Sports Quotes - Page 88

But to be the best, you must face the best. And to overcome your fear, you must deal with the best.

I'll promise to go easier on drinking and to get to bed earlier, but not for you, fifty thousand dollars, or two-hundred and fifty thousand dollars will I give up women. They're too much fun.

The only way to be a champion is by going through these forced reps and the torture and pain. That's way I call it the torture routine. Because it's like forced torture. Torturing my body. What helps me is to think of this pain as pleasure. Pain makes me grow. Growing is what I want. Therefore, for me pain is pleasure. And so when I am experiencing pain I'm in heaven. It's great. People suggest this is masochistic. But they're wrong. I like pain for a particular reason. I don't like needle's stuck in my arm. But I do like the pain that is necessary to be a champion.

The general definition of being muscle-bound is that you have so many muscles that you can't move freely. I don't know of any bodybuilder in that category; in fact, many of them are quite active in other sports.

From 143rd Street in Harlem to the center court at Wimbledon is about as far as one can travel.

Be sincere. Be simple in words, manners, and gestures. Amuse as well as instruct. If you can make a man laugh, you can make him think and make him like and believe you.

Everyone is really afraid of getting out there and not being good. That's the challenge: To be afraid and know people are staring at you and know you might not do all that well, but you do it anyway. What singles out the successful athlete from the ones who never make it past a plateau, it that successful athletes risk failure, even though they are terrified.

Remember that sports are meant to be fun. Don't let someone make the sport unfun for you.

I think Little League is wonderful. It keeps the kids out of the house.

We have a saying in France. A dog doesn't make a cat.

Mountaineering is a complex and unique way of life, interweaving elements of sport, art and mysticism. Success or failure depends on the ebb and flow of immense inspiration. Detecting a single rule governing this energy is difficult - it arises and vanishes like the urge to dance and remains as mysterious as the phenomenon of life itself.

We make too much of winning. The mere fact of winning doesn't make you great.

You only have a few years to play this game and you can't play it if you're all tied up in knots.

What's tough is being good every day.

My face is my passport.

I will demand a commitment to excellence and to victory, and that is what life is all about.

I don't know the history of my sport. I'm not like those people who know everything.

Went to 16 and hit a really bad 3 wood for my second shot and got stuck in the bunker about 70 yards from the pin. Poor execution, chunked it, hit a good chip up to about eight feet, missed it.

I am honored to be to be part of the biggest sports event in the world. The fact that the Games are returning to their birthplace and to the city where they were revived makes Athens 2004 very special. The opportunity to perform my music for billions of people around the globe will be the greatest highlight of my life.

The addiction to sports, therefore, in a peculiar degree marks an arrested development in man's moral nature.

But, at the moment, when I step on the pitch, when I have the ball I know it's mine. It's just a feeling.

This is a dirty business, that is why I go out and play with my heart. I feel like football players are overworked and underpaid compared to any other sports. This is like a nine to five. No guaranteed contracts, and that is the worst thing about it.

I have always maintained that if you work hard, it wont go waste, as recognition will come to you at some stage, whether in studies or sports. You need to have good intentions and intent to move ahead in life as well as in sports.

Geez, I just played cricket because I loved the game. I never thought about it much, never really had any formal coaching.

Fear - It's a fine line between that and pushing yourself. You definitely reach new heights when you push. But fear is good. Fear keeps us alive. If we didn't have it, we'd be doing crazy things and getting in sticky situations.