Inspiration for Thru-Hikers
Well, assuming Churchill DID say that - he left out some context. Maybe he assumed his audience - a graduating class, about to leave school and begin their life's work - could provide the context on their own. Maybe he gave them enough credit to be able to figure out that he was talking about never giving up -- ON THINGS THAT MATTER.
The world doesn't care if you complete a thru hike. It's only significant in what it means to you. If you're doing this just for fun, like I would be, you can hike till it's no longer fun. If you're doing it for the challenge, and it's really important to you, then you may want to use those words as your mantra when it starts seeming like an impossible journey....
Impossible journey - that reminds me of a story: It was told to me - not sure it's true.
There was a folk band, 50s and 60s, Kingston Trio. Very successful. Then something happened to one of them - some medical thing with his throat or vocal chords, and he could no longer sing.
Took to drinkin. Time went by, science progressed, and eventually they came up with an operation that could help him. But he was pretty far gone into despair, feeling sorry for himself and into the bottle by now. His friends tried to convince him to go for it, but he wouldn't have it.
Finally one of them set him down and gave him a very powerful, emotional talking-to, how he might as well just go ahead and kill himself since that's what he was doing anyway...
Whatever this friend said, it had an effect, and he stood up, got the courage to have this operation. Which worked. He was able to sing again.
The group reunited. Their first song when they came back - The Impossible Dream