The descent is often as much (or more of) a challenge as the climb.

You can’t coach desire, and no matter how fancy your training plan or how high your stated goals are, it comes down to getting out the door and doing the work day after day.

Within alpinism's narrow framework we seek transcendence and relentlessly pursue what remains hidden from us on flat ground: our true selves.

The depth of any story is proportionate to the protagonist's commitment to their goal, the complexity of the problem, and the grace of the solution.

In the mountains, fatigue is the biggest controllable limitation that will come between you and success.

Climbers are a universal tribe: we share the knowledge that things are not important. Experience is important. Feeling is important.

You will never exploit your full technical capacity if your fitness remains a weak link.

The simpler we make things, the richer the experiences become.

On big routes in big mountains, speed equals safety.

Many would argue that alpinism is art, not sport.

We climbers have much to learn from the training done in conventional sports.

Two things amaze me the most--the beauty of nature and the power of my thoughts.

Trust me. You’re a constant riddle with an ever-changing solution." ~ FBI Special Agent Clive Poole to Maggie Mae Castro

Thinking, it seems, is a difficult undertaking RjS

Everything is good in due measure and strong sensations know not measure.

Every tone was a testimony against slavery, and a prayer to God for deliverance from chains.

The manifestation of Truth is a mystery of Love, just as, conversely, the content of Love is a mystery of Truth.

Rivers neede a spring.

I can talk about humility, but I'm not humble. I mean, if you say, I'm humble, you've just contradicted yourself. But I'm trying to be, man, I'm trying so hard.

The art of life is to stay wide open and be vulnerable, yet at the same time to sit with the mystery and the awe and with the unbearable pain - to just be with it all.

The money the president wants to borrow for Iraq will come directly out of the American taxpayer wallets in the form of Medicare and Social Security receipts. That's your money