If you want to build a ship,
don't herd people together to collect wood
and don't assign them tasks and work,
but rather teach them to long
for the endless immensity of the sea.
  - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

A life is not important
except in the impact it has on other lives.
   - Jackie Robinson, #42.

A good coach
will make his players see
what they can be
rather than what they are.
   - Ara Parashegian

Courage is fear holding on a minute longer.
   - George S. Patton

The talent has developed,
the knack is still there.
   - 2008 Olympic sportscaster

The difference between
a successful person and others
is not a lack of strength,
nor a lack of knowledge,
but rather a lack of will.
   - Vince Lombardi

Don't let your fears
make your decisions for you.

It's NOT Practice Makes Perfect...
It's Perfect Practive Makes Perfect.
   - Vince Lombardi

It’s the training followed by recovery
and eating right, sleeping right,
being morally straight,
and honest and pure in heart, mind and deed.
   - Dave Barnhart

Experience tells you what to do...
confidence allows you to do it.
   - Stan Smith, Former pro tennis player

Class is an aura of confidence
that is being sure without being cocky.
Class has nothing to do with money.
Class never runs scared.
It is self-discipline and self-knowledge.
It's the surefootedness that comes
with having proved you can meet life.
   - Ann Landers

It is best to act with confidence,
no matter how little right you have to it.
   - Lillian Hellman (1907 - 1984)

Self-esteem is so delicate a flower
that praise tends to make it bloom,
while discouragement often nips it in the bud.
   - Alex F. Osborn (1888 - 1966), Writer

While one person hesitates
because he feels inferior,
the other is busy making mistakes
and becoming superior.
   - Henry C. Link

I will no longer listen
to the negative self-talk that clutters my head.
I choose to replace it with the message
that I CAN do it.
I have succeeded before, and I can do it again.
I AM the body beautiful.

Believe in yourself!
Have faith in your abilities!
Without a humble but reasonable confidence
in your own powers
you cannot be successful or happy.
   - Norman Vincent Peale

It's not what you are that holds you back,
it's what you think you are not.
   - Denis Waitley

Think about how much stronger
the hill is making you,
not how much it hurts.

Things turn out best
for the people
who make the best
out of the way things turn out.
   - Art Linkletter

Life is available to anyone
no matter what age.
All you have to do is grab it.
   - Art Carney

They say that time always changes things,
but you actually have to change them yourself.
   - Andy Warhol (1928-1987)

I never wanted to set records.
The only thing I strived for was perfection.
   - Wilt Chamberlain (1936-1999)

If you think you're the only one pulling,
you would stay in the ditch.

If you can get a glimpse
of a larger vision of yourself,
of who you really are,
of what it is you bring to the planet,
of your specialness,
then the world will never be the same again.
   - Mr. Washington

Someday, you will be a great man.
   - Brother James Bonilla

Someone's bad opinion of you
does not have to become your reality.

Look at a man the way that he is
and he only becomes worse.
But look at him as if he were what he could be,
and then he becomes what he should be.
   - Goethe

People who wait for something to turn up
might start with their own shirtsleeves.

The greatest pleasure in life
is doing what people say you cannot do.
   - Walter Bagehot (1826-1877), Journalist and economist

The wise man in the storm prays to God,
not for safety from danger,
but for deliverance from fear.
   - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Some people will see the light
only when they feel the heat.

When people are highly motivated,
it's easy to accomplish the impossible.
And when they're not,
it's impossible to accomplish the easy.
   - Bob Collings

If Columbus had turned back,
no one would have blamed him.
No one would have remembered him either.

Incentive is everything:
The rabbit is running for his life
I am only running for my dinner.

