Out of the hundreds of climbing quotes out there, we have compiled the best mountain climbing quotes in this article.
The rigors of scaling challenging terrains often shroud mountain climbing’s bliss with its corresponding emotions of excitement, exhilaration, and thrills.
These terrains can be so rugged that after multiple trials and failures, climbers (beginners and advanced) become disheartened.
Most advanced climbers often pick motivation because other climbers have completed these routes. Such as John Muir, the influential Scottish-American naturalist, who is largely responsible for the establishment of the famous Yosemite park and others in the U.S.
While deriving motivation from other climbers who have successfully climbed an incredibly difficult or more challenging route can be compelling, another significant motivation source is the plethora of mountain climbing quotes by some of the world’s best climbers.
Inspirational Mountain Climbing Quotes
Sourced from the millions of words remarkable climbers and notable personalities have uttered.
Here are some of the best mountain climbing quotes that can motivate you to continue climbing, despite the challenges.
“Every mountain top is within reach if you just keep climbing.”
Barry Finlay
“Everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you’re climbing it.”
Andy Rooney
“Mountains terrify me – they just sit about; they are so proud.”
Sylvia Plath
“How glorious a greeting the sun gives the mountains!”
John Muir
“We are now in the mountains and they are in us, kindling enthusiasm, making every nerve quiver, filling every pore and cell of us.”
John Muir
“Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.”
John Muir
“Mountains are like the great equalizer. It doesn’t matter who anyone is or what they do.”
Jimmy Chin
“In the mountains, there are only two grades: you can either do it, or you can’t.”
Rusty Baillie
“Over every mountain, there is a path, although it may not be seen from the valley.”
Theodore Roethke
“In the mountains, you are sometimes invited, sometimes tolerated, and sometimes told to go home.”
Fred Beckey
“Those who travel to mountain-tops are half in love with themselves and half in love with oblivion.”
Robert Macfarlane
“Never measure the height of a mountain until you reach the top. Then you will see how low it was.
Dag Hammarskjöld
“There are two kinds of climbers: those who climb because their heart sings when they’re in the mountains, and all the rest.”
Alex Lowe
“The way up to the top of the mountain is always longer than you think. Don’t fool yourself, the moment will arrive when what seemed so near is still very far.”
Paulo Coelho
“May your dreams be larger than mountains and may you have the courage to scale their summits.”
Harley King
“Somewhere between the bottom of the climb and the summit is the answer to the mystery why we climb.”
Greg Child
“Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers, the mountain and the sea, are excellent schoolmasters, and teach some of us more than what we could learn from books.”
John Lubbock
“I’m a person of the mountains and the open paddocks and the big empty sky, that’s me, and I knew if I spent too long away from all that I’d die; I don’t know what of, I just knew I’d die.”
John Marsden
“When the sun is shining I can do anything; no mountain is too high, no trouble too difficult to overcome.”
Wilma Rudolph
“The greatest gift of life on the mountain is time. Time to think or not think, read or not read, scribble or not scribble—to sleep and cook and walk in the woods, to sit and stare at the shapes of the hills.”
Phillip Connors
“Accidents on big mountains happen when people’s ambitions cloud their good judgment. Good climbing is about climbing with heart and with instinct, not ambition and pride.”
Bear Grylls
“Mountains are not Stadiums where I satisfy my ambition to achieve, they are the cathedrals where I practice my religion.”
Anatoli Boukreev
“Mountains are only a problem when they are bigger than you. You should develop yourself so much that you become bigger than the mountains you face.”
Idowu Koyenikan
“I’ve realized that at the top of the mountain, there’s another mountain.”
Andrew Garfield
“There’s no glory in climbing a mountain if all you want to do is to get to the top. It’s experiencing the climb itself – in all its moments of revelation, heartbreak, and fatigue – that has to be the goal.”
Karyn Kusama
“You cannot stay on the summit forever; you have to come down again. So why bother in the first place? Just this: What is above knows what is below, but what is below does not know what is above. One climbs, one sees. One descends, one sees no longer, but one has seen.”
Rene Dauma
Conclusion
With this compilation of various mountain climbing quotes, we hope you have been inspired.
Which quote inspires you the most. Feel free to share with us in the comment sections below.
See 40 Best Funny Climbing Quotes, 27 Inspirational Rock Climbing Quotes for Success, and 16 Best Inspirational John Muir Quotes.