— But even though the top was no more than sixty minutes above, he decided to turn around, believing that he would be too tired to descend safely if he climbed any higher. To turn around close to the summit...showed incredibly good judgment. With enough determination, any bloody idiot can get up this hill. The trick is to get back down alive.
— Unfortunately, the sort of individual who's programmed to ignore personal distress and keep pushing to the top is frequently programmed to disregard signs of grave and imminent danger as well. This forms the nub of a dilemma that every Everest climber eventually comes up against: in order to succeed you must be exceedingly driven, but if you're too driven you're likely to die.
Into Thin Air | Jon Krakauer
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