words are but drops pressed out of the lives of those who lived them.

Pain and fear and hunger are effects of causes which can be foreseen and known: but sorrow is a debt which someone else makes for us.

It seems to me that the only thing for a pacifist to do is to find a substitute for war: mountains and seafaring are the only ones I know. But it must be something sufficiently serious not to be a game and sufficiently dangerous to exercise those virtues which otherwise get no chance.

Like a human being, the mountain is a composite creature, only to be known after many a view from many a different point, and repaying this loving study, if it is anything of a mountain at all, by a gradual revelation of personality, an increase of significance.

Who dares to be intellectual in the presence of death?

It is only the unexpected that ever makes a customs officer think.

To awaken quite alone in a strange town is one of the most pleasant sensations in the world. You are surrounded by adventure.