Quotes about Sport

Nelson Mandela

Revolutionary, Former President of South Africa

Sport has the power to change the world... Sport can awaken hope where there was previously only despair.

Sport

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Nelson Mandela

Revolutionary, Former President of South Africa

Sports have the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire, the power to unite people in a way that little else does. It speaks to youth in a language they understand. Sports can create hope, where there was once only despair. It is more powerful than governments in breaking down racial barriers. It laughs in the face of all types of discrimination. Sports is the game of lovers.

Inspiration - Linguistics - Speaking - Sport

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Thomas Jefferson

Former President of the United States

Victory and defeat are each of the same price.

Sport

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Maya Angelou

Poet, Singer, Writer, Civil Rights Activist

The needs of a society determine its ethics, and in the Black American ghettos the hero is that man who is offered only the crumbs from his country's table but by ingenuity and courage is able to take for himself a Lucullan feast. Hence the janitor who lives in one room but sports a robin's-egg-blue Cadillac is not laughed at but admired, and the domestic who buys forty-dollar shoes is not criticized but is appreciated. We know that they have put to use their full mental and physical powers. Each single gain feeds into the gains of the body collective.

Ability - Countries - Heroism - Laughing - Man - Sport

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Eric Hoffer

Historian, Writer, Philosopher

It is probably true that business corrupts everything it touches. It corrupts politics, sports, literature, art, labor unions and so on. But business also corrupts and undermines monolithic totalitarianism. Capitalism is at its liberating best in a noncapitalist environment.

Art - Capitalism - Environment - Labor - Liberty - Literature - Sport - Totalitarianism - Unions

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Ralph Waldo Emerson

Essayist, Lecturer, Philosopher, Poet

Everyone I meet is in some way my superior.

Sport

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William Shakespeare

Poet, Playwright, Actor

Crabbed age and youth cannot live together; Youth is full of pleasure, age is full of care; Youth like summer morn, age like winter weather; Youth like summer brave, age like winter bare. Youth is full sport, age's breath is short; Youth is nimble, age is lame; Youth is hot and bold, age is weak and cold; Youth is wild, age is tame. Age, I do abhor thee; youth, I do adore thee.

Adoration - Bravery - Sport - Weakness

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Theodore Roosevelt

Former President of the United States

I am delighted to have you play football. I believe in rough, manly sports. But I do not believe in them if they degenerate into the sole end of any one's existence. I don't want you to sacrifice standing well in your studies to any over-athleticism; and I need not tell you that character counts for a great deal more than either intellect or body in winning success in life. Athletic proficiency is a mighty good servant, and like so many other good servants, a mighty bad master.

Athletics - Belief - Deal - End - Manliness - Mastering - Playing - Sport - Studying - Wants - Wellness

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Theodore Roosevelt

Former President of the United States

It is of far more important that a man shall play something himself, even if he plays it badly, than that he shall go with hundreds of companions to see someone else play well.

Companion - Man - Playing - Sport - Wellness

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Woodrow Wilson

Former President of the United States

We grow great by dreams. All big men are dreamers.

Growing - Inspiration - Man - President - Sport

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Denis Waitley

Motivational Speaker, Writer, Consultant

The winners in life think constantly in terms of I can, I will, and I am.

Inspiration - Motivation - Sport - Thinking - Winning

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Thomas A. Edison

Clergyman, Inventor, Inventor

Everything comes to those who hustle while they wait.

Accomplishment - Actions - Encouragement - Hustle - Sport - Waiting

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Charles Dickens

Writer, Social Critic

Dreams are the bright creatures of poem and legend, who sport on earth in the night season, and melt away in the first beam of the sun, which lights grim care and stern reality on their daily pilgrimage through the world.

Creativity - Earth - Sport

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William Shakespeare

Poet, Playwright, Actor

There is no such sport as sport by sport o'erthrown.

Sport

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George Bernard Shaw

Playwright, Critic, Political Activist

All classes in proportion to their lack of travel and familiarity with foreign literature are bellicose, prejudiced against foreigners, fond of fighting as a cruel sport - in short, dog-like in their notions of foreign policy.

Foreigner - Notions - Sport

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Aristotle

Philosopher

Also our fellow competitors, who are indeed the people just mentioned - we do not compete with men who lived a hundred centuries ago, or those yet not born, or the dead, or those who dwell near the Pillars of Hercules, or those whom, in our opinion or that of others, we take to be far below us or far above us. So too we compete with those who follow the same ends as ourselves; we compete with our rivals in sport or in love, and generally with those who are after the same things; and it is therefore these whom we are bound to envy beyond all others. Hence the saying.

Boundaries - Compete - End - Envy - Man - Opinion - People - Sport

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Deepak Chopra

Actor, Philosopher, Author

If you're studying for an exam you're not thinking about the results. If you're always worried about the results, you can't study a lot. So to be engaged and detached from the outcome is excellent. Excellence is behavior. I mean, isn't that what martial arts is about? And that's what meditation is about, that's what, in many ways, sports are about.

Art - Behavior - Detachment - Engagement - Exam - Excellence - Meaning - Meditation - Outcome - Sport - Studying - Thinking - Worrying

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Alain de Botton

Philosopher, Author

I was foreign and Jewish, with a funny name, and was very small and hated sport, a real problem at an English prep school. So the way to get round it was to become the school joker, which I did quite effectively - I was always fooling around to make the people who would otherwise dump me in the loo laugh.

Doing - Effectiveness - Fools - Funny - Hate - Jewish - Joking - Laughing - Making - People - Problem - Real - School - Sport

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John F. Kennedy

Former President of the United States

Physical fitness is not only one of the most important keys to a healthy body, it is the basis of dynamic and creative intellectual activity. The relationship between the soundness of the body and the activities of the mind is subtle and complex. Much is not yet understood. But we do know what the Greeks knew: that intelligence and skill can only function at the peak of their capacity when the body is healthy and strong; that hardy spirits and tough minds usually inhabit sound gods.

Creativity - Health - Key - Mindset - Sound - Spirits - Sport - Strength - Toughness

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Ralph Waldo Emerson

Essayist, Lecturer, Philosopher, Poet

No member of a crew is praised for the rugged individuality of his rowing.

Individual - Sport - Teamwork

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