Ernest Shackleton

At the bottom of the fall we were able to stand again on dry land. The rope could not be recovered. We had flung down the adze from the top of the fall and also the logbook and the cooker wrapped in one of our blouses. That was all, except our wet clothes, that we brought out of the Antarctic, which we had entered a year and a half before with well-found ship, full equipment, and high hopes. That was all of tangible things; but in memories we were rich. We had pierced the veneer of outside things. We had "suffered, starved and triumphed, groveled down yet grasped at glory, grown bigger in the bigness of the whole. We had seen God in His splendours, heard the text that Nature renders." We had reached the naked soul of man.

Optimism is true moral courage.

Loneliness is the penalty of leadership, but the man who has to make the decisions is assisted greatly if he feels that there is no uncertainty in the minds of those who follow him, and that his orders will be carried out confidently and in expectation of success.

I believe it is in our nature to explore, to reach out into the unknown. The only true failure would be not to explore at all.

Through endurance we conquer.

The quality I look for most is optimism: especially optimism in the face of reverses and apparent defeat.

A man must shape himself to a new mark when the old one goes to ground.

Difficulties are just things to overcome, after all.