Vincit qui patitur: he conquers, who endures.
Don’t forget
my ideas are only what’s been written down in history by the great people of the world who’ve gone before.
All I’ve done is condense the wisdom of the world into an attitude for athletics.
I’m not interested in athletics, I’m only interested in achievement.
Athletics aren’t just running, it’s a way of life.
Great people and great athletes realize
early in their lives their destiny,
and accept it.
Even if they do not consciously realize
the how, the where, the what.
Hard things take time to do.
Impossible things take a little longer.
Pain is the purifier.
Love pain.
Embrace pain.
Runners don’t run with their legs,
they run ON their legs.
In reality, they run with their Arms!
Endurance?
You’ve only got to get out there and do it.
Face up to it: man was meant to run.
Thus I urge you to go onto your greatness
if you believe it is in you.
Think deeply
and separate what you wish from
what you are prepared to do.
If it hurts, make it hurt more.
Fix your goal and work for it.
Run hard, be strong, think big!
The introduction of resistance in form of sand and hill
is too important to be ignored.
While a man is racing, he must hate himself
and his competitors.
Fail, it’s not in my dictionary.
I’ve got a good dictionary up there
and the words ‘fail’ and ‘failure’ have been ruled out for years.
I don’t know what people are talking about who use that word.
All I do know is temporary non-success,
even if I’ve got to wait another twenty years
for what I’m after,
and I try to put that into people,
no matter what their object in life.
I have found life highly competitive.
I accept it.
It is useless, merely a hypocritical humbug,
to sincerely wish your opponent to win.
If you are out to win,
you are better not wanting to know your opponent,
much less grow to like him –
and wish him, honestly success over you.
I have never functioned that way.
If the coach cannot do it,
he cannot ‘teach’ it,
he can only talk about it.
Ignore, then, whether you are tall and thin or short and stocky-
whether they laughed at you at home (where they are often unkind)
or at school (where they are mostly blind, anyway).
Indeed-to hell with the lot of them if you ‘feel’ you can do it.
Let the smokers and the gluttons die…
and leave the living to us who know how to use it.
The mastery of the true self,
and the refusal to permit others to dominate us,
is the ultimate in living and self-expression in athletics.
To be great,
one does not have to be mad,
but definitely it helps.
[And] If you die,
I will bury you in the sandhills with all the other runners.