You get the best effort from others
not by lighting a fire beneath them,
but by building a fire within.
   - Bob Nelson

Like what you do.
If you don't like it,
do something else.
   - Paul Harvey

You never achieve real success
unless you like what you are doing.
   - Dale Carnegie

If you want to be first-class,
you've got to act first-class.
   - Joe Namath

Hard training,
easy combat.
Easy training,
hard combat.
   - Marshal Suvorov, Russian General

Cry Havoc
and let slip the dogs of war.
   - Shakespeare's Julius Caesar

Superficial goals
lead to superficial results.
   - Attila the Hun

The secret is this:
there is no secret.
   - John L. Parker, runner

Perfection is not attainable,
but if we chase perfection
we can catch excellence.
   - Vince Lombardi

To exercise at or near capacity
is the best way I know
of reaching a true introspective state.
If you do it right,
it can open all kinds of inner doors.
   - Al Oerter, 4 time Olympic Gold Medalist

Part of the beauty
and much of the moral seriousness of sport
derives from the severe justice
of strenuous play
in a circumscribed universe of rules
that protect the integrity of competition.
Records are worth recording
and worth striving to surpass
because they serve
as benchmarks of excellence
achieved under the pressure of competition.
   - George F. Will

Often the true test of courage
is not to die but to live
   - Count Vittorio Alfieri

You have to go into the jungle,
find the lion
and spit in his face...
then shoot him.
You guys are not good enough
to win on talent alone...
you have to want it.
   - Herbie Brooks, coach of the 1980 US Olympic hockey team

It's a dream
until you write it down
and then its a goal.
   - Anonymous

Vision without action is a dream.
Action without vision is aimless.
Vision with action will achieve.
   - Anonymous

Action without thought
is a form of insanity
Thought without action
is a crime.
   - Albert Einstein

ou never fail,
you simply produce results.
Learn from these.
   - Anonymous

Failure
is the path of least persistence.
   - Anonymous

I have not failed 10,000 times.
I have successfully found 10,000 ways
that will not work.
   - Thomas Edison

Today, the most common form of physical ABUSE
is DISUSE.
   - Stephen Seiler

He's soft and he's fat
and he's wearing my clothes
and he's getting too old
and he was born on my birthday
and I'm afraid if I stop running,
he'll catch up with me.
   - Nike poster of masters athlete motivation

When a person trains once,
nothing happens.
When a person forces himself
to do a thing a hundred or a thousand times,
then he certainly has developed
in more ways than physical.
Is it raining? That doesn't matter.
Am I tired? That doesn't matter, either.
Then willpower will be no problem.
   - Emil Zatopek

Those who think they have no time
for bodily exercise
will sooner or later
have to find time for illness.
   - Edward Stanley (1826-1893)

Training is principally an act of faith.
The athlete must believe in its efficacy.
He must believe that through training
he will become fitter and stronger,
that by constant repetition of the same movements
he will become more skillful
and his muscles more relaxed.
He must be a fanatic for hard work
and enthusiastic enough to enjoy it.
   - Franz Stampfl

Running: running: hear the beat!
Busting lungs and pounding feet.
Straining: gaining: 'til your done:
Or you have the race well-won.
Racing: Pacing: rather die:
Than give up or let them by.
   - Percy Cerutty

Some men can run the fastest,
jump the highest
or lift the heaviest
but no man has the corner
on ambition, desire, and hustle.
   - Anonymous

Belief is the thermostat
that regulates all success.
   - anonymous

Trample the weak.
Hurdle the dead.
   - unknown

The desire to win
is born in most of us.
The will to win
is a matter of training.
The manner of winning
is a matter of honour.
   - Margaret Thatcher

Risk more than others think is safe.
Care more than others think is wise.
Dream more than others think is practical.
Expect more than others think is possible.
   - Unknown

If you love what you do,
you won't work a day in your life.
   - origin unknown

Security is mostly a superstition.
It is not found in nature
and children of man
do not as a whole experience it.
Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run
than outright exposure.
Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.
   - Helen Keller

There are some who are born scared, afraid
and not willing to show some sack or guts.
We eat those people for breakfast.
   - NO FEAR T-shirt

A true warrior never fights
without a purpose that is greater than oneself.
   - T. Harv Eker

Wisdom is better than strength.
And a wise man is better than a strong man.
   - Book of Wisdom 6:1

