“Life doesn’t reward the naturally clever or strong but those who can learn to fight and work hard and never quit.”

You’re not human if you don’t feel fear. But I’ve learnt to treat fear as an emotion that sharpens me. It’s there to give me that edge for what I have to do.

Why is it that the finish line always tends to appear just after the point at which we most want to give up? is it the universe’s way of reserving the best for those who can give the most? What I do know, from nature, is that the dawn only appears after the darkest hour.

I joined the Army at 19 as a soldier and spent about four and a half years with them. Then I broke my back in a freefall parachuting accident and spent a year in rehabilitation back in the U.K.

Being brave isn’t the absence of fear. Being brave is having that fear but finding a way through it.

What Scouting says to people is: Every child has a right to have an adventure. Life is about grabbing opportunities

Accidents on big mountains happen when people’s ambitions cloud their good judgment. Good climbing is about climbing with heart and with instinct, not ambition and pride.

But the wild is unpredictable, stuff does happen, and it’s always when you’re least expecting it.

I am not fearless. I get scared plenty. But I have also learned how to channel that emotion to sharpen me.

I always wanted to be Robin Hood or John the Baptist when I was growing up.

Some of the greatest survivors have been women. Look at the courage so many women have shown after surviving earthquakes in the rubble for days on end.

The difference between ordinary and extra-ordinary is so often just simply that little word – extra.

I love home cooking, and I’m not a great one for fast food.

I love Ray Mears. He’s brilliant. He’s so rude about me in the press, it’s outrageous!

As a society, we’ve become terrified of failure, but you can’t grow without risking it.

And Jesus, the heart of the Christian faith is the wildest, most radical guy you’d ever come across.

Life is an adventure that is best lived boldly

You cannot look in a new direction by looking harder in the same direction.

This does not have to be a hard life to love. There is not enough time to let it stray too far from my hands.

If you have a government that is elected, they need to do the hard work – because if they don’t, they won’t be around the next time the ballot box is open.

The monarchy that I hand over to my son is not going to be the same one that I have inherited. … There is a tendency by a lot of officials to hide behind the king.

I think people often misunderstand that I work as hard and want things just as badly as anybody else.

If you have a government that is elected, they need to do the hard work — because if they don’t, they won’t be around the next time the ballot box is open.

No one told me how hard it was going to be to find myself.

Tis easy to write epigrams nicely, but to write a book is hard.