Bullfighting is the only art in which the artist is in danger of death and in which the degree of brilliance in the performance is left to the fighter’s honor.
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American Author, Journalist, Short Story Writer
The man loves danger and sport. That is why he loves woman, the most dangerous of all sports.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
How many charming talents have been spoiled by the instilled desire to do ‘important’ work! Some people are born to lift heavy weights. Some are born to juggle with golden balls.
—Max Beerbohm (1872–1956) British Essayist, Caricaturist, Novelist
Sport strips away personality, letting the white bone of character shine through. Sport gives players an opportunity to know and test themselves.
—Rita Mae Brown (b.1944) American Writer, Feminist
The mark of great sportsmen is not how good they are at their best, but how good they are their worst.
—Martina Navratilova (b.1956) Czech-born American Sportsperson
Sports is the toy department of human life.
—Howard Cosell (1918–95) American Journalist, Columnist, TV Personality, Radio Personality
What counts in sports is not the victory, but the magnificence of the struggle.
—Joe Paterno (1926–2012) American Sportsperson
Tennis is a perfect combination of violent action taking place in an atmosphere of total tranquility.
—Billie Jean King (b.1943) American Tennis Player
Two things only the people anxiously desire, bread and the circus games.
—Juvenal (c.60–c.136 CE) Roman Poet
One man practicing sportsmanship is far better than fifty preaching it.
—Knute Rockne (1888–1931) American College Football Coach
People in the States used to think that if girls were good at sports their sexuality would be affected. Being feminine meant being a cheerleader, not being an athlete. The image of women is changing now. You don’t have to be pretty for people to come and see you play. At the same time, if you’re a good athlete, it doesn’t mean you’re not a woman.
—Martina Navratilova (b.1956) Czech-born American Sportsperson
Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence. In other words, it is war minus the shooting.
—George Orwell (1903–50) English Novelist, Journalist
In 1883 while I was working at the London Hospital I chanced to turn in to one of D. L. Moody’s great tent meetings in the slums of East London. I was amazed to see on the platform with him several men whose athletic prowess was world-famous. That was a credential to me that it was worth stopping to listen to what was going to be said. I still believe athletic success is an invaluable asset to a preacher. Christ, I am sure, wants football, baseball, and track-team men in an age when theological expositions, however deep and learned, when orthodoxy, conventionality, or even correct vestments and ritual, have so little attraction for the young men who will be leaders tomorrow.
—Wilfred Grenfell (1865–1940) Canadian Humanitarian, Doctor
Sports do not build character. They reveal it.
—John Wooden (1910–2010) American Sportsperson
I strongly believe the black culture spends too much time, energy and effort raising, praising, and teasing our black children about the dubious glories of professional sports.
—Arthur Ashe (1943–93) American Tennis Player
It is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
Wild animals never kill for sport. Man is the only one to whom the torture and death of his fellow creatures is amusing in itself.
—James Anthony Froude (1818–94) British Historian, Novelist, Biographer, Editor
There are people who think that wrestling is an ignoble sport. Wrestling is not sport, it is a spectacle, and it is no more ignoble to attend a wrestled performance of suffering than a performance of the sorrows of Arnolphe or Andromaque.
—Roland Barthes (1915–80) French Writer, Critic, Teacher
So you wish to conquer in the Olympic Games, my friend? And I, too… But first mark the conditions and the consequences. You will have to put yourself under discipline; to eat by rule, to avoid cakes and sweetmeats; to take exercise at the appointed hour whether you like it or not, in cold and heat; to abstain from cold drinks and wine at your will. Then, in the conflict itself you are likely enough to dislocate your wrist or twist your ankle, to swallow a great deal of dust, to be severely thrashed, and after all of these things, to be defeated.
—Epictetus (55–135) Ancient Greek Philosopher
Academy: A modern school where football is taught.
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1913) American Short-story Writer, Journalist
God does not charge time spent fishing against a man’s allotted life span.
—American Indian Proverb
The addiction to sports, therefore, in a peculiar degree marks an arrested development in man’s moral nature
—Thorstein Veblen (1857–1929) American Economist, Social Critic
Sports plays a societal role in engendering jingoist and chauvinist attitudes. They’re designed to organize a community to be committed to their gladiators.
