Quotes from Bear Grylls

Never underestimate the human spirit. Within us all are incredible embers of dreams, hopes and aspirations, waiting for us to breathe them into life. And it only takes a tiny ember to start a great fire.

Consider the billionaire who flies into the South Pole for an hour to 'experience' it, compared to the man who has toiled, sweated and struggled across hundreds and hundreds of miles of ice, dragging a humble sledge. You see, it is the journey that makes the man. And life is all about our growth, not our trophies.

25. Seek Out The Five Fs My dad always told me that living a good life was about 'looking after your friends and family and having the courage to go for your dreams'. That was life in a nutshell for him. Luckily those simple values meant much more to him than my school reports - which weren't always glowing!

wilderness thousands of feet below. It was spring and the thaw was all but complete. Not long ago it would have all been a smooth white, a land of ice and snow. Now he could see fir trees, grass, moss. Streams and rivers ran with crystal-clear meltwater. Endless shades of green, all tied together with fine silver threads.

The greater the effort, the better the reward. So learn to embrace hard work and great effort and risk. Without them, there can be no meaningful achievement.

I joined the Army at 19 as a soldier and spent about four and a half years with them. Then I broke my back in a freefall parachuting accident and spent a year in rehabilitation back in the U.K.

I always wanted to be Robin Hood or John the Baptist when I was growing up.

I train five days a week hard - but it is short and sharp - 30 to 40 minutes of functional and pretty dynamic body-strength circuits, then I do a good yoga session on the sixth day, then I rest.

You're not human if you don't feel fear. But I've learnt to treat fear as an emotion that sharpens me. It's there to give me that edge for what I have to do.

Survival is not about being fearless. It's about making a decision, getting on and doing it, because I want to see my kids again, or whatever the reason might be.

I find skydiving really hard. I broke my back while skydiving when I was in the military, and for 18 months all my nightmares were about falling.

I love home cooking, and I'm not a great one for fast food.

I love making healthy lean foods delicious - that's an art!

I love Ray Mears. He's brilliant. He's so rude about me in the press, it's outrageous!

To get ready to climb Everest, I did a lot of hill running with a daypack on and a lot of underwater swimming. I would swim a couple of lengths underwater and then a couple above. It gets your body going with limited oxygen.

Sometimes it's hard for us to believe, really believe, that God cares and wants good things for us and doesn't just want us to go off and give everything up and become missionaries in Burundi.

I hang out all the time with kids and young scouts and I never meet kids who don't want adventure.

I've never really had a TV career. I've been a soldier and a climber.

The hardest thing about my job isn't the snake bites or the crocodiles, it's being away from my children. I have a really religious satellite phone call every day back to the boys, wherever we are, whatever time zone, to say goodnight.

When I'm filming, survival requires movement. You need your energy, and you've got to eat the bad stuff, and survival food is rarely pretty, but you kind of do it. I get in that zone, and I eat the nasty stuff, but I'm not like that when I'm back home.

Look, sometimes, no matter how hard you try, sometimes you need a bit of luck.

Never depend on those luck moments – they are gifts – but instead always build your own back-up plan.

Survival requires us to leave our prejudices at home. It's about doing whatever it takes - and ultimately those with the biggest heart will win.

In the British Special Air Service, combat fitness is all about running.