20th-century Sports Figure Quotes

When Fernando [Lamas] proposed to me, he said, 'Let me take you away from all this.' And I said, 'Away from all what? I'm a movie star!'

Esther Williams

A publisher's view:

It's just called 'The Bible' now. We dropped the word 'Holy' to give it a more mass-market appeal.

I hated the easy assumption that girls had to be slower than boys.

A disease and its treatment can be a series of humiliations, a chisel for humility.

I didn't have to act in 'Tarzan, the Ape Man'—just said, 'Me Tarzan, you Jane.'

Johnny Weissmuller

Perseverance, determination, commitment, and courage-those things are real. The desire for redemption drives you.

I knew now that I had to stand up and start speaking about protecting our environment. From that moment on, every swim should have the aim of inspiring people to protect and preserve the world's oceans and all that live in them.

If you try to win, you might lose, but if you don't try to win, you lose for sure!

'Practice makes perfect' is bullshit. Only perfect practice makes perfect.

Fame is almost a poison. I couldn't care less, in fact I lived better when I was a nobody.

The sport I love has taken me around the world and shown me many things.

Mentally speaking, it sucks, man. Who wants to prepare their whole life and have it all taken away by some guy who just made a bad pass? But that's the beauty of the sport as well. Anything can happen.

Apolo Anton Ohno

It was so gnarly, dude, and I'd been on his show a couple times, so I basically figured we were homies. I yelled over to him, and I was like, 'Yo, Reg, what up?' And then get this: He called me the Red Onion! Dude, it was so epic. It was totally rad.

Ronnie is the best player in the world at the moment, right-handed, left-handed, one-legged, one-armed, whatever you want!

Alpine skiers look like their feet are stuck in cement. Telly skiing is about mobility, rhythm, and balance.

The research on the brain does not validate that we are singularly processing input or learning with a single sensory input.

It's alright. It's fun, and all the spray's behind you until you're behind another car. It's aquaplaning that scares the life out of you, when the car gets up on top of the water and you're temporarily not in contact with the ground and you can head straight to the scene of the accident with the silliest little move of the steering wheel.

I believe that if a man wanted to walk on water, and was prepared to give up everything in life, he could do it.

The sport is more important than anything. More important than any of the people in it. Of course I say what I think. I always have, even if it upsets people like Ecclestone and Balestre. Why should I be afraid of them? The fans aren't here to see politicians and manipulators. They're here to see Alain and Mario and Carlos and me. I am very secure in my feelings about racing. I make a lot of money from it, but one thing I can tell you for sure: if the money disappeared overnight, I would still be in racing, because I love it. The entrepreneurs would be gone.

Gilles Villeneuve

I'm not making any money doing this, I'm purely doing it out of ego.

It was fantastic to fight with Michael, a privilege for me. I said in 2005 that it was important to become Champion when Michael was still there, for the value and the recognition that people outside the sport would give to the championship. But people said we did not fight directly in 2005; this year, it was me versus Michael all year. The history books will say that the last two Championships he raced in were won by Alonso, and that makes me very proud. It was a pleasure to compete against him.

Fernando Alonso

I never pay attention to individual awards and I think that sometimes, too many people place too much value on them.

You don't have to be crazy to be a goalie, but it helps!

The Christmas just before I turned four, my parents bought me a pair of little black skates and the Bay of Quinte was frozen and my two sisters took me out there and held my hands and taught me to skate. Now I don't know if this is true—although it sounds good!—but rumour has it by the end of the day they couldn't keep up with me.

Let us remember with humility the loneliness of being man in a universe we do not understand and the vulnerability of the human condition. The animals could do very well without us, but we cannot do without them.