. . . the modern mind . . . has yielded to the inferior magic of facts, numbers, statistics,
and to that sort of empiricism which, in its passion for concreteness, paradoxically
reduces experience to a purely abstract notion of measurable data, having cast aside
the "immeasurable wealth" of authentic experiences of the spirit and imagination.

 

Of all resources the most crucial is Man's spirit.                                   
Not dulled, or lulled, supine, secure, replete, does Man create;       
But out of stern challenge, in sharp excitement, with burning joy; 
Man is the hunter still,                                                                          
though his quarry be a hope, a mystery, a dream . . .                        

[Photograph: Richard M. Emerson from Everest The West Ridge]