Quotes from Mount Everest conqueror Sir Edmund Hillary, who died this morning, aged 88-years old:
* On reaching Everest's summit with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay: "We knocked the bastard off."
* On the 50th anniversary of his climb: "I like to think that I am a very ordinary New Zealander, not terribly bright perhaps, but determined and practical in what I do."
* On being knighted: "It was a tremendous honour, of course, but I had never really approved of titles and couldn't really imagine myself possessing one."
* "I could see myself walking down Broadway, Papakura, in my tattered overalls and the seat out of my pants, and I thought `That's gone forever. I'll have to buy a new pair of overalls now'."
* On being a New Zealander: "In some ways I believe I epitomise the average New Zealander. I have modest abilities, I combine these with a good deal of determination and I rather like to succeed."
* When asked by an Indian reporter if he knew many people saw him as a god: "Well I know I'm not, so it doesn't bother me."
* On ascending the summit, from his book View From The Summit: "I continued cutting a line of steps upwards. Next moment I had moved on to a flattish exposed area of snow with nothing but space in every direction. Tenzing quickly joined me and we looked round in wonder. To our immense satisfaction we realised we had reached the top of the world."
* On reaching the Polar Plateau after leading the first vehicles overland in Antarctica to the South Pole in 1957 and wondering "whether I was heading in the right direction".
"I thought, `well Ed, me boy, we've done it'."
* On why he wanted his ashes scattered in Auckland's Waitemata Harbour: "To be washed gently ashore, maybe on the many pleasant beaches near the place I was born. Then the full circle of my life will be complete."
NZPA
source: newshub archive
