Alone Quotes

“A man doesn't begin to attain wisdom until he recognizes that he is no longer indispensable.”
― Richard Evelyn Byrd, Alone: The Classic Polar Adventure

“Due west, halfway to the zenith, Venus was an unblinking diamond; and opposite her, in the eastern sky, was a brilliant twinkling star set off exquisitely, as was Venus, in the sea of blue. In the northeast a silver-green serpentine aurora pulsed and quivered gently. In places the Barrier's whiteness had the appearance of dull platinum.
It was all delicate and illusive. The colors were subdued and not numerous; the jewels few; the setting simple. But the way these things went together showed a master's touch.
I paused to listen to the silence. My breath, crystallized as it passed my cheeks, drifted on a breeze gentler than a whisper. The wind vane pointed toward the South Pole. Presently the wind cups ceased their gentle turning as the cold killed the breeze. My frozen breath hung like a cloud overhead.
The day was dying, the night being born-but with great peace. Here were the imponderable processes and forces of the cosmos, harmonious and soundless. Harmony, that was it! That was what came out of the silence -a gentle rhythm, the strain of a perfect chord, the music of the spheres, perhaps.
It was enough to catch that rhythm, momentarily to be myself a part of it. In that instant I could feel no doubt of man's oneness with the universe. The conviction came that that rhythm was too orderly, too harmonious, too perfect to be a product of blind chance-that, therefore, there must be purpose in the whole and that man was part of that whole and not an accidental offshoot. It was a feeling that transcended reason; that went to the heart of man's despair and found it groundless. The universe was a cosmos, not a chaos; man was as rightfully a part of that cosmos as were the day and night.”
― Richard Evelyn Byrd, Alone: The Classic Polar Adventure

“The universe was a cosmos, not a chaos; man was as rightfully a part of that cosmos as were the day and night.”
― Richard E. Byrd, Alone: The Classic Polar Adventure

“At times I felt as if I were the last survivor of an Ice Age, striving to hold on with the flimsy tools bequeathed by an easy-going, temperate world. Cold does queer things. At 500 below zero a flashlight dies out in your hand. At - 550 kerosene will freeze, and the flame will dry up on the
wick. At - 60° rubber turns brittle. One day, I remember, the antenna wire snapped in my hands when I tried to bend it to make a new connection. Below - 60° cold will find the last microscopic touch of oil in an instrument and stop it dead. If there is the slightest breeze, you can hear your breath freeze as it floats away, making a sound like that of Chinese firecrackers. As does the morning dew, rime coats every exposed object. And if you work too hard and breathe too deeply, your lungs will sometimes feel as if they were on fire.”
― Richard Evelyn Byrd, Alone: The Classic Polar Adventure

“If the time was not sufficient, well and good; let the job be resumed another day.”
― Richard E. Byrd, Alone: The Classic Polar Adventure

“If the time was not sufficient, well and good; let the job be resumed another dat.”
― Richard E. Byrd, Alone: The Classic Polar Adventure

“He who may have failed back there has his chance to make good here; and he will not be judged by the position he holds so
much as by the way he plays the game and does his job, however humble it may be....”
― Richard Evelyn Byrd, Alone: The Classic Polar Adventure

“He who may have failed back there has his chance to make good here;”
― Richard Evelyn Byrd, Alone: The Classic Polar Adventure

“Next morning, when I got up, the inside temperature was 30° below zero. The new arrangement was working quite nicely indeed.”
― Richard Evelyn Byrd, Alone: The Classic Polar Adventure

“The senses were isolated in soundless dark; so, for that matter, was the mind; but one was stayed, while the other possessed the flight of a falcon; and the free choice and opportunity of the one everlastingly emphasized the poverty of the other. From the depth of my being would sometimes surge a fierce desire to be projected spectacularly
into the living warmths and movements the mind revisited. Usually the desire had no special focus. It sought no single thing. Rather it darted and wavered over a panorama of human aspects-my family at dinner time, the sound of voices in a downstairs room, the cool feeling of rain.”
― Richard Evelyn Byrd, Alone: The Classic Polar Adventure

“Next morning, when I got up, the inside temperature was 300 below zero. The new arrangement was working quite nicely indeed.”
― Richard Evelyn Byrd, Alone: The Classic Polar Adventure