If someone says, 'Hey, I ran 100 miles this week. How far did you run?' ignore him! What the hell difference does it make?.... The magic is in the man, not the 100 miles.

The athlete makes himself, the coach doesn't make the athlete.

Now to explore the limits of the one competitor above everyone else you've always loved to face: Steve Prefontaine.

Victory is in having done your best. If you've done your best, you've won.

Men of Oregon, I invite you to become students of your events. Running, one might say, is basically an absurd past-time upon which to be exhausting ourselves. But if you can find meaning, in the kind of running you have to do to stay on this team, chances are you will be able to find meaning in another absurd past-time: life.

The real purpose of running isn't to win a race, it's to test the limits of the human heart.

It's easier to beg forgiveness than ask permission.