Challenge is what makes men. It will be the end when men stop looking for new challenges.

I found fear stimulating. Particularly after you've done something that you'd been frightened of at the time, but you carried through and did the job.

Ever since the morning of May 29, 1953, when Tenzing Norgay and I became the first climbers to step onto the summit of Mount Everest, I've been called a great adventurer.

I hate being called an 'icon.' I just don't like it. That's all there is to it.

My mother was a schoolteacher and very keen that I go to a city school, so although it was fairly impoverished times, I traveled every day to the Auckland Grammar School.

Strong motivation is the most important factor in getting you to the top

When I was 50 years old, I actually decided to draw up a list of half a dozen things that I really hadn't done very well, and I was going to make efforts to improve. One of them was skiing, and I really did become a very much better skier.