Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Eric Liddell

Quote by Eric Liddell

“It has been a wonderful experience to compete in the Olympic Games and to bring home a gold medal. But since I have been a young lad, I have had my eyes on a different prize. You see, each one of us is in a greater race than any I have run in Paris, and this race ends when God gives out the medals.”

Quote by Eric Liddell

Create image

Author

Eric Liddell
Eric Liddell

Eric Liddell, born on January 16, 1902, in Scotland, was a renowned Olympic athlete. He won gold medals in the 400m and 800m events at the 1924 Paris Olympics, becoming a legendary figure in the history of athletics. Liddell is known for his strong religious beliefs and exceptional sportsmanship, and his story has been widely spread in the film 'Chariots of Fire'. more

You May Also Like

“Francesca had grown up watching me, like I'd grown up watching Sheila. She said I was inspiring, but what had I inspired? There was no joy left in her, no light. Those smiles were a mask, concealing a molten core of grasping ambition. I wanted to shake her by the shoulders and tell her it wasn't too late. She could wake up. She could realize there was more to life than winning. Happiness couldn't be won. It couldn't be hung around our necks while a crowd of thousands cheered. It wasn't a prize, something we had to suffer and toil to earn. If we wanted happiness, we had to create it ourselves. Not in one shining moment on a medal stand, but every single day, over and over again. I could have told Francesca all that, but it wouldn't have mattered. She'd have to learn for herself, like I did.”

SportsOlympicsIce Skating
Book:The Favorites
Create image

“But the greatest paradox of the sport has to do with the psychological makeup of the people who pull the oars. Great oarsmen and oarswomen are necessarily made of conflicting stuff—of oil and water, fire and earth. On the one hand, they must possess enormous self-confidence, strong egos, and titanic willpower. They must be almost immune to frustration. Nobody who does not believe deeply in himself or herself—in his or her ability to endure hardship and to prevail over adversity—is likely even to attempt something as audacious as competitive rowing at the highest levels. The sport offers so many opportunities for suffering and so few opportunities for glory that only the most tenaciously self-reliant and self-motivated are likely to succeed at it. And yet, at the same time—and this is key—no other sport demands and rewards the complete abandonment of the self the way that rowing does. Great crews may have men or women of exceptional talent or strength; they may have outstanding coxswains or stroke oars or bowmen; but they have no stars. The team effort—the perfectly synchronized flow of muscle, oars, boat, and water; the single, whole, unified, and beautiful symphony that a crew in motion becomes—is all that matters. Not the individual, not the self.”

OlympicsRowingBoys In The Boat
Book:The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics
Create image

“When people think about farmers, they think about people who grow things. Well, I'm a duck farmer, and what I grow is impatient waiting for some committee to recognize duck farming as an Olympic sport.”

SportsDucksOlympicsFarmingDuckDuck QuoteDuck QuotesDuck FarmingDuck Farmer
Book:Music is fluid, and my saxophone overflows when my ducks slosh in the sounds I make in elevators.
Create image

“When you first see a Pekin duck waddling across the grass, wobbly and lopsided, you might think it's the most unathletic animal in the world. But if you then watch it swim, you'd realize if there were a Bird Olympics, it wouldn't take gold, but it isn't Eric Moussambani, either.”

SwimSwimmingDucksOlympicsAthleticDuckDuck QuoteDuck Quotes
Book:Music is fluid, and my saxophone overflows when my ducks slosh in the sounds I make in elevators.
Create image