Lifelong optimism may be a gift of childhood, a character trait carried in the DNA or an act of will, but whatever its source, Baron Pierre de Coubertin had it to an unwavering degree.  His life was full of suffering, his career was full of struggle, but when he looked to the future—no matter the circumstances around him—he saw a brighter day. Right after World War I, a message from the Baron to Swiss President Gustave Ador carried that irrepressible sense of hope. This quote comes from his memoir of those days as they appeared in the article, “Forty Years of Olympism: 1894-1934,” in Le Sport Suisse in 1934.

“At the celebration in 1919 that I mentioned a while ago, in my response to President Gustave Ador (of Switzerland), I said, ‘Times are still hard. This dawn that is breaking is the dawn of the day after a storm; but toward noon, the sky will brighten and the rosy ears of grain will fill the arms of the harvesters once again.’ It is not yet noon, Gentlemen. The days of history are long. Be patient, and let us remain confident.”