Best Climbing Quotes – 75 Inspirational Climbing Quotes
Browsing through a list of some of the world’s best climbing quotes can be nice to read if you are in the middle of planning your next climbing adventure. They can motivate you and help get you in the right mindset. They can also be a good way to reflect on previous climbs.
A collection of some of the very best climbing quotes is compiled herein. Many are quotes about climbing from experienced mountaineers and alpinists. Others are simply outdoor-focused inspirational quotes.
Climbing Quotes – 75 Inspirational Quotes About Climbing
The summit is what drives us but the climb itself is what matters
Conrad Anker
Life is like climbing a mountain. You climb up to each new ledge and create a camp. If you can’t do that within a certain amount of time, you have to go back down to the previous camp. You can’t hang out on the mountainside
Tim Kelley
Because in the end, you wont remember the time you spent working in the office or mowing your lawn. Climb that goddamn mountain
Jack Kerouac
Climb the mountains and get their good tidings
John Muir
He who climbs upon the highest mountains laughs at all tragedies, real or imaginary.
Friedrich Neitszche
Anytime you finish a climb, there’s always the next thing you can try.
Alex Honnold
Every mountain top is within reach if you just keep climbing
Barry Finlay
It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves
Sir Edmund Hillary
Climb the mountain not to plant your flag, but to embrace the challenge, enjoy the air and behold the view. Climb it so you can see the world, not so the world can see you
David McCullough Jr.
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
Somewhere between the bottom of the climb and the summit is the answer to the mystery why we climb
Greg Child
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
Mountains are not stadiums where I satisfy my ambition to achieve, they are the cathedrals where I practice my religion
Anatoli Boukreev
The mountains are calling and I must go
John Muir
Mountain climbing is long periods of boredom interspersed with a few sections of sheer terror
Anon
More inspirational quotes about climbing
If youre afraid of heights then you have no choice but to climb to the top of the mountain
Anon
When you reach the top, just keep climbing
Zen proverb
Each fresh peak ascended teaches something
Sir Martin Convay
Life is like climbing a mountain filled with uncertainties. The only difference is that mountain climbers know their journey will end at the peak, but we don’t know when or where our life will end.
Ankit
“You have to climb the mountain to see the view.”
Anon
Stop staring at mountains. Climb them instead, yes, it’s a harder process but it will lead you to a better view
Anon
Lifes a climb but the view is great
Anon
Everyone wants to live on the top of the mountain but the happiness and growth occurs while youre climbing it
Andy Rooney
The hardest mountain to climb is the one within
J. Lynn
Life is a bit like mountaineering. Never look down.
Sir Edmund Hillary
“You cannot stay on the summit forever; you have to come down again. That’s the bitter truth of climbing mountains. 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 Daumal
If you’re climbing the ladder of life, you go rung by rung, one step at a time. Don’t look too far up, set your goals high but take one step at a time. Sometimes you don’t think you’re progressing until you step back and see how high you’ve really gone.
Donny Osmond
Climbing here saved my life from the confines of materialistic illusion that we’re taught as children in school. The way I see it, there are two worlds: there’s the world where nothing is sacred except money, and the other world where everything is sacred
Ron Kauk
The best part of climbing is when it all clicks and gravity ceases to exist
Chris Sharma
Even more quotes about climbing
Chasing angels or fleeing demons, go to the mountains
Jeffrey Rasley
There are a dozen reasons for climbing, some bad, and I’ve used most of them myself. The worst are fame and money. Commonly people cite exploration or discovery, but that’s rarely relevant in today’s world. The only good reason to climb is to improve yourself
Yvon Chouinard
When you ride your bike, you’re working your legs, but your mind is on a treadmill. When you play chess, your mind is clicking along, but your body is stagnating. Climbing brings it together in a beautiful, magical way. The adrenaline is flowing, and it’s flowing all the time
Pat Ament
Never did I explore life as intensively in its beautiness, as while hanging on two fingertips freely over the deep hollow
Wolfgang Güllich
After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb
Nelson Mandela
I am never lost in the mountains. Its where I find myself.
Anon
One does not climb to attain enlightenment, rather one climbs because they are enlightened
Zen Master Futomaki
It’s wonderful to climb the liquid mountains of the sky. Behind me and before me is God and I have no fears
Hellen Keller
A man does not climb a mountain without bring some of it away with him, and leaving something of himself upon it
Martin Conway
Those who travel to mountain-tops are half in love with themselves and half in love with oblivion
Robert Macfarlane
Climbing, simply and joyfully, is why I love the world
Steph Davis
I’d rather be in the mountains thinking of God, than in Church thinking about the mountains
John Muir
Our peace shall stand as firm as rocky mountains
William Shakespeare
May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds.
