I like to think of Everest as a great mountaineering challenge, and when you’ve got people just streaming up the mountain – well, many of them are just climbing it to get their name in the paper, really.

My father will anticipate everything. He will leave you and me no chance to do a great and brilliant deed.

For other nations, utopia is a blessed past never to be recovered; for Americans it is just beyond the horizon.

I have wanted to fly into space for many years, but never imagined it would really be feasible.

I think that a good mountaineer is usually a sensible mountaineer.

The glory of the nation rests in the character of her men. And character comes from boyhood. Thus, every boy is a challenge to his elders.

Adventure is worthwhile in itself.

Martyrdom is the only way a man can become famous without ability.

Pretension is a poor joke that you play on yourself. Snap out of it. Recognise your strengths, work on your weaknesses. Real achievement is liking what you see in the mirror every morning.

I met my husband before I became a star, and he doesn’t care about any of it.

Success is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.

Happiness does not lie in happiness, but in the achievement of it.

I have written a book. This will come as quite a shock to some. They didn’t think I could read, much less write.

Fame hit me like a ton of bricks.

Yeah, I like to keep myself interested – I’ll kind of throw myself into some area that I don’t completely know or understand, that I’m not adept at, so I’m forced to swim in order to stay afloat. There’s a good feeling that comes from that.

I enjoyed climbing with other people, good friends, but I did quite a lot of solo climbing, too.

The ladder of success is never crowded at the top.

Let me recommend the best medicine in the world: a long journey, at a mild season, through a pleasant country, in easy stages.

As a soccer player, I wanted an FA Cup winner’s medal. As an actor you want an Oscar. As a chef it’s three-Michelin’s stars, there’s no greater than that. So pushing yourself to the extreme creates a lot of pressure and a lot of excitement, and more importantly, it shows on the plate.

No man ever achieved worth-while success who did not, at one time or other, find himself with at least one foot hanging well over the brink of failure.

Climbing to the top demands strength, whether it is to the top of Mount Everest or to the top of your career.

If a star or studio chief or any other great movie personages find themselves sitting among a lot of nobodies, they get frightened – as if somebody was trying to demote them.

It’s the journey of self, I guess. You start with this kind of loner, outside guy, which a lot of people can relate to, and he goes out into the world.

My dream is of a place and a time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope of earth.

To be successful, you need results in a row. You can’t win, lose, win, lose.

The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.

Fame and power are the objects of all men. Even their partial fruition is gained by very few; and that, too, at the expense of social pleasure, health, conscience, life.

A great thing can only be done by a great person; and they do it without effort.

A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at.

Applause is the spur of noble minds, the end and aim of weak ones.

As soon as I accomplish one goal, I replace it with another one. I try not to get too far ahead of myself. I just say to myself, ‚All right, well, I’d like to headline a tour,‘ and then when I get there, we’ll see what my next goal is.

Having these colossal accolades and titles, they get in the way.

Be more dedicated to making solid achievements than in running after swift but synthetic happiness.

I’ve been talked about by a lot better people than the general public.

I think the really good mountaineer is the man with the technical ability of the professional and with the enthusiasm and freshness of approach of the amateur.

If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.

Thanks to my fans that have been with me from the beginning, I was able to sell out arenas on my own.

I don’t look to jump over 7-foot bars: I look around for 1-foot bars that I can step over.

It is no use saying, ‚We are doing our best.‘ You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary.

When I won the first Grammy, there was no other feeling like that feeling. It just made me feel like I came so far, like that was just a dream a few years before that, and then it was happening right then.

Fame will go by and, so long, I’ve had you, fame. If it goes by, I’ve always known it was fickle. So at least it’s something I experience, but that’s not where I live.

Success is the child of audacity.

Since day one, since the first time I touched the pen, I wanted to be the best at what I do.

Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.

Those who say it can’t be done are usually interrupted by others doing it.

The few who do are the envy of the many who only watch.

I lost some of my friends because I got so famous, people who just assumed that I would be different now. I felt like everyone hated me. That is the most unhappy time of my life.

I know a lot of people say they always believed they could get into F1, but I didn’t quite believe that, certainly not when I was 7 and maybe not until I was 14. It was always so far away.

I think it’s quite great to set yourself a big challenge, and then you’ve got another reason for keeping fit.

The thornbush is the old obstacle in the road. It must catch fire if you want to go further.

Flying might not be all plain sailing, but the fun of it is worth the price.

In this great country, we celebrate success. We don’t want to penalize those who have done well.

Like all great travellers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen.

We’re constantly striving for success, fame and comfort when all we really need to be happy is someone or some thing to be enthusiastic about.

I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.

You have to put in many, many, many tiny efforts that nobody sees or appreciates before you achieve anything worthwhile.

On the summit of Everest, I had a feeling of great satisfaction to be first there.

Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.

We all want to be famous people, and the moment we want to be something we are no longer free.

I was enjoying myself writing, because I don’t know what’s going to happen when I take a ride around that corner. You don’t know at all what you’re going to find there. That can be thrilling when you read a book, especially when you’re a kid and you’re reading stories.

I have enjoyed great satisfaction from my climb of Everest and my trips to the poles. But there’s no doubt that my most worthwhile things have been the building of schools and medical clinics.