Quotes from Robert Falcon Scott

To wait idly is the worst of conditions.

Slowly but surely the sea is freezing over.

But take comfort in that I die at peace with the world and myself - not afraid.

Keep engaged in the all new popular and fancy, positive side of things!

Great God! This is an awful place.

It seems a pity, but I do not think that I can write more. For God's sake look after our people.

We are very near the end, but have not and will not lose our good cheer.

I may not have proved a great explorer, but we have done the greatest march ever made and come very near to great success.

Make the boy interested in natural history if you can; it is better than games; they encourage it in some schools.

I can imagine few things more trying to the patience than the long wasted days of waiting.

We are weak, writing is difficult, but for my own sake I do not regret this journey, which has shown that Englishmen can endure hardships, help one another, and meet death with as great a fortitude as ever in the past.

We shall stick it out to the end, but we are getting weaker of course and the end cannot be far. It seems a pity, but I do not think I can write more. For God's sake, look after our people.

Had we lived I should have had a tale to tell of the hardihood, endurance and courage of my companions which would have stirred the heart of every Englishman. These rough notes and our dead bodies must tell the tale.

I have come to the conclusion that life in the Antarctic Regions can be very pleasant.

As one looks across the barren stretches of the pack, it is sometimes difficult to realise what teeming life exists immediately beneath its surface.

Hunger and fear are the only realities in dog life: an empty stomach makes a fierce dog.

I can imagine few things more trying to the patience than the long wasted days of waiting.

But take comfort in that I die at peace with the world and myself - not afraid.

It was blowing a blizzard. He [Capt. Lawrence E. G. Oates] said, "I am just going outside and may be some time." He went out into the blizzard and we have not seen him since.

We are weak, writing is difficult, but for my own sake I do not regret this journey, which has shown that Englishmen can endure hardships, help one another, and meet death with as great a fortitude as ever in the past.

Had we lived, I should have had a tale to tell of the hardihood, endurance and courage of my companions which would have stirred the heart of every Englishman. These rough notes and our dead bodies must tell the tale.

It is the work that matters, not the applause that follows.

We are all adventurers here, I suppose, and wild doings in wild countries appeal to us as nothing else could do. It is good to know that there remain wild corners of this dreadfully civilised world.

God help us, we can't keep up this pulling, that is certain. Amongst ourselves we are unendingly cheerful, but what each man feels in his heart I can only guess.