10 of the Most Inspiring Polar Quotes of All Time

We dreamed of Antarctica before we ever saw it. The ancient Greeks, knowing of the existence of the Arctic (even if they hadn’t seen it themselves), theorized that there must be something at the other end of the world to balance things out. “Antarctica” (“opposite Arctic”) was born, at least in the imaginations of humankind.

Fast forward a few thousand years and the North and South Pole would become fixtures in the Heroic Ages of Exploration. People would follow accounts of the famous explorers in their newspapers like we might follow the exploits of our favourite sports starts of today. And also just like today, people would root for their home team to reach the North Passage, the North Pole, or the South Pole first, bringing glory to their country.

Today the Polar Regions are still made of the stuff that adventurers dream of. They’re filled with magical landscapes and unique creatures suited for such harsh environments. 

Happily, it’s a little easier to be a polar adventurer these days. If you’ve ever considered going on a polar adventure of your own, either on an Antarctic or Arctic cruise, maybe these following quotes will help get you out the door.

“Why then do we feel this strange attraction for these Polar Regions, a feeling so powerful and lasting, that when we return home we forget the mental and physical hardships, and want nothing more than to return to them?”

- Jean-Baptiste Charcot, French scientist and doctor.

"[The South Pole] was like visiting Disneyland, Las Vegas and Mars simultaneously."

- Victor Boyarsky, Director of the Russian State Arctic and Antarctic Museum.

"There can be little question, therefore, that polar sledging ranks an easy first as a hunger-producing employment."

- Robert Falcon Scott, Royal British Naval Officer and explorer.

“…The desire for knowledge for its own sake is the one which really counts and there is no field for the collection of knowledge which at the present time can be compared to the Antarctic. Exploration is the physical expression of the Intellectual Passion. And I tell you, if you have the desire for knowledge and the power to give it physical expression, go out and explore.”

"In Antarctica you get to know people so well that in comparison you do not seem to know the people in civilization at all."

"[Penguins] are extraordinarily like children, these little people of the Antarctic world, either like children, or like old men, full of their own importance and late for dinner, in their black tail-coats and white shirt-fronts — and rather portly withal."

- Apsley Cherry-Garrard, British explorer.

"It is better to go skiing and think of God, than go to church and think of sport."

- Fridtjof Nansen, Norwegian humanitarian, diplomat, explorer, scientist, Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

"We must always remember with gratitude and admiration the first sailors who steered their vessels through storms and mists, and increased our knowledge of the lands of ice in the South."

"[Antarctica] looks like a fairy-tale."

- Roald Amundsen, Norwegian explorer.

"If Antarctica were music it would be Mozart. Art, and it would be Michelangelo. Literature, and it would be Shakespeare. And yet it is something even greater; the only place on earth that is still as it should be. May we never tame it."

- Andrew Denton, Australian television producer and presenter, radio host.

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Are the polar regions in your bucketlist? If money is no object, which one do you prefer to go to first? The Arctic or Antarctica? Why?

For other blog entries in the "Bucketlist" series, click here.

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