I'm not interested in athletics, I'm only interested in achievement. Fix your goal and work for 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.

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.

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 20 years for what I'm after, and I try to put that into people, no matter what their object in life.

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.