“Just when things looked their worst, they changed for the best. I have marvelled often at the thin line that divides success from failure and the sudden turn that leads from apparently certain disaster to comparative safety.”
Fortune can turn suddenly; the gap between disaster and survival is often much narrower than it appears.
— Ernest Shackleton, Antarctica
Source: Ernest Shackleton, South: The Story of Shackleton's Last Expedition (1919)
More Proverbs from Antarctica
Difficulties are just things to overcome, after all.
Obstacles are not reasons to stop; they are simply the next problem to solve.
By endurance we conquer.
The Shackleton family motto (Fortitudine Vincimus), which gave the ship Endurance its name — steady persistence, not force, wins in the end.
Optimism is true moral courage.
Choosing to stay hopeful in the face of danger is itself a form of bravery.
A man must shape himself to a new mark directly the old one goes to ground.
When a plan fails, immediately set a new goal rather than dwelling on the loss.
Great God! this is an awful place.
Scott's diary reaction on 17 January 1912, arriving at the South Pole to find Amundsen's Norwegian flag already there.
For God's sake look after our people.
The final line of Scott's diary, written as he and his companions lay dying in their tent, asking that their families be cared for.