“Is this the summit, crowning the day? How cool and quiet! We're not exultant; but delighted, joyful; soberly astonished.”

-George Mallory, English mountaineer, 1886-1924.

This quote is from the book Climbing Everest, which collects the personal writings of George Mallory, a legendary mountaineer known for his attempts at climbing Mount Everest. In this quote, he’s describing the feelings of reaching a mountaintop. It’s part of a larger quote, in which he describes the drive of mountaineering. The larger quote follows:

How to get the best of it all? One must conquer, achieve, get to the top; one must know the end to be convinced that one can win the end - to know there's no dream that mustn't be dared … Is this the summit, crowning the day? How cool and quiet! We're not exultant; but delighted, joyful; soberly astonished … Have we vanquished an enemy? None but ourselves. Have we gained success? That word means nothing here. Have we won a kingdom? No … and yes. We have achieved an ultimate satisfaction … fulfilled a destiny … To struggle and to understand never this last without the other; such is the law.

Check out other posts that mention George Mallory here.


Quote taken from Mallory, George. Climbing Everest: The Complete Writings of George Mallory. London: Gibson Square, 2012. 60.