“Soar, eat ether, see what has never been seen; depart, be lost, but climb.”

“So far as I can see, coalescence of faith and truth has not been achieved anywhere in the world, not even in American departments of economics…”

“The first time you see something that you have never seen before, you almost always know right away if you should eat it or run away from it.”

“I think what has been considered as settled law for thirty years past ought not now to be departed from.”

“Smooth lies the road to Pluto's gloomy shade,
And hell's black gates for ever stand displayed,
But 'tis a long unconquerable pain,
To climb to these ethereal realms again.”

“[on vegetarianism] I didn't climb to the top of the fuckin' food chain to eat carrots.”

“I often hear people call climbing a selfish, egocentric pursuit. I consider this idea a lot. On the surface, as a sport or activity, this may be true. But for most soul climbers, climbing has never been merely about athletics. Climbing has shown me how to look beyond myself and my own desires. It has taught me how to be a part of a community, rather than living in a narrow world of my own making. I have learned, painfully, how to accept help from others. I have learned that my powerful emotions can be my greatest strength, as well as my greatest weakness. Physically and intellectually, climbing has tugged me into the larger world, beyond my own culture and comfort zone. Above all, climbing has shown me the existence of forces beyond the seen world. It has taught me to ponder the meaning of reality. It has shown me that I am small.”

“There is no reason whatever to assume that woman, in her climb to emancipation, has been, or will be, helped by the ballot.”

“He looked the boy up and down as if he had never seen a child before and wasn't quite sure what he was supposed to do with one: eat it, ignore it or kick it down the stairs.”

“For the first time the peasant has seen real freedom — freedom to eat his bread, freedom from starvation.”