My Life at the Limit Quotes

“By going to places where I do not belong, I experience the art of living - orientation through disorientation. All the deserts of the world lie within us, after all.”
― Reinhold Messner, My Life at the Limit

“I'm primarily concerned with what happens inside a person when they encounter the mountains. When you climb a mountain, you come back down as a different person. We don't change the mountain by climbing it; we ourselves change.”
― Reinhold Messner, My Life at the Limit

“I came to realize that my path to knowledge would not lead me to libraries, professors, universities, and studies. My path to knowledge was through living life and experiencing reality. I could learn plenty secondhand, but nothing was ever to surpass the experiences I had in the wilderness. All my knowledge of social, scentific, and religious issues has been acquired through personal experience.”
― Reinhold Messner, My Life at the Limit

“Ние никога не бихме говорили за морал. Защото ние всички знаем, че моралът е чисто гражданско понятие. Когато висиш там горе, далеч от всякаква надежда да бъдеш спасен, би ли носил другия, би ли го дърпал, би ли му крещял, за да го спасиш? Ако имаш две глътки вода, ще дадеш ли на партньора си половината, или цялата бутилка, т.е. и двете глътки, ако в противен случай той ще умре? За това изобщо не се говори. Това е естествено като живота. И ако след това някой дойде и каже, че трябва да се раздели водата, ние бихме отвърнали: "Какъв брътвеж". Там навън, извън света на хората, всичко е така естествено, от само себе си, и ние не говорим за това. Когато след това дойдат мърморковците - "Този или онзи изоставил някого" - това са само глупости. Или важничене. Това морализаторстване е толкова фалшиво и заблуждаващо! Ако загубя другия, аз съм загубил всичко. Защото този човек е моята опора, моята единствена помощ в края на краищата. За да осигури следващия пасаж или за да ми помогне да преживея и тази нощ. Дори за да споделиш страха, са ти необходими този човек или останалите. Това е едно цяло, това не е един и още един, а една общност. Хората на въжето. Свръзката като общност, която е неделима. Това не е само чувството за принадлежност, то е безусловната общност.”
― Райнхолд Меснер, Моят живот на ръба. Автобиография в беседи с Томас Хютлин

“H. ¿Es importante para usted la amistad?
M. Sí, mucho.
H. ¿Cuántos amigos tiene?
M. Pocos, y estoy orgulloso de que sean pocos.”
― Reinhold Messner, Reinhold Messner: My Life At The Limit

“When I was leaving the auditorium at the end of one of my lectures, someone shouted out, "You've been lucky!" That's right, I thought, I've had more luck than any man deserves.”
― Reinhold Messner, My Life at the Limit

“I don't think psychoanalysis is nonsense necessarily; I just don't see the point of it. An analyst can find out where the problem lie, but a witch from the jungle can do that as well. If I'm not allowed to live my own life, no psychologist is ever going to be able to help me. The real problem is that most people don't live their lives, they just get by somehow.”
― Reinhold Messner, My Life at the Limit

“What gives me strength is the feeling of being independent. In effect, I'm really just a dilettante. I've lived, explored, and worked - but only in nonjobs. I've often achieved success against all the predictions. And I've done it by following a very simple pattern of behavior: stick at it and do everything in my power to make it happen.”
― Reinhold Messner, My Life at the Limit

“When I am identifying an objective, the summit is everything. I wouldn't make it up otherwise. I'm not a superman; I'm just mentally capable of concentrating on the end point.

Once this has been achieved, I need a new task, a new idea, a new project. I've been lucky so far - I've always been able to get myself motivated for the next new thing. The challenges I set myself are age-related.”
― Reinhold Messner, My Life at the Limit

“I believe that, in Europe at least, we have made the mistake - politically speaking - of taking too much responsibility away from people. Citizens who once took responsibility for themselves have become dependents, demanding more of everything - subsidies, incomes, pensions. When the responsibility is taken away from them, people's aspirations dwindle, until finally we reach a state of zero growth and begin to descend into social chaos, a state of limbo. Welfare democracy is a dead-end street. What I always wanted was maximum responsibility for my own life. I've always had high expectations of myself. Others call it ambition.”
― Reinhold Messner, My Life at the Limit

