“One feels ‘the dearth of human words, the roughness of mortal speech’ in trying to describe things intangible.”

A man must shape himself to a new mark directly the old one goes to ground.

I chose life over death for myself and my friends. I believe it is in our nature to explore, to reach out into the unknown. The only true failure would be not to explore at all.

When things are easy, I hate it.

Optimism is the true moral courage.

Now my eyes are turned from the South to the North, and I want to lead one more Expedition. This will be the last to the North Pole.

Superhuman effort isn’t worth a damn unless it achieves results.

I have often marveled at the thin line which separates success from failure.

We had seen God in His splendors, heard the text that Nature renders. We had reached the naked soul of man.

Optimism is true moral courage.

I do not know what ‘moss’ stands for in the proverb , but if it stood for useful knowledge… I gathered more moss by rolling than I ever did at school.

I thought you’d rather have a live donkey than a dead lion.

If you’re a leader, a fellow that other fellows look to, you’ve got to keep going.

The noise resembles the roar of heavy, distant surf. Standing on the stirring ice one can imagine it is disturbed by the breathing and tossing of a mighty giant below.

I called to the other men that the sky was clearing, and then a moment later I realized that what I had seen was not a rift in the clouds but the white crest of an enormous wave.

After months of want and hunger, we suddenly found ourselves able to have meals fit for the gods, and with appetites the gods might have envied.

From the sentimental point of view, it is the last great Polar journey that can be made.

When we have this description, of what a sketch is, itsattributes, we can then start inventing new things thatshare those attributes, and therefore improve our currenttechnics by inventing new and better tools that help ussketch.

Love is something so divine, Description would but make it less; ‘Tis what I feel, but can’t define, ‘Tis what I know but can’t express

I have read descriptions of Paradise that would make any sensible person stop wanting to go there.

I don’t see myself as a documentary photographer. I am more drawn to the image itself, rather than to the description of a scene. And, anyway, every image only halfway represents reality, whereas the other half is rather, more or less, fulfilling our imagination.

Managers need to create what I call “customer pictures,” verbal descriptions of customers that highlight the key customer characteristics and make those customers come alive.

I doubt whether I ever read any description of scenery which gave me an idea of the place described.

Words, when well chosen, have so great a force in them, that a description often gives us more lively ideas than the sight of things themselves.

Damn description, it is always disgusting.