Better we raise our skill than lower the climb

Before the deed comes the thought. Before the achievement comes the dream. Every mountain we climb, we first climb in our mind.

Instead of the god of security, we bow to the greater god of freedom, the freedom to take risks and master danger in order to be intensely alive.

Climbing is a great game-great not in spite of the demands it makes, but because of them. Great because it will not let us give half of ourselves-it demands all of us. It demands our best.

With the best equipment in the world the man with poor judgment is in mortal danger.

A first ascent is a creation in the same sense as is a painting or a song

A simple equation exists between freedom and numbers: the more people, the less freedom.

The rock is a field of battle between our weakness and our strength.

Decide if a poem is a question or a declaration, a meditation or an outcry.

If you expect the blessings of God, be kind to His people.

You have to escape from management land and get in touch with your people.

Any work of art ... is great when it makes you feel that its creator has dipped into your very heart for his sensation.

Gossip is when you have a malice of intent or mindless, third-party conversation to someone about someone, something you haven't said to that someone.

What someone calls my books is irrelevant to me. I consider them works of art and rules and categories and labels mean nothing.

Children always think they did something wrong when their parents disappear.

It is the business of cavalry to follow up the victory, and to prevent the beaten army from rallying.

I just like being all over the place and writing whatever comes to mind. Having the tools? It's such a gift.

Racism is to the current era what unAmericanism was to the Fifties: a curse word that provides a handy substitute for logical thought.