The Push Quotes

“If you don't own your grunt work, can you really say you've done the climb?”
― Tommy Caldwell, The Push: A Climber's Journey of Endurance, Risk, and Going Beyond Limits

“Dad always taught me that it’s not what happens to you, it’s how you deal with it.”
― Tommy Caldwell, The Push: A Climber's Search for the Path

“A great adventure without success is far superior to a climb where everything goes as planned.”
― Tommy Caldwell, The Push: A Climber's Search for the Path

“Life is all about risk and reward. Better to have struggled, to have tried, than to not have seized an opportunity at all.”
― Tommy Caldwell, The Push: A Climber's Search for the Path

“I've always loved the idea that passion breeds success. I now realize, much to my chagrin, that telling someone who doesn't feel the fire to simply follow his passion is a little like telling someone who doesn't have any legs to run to the fridge and get you a sandwich.”
― Tommy Caldwell, The Push: A Climber's Journey of Endurance, Risk, and Going Beyond Limits

“I believe human relationships can and should follow the mind-set of adventure, defined not by climbing but by its greater meaning: embracing the unknown. In remaining open to others, you gain knowledge, and your perspective of life and of the world expands.”
― Tommy Caldwell, The Push: A Climber's Search for the Path

“I don’t fear death. It’s how I have always been. I fear losing the people I love, but death itself, my own death, leaves a blank spot in my mind.”
― Tommy Caldwell, The Push: A Climber's Journey of Endurance, Risk, and Going Beyond Limits

“All I can say is that I’m grateful that in many ways they just let me be. They didn’t want my rough start to cast a shadow on my childhood. From my earliest days they allowed me the kind of independence that many of my peers didn’t have—whether it was my period of digging, or the times in early elementary school when I went solo camping in the mountains several miles above our home. In solitude, I felt more deeply immersed in my surroundings. It felt natural.”
― Tommy Caldwell, The Push: A Climber's Journey of Endurance, Risk and Going Beyond Limits to Climb the Dawn Wall

“I feel a hint of pity for those who don’t get to experience the crisp air and excitement of mountain climbing. Are they ever really awake?”
― Tommy Caldwell, The Push: A Climber's Search for the Path

“How do we build grit in our children? For my dad and me, it was a combination of bribery and exposure to minor traumatic experiences.”
― Tommy Caldwell, The Push: A Climber's Search for the Path

“The West Ridge, provided me with endless inspiration. “Maybe we can view risk like we would a drug, beneficial to the organism in the proper dose,” he once wrote. “Too much or too little may be harmful.”
― Tommy Caldwell, The Push: A Climber's Search for the Path

“Embrace the unknown. Push through the difficult moments, work with them.”
― Tommy Caldwell, The Push: A Climber's Search for the Path

“Through the struggle and bone-pulsing exhaustion a profound clarity had emerged, as if I had tapped into a place inside too often forgotten, where you are stripped bare and granted a glimpse into who you truly are. A place where you could look at the impossible and make it real. I’d never been so alive.”
― Tommy Caldwell, The Push: A Climber's Search for the Path

“Maybe we can view risk like we would a drug, beneficial to the organism in the proper dose,” he once wrote. “Too much or too little may be harmful.”
― Tommy Caldwell, The Push: A Climber's Search for the Path

“For those of you peeking over the fence at Christianity, you don’t clean yourself up before you get in the shower. You jump right in.”
― Tommy Caldwell, The Push: A Climber's Journey of Endurance, Risk, and Going Beyond Limits

“Pain is growth.”
― Tommy Caldwell, The Push: A Climber's Journey of Endurance, Risk, and Going Beyond Limits

“The rhythm of moving through the mountains has a way of wearing away the rough edges of the ego.”
― Tommy Caldwell, The Push: A Climber's Journey of Endurance, Risk, and Going Beyond Limits

“Strategy is as important as ability”
― Tommy Caldwell, The Push: A Climber's Journey of Endurance, Risk, and Going Beyond Limits

“She encouraged him in her sweetest voice. “Stick with it, you can do it. You got it, push hard.”
― Tommy Caldwell, The Push: A Climber's Journey of Endurance, Risk, and Going Beyond Limits

“Our relationship as being like a climb, the way we would navigate challenges as they arose, both those expected and those unforeseen, through times easy and hard, remaining independent and connected as we strove together toward the highest expression of our selves.”
― Tommy Caldwell, The Push: A Climber's Journey of Endurance, Risk, and Going Beyond Limits

“I found myself thinking more deeply about my own motivations and intentions. I had now been working on the Dawn Wall for parts of three years. It had become my touchstone, my opportunity for self-expression. The way it started—alone—empowered me in my quest for independence.”
― Tommy Caldwell, The Push: A Climber's Journey of Endurance, Risk, and Going Beyond Limits

“I was drawn to Becca’s independence. She cherished her time alone and supported my desire to go on climbing trips. That absence of pressure led to a feeling of freedom.”
― Tommy Caldwell, The Push: A Climber's Journey of Endurance, Risk and Going Beyond Limits to Climb the Dawn Wall

“Dad’s parents wanted their kids to be strong and independent. My dad told me stories of the kayak he built for himself and the adventures he had with it. His parents encouraged his curiosity.”
― Tommy Caldwell, The Push: A Climber's Journey of Endurance, Risk and Going Beyond Limits to Climb the Dawn Wall

“I always thought my deepest fulfillment came from the mountains, and that’s why climbing has been my art. But as I wrote this book I was surprised to find that the act of creating, even behind the keyboard or when speaking to an audience, feels deeply rewarding. Maybe all along the appeal had lain in the satisfaction of giving fully of myself.”
― Tommy Caldwell, The Push: A Climber's Journey of Endurance, Risk and Going Beyond Limits to Climb the Dawn Wall

“許多人對攀岩有所誤解，重點不在於擁有一身肌肉。更重要的其實是手指的力量、核心張力、平衡感、心智控制與技巧”
― 湯米‧考德威爾, 垂直九十度的熱血人生: 一名攀岩運動家挑戰耐力、置身危險、超越自我極限的故事