The Mountains of My Life Quotes

“No, mi dicevo, non può essere bello un mondo dove le paure e gli entusiasmi spaventano i più, tesi come sono al risparmio di sé e dei propri sentimenti.”
― Walter Bonatti, The Mountains of My Life

“In my opinion, specialization is sterile and limiting from a human point of view. We cannot be other than universal in our interests and aspirations.”
― Walter Bonatti, The Mountains of My Life

“Nor can adventure survive if we alter or destroy uncertainty, risk, courage, exaltation, solitude, and isolation. We must preserve the sense of exploration and discovery, of the impossible, of improvisation, of putting ourselves to the test using our own resources. Nowadays, all of these are either repressed or abolished from our day-to-day lives. Adventure involves our whole being: it draws out all that is best and most human in us. When the cards have not been stacked to win at any cost, the game still exists and so do surprise, fantasy, enthusiasm for victory, and anxiety about defeat. This is the essence of adventure”
― Walter Bonatti, The Mountains of My Life

“An adventurer is by his very nature a man of ideals more than of facts and, as such, should not compromise his integrity by selling himself and becoming no more than a purveyor of publicity.”
― Walter Bonatti, The Mountains of My Life