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The first
question which you will ask and which I must try to answer is this,
'What is the use of climbing Mount Everest ?' and my answer must
at once be, 'It is no use'. There is not the slightest prospect
of any gain whatsoever. Oh, we may learn a little about the behavior
of the human body at high altitudes, and possibly medical men may
turn our observation to some account for the purposes of aviation.
But otherwise nothing will come of it. We shall not bring back a
single bit of gold or silver, not a gem, nor any coal or iron. We
shall not find a single foot of earth that can be planted with crops
to raise food. It's no use.
So, if you
cannot understand that there is something in man which responds
to the challenge of this mountain and goes out to meet it, that
the struggle is the struggle of life itself upward and forever upward,
then you won't see why we go. What we get from this adventure is
just sheer joy. And joy is, after all, the end of life. We do not
live to eat and make money. We eat and make money to be able to
enjoy life. That is what life means and what life is for.
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