prison for a night, which was pretty frightening, made more so when one of my male companions started crying.
I know some people obsess about their appearance but I don’t – it’s not something that bothers me.
On the face of it there is a pristine white sandy beach, but within an hour, around 100 of us can collect up to 250-300 kilos of rubbish. It’s mostly bits of plastic, fishing line, nylon, bottle caps. We’ve found everything.
Some people confuse confidence with arrogance. There’s no doubt in the business world there are a few big egos and I think arrogance can get in the way. But if you have the confidence to go to your higher superior and say this is wrong, it can make a difference.
I’m a bit dyslexic so I found learning to read hard. I muddled up the letters but learnt to power through.
Ivory is quickly becoming the new blood diamond of Africa and one that fuels militia battles. Some of the most notorious armed groups on the continent, including the Lord’s Resistance Army, are hunting down elephants and using the tusks to buy weapons.
Stroking my dog calms me down.
After university, I was desperate to be an ambassador. It went back to geography: I loved the idea of living in exotic and exciting countries, but still driving a Land Rover and having tea. I failed the Foreign Office exams three times.
People are being overwhelmed with social issues, political problems and economic problems – and this notion of giving everything up and going to live off-grid and to have a simpler way of life is quite attractive.
Where once Lego offered a whimsical form of escapism into the world of the subconscious, encouraging creativity and imagination, it’s transformed into a rigid ‘box ticking’ discipline where children are encouraged to build by conformity.
We experienced a miscarriage at 13 weeks and then a few years later we lost our son Willem at 30 weeks. I held him in my arms and had to organise his funeral.
Many of us will endure a lifetime following others. Institutionalisation suits many but not all. Some of us thrive beyond those boundaries.
