Festival of the impassioned efforts and manifold ambitions of all forms of youthful activity of every generation springing from the threshold of life.

For me sport was a religion... with religious sentiment.

The Olympic Games are for the world and all nations must be admitted to them.

The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part; the essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well.

A country can truly call itself sporting when the majority of its people feel a personal need for sport.

Olympism is not a system - it is a state of mind. This state of mind has emerged from a double cult: that of effort and that of Eurythmy - a taste of excess and a taste of measure combined.

Holding an Olympic Games means evoking history.