“I would rather be ostracized than assimilated! I read recently that my greatest accomplishment was my unerring ability to make myself unpopular.”
― Reinhold Messner, My Life at the Limit

“To insist that the world has to be a certain way is dangerous idealism. You can't force your ideals on the world; you can only work toward them.”
― Reinhold Messner, My Life at the Limit

“Perhaps the true purpose of life is simply to express ourselves as best we can. Maybe my ability to keep finding new challenges appropriate to my age is part of the happiness, the thing that keeps me young, creative, and full of life. The setbacks and the opposition I've encountered are all part of my happiness. I have grown as a result and am still able to lead a self-determined life.”
― Reinhold Messner, My Life at the Limit

“My feeling of satisfaction, my happiness if you like, is not dependent on applause or accolades of any kind but on the fact that I was able to do what I wanted to do - and to see it through.”
― Reinhold Messner, My Life at the Limit

“For me, "success" is not measured at the end of life. A successful life is what you have when you are doing things. There are moments when I overcome difficulties, and that's when I feel strong and fulfilled. My success, my life, was nothing more than turning ideas into reality.”
― Reinhold Messner, My Life at the Limit

“Through my failures I have learned how to live - and the more I failed, the more I learned. In my search for the limits, I have failed more than most, and it is this that has made me successful, over and over again.”
― Reinhold Messner, My Life at the Limit

“Friendship requires trust, empathy, and acceptance. I don't want to feel that I have to wear a disguise in front of my friends; otherwise, the friendship is worth nothing. Friendship means being accepted by a person for the way you are, and vice versa.”
― Reinhold Messner, My Life at the Limit

“The passion I have for what could be viewed as a futile pursuit has made me strong, and it is this that gives me the confidence required to lead a self-determined life.”
― Reinhold Messner, My Life at the Limit

“Owning things is boring - obligations and responsibilities. It interest me less than creating things. Right now, I'd be prepared to give everything I own to my children and start again from scratch.”
― Reinhold Messner, My Life at the Limit

“I've always gone on the stage and told my stories. I am adventurer and a bard; I come home and I tell my story. Above all, I am a self-made man.”
― Reinhold Messner, My Life at the Limit

“I'm not going to pretend to be something I'm not - to smile sweetly all the time - just to get recognition and love. I won't play the whore for anyone, least of all for journalists. I can't do that. I want to be loved, yes, but the way I am and not the way people would like me to be. I have to be allowed to be myself.”
― Reinhold Messner, My Life at the Limit

“I could claim that all my projects are altruistic, but I don't do that. All I'm saying is this: is it really a sacrilege to do the best you can, to express yourself, to do what I do?”
― Reinhold Messner, My Life at the Limit

“Having everythin is boring; I'm convinced of that. Once you have something - knowledge, skills, possessions - or have achieved something - climbing Mount Everest, for example - it becomes banal.”
― Reinhold Messner, My Life at the Limit

“How often on an expedition have I told myself, "That's enough!" and then a few weeks later when the effort, worry, and hardship were forgotten, I began dreaming about a new journey, planning a new climb. Pretty soon I'd be off again. And once again, it would be dangerous.

I never intended to risk my neck, but I knew that if I were ever to stop dreaming or traveling I would be old. And that would drive me to despair.”
― Reinhold Messner, My Life at the Limit

“I never set out to make myself unpopular; I just say what I think, so I sometimes rub people up the wrong way, particularly people who parade their ideals before them like a banner and use them to hide behind.

And I will keep on saying what I think. I am not prepared to abandon my self-determined existence for an ideology or an ideal.”
― Reinhold Messner, My Life at the Limit

“The higher I climb, the deeper I understand my fears; the bigger the mountain, the clearer the view I have of my own existence.”
― Reinhold Messner, My Life at the Limit

“I want to be liked for what I do, not for what I pretend to be. I try - maybe too forcefully at times - to have the courage of my convictions and to stand my ground when necessary.”
― Reinhold Messner, My Life at the Limit

“I define myself as a seminomad, so my world consist of transient places, where being at home is not possible.”
― Reinhold Messner, My Life at the Limit