The credit belongs to the man
who is actually in the arena...
whose face is marred by sweat and blood...
who strives valiantly...
who errs and comes short again and again
because there is no effort
without error and shortcoming...
who knows the great enthusiasms,
the great devotion,
spends himself in a worthy cause...
who at best knows in the end
the triumph of high achievement
and who at worst, if he fails,
at least fails while daring greatly,
so that his place shall never be
with those cold and timid souls
who have never tasted victory or defeat.
   - Theodore Roosevelt

One cannot consent to creep
when one feels an impulse to soar.
- Helen Keller

If one advances confidently
in the direction of his dreams
and endeavors to live the life
which he has imagined,
he will meet
with the success unexpected in common hours.
   - Henry David Thoreau

If you believe in yourself,
have dedication and pride and never quit,
you'll be a winner.
The price of victory is high,
but so are the rewards.
   - Paul "Bear" Bryant, Alabama coach

There will come a point in the race,
when you alone will need to decide.
You will need to make a choice.
Do you really want it?
You will need to decide.
   - Rolf Arandsv

Habits are cobwebs at first...
cables at last.
   - Chinese Proverb

Things may come to those who wait,
but only the things left by those who hustle.
   - Abraham Lincoln

We may affirm absolutely
that nothing great in the world
has been accomplished without passion.
   - Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

Bodily exercise,
when compulsory,
does no harm to the body...
but knowledge
which is acquired under compulsion
obtains no hold on the mind.
   - Plato's The Republic

That which we achieve too easily,
we esteem too lightly.
   - Thomas Paine

If your mind can conceive it
and your heart can believe it,
you can achieve it.
   - everybody's mother

It is hard to soar with the eagles,
when you're living with a bunch of turkeys.
   - everybody's boss

Before the beginning of great brilliance,
there must be chaos.
Before a brilliant person begins something great,
they must look foolish to the crowd.
   - I Ching

Everyone has the desire to win,
but only champions have the desire to prepare.
   - everybody in a marathon

I would rather be ashes than dust.
I would rather that spark should burn out
in a brilliant blaze
than it should be stilled by dry rot.
I would rather be a superb meteor,
every atom of me in a significant glow,
than a sleepy and permanent planet.
The proper function of man is to live,
not to exist.
   - Jack London

The important thing in the Olympic Games
is not to win but to take part,
the important thing in life
is not the triumph but the struggle.
The essential thing is
not to have conquered
but to have fought well.
To spread these precepts
is to build up
a stronger, more valiant,
more scrupulous and more generous humanity.
   - Pierre De Coubertin

Youth passes,
but immaturity can last a lifetime.
   - unknown

Far better it is to dare mighty things,
to win glorious triumphs,
even though checkered by failure...
than to rank with those poor spirits
who neither enjoy much nor suffer much,
because they live in a grey twilight
that knows not victory nor defeat.
   - Theodore Roosevelt

It is that little bit of insanity
that keeps us all sane.
   - Kevin Cunningham

The heights which great men reached and kept
were not attained by sudden flight.
They, whilst their companions slept,
were toiling upwards in the night.
   - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

There's No Easy Way
   - Allan Wells, 1980 Olympic 100m Champion

One shouldn't be afraid to lose...
this is sport.
One day you win...
another day you lose.
Of course, everyone wants to be the best.
This is normal.
This is what sport is about.
This is why I love it.
   - Olympic Gold Medalist Oksana Baiul

You are all Champions in your own way.
That doesn't mean
you have to be number 1 or be the best.
Just do your best.
If you aren't first,
then make those people ahead of you
break records
by pushing them with your personal best.
Consider for a moment
what we achieve from athletics,
the sheer fun of competing,
the building of a healthy and alert mind and body,
stamina, courage, perseverance, dedication,
commitment, selflessness
and most importantly,
the will to excel.
- unknown

All men dream, but not equally.
Those who dream by night
in the dusty recesses of their minds
wake in the day to find out it was vanity.
But the dreamers of the day
are dangerous men,
for they may act their dreams with open eyes,
to make it possible.
   - T.H. Lawrence

People are able
to wonder at the height of mountains,
and the huge waves of the sea,
the vast compass of the ocean,
at the circular motion of the stars,
and then pass by themselves
without wondering at all.
   - St. Augustine

He who has no time for his health today
will have no health for his tomorrow.
   - unknown

Everything unpleasant is developmental.
   - Kaikki vittumainen kehittää.

