Apsley Cherry-Garrard

“Polar exploration is at once the cleanest and most isolated way of having a bad time which has been devised.”

The famous opening line of The Worst Journey in the World, wryly summing up the suffering of Antarctic expedition life.

“If you march your Winter Journeys you will have your reward, so long as all you want is a penguin's egg.”

A dry, self-aware remark on how disproportionate the extreme suffering of the Cape Crozier winter journey was to its modest scientific prize.

“For a joint scientific and geographical piece of organization, give me Scott; for a Winter Journey, Wilson; for a dash to the Pole and nothing else, Amundsen: and if I am in the devil of a hole and want to get out of it, give me Shackleton every time.”

Each of the great Antarctic leaders had a different strength; Cherry-Garrard's tribute ranks Shackleton above all others in a true crisis.

“And I tell you, if you have the desire for knowledge and the power to give it physical expression, go out and explore.”

Curiosity paired with the will to act is reason enough to venture into the unknown.

“It is so easy to be afraid of being afraid!”

Fear of fear itself can be more paralyzing than the danger that provoked it.

“And if the worst, or best, happens, and Death comes for you in the snow, he comes disguised as Sleep, and you greet him rather as a welcome friend than a gruesome foe.”

Death by freezing is often gentle rather than terrifying, arriving quietly as exhaustion overtakes fear.

“All the world loves a penguin. I think it is because in many respects they are like ourselves, and in some respects they are what we should like to be.”

Penguins charm people because their odd dignity mirrors both human foibles and human aspirations.

“The question constantly put to us in civilization was and still is: "What is the use? Is there gold? or Is there coal?" The commercial spirit of the present day can see no good in pure science.”

A rebuke of the assumption that discovery is only worthwhile when it yields immediate profit.