Shackleton Quotes

“He was not only concerned with the act of travel. He feared the effect of waiting on morale. Shackleton and his companions were, in a sense, too civilised. They were dependent on activity, almost like a drug. They had lost the understanding that nature sometimes requires nothing but the patience to wait. In these circumstances, the Eskimo would have been the wiser man. However, Shackleton had to avert the slow insidious panic that could grow when waiting generated apathy and helplessness. He also had to cope with his own temperament which, if left unchecked, would trap him into activity for its own sake.”
― Roland Huntford, Shackleton

“and perhaps tomorrow may see the end of these difficulties. Difficulties are just things to overcome after all.”44”
― Roland Huntford, Shackleton

“I do so wish sometimes, that I could just pop home for an hour or two as easily in the flesh as in the spirit. No doubt the explorers of 2015, if there is anything left to explore, will not only carry their pocket wireless telephones fitted with wireless telescopes but will also receive their nourishment & warmth by wireless … and also their power to drive their motor sledges, but, of course, there will be an aerial daily excursion to both poles then, & it will be the bottom of the Atlantic, if not the centre of the earth that will form the goal in those days.27”
― Roland Huntford, Shackleton

“The other side of that coin, which Nansen found hard to fathom, was that someone like Shackleton was only true to himself when improvising; fighting against the odds. He would wither in the face of systematic preparation, and only in a crisis did he come into his own.”
― Roland Huntford, Shackleton

“Antarctica is a desert, and fresh snowflakes falling are as rare as raindrops in the Sahara. Most blizzards simply sweep old, needle-like crystals of drift from one place to another. They are really dust storms in the cold. Shackleton”
― Roland Huntford, Shackleton

“It was the inward, not the outer world that engrossed Shackleton. He did not share the semi-pagan nature worship in which Nansen and Nordenskjöld were steeped.”
― Roland Huntford, Shackleton