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When I was 50 years old, I actually decided to draw up a list of half a dozen things that I really hadn't done very well, and I was going to make efforts to improve. One of them was skiing, and I really did become a very much better skier.

Edmund Hillary

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Edmund Hillary
Age: 88 †
Born: 1919
Born: July 20
Died: 2008
Died: January 11
Autobiographer
Beekeeper
Diplomat
Explorer
Mountaineer
Philanthropist
Tāmaki Makaurau
Sir Edmund Percival Hillary
Sir Edmund Hillary
Ed Hillary
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Skiers
Well
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Skiing
Done
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Dozen
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Really
Become
Lists
Make
Better
Improve
Skier

More quotes by Edmund Hillary

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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.
Edmund Hillary
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I was definitely seriously affected [with wifw and daughter deaths], no question, but I learnt to devote myself to the things that we'd been doing for years and years and slowly the pain drifted away.
Edmund Hillary
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I have a number of heroes I still have warm feelings about. [Derek] Shackleton, for instance, was definitely, and still is, one of my great heroes.
Edmund Hillary
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Life's a bit like mountaineering - never look down.
Edmund Hillary
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Strong motivation is the most important factor in getting you to the top
Edmund Hillary
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I think that a good mountaineer is usually a sensible mountaineer.
Edmund Hillary
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Motivation is the single most important factor in any sort of success.
Edmund Hillary
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I have the challenges sort of already there and as a consequence my companions feel a considerable desire to do this, too, and they feel very put out if they are left in the cold, so there we have it. We have me who has lots of ideas and then we have a very good team who wish - who are persuaded almost - to take part in these challenges.
Edmund Hillary
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I have been seriously afraid at times but have used my fear as a stimulating factor rather than allowing it to paralyse me. My abilities have not been outstanding, but I have had sufficient strength and determination to meet my challenges and have usually managed to succeed with them.
Edmund Hillary
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I never talk about being leaders and all the rest of it. I can only remember one or two occasions in my life when I actually issued orders, and I felt thoroughly miserable after doing it.
Edmund Hillary
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George Lowe was the one who opened the mail, and George started laughing uproariously and I looked up at him in astonishment and said, What's so funny? And he said, You've been given a title, and I said, Ha, ha, big joke. I didn't believe him but, sure enough, in this letter it indicated that the Queen had given me a title.
Edmund Hillary
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I think the whole attitude towards climbing Mount Everest has become rather horrifying. The people just want to get to the top. They don't give a damn for anybody else who may be in distress and it doesn't impress me at all that they leave someone lying under a rock to die.
Edmund Hillary
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It was wrong if there was a man suffering altitude problems and was huddled under a rock, just to lift your hat, say 'good morning' and pass on by, he said. Human life is far more important than just getting to the top of a mountain.
Edmund Hillary
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Many people have been getting too casual about climbing Everest. I forecast a disaster many times.
Edmund Hillary
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Boredom has always been a problem.
Edmund Hillary
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I started to become more active and when I was at Auckland Grammar I went for the first time to the mountains. I went to Ruapehu and for the first time I saw snow. I had never seen snow before and for 10 days the group of us had a marvellous time.
Edmund Hillary
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We had so much in common [with June Hillary] that we just carried on with life as we had been doing. It wasn't easy, but it was - I realise now that it was the only thing to do.
Edmund Hillary
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Despite all I have seen and experiences, I still get the same thrill out of glimpsing a tiny patch of snow in a high mountain gully and feel the same urge to climb toward it.
Edmund Hillary
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No one remembers who climbed Mount Everest the second time.
Edmund Hillary
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I still had the same affection for New Zealand as I've always had. Didn't change at all.
Edmund Hillary