George Mallory Quotes

A collection of quotes by George Mallory.

George Mallory (1886 - 1924) was a renowned and daring British mountaineer. He is best known for his attempts to summit Mount Everest in the early 1920s. Born in Cheshire, England, Mallory developed a passion for climbing at an early age. He participated in multiple expeditions to the Himalayas and played a key role in the early exploration of Everest. Mallory famously answered "because it's there" when asked why he wanted to climb the world's highest peak. Despite twice coming close to reaching the summit, Mallory disappeared on his final attempt in 1924. The mystery surrounding his fate has bestowed upon him legendary status.

One comes to bless the absolute bareness, feeling that here

One comes to bless the absolute bareness, feeling that here is a pure beauty of form, a kind of ultimate harmony.

Beauty Harmony Mountaineering

The first question which you will ask and which I must try t

The first question which you will ask and which I must try to answer is this, What is the use of climbing Mount Everest? and my answer must at once be, It is no use. There is not the slightest prospect of any gain whatsoever. Oh, we may learn a little about the behaviour of the human body at high altitudes, and possibly medical men may turn our observation to some account for the purposes of aviation. But otherwise nothing will come of it. We shall not bring back a single bit of gold or silver, not a gem, nor any coal or iron. We shall not find a single foot of earth that can be planted with crops to raise food. It's no use. So, if you cannot understand that there is something in man which responds to the challenge of this mountain and goes out to meet it, that the struggle is the struggle of life itself upward and forever upward, then you won't see why we go. What we get from this adventure is just sheer joy. And joy is, after all, the end of life. We do not live to eat and make money. We eat and make money to be able to enjoy life. That is what life means and what life is for.

The highest of the world's mountains, it seems, has to make

The highest of the world's mountains, it seems, has to make but a single gesture of magnificence to be the lord of all, vast in unchallenged and isolated supremacy.