Progress stops upon satisfaction.
   - Kehitys loppuu tyytyväisyyteen

Mind is everything...
muscle-pieces of rubber.
All that I am,
I am because of my mind.    - Paavo Nurmi

If not you, who?
If not now, when?
   - Garry Herbert, Olympic rower

If you race merely
for the tributes from others,
you will be
at the mercy of their expectations.
   - Scott Tinley

Life is not a journey to the grave
with the intention of arriving safely
in a pretty and well-preserved body,
but rather to skid in broadside,
thoroughly used up, totally worn out
and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a ride!"

It is a sublime thing
to suffer and be stronger.
   - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

It aint the size of the dog in the fight,
it's the size of the fight in the dog.
- as old a backroom proverb as there is

We are all lying in the gutter
but some of us are looking at the stars.
   - Oscar Wilde, Olympic Rower

The 5 Ss of sports training are:
stamina,
speed,
strength,
skill, and
spirit...
but the greatest of these is spirit.
   - Ken Doherty

Actions speak louder than coaches.
   - Speedo ad

When all you have is no chance,
you still have that.
   - unknown

The view from the summit
is worth the effort.
   - unknown

We run, not because we think it is doing us good, but because we enjoy it and cannot help ourselves. The more restricted our society and work become, the more necessary it will be to find some outlet for this craving for freedom. No one can say, 'You must not run faster than this, or jump higher than that.' The human spirit is indomitable.
   - Sir Roger Bannister

Insanity
is doing the same thing
you've always done
and expecting different results.
   - Roger Milliken

I find
that the harder I work,
the more luck I seem to have.
   - Thomas Jefferson

Nothing can stop the man
with the right mental attitude
from achieving his goal,
nothing on earth
can help the man
with the wrong attitude.
   - Thomas Jefferson

If a man does his best,
what else is there?
   - George S. Patton

Do
or do not.
There is no 'Try.'
   - Yoda, The Empire Strikes Back

The more I talk to athletes,
the more convinced I become
that the method of training
is relatively unimportant.
There are many ways to the top,
and the training method you choose
is just the one that suits you best.
No, the important thing
is the attitude of the athlete,
the desire to get to the top.
   - Herb Elliot

We are indeed Masters.
We are professors.
We are professionals.
We have come into maturity.
And we have matured
doing what appears to be childish things.
Nevertheless our ability to live
with questions and without solutions
began when we took to the roads.
Our belief in ourselves
and in the living of our own lives
developed through our running.
It was running
that released
the treasures in our subconscious
and gave us the creativity
to put these treasures in substantial form.
Keep running, the best is yet to come.
   - George Sheehan

Sweet is Pleasure after Pain.
   - Dirigo Rowing Shell ad

Let us run with patience
the race that is set before us.
   - Hebrews 12:1

At the peak of tremendous effort,
while the blood is pounding in your head,
all suddenly comes quiet within you.
Everything seems clearer than ever before,
as if great spotlights had been turned on.
At that moment,
you have the conviction
that you contain all the power in the world,
that you are capable of everything,
that you have wings.
There is no more precise moment in life than this,
the White Moment,
and you will work hard for years
just to taste it again.
   - Yuri Vlason

Obstacles
are those frightening things
that become visible
when we take our eyes off our goals.
   - Henry Ford

Don’t bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors.
Try to be better than yourself.
   - William Faulkner

Life does not require us
to be the biggest or the best,
it asks only that we try.
   - Author unknown

Success isn't permanent
and failure isn't fatal.
   - Mike Ditka

Success
is getting up one more time
than you fall down.
   - Author Unknown

Anything worth doing
is worth doing poorly
until you learn to do it well.
   - Steve Brown

