Nice Amundsen quote. And, not to speak ill of the dead, but if you study some of the things that went wrong with the Scott expedition and compare them to the Amundsen expedition, that quote becomes all the more meaningful.
I've actually read a bit about the differences between the 2 expeditions; it was from that reading that I picked up this quote. The context definitely makes the quote much richer.
I think its valuable to learn from the successes and failures of the past, and that we can do so without being disrespectful of those who failed.