Tim Cope Quotes

Mongolia is a country of rich and ancient heritage, unique culture and astounding natural beauty. It is a land of free and brave, peace-loving and hard-working people.

Mongolia is a country of only three million souls. One million of them live in Ulaanbaatar, where, despite the skyscrapers, half the population sleep in tents. One of the few Mongolians to become famous outside his home country is Ariunbaatar Ganbaatar, who won the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World prize.

My son, Gio, wanted to do a horseback trip in Mongolia, but he didn't want to do an Abercrombie & Fitch-type tour, where they show you around while you sleep in B&Bs.

Most of what you see now emphasizes animals being dangerous to humans.

The English may love gardening and fishing, but they have never struck me as being close to nature. Their way of expression is 'the hollyhocks are awfully good' sort of thing, all done in very good taste. The savagery of nature is something they don't dwell upon.

I have spent time in Mongolia, in China.

In 2007, I did a horseback trip across part of central Mongolia with my 13-year-old son - we encountered Marco Polo at all these historical places where Mongolian nomads would reference his accounts and his relationship with Kublai Khan.

Some environmentalists have had the feeling that Indians are not good stewards. I've always been critical of that.

The best thing to do is just leave them alone. Alligators want to be away from you just as much as you want to be away from them.

I am struck by the wild character of this land and, as the Kazak herders often do, I have the urge to sing.

I think the nomads really give us inspiration about how we can live in harmony with our environment.

If you take the time to visit rural regions, where horsemen ride by and yurts are set up in summer meadows, you will come to know that the Kazak culture lives on.

My dream was to ride a horse from Mongolia to Hungary, 10,000 km across the great Eurasian Steppe, and in doing so, come to understand the nomadic cultures that have presided there for thousands of years.

Riding the trail of ancient nomad societies from Mongolia across the Eurasian steppe to the still-distant Danube River in Hungary, I had grappled with the harsh realities of Central Asia - where seasonal temperatures range from -52C to the mid-40s - and come to appreciate the ancient and symbiotic relationship nomads share with their environment.

The Khoton people are a small minority group of Mongolians renowned for living a traditional nomad life in the remote slopes and valleys of the Kharkhiraa-Turgen mountain range.

Last year, I reviewed a nine-hour documentary about the lives of Mongolian yak herdsmen, and I would rather see it again than sit through The Frighteners.

I took my little brother, and we went from Beijing to Ulan Bator, and then took a helicopter to the southern Gobi. Streams, grass, and sand dunes to climb. It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. Everybody needs to go to Mongolia just to see what it is to be a human being again.

If you see me in a fight with a bear, pray for the bear.

A British imperium enabled Scots to feel themselves peers of the Ebglish in a way still denied them in an island kingdom. The language bears that out very clearly. The English and the foreign are still all too inclined to refer to the island of Great Britain as 'England'. But at no time have they ever customarily referred to an English empire.

What is valuable is not new, and what is new is not valuable.

Besides, humans aren't prey. They are our natural enemies. They are to be avoided.

Good wine needs no bush; a jug is the thing.

Carl Jung tells in one of his books of a conversation he had with a Native American chief who pointed out to him that in his perception most white people have tense faces, staring eyes, and a cruel demeanor. He said: “They are always seeking something. What are they seeking? The whites always want something. They are always uneasy and restless. We don't know what they want. We think they are mad.

I could tell Hugo was convinced that he would get to walk back up these stairs: after all, he was a civilized person. These were all civilized people. Hugo really couldn't imagine that anything irreparable could happen to him, because he was a middle-class white American with a college education, as were all the people on the stairs with us. I had no such conviction. I was not a wholly civilized person.

Wisdom consists in being able to distinguish among dangers and make a choice of the least harmful.