Rather have a bad day Cross-Country Skiing
than a good day at the Beach!
   - Joseph Gollinger

Time is a great teacher,
but unfortunately
it kills all its pupils.
   - Hector Berliaz

He that leaveth nothing to chance
will do few things ill,
but he will do very few things.
   - George Savile

Everything
should be made as simple as possible,
but not simpler.
   - Albert Einstein

Great spirits
have always encountered
violent opposition
from mediocre minds.
   - Albert Einstein

It is one of the strange ironies
of this strange life
that those who work the hardest,
who subject themselves
to the strictest discipline,
who give up certain pleasurable things
in order to achieve a goal,
are the happiest men.
When you see 20 or 30 men line up
for a distance race in some meet,
don't pity them,
don't feel sorry for them.
Better envy them instead.
   - Brutus Hamilton

Excess,
upon occasion,
can be exhilarating
because
it prevents moderation
from acquiring
the deadening effect
of a habit.
   - Somerset Maugham

A certain amount of opposition
can be of great help to a man.
Kites rise against,
not with, the wind.
   - John Neal

Good judgment
is the result of experience
and experience
is the result of bad judgment.
   - Unknown

Not everything that counts
can be counted,
and not everything that can be counted
counts.
   - Sir George Picketing,
      ... often quoted by Albert Einstein

Significant problems you face
cannot be solved
at the same level of thinking
we were at
when we created them.
   - Albert Einstein

Love what you do
Do what you love.
   - Anon.

The health of people
is really the foundation
upon which
all their happiness
and all their power as a state depend.
   - Benjamin Disraeli

The first wealth is health.
   - Ralph Waldo Emerson

The wise man should consider
that health
is the greatest of human blessings.
Let food be your medicine.
   - Hippocrates

The doctor of the future
will give no medicine,
but will interest his patients
in the care of human frame,
and in the cause and prevention of disease.
   - T. A. Edison

Until man duplicates a blade of grass,
nature can laugh
at his so-called scientific knowledge.
Remedies from chemicals will never stand in favour
compared with the products of nature,
the living cell of the plant,
the final result of the rays of the sun,
the mother of all life.
   - T. A. Edison

We are not interested
in the possibilities of defeat...
they do not exist.
   - A. J. Balfour

Man cannot discover new oceans
until he has the courage
to lose the sight of land.
   - Unknown

Man is not cut out for defeat.
Man can be destroyed
but not defeated.
   - E. Hemingway

Never a horse that couldn't be rode.
Never a rider that couldn't be thrown.
- Anon.

We cannot
change the wind...
but we CAN
adjust our sails.

We will go to the moon.
We will go to the moon and do other things,
NOT because they are easy
but because they are hard.
   - John F. Kennedy

It's better to burn out
than to fade away.
   - Alexander the Great

Even the strongest
have their moments of fatigue.
   - Friedrich Nietzsche

Thus I urge you to go on to your greatness
if you believe it is in you.
Think deeply
and separate what you wish
from what you are prepared to do.
   - Percy Wells Cerutty, running coach

Judge your success
by what you had to give up
in order to get it.
   - The Dali Lama

Here I stand on a hill
in my mountain of dreams,
telling myself its not as hard as it seems.
   - Led Zeppelin

No eternal reward
will forgive us now
for wasting the dawn.
   - The Doors

All men are created equal,
some are just faster than others.
   - Darren Franklin, mountain biker

Don't worry about upgrading your equipment.
Upgrade your body.
   - Anonymous cyclist

There is a difference
between interest and commitment.
When you're interested in doing something,
you do it only when circumstances permit.
When you're committed to something,
you accept no excuses, only results.
   - Art Turock

The quality of a person's life
is in direct proportion
to their commitment to excellence.
   - Vince Lombardi

You can't teach
a pig to sing...
it wastes your time,
and it annoys the pig!

What is the difference
between involvement and committment?
When you had your bacon and eggs this morning,
the chicken was involved,
but the pig was committed.
   - old Toastmasters International ditty