My father had been a Wehrmacht officer in the second world war and was a violent and damaged man.

I learned to ski in the Dolomites at the age of five. Ski lifts didn't exist then, so I did everything on foot.

I produce schnapps on my farm but I'm not fond of drinking it.

Albert Frederick Mummery and Chris Bonington are the British climbers I most admire.

Fame is very heavy. When there are large crowds, I'm unable to handle it.

A 30-year-old rock climber is an old man. At 40, one is in the middle of his high-altitude power. At 50, a crosser of deserts is at his best age. But at 60, each of us is out of the game.

For me, imagination is more important in climbing than muscle or daredevil antics.

I became famous for the fact that I would break many, many limits. People said, 'He does all these crazy things.' But oddly it was a crazy thing only because scientists and climbers said, 'Everest and the 8,000-meter peaks without oxygen - impossible. Messner is becoming sick in his head.'

I'm a rock climber, a high-altitude climber, an adventurer, a storyteller through my museums, and a writer of more than 50 books.

Before kids, I was really going to the limit. Afterwards, I was approaching the limit but then maybe turning around.

Around half of the top alpinists have died climbing. Of course if I'm careful and turn back more often than the others, I can increase my chances of survival. But if I hadn't been lucky a few times, I wouldn't be here.

I was always at my best when I was learning, when I was curious. When I had yet to see past the next horizon.

In politics, you have to compromise from morning to evening. Democracy is the art of compromise.

My brother is in me. When we remember somebody else, in a certain way they are still alive. I see my brother - he is still young - looking to the Dolomites where we did our ascents. I remember those moments, so he is still together with me.

I have the feeling that behind a certain dimension we cannot anymore see, understand, feel, smell, hear - nothing. What people are calling God I am not defining, but I am a 'possibilitiest.'

I am not so famous. I'm known in a few countries like Italy, Austria, Germany, Switzerland and around the Alps. Some climbers in Beijing know my name, and some in America, but I am not really famous. It's very relative, my fame.

There is no joy involved in climbing mountains, there is simply the challenge, the self-invented challenge, the play.

The art of climbing is the art of survival. The best climber is the man or woman going in the most crazy places but surviving.

There are periods on the mountain when you exist between living and dying, sometimes for days. I went through that with my brother on Nanga Parbat. It is very difficult, but it is the most intense experience. And always after such experiences, when I was back among people, I felt I had been reborn.

First, I am afraid to die and I love to live. But an adventure is only an adventure when there is the threat of dying.

The mountains are dangerous. Only an unintelligent person will say they are not dangerous.

An account of an expedition is not a novel. Therefore an authentic account can never be given, let alone written down by someone who was not present.

The cliches that circulate in the German media about Joachim Sauer are a total fallacy. The fact is that he's his own man. He's witty, he's profound, he can be incredibly funny, and he's an extremely bright guy.

In mountaineering, there is not only the activity, but the philosophy behind it. Some say a moral, but I am against that because all morality is dangerous.

I am a South Tyrolean. I identify with this land.

Mountains are not fair or unfair - they are dangerous.

All nationalism is dangerous; all religions are dangerous.

I have a very different fear if I'm all alone in the summit area of Mount Everest and if I know that there is nothing below me, no Sherpa, no tent, no rope.

The best climbers no longer go to the 8000ers, but to the most difficult mountains in the world which are 6000 or 7000-meter-peaks. There they find any kind of playground. But it is a pity that the really good climbers have fewer opportunities to finance their expeditions because so much attention is taken away by the Everest tourists.

Crossing the Gobi was a real milestone for me.

At 30 I was not quiet enough inside myself. At 40 I was not rich enough. At 50 I was still hoping to change the world.

All the Yeti footprints are all the same bear. The Yeti isn't a fantastic figure. The Yeti is reality.

People don't like reality, they like crazy stories.

The art of climbing is to go where you go knowing that you could die, but you don't die. That is adventure.

The Slovenians are the very best climbers in the world.

When I held in my hands the remains of Gunther, I had a strong feeling, like a phantom pain of an amputee.

I am not an anarchist, but I am anarchistical.

Gunther and I always shared the work. Each of us carried his own sleeping bag and tent, and porters carried the rest, until the highest camp, when we were on our own. Nobody helped us up there.

On your own, relying on yourself, you will never feel you are stronger than the mountain, and your respect for the peak grows.

I am not so proud to climb all the 8,000-meter peaks, but I was proud to climb Nanga Parbat solo. That was the most elegant thing I did.

Life is about daring to carry out your ideas. And for me, it always comes back to the wilderness, nature, mountains.

A tourist follows a trail; a mountaineer finds one.

A good expedition doesn't need a leader at all. You are deciding day by day, discussing it in a democratic way.

Once you lose your credibility, you can never restore it.

I am not made for lonely expeditions. In the sixties, I climbed during the day so I wouldn't have to be alone. I finally learned to stay up for weeks in the high altitude all by my own without being afraid.

I can't tell people to love mountains. They have to find their own way.

The true alpinist doesn't want any infrastructure, he wants to go into the wild. And the odds of getting killed there are relatively high. And most people are sensible enough not to want that.

By climbing mountains we were not learning how big we were. We were finding out how breakable, how weak and how full of fear we are.

I have been in the most dangerous of places just in order to survive. An intelligent man would stay in a safe place to survive.

Climbing is all about freedom, the freedom to go beyond all the rules and take a chance, to experience something new, to gain insight into human nature.