Quotes from Alastair Humphreys

At King Henry's Mound there is a perfect, uninterrupted view – created in 1710 – through a gap in the trees and all the way across the city to St Paul's Cathedral. It is a view that is protected by law. Protecting magnificent views is proof that the law is not, always, an ass.

If you want to do difficult, exciting things on life then you have to carefully but regularly test what you are really able to do. You have to think whether a risk is worth taking, or if it is just silly. And you neet to be brave, trying out things that you previously felt might be too hard. If you do these things often, you'll start to understand that you are capable of more than you ever imagined. You really. We all are.

But I was too hungry to think very deeply. I looked around the plaza, weighing up my chances, and rubbed the bow with rosin to give it grip. You need friction to play beautiful notes.

God, it was a relief to let go of what I thought I should be. To just accept who I actually was, vulnerabilities and all. I

When you travel, the world comes real and three-dimensional, impossibly vivid

The life that I could still live, I should live and the thoughts that I could still think, I should think

I am more at peace with myself and the world when I spend an extended period outdoors

It is easy to begin but hard to stick at, which is why I respect anyone who has completed a long hike. You learn a lot, someone, by hiking in the hills

If you want to do difficult, exciting things in life then you have to carefully but regularly test what you are really able to do. You have to think whether a risk is worth taking, or if it is just silly. And you neet to be brave, trying out things that you previously felt might be too hard. If you do these things often, you'll start to understand that you are capable of more than you ever imagined. You really. We all are.

I now believe there is something even more important than striving for the remarkable. And that is to stop dreaming about an adventure of a lifetime, and instead pursue a lifetime of living adventure through a daily pledge to push myself a little, scare myself now and then and remain curious

If you want to do difficult, exciting things in life then you have to carefully but regularly test what you are really able to do. You have to think whether a risk is worth taking, or if it is just silly. And you neet to be brave, trying out things that you previously felt might be too hard. If you do these things often, you'll start to understand that you are capable of more than you ever imagined. You really are. We all are.

Maps are an invitation to adventure. Snow was falling and I was in a grubby, windowless room next to a pig. That was not on my map.

Life is too brief and too rich to tiptoe through half-heartedly, rather than galloping at it with whooping excitement and ambition.

You do not need to fly to the other side of the planet to find wilderness and beauty.