Quotes To Remember

||Chapter Eighteen|| The one with the athlete's foot

I am just gonna make this super weird, delete the intial slap-button joke that was on here, and pretend that the comment section makes at least a little sense (spoiler alert: it doesn't)

Without further adieu, this installation of Q2R is: Athletics! 

1. “The flow. Yeah. Knowing you could step on the court and make it happen. You practiced, sure. But then, when you walked out there, you could just go. You could flow, that was it: you created and you didn't totally know how. You just knew you could, so you did. It wasn't thinking and it wasn't imitating somebody else's moves, though you always looked carefully when you watched good players play. But when you played... it was something you couldn't explain. Neal used to know. It didn't come from thinking about it.” -Doug Wilhelm, Falling

2. “I feel the need to endanger myself every so often.” -Tim Daly

3. “Fans don't boo nobodies.” -Reggie Jackson

4. “Books are, let's face it, better than everything else. If we played Cultural Fantasy Boxing League, and made books go fifteen rounds in the ring against the best that any other art form had to offer, then books would win pretty much every time.” -Nick Hornby, The Polysyllabic Spree

5. “Most people give up just when they’re about to achieve success. They quit on the one yard line. They give up at the last minute of the game one foot from a winning touchdown.” -Ross Perot

6. “Make sure your worst enemy doesn’t live between your own two ears.” -Laird Hamilton

7. “After joyfully working each morning, I would leave off around midday to challenge myself to a footrace. Speeding along the sunny paths of the Jardin du Luxembourg, ideas would breed like aphids in my head—for creative invention is easy and sublime when air cycles quickly through the lungs and the body is busy at noble tasks.” -Roman Payne, Rooftop Soliloquy

8. “Somewhere behind the athlete you’ve become and the hours of practice and the coaches who have pushed you is a little girl who fell in love with the game and never looked back… play for her.” -Mia Hamm

9. “Maybe if I'd agreed to do the debutante thing like she wanted. Or taken up pageants instead of riding jump bikes with a bunch of grungy boys. I'd always tell her, why can't I do both? Who says you have to be either smart or pretty, or into girly stuff or sports? Life shouldn't be about the either/or. We're capable of more than that, you know?” -Sarah Dessen

10. “Sports bars are also a great place for guys to meet other guys--either for sex or for wrestling, whichever feels more right. ” -Eugene Mirman, The Will to Whatevs: A Guide to Modern Life

11. “Pain? Yes, of course. Racing without pain is not racing. But the pleasure of being ahead outweighed the pain a million times over. To hell with the pain. What's six minutes of pain compared to the pain they're going to feel for the next six months or six decades?” -Brad Alan Lewis, Assault on Lake Casitas

12. “Persistence can change failure into extraordinary achievement.” -Matt Biondi

13. “Running isn't a sport for pretty boys...It's about the sweat in your hair and the blisters on your feet. Its the frozen spit on your chin and the nausea in your gut. It's about throbbing calves and cramps at midnight that are strong enough to wake the dead. It's about getting out the door and running when the rest of the world is only dreaming about having the passion that you need to live each and every day with. It's about being on a lonely road and running like a champion even when there's not a single soul in sight to cheer you on. Running is all about having the desire to train and persevere until every fiber in your legs, mind, and heart is turned to steel. And when you've finally forged hard enough, you will have become the best runner you can be. And that's all that you can ask for.” -Paul Maurer, The Gift - A Runner's Story

14. “Revolution is a spectator's sport. The majority will sit in the stands and watch the factions fight. At the end they will choose the side that is winning. ” -George Lincoln Rockwell

15. “Gold medals aren't really made of gold. They're made of sweat, determination, and a hard-to-find alloy called guts.” -Dan Gable

16. “Why is luge a sport? You dress up like a giant sperm and go sledding really fast. That’s hardly athletic. Phallic and sexy, yes. But hardly athletic.” -Jessica Park, Flat-Out Love

17. “Build up your weaknesses until they become your strong points.” -Knute Rockne

18. “Don't look back. Something might be gaining on you.” -Leroy Paige

19. “Academe, n.: An ancient school where morality and philosophy were taught. Academy, n.: A modern school where football is taught.” -Ambrose Bierce, The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary

20. “Love is a violent recreational sport. Proceed at your own risk. Helmets, armor, and steel-toe boots are required by law.” -H.C. Paye