Great Throughts Treasury

This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.

Ernest Shackleton, fully Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton

Irish Polar Explorer

"Optimism is true moral courage."

"A man must shape himself to a new mark directly the old one goes to ground."

"Difficulties are just things to overcome."

"After months of want and hunger, we suddenly found ourselves able to have meals fit for the gods, and with appetites the gods might have envied."

"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."

"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"

"I have often marveled at the thin line which separates success from failure."

"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."

"If I had not some strength of will I would make a first class drunkard."

"Leadership is a fine thing, but it has its penalties. And the greatest penalty is loneliness."

"Now my eyes are turned from the South to the North, and I want to lead one more Expedition. This will be the last... to the North Pole."

"If you're a leader, a fellow that other fellows look to, you've got to keep going."

"Men Wanted: For hazardous journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honor and recognition in case of success."

"It would be, I considered, so much better for the men to feel that they were progressing—even if the progress was slow—towards land and safety, than simply to sit down and wait for the tardy north-westerly drift to take us from the cruel waste of ice."

"Superhuman effort isn't worth a damn unless it achieves results."

"Thank you men."

"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."

"We had seen God in His splendors, heard the text that Nature renders. We had reached the naked soul of man."

"You often have to hide from them not only the truth, but your feelings about the truth. You may know that the facts are dead against you, but you mustn’t say so."