Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton was a British polar explorer who led three British expeditions to the Antarctic, and one of the principal figures of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. Born in Kilkea, County Kildare, Ireland, Shackleton, and his family moved to Sydenham in suburban south London when he was ten. His first experience of the polar regions was as third officer on Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s Discovery Expedition 1901–1904, from which he was sent home early on health grounds after he and his companions Scott and Edward Adrian Wilson set a new southern record by marching to latitude 82°S. During the second expedition 1907–1909 he and three companions established a new record Farthest South latitude at 88°S, only 97 geographical miles (112 statute miles, 180 km) from the South Pole, the largest advance to the pole in exploration history. Also, members of his team climbed Mount Erebus, the most active Antarctic volcano. For these achievements, Shackleton was knighted by King Edward VII on his return home. May his quotes inspire you to take action so that you may live your dreams.
1. “Through endurance we conquer.” Ernest Shackleton
2. “Opportunity of winning food and shelter, man can live and even find his laughter ringing true.” Ernest Shackleton
3. “The questions are always more important than the answers.” Ernest Shackleton
4. “Must reduce blubber consumption.” Ernest Shackleton
5. “No person who has not spent a period of his life in those ‘stark and sullen solitudes, that sentinel, the Pole’ will understand fully what trees and flowers, sun-flecked turf and running streams mean to the soul of a man.” Ernest Shackleton
6. “Need to put footstep of courage into stirrup of patience.” Ernest Shackleton
7. “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.” Ernest Shackleton
8. “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.” Ernest Shackleton
9. “Teachers should be very careful not to spoil their pupils’ taste for poetry for all time by making it a task and an imposition.” Ernest Shackleton
10. “If you’re a leader, a fellow that other fellows look to, you’ve got to keep going.” Ernest Shackleton
11. “Loneliness is the penalty of leadership, but the man who has to make the decisions is assisted greatly if he feels that there is no uncertainty in the minds of those who follow him and that his orders will be carried out confidently and in expectation of success.” Ernest Shackleton
12. “The last day of the old year: May the new one bring us good fortune, a safe deliverance from this anxious time and all good things to those we love so far away.” Ernest Shackleton
13. “If I had not some strength of will I would make a first class drunkard.” Ernest Shackleton
14. “Men are not made from easy victories, but based on great defeats.” Ernest Shackleton
15. “Life to me is the greatest of all games. The danger lies in treating it as a trivial game, a game to be taken lightly, and a game in which the rules don’t matter much. The rules matter a great deal. The game has to be played fairly or it is no game at all. And even to win the game is not the chief end. The chief end is to win it honorably and splendidly.” Ernest Shackleton
16. “Oh for a touch of dry land under our feet.” Ernest Shackleton
17. “When things are easy, I hate it.” Ernest Shackleton
18. “The outstanding feature of today’s march is that we have seen new land to the South never seen by human eyes before great snow-clad heights which we did not see on our journey South on the last expedition for we were too close to the land or rather foothills and now at the great distance we are out they can plainly be seen.” Ernest Shackleton
19. “I seemed to vow to myself that someday I would go to the region of ice and snow and go on and on till I came to one of the poles of the earth, the end of the axis upon which this great round ball turns.” Ernest Shackleton
20. “Better a live donkey than a dead lion.” Ernest Shackleton
21. “I believe it is in our nature to explore, to reach out into the unknown.” Ernest Shackleton
22. “The only true failure would be not to explore at all.” Ernest Shackleton
23. “A man must shape himself to a new mark when the old one goes to ground.” Ernest Shackleton
24. “We had seen God in His splendors, heard the text that Nature renders. We had reached the naked soul of man.” Ernest Shackleton
25. “Our spoons are one of our indispensable possessions here. To lose one’s spoon would be almost as serious as it is for an edentate person to lose his set of false teeth.” Ernest Shackleton
26. “I had a dream when I was 22 that someday I would go to the region of ice and snow and go on and on till I came to one of the poles of the earth.” Ernest Shackleton
27. “Optimism is true moral courage.” Ernest Shackleton
28. “One feels ‘the dearth of human words, the roughness of mortal speech’ in trying to describe things intangible.” Ernest Shackleton
29. “I heard one man say, “Cook, I like my tea strong.” Another joined in, “Cook, I like mine weak.” It was pleasant to know that their minds were untroubled, but I thought the time opportune to mention that the tea would be the same for all hands and that we would be fortunate if two months later we had any tea at all.” Ernest Shackleton
30. “For scientific discovery give me Scott; for speed and efficiency of travel give me Amundsen; but when disaster strikes and all hope is gone, get down on your knees and pray for Shackleton.” Ernest Shackleton
31. “Difficulties are just things to overcome.” Ernest Shackleton
32. “No one asks how to motivate a baby. A baby naturally explores everything it can get at unless restraining forces have already been at work. And this tendency doesn’t die out, it’s wiped out.” Ernest Shackleton
33. “I have often marveled at the thin line which separates success from failure.” Ernest Shackleton
34. “Superhuman effort isn’t worth a damn unless it achieves results.” Ernest Shackleton
35. “The world is a huge place. How will you know where you fit in unless you explore beyond your comfort zone?” Ernest Shackleton
