
If you risk nothing you gain nothing

Never depend on those luck moments – they are gifts – but instead always build your own back-up plan.

I learnt another valuable lesson that night: listen to the quiet voice inside. Intuition is the noise of the mind.

You can't become a decent horseman until you fall off and get up again, a good number of times. There's life in a nutshell.

If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere.

I miss him still today: his long, whiskery eyebrows, his huge hands and hugs, his warmth, his prayers, his stories, but above all his shining example of how to live and how to die.

Many great people over the centuries have depended on their faith- it is a sign of great strength to need Jesus in your life.

The lesson is, the rewards in life don't always go to the biggest, or the bravest, or the smartest. The rewards go to the dogged; and when your going though hell, to the person who just keeps going.

And if you give your heart to a goal, it will repay you. It's the law of the universe.

Dreams, though, are cheap, and the real task comes when you start putting in place the steps needed to make those dreams a reality.

But I also knew if I could somehow replace my doubt with hope, my fear with courage, and my self-pity with a sense of pride, then I just might be able to do this.

But the winners are those who know that when things get really hard and others start to fall away, that is the time to dig deep and give that little bit extra.

If you want it bad enough, you’ll pass.

Aim to live a wild, generous, full, exciting life—blessing those around you and seeing the good in all.

Our achievements are generally limited only by the beliefs we impose on ourselves.

I wanted to work hard. I wanted to prove myself somehow worthy of the good things I had known.

Sometimes an ember is all we need.

Families are like fudge—mostly sweet with a few nuts!

At this point, my greatest enemy was myself. Self-doubt can be crushing, and sometimes it is hard to see outside the black bubble.

You are wonderfully and powerfully made. In other words: it is no accident you are good at certain things!

Winston Churchill (him again!) once said words to the effect that everyone gets the chance to make their fortune once, but not everybody takes it.

If the person you’re speaking to will think worse or less of the person you’re speaking about, then it’s gossip, so cut it out!

The DS had told us the parameters – run, you pass; walk, you fail.

This is your life. Be bold with it. Live it with energy and purpose in the direction that excites you. Listen to your heart, look for your dreams: they are God-inspired.

These made Trucker and me look back on the summer Selection days as quite balmy and pleasant! It is strange how accustomed you become to hardship, and how what once seemed horrific can soon become mundane.

That fine line between bravery and stupidity is endlessly debated – the difference really doesn’t matter.

Just let me get moving, I thought, and the pumping blood will shake the stiffness and pain from my back and feet.

Sometimes you have just got to tackle these mountains head-on.

Tentative holds no power.

Life rewards the dogged, not the qualified.

A challenge that tested Tom to his limit but in return gave him more than he could ever have imagined.

Empty vessels make the most noise. It is true. The best adventurers and climbers, and the most successful people I know in life, are all great listeners, and they don’t talk too much.

We can’t always choose our circumstances but we can choose how we respond to what life throws at us, and there is power when we realize our ability to alter our destiny.

You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God. Matthew 5, v.2 (The Message Version)

Tentative is no power.

Positive word of warning, though: you might find that once you start eating more of the healthy stuff, your body will no longer like it when you eat the bad stuff.

Their hands were also huge – two massive leathery mitts that looked like hairy wicket keeper’s gloves.

The area became known affectionately by the other recruits as simply: ‘The asshole of the world.

Stick to the fight when you're hardest hit, It's when things seem worst that you must not quit.

Three words that are the beating heart behind why many explorers or adventurers do what they do. ‘Because it’s there.

The young do not know enough to be prudent, and therefore they attempt the impossible – and achieve it, generation after generation.’ Pearl S. Buck