—Noam Chomsky (b.1928) American Linguist, Social Critic
Business is a combination of war and sport.
—Andre Maurois (1885–1967) French Novelist, Biographer
Most sorts of diversion in men, children and other animals are an imitation of fighting.
—Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) Irish Satirist
The minute you start talking about what you’re going to do if you lose, you have lost.
—George Shultz (1920–2021) American Politician, Economist
In France, cooking is a serious art form and a national sport.
—Julia Child (1912–2004) American Cook, Author
When we lose, I eat. When we win, I eat. I also eat when we’re rained out.
—Tommy Lasorda (1927–2021) American Baseball Player, Coach
Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom.
—George S. Patton (1885–1945) American Military Leader
We have not made cricket and football (soccer) professional because of any astonishing avarice or new vulgarity. We have made them professional because we would have them perfect. We have dedicated men to them as to some god of inhuman excellence. We care more for football than for the fun of playing football.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet
The mind is the limit. As long as the mind can envision the fact that you can do something, you can do it—as long as you really believe 100 percent.
—Arnold Schwarzenegger (b.1947) Austrian-American Athlete, Actor, Politician
It’s too bad that one has to conceive of sports as being the only arena where risks are, [for] all of life is risk exercise. That’s the only way to live more freely, and more interestingly.
—William Sloane Coffin (1924–2006) American Presbyterian Clergyman, Peace Activist
Aggressive fighting for the right is the greatest sport in the world.
—Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Explorer
I played golf some time ago with John D. Rockefeller. The other day, I played with Charles M. Schwab…. Both played exactly the same. Neither overreached (or) tried to do more than he was capable of…. Most golfers, like most businessmen, swat the ball with all their might and trust more or less to luck as to the result…. Now, both Rockefeller and Schwab hit a straight ball nine times out of ten. In fact, in the first 17 holes I played with Schwab, he didn’t foozle a single shot. I could drive a ball 25 to 50 yards further than he, but quite often it flew wild. The result was that Schwab licked me decisively.
—B. C. Forbes (1880–1954) Scottish-born American Journalist, Publisher
Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships.
—Michael Jordan (b.1963) American Sportsperson, Businessperson
What is sport to the cat is death to the mouse.
—German Proverb
I have a lifetime contract. That means I can’t be fired during the third quarter if we are ahead and moving the ball.
—Lou Holtz (1893–1980) American Stage Performer
Said in sport, meant in earnest.
—German Proverb
In the great department store of life, baseball is the toy department.
—Unknown
A day for toil, an hour for sport, but for a friend is life too short.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Sports serve society by providing vivid examples of excellence.
—George Will (b.1941) American Columnist, Journalist, Writer
Adversity causes some men to break, others to break records.
—William Arthur Ward (1921–94) American Author
Winners make it happen – losers let it happen.
Winners make choices – losers take chances.
Winners never quit and quitters never win.
—Vince Lombardi (1913–70) American Football Coach
As I understand it, sport is hard work for which you do not get paid.
—Irvin S. Cobb (1876–1944) American Humorist, Short Story Writer, Columnist
There is a syndrome in sports called “paralysis by analysis.”
—Arthur Ashe (1943–93) American Tennis Player
In love as in sport, the amateur status must be strictly maintained.
—Robert Ranke Graves (1895–1985) English Poet, Novelist, Critic, Classical Scholar
Sport inevitably creates deadness of feeling. No one could take pleasure in it who was sensitive to suffering; and therefore its pursuit by women is much more to be regretted than its pursuit by men, because women pursue much more violently and recklessly what they pursue at all.
—Ouida (Maria Louise Rame) (1839–1908) English Novelist
Since the Bible and the church are obviously mistaken in telling us where we came from, how can we trust them to tell us where we are going?
—Anonymous
Football today is far too much a sport for the few who can play it well; the rest of us, and too many of our children, get out exercise from climbing up the seats in stadiums, or from walking across the room to turn on our television sets.
—John F. Kennedy (1917–63) American Head of State, Journalist
Winners never quit, and quitters never win.
—Vince Lombardi, Jr. (1913–70) American Football Player, Coach