"The road to Hell may be paved with good intentions, but the road to Heaven is paved with lost opportunities. I wanted those years over again. What fun I would have with them:what glorious fun! It was a pity. Well has the Persian said that when we come to die we, remembering that God is merciful, will gnaw our elbows with remorse for thinking of the things we have not done for fear of the Day of Judgement.
And I wanted peaches and syrup - badly."
Apsley Cherry-Garrard in The Worst Journey in the World recounting a near death experience in an antarctic expedition taken in 1911
3 comments:
I'd really like to read that book, Matt. Can you give me the name again? I can't remember it.
Cheers, sweet quote.
and another thing: In reading that, do you think that no one these days writes like that? The words chosen, which is understandable since vocabulary goes in and out of style, but phrasing and how he connects things that, to me, seem random are connected like they're common. I find reading old texts difficult because our culture has changed so rapidly, but I enjoy it.
People really don't write like that- you're right. But in part, we've abandoned the study of truly classical literature (greek/roman) which provided the exceptionally literate explorer with an incredible wealth of history to draw on. It is tough to read, but that's one of the good parts about the anthology - it's all in limited doses.
Again, it's Points Unknown and it's published by Outside Books.
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