I was extremely lucky that I had two great wives. It sounds a bit funny to say that, but it's absolutely true.

I have never regarded myself as a hero, but Tenzing undoubtedly was.

If you cannot understand that there is something in man which responds to the challenge of this mountain and goes out to meet it, that the struggle is the struggle of life itself upward and forever upward, then you won't see why we go.

Take advantage of the years of pioneering efforts. You might find this boring, as the young want to rush head on, as it were.

Despite all I have seen and experienced, I still get the same simple thrill out of glimpsing a tiny patch of snow in a high mountain gully and feel the same urge to climb towards it.