Saturday, September 22, 2007

Sir Edmund Hillary on His Most Worthwhile Things in Life

Greg Mortensen recalls hearing Sir Edmund Hillary, speaking at an American Himalayan Association event in San Francisco in September 1995:

“I don’t know if I particularly want to be remembered for anything,” he heard Hillary say. “I have enjoyed great satisfaction from my climb of Everest. But my most worthwhile things have been the building of schools and medical clinics. That has given me more satisfaction than a footprint on a mountain.”

Source: Greg Mortensen and David Oliver Relin, Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace…One School at a Time (New York: Penguin Books, 2006), 129-130.

Image: Sir Edmund Hillary