In his writings, Baron Pierre de Coubertin often dished out advice like a coach, trying to inspire all those who followed him to reach for excellence in everything they did.  Although not everyone could achieve the level of an Olympian, everyone could aim high and achieve a measure of excellence in their own lives.  Today’s quote echoes his personal motto:  Voir Loin, Parler Franc, Agir Ferme, that is “See far, speak frankly, act firmly.”  If you opened a book from Coubertin’s personal library, you would find this bookplate with those words on it.  The Baron drew this bookplate himself and placed his motto on a banner with his family’s coat of arms.  That coat of arms, by the way—nine scallop shells on a shield (gold on blue in color)—was granted to Pierre Fredy, the Baron’s earliest French ancestor, in 1477 by King Louis XI, thus ennobling the family.

“If you want to reach a goal, as one educator has said, aim past it. Equilibrium within unavoidable modern commotion can be brought about only through combining or opposing excesses. One will not accomplish enough unless one strives for too much.”

This full quote is excerpted from New Mottoes, an article by the Baron published in the Bulletin du Bureau International de Pédagogie Sportive in 1931.