Edward Abbey
Man can climb to the highest summits, but he cannot dwell there long
George Bernard Shaw
Practical quotes about climbing
In truth, mountain climbing is an exhilarating experience but it can also be a dangerous one. Feeling inspired about getting back to nature and the great outdoors is wonderful.
However, it is equally important to make sure that you plan each climb carefully. This means ensuring that you have the correct equipment and sufficient supplies, checking the best time of year to attempt the climb, planning your route carefully, and ensuring that it aligns with your fitness and experience level.
The climbing quotes below focus on the more practical aspects of climbing. Notable Alpinists have written them.
The best climber in the world is the one having the most fun!
Alex Lowe
In the mountains there are only two grades: You can either do it, or you can’t
Rusty Baille
Mountains are not fair or unfair, they are just dangerous
Reinhold Messner
Climbing is, above all, a matter of integrity
Gaston Rebuffat
Bolts are the murder of the impossible
Reinhold Messner
Ive walked away from more climbs than I can count, just because I sensed that things were not quite right.
Alex Honnold
In climbing you are always faced with new problems in which you must perform using intuitive movements, and then later analyze them to figure out why they work, and then learn from them
Wolfgang Gullich
There are certainly better technical climbers than me. But if I have a particular gift, it’s a mental one – the ability to keep it together where others might freak out.
Alex Honnold
To be a climber one has to accept that gratification is rarely immediate
Bernadette McDonald
The mountains have rules. they are harsh rules, but they are there, and if you keep to them you are safe. A mountain is not like men. A mountain is sincere. It changes almost nothing in haste. The weapons to conquer it exist inside you, inside your soul
Walter Bonatti
Funny and lighthearted quotes about climbing
There is often beauty in the absurd. The climbing quotes below are simply funny and light hearted.
You dont need to climb a mountain to know that its high
Paulo Coelho
Sometimes I wonder if the walls ever miss me back
Anon
The higher you climb on the mountain, the harder the wind blows.
Sam Cummings
Why climb the mountain? Because its there!
George Mallory
It’s always further than it looks. It’s always taller than it looks. And it’s always harder than it looks.
Anon
You keep putting one foot in front of the other, and then one day you look back and you’ve climbed a mountain
Tom Hiddleston
General motivational quotes to inspire mountain climbers
It is never too late to be who you might have been
George Eliot
The greatest accomplishment is not in never falling, but in rising again after you fall
Vince Lombardi
Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go
T.S. Elliot
The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person who is doing it
Chinese proverb
The ones who climb the mountain dont wait for permission, they just start walking
Trinity Bourne
Dont let the fear of falling keep you from climbing up
Constance Chuks Friday
No one realises how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old familiar pillow
Lin Yutang
Never stop exploring
Anon
There are no short cuts to any place worth going
Beverly Sills
For me, its all about performance. Nothing good happens in the world by being happy and cozy. Nobody achieves anything great because theyre happy and cozy.
Alex Honnold
What is freedom to a bird if it is in the middle of a flock?
John Gill
I can. I cant. Both are true
Rudy Ledbetter
If happiness is the goal, and it should be, then adventures should be a priority
Richard Branson
Keep close to Nature’s hear and break clear away, once in a while, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.
John Muir
Trekkers at high altitudes sometimes sense a person walking a few paces behind them, just out of sight. Often this person is dead. I never feel this, but once or twice I imagine someone walking a little ahead of me
Colin Thubron
Parting words
In the realm of climbing, the journey often embodies a transformative experience, echoing the profound insights encapsulated in the best climbing quotes. Each ascent is a metaphor for addressing life’s challenges, where one never truly climbs the same mountain twice.
The act of climbing, with its struggles and triumphs, serves as a powerful tool to fix what feels wrong in life. Our perspective shifts as we hammer in the last bolt and stagger over the rim. The mountain, forever unyielding, changes us instead.
Climbing teaches us that even in memory, the weather of our experiences shifts, retelling the jokes of our adventures in a much better condition, illuminating the thought that through climbing, we continually ascend not just mountains, but also the summits within ourselves.
Have any additional quotes about climbing that you would like to share? Which quotes are your favorites?
Happy trails! Melissa xo