Summer on the high plateau can be delectable as honey; it can also be a roaring scourge. To those who love the place, both are good, since both are part of its essential nature. And it is to know its essential nature that I am seeking here. To know, that is, with the knowledge that is a process of living. This is not done easily nor in an hour. It is a tale too slow for the impatience of our age, not of immediate enough import for its desperate problems. Yet it has its own rare value. It is, for one thing, a corrective of glib assessment: one never quite knows the mountain, nor oneself in relation to it. However often I walk on them, these hills hold astonishment for me. There is no getting accustomed to them. .Nan Shepherd
About This Quote
The mountains hold us in their grasp and we can never get accustomed to them. The mountains are lovely and the view from their peaks is breathtaking. But, they can also be dangerous and unforgiving. When you climb them, you must take care because if you lose your footing or fall to your death, you will never be able to get used to the feeling of falling and the emotions that come along with it.
Source: The Living Mountain
Some Similar Quotes
- The sunlight claps the earth, and the moonbeams kiss the sea: what are all these kissings worth, if thou kiss not me?
- In youth, it was a way I had, To do my best to please. And change, with every passing lad To suit his theories. But now I know the things I know And do the things I do, And if you do not like me...
- If I were a tree, I would have no reason to love a human.
- A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous.
- This life is yours. Take the power to choose what you want to do and do it well. Take the power to love what you want in life and love it honestly. Take the power to walk in the forest and be a part of...
More Quotes By Nan Shepherd
- Summer on the high plateau can be delectable as honey; it can also be a roaring scourge. To those who love the place, both are good, since both are part of its essential nature. And it is to know its essential nature that I am...
- Knowing another is endless... The thing to be known grows with the knowing.
- For the most appalling quality of water is its strength. I love its flash and gleam, its music, its pliancy and grace, its slap against my body; but I fear its strength. I fear it as my ancestors must have feared the natural forces that...
- Imagination is haunted by the swiftness of the creatures that live on the mountain - eagle and peregrine falcon, red deer and mountain hare. The reason for their swiftness is severely practical: food is so scarce up there that only those who can move swiftly...