Quotes from Reinhold Messner

I never set out to make myself unpopular; I just say what I think, so I sometimes rub people up the wrong way, particularly people who parade their ideals before them like a banner and use them to hide behind. And I will keep on saying what I think. I am not prepared to abandon my self-determined existence for an ideology or an ideal.

Wem die Fähigkeit abhandengekommen ist, selbstbestimmt zu handeln, ist aber nicht meinesgleichen.

VeÅ¡keré jeho zkuÅ¡enosti jsou nyní bezcenné, jeho energie vyÅ¡umÄ›la, z jeho odvahy z?stala jen pýcha Å¡ílence.

ÄŒlovÄ›k by mÄ›l chodit na hory jen se sobÄ› rovnými.

Peklo nastává jen tehdy, pokud si lidé dÄ›lají faleÅ¡né pÃ…â"¢edstavy o nebi.

All meine Grenzgänge sind ausschließlich meiner Verantwortung unterworfen. »Höhere« und unpersönliche Regeln gibt es in diesem Zusammenhang nicht. Ich fragte auch nie nach »erlaubt oder verboten«, es ging mir immer nur um »möglich oder unmöglich«. Sinn gab allein ich selbst meinem Tun.

Zufälle, das Geheimnisvolle, das jeweils Unmögliche bestimmten mein Dasein, ja mein ganzes Leben.

Gemeinsames Gehen ist für mich die selbstverständlichste Form des Zusammenseins. Wie das gemeinsame Klettern auch. Alles geht viel besser, wenn ich in einer Seilschaft unterwegs bin. Am besten zu zweit. Die unendlich vielen Möglichkeiten, in die wir dabei hineingeraten, lassen sich zu zweit besser ausschöpfen, bewältigen und ertragen. Was auch immer dabei passiert, in einer Seilschaft können Sorgen und Ängste geteilt werden.

ÚspÄ›ch, který skon?í ve straÅ¡né katastrofÄ›, je nejhorÅ¡í ze vÅ¡ech porážek.

Climbing is all about freedom, the freedom to go beyond all the rules and take a chance, to experience something new, to gain insight into human nature.

I was the first man to climb the world's 14 tallest peaks without supplementary oxygen, but I never asked how high I would go, just how I would do it.

The wonderful things in life are the things you do, not the things you have.

My aim is not just to help preserve what is left of mountain life, but to create a centre where people can study and learn about it.

I always take the same perspective with each new adventure. I put myself in the position of being at the end of my life looking back. Then I ask myself if what I am doing is important to me.

I produce schnapps on my farm but I'm not fond of drinking it.

An account of an expedition is not a novel. Therefore an authentic account can never be given, let alone written down by someone who was not present.

A good expedition doesn't need a leader at all. You are deciding day by day, discussing it in a democratic way.

I learned a lot from more experienced mountaineers, such as Peter Habeler, but by the time I was about 21 I reckoned I had learned all that I needed to make me technically self-sufficient anywhere.

In my state of spiritual abstraction, I no longer belong to myself and to my eyesight. I am nothing more than a single narrow gasping lung, floating over the mists and summits.

There are three elements of mountaineering - difficulty, danger, and exposure. Difficulty is the technical aspect of it. Danger, it is best to avoid, but some people like to increase danger to a point where their success is dependent only on luck. And exposure, which is what truly defines Alpinism, is what you face in wild nature.

I have a very different fear if I'm all alone in the summit area of Mount Everest and if I know that there is nothing below me, no Sherpa, no tent, no rope.

Gunther and I always shared the work. Each of us carried his own sleeping bag and tent, and porters carried the rest, until the highest camp, when we were on our own. Nobody helped us up there.

All the Yeti footprints are all the same bear. The Yeti isn't a fantastic figure. The Yeti is reality.

Life is about daring to carry out your ideas. And for me, it always comes back to the wilderness, nature, mountains.