Nov 30

Gradually sport has become more international, widening the sphere of action. The revival of the Games became possible, nay I may say, even necessary.

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Nov 29

I saw from then on this unforeseen and hidden thing: ‘sports pedagogy;’ there was a whole plan of moral training hidden under the guise of school sports.

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Nov 28

I decided suddenly to change my career in the desire to attach my name to a great educational reform.

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Nov 27

May the (next) … Games advance the work of … winning over more and more youth around the world and enabling the Olympics to serve the cause of international peace and friendship better and better.

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Nov 26

After helping train incomparable soldiers, athleticism also helped sustain their zeal and console them in their suffering.

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Nov 25

As for athletics in general, I do not know what its fate will be, but … it presents two new features … (two new) secular transformations: It is democratic and international.

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Nov 24

The law of the pendulum applies to everything.

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Nov 23

It is possible to draw inspiration from the past without copying it ... In this order of ideals all is yet to be done; but much has been prepared in the path of progress.

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Nov 22

Initiative, perseverance, intensity, the search for perfection and a scorn for potential danger. These five ideas are essential and fundamental (to athletics).

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Nov 21

When the Olympic Games were restored in Athens ... The halo was placed on the head of Olympism, a sign of the aspirations of its founders and the destiny they sought.

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Nov 20

The representatives of the different sports had never, as far as I know, met together for a joint purpose before I invited them to meet ... It was amusing to see how they eyed one another with suspicion.

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Nov 19

The time had come to leave … the last visitor went off full of gratitude ... and full of hope for the future of Olympism.

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Nov 18

The evolutionary movement toward athletic eclecticism is still in its early stages, but it is coming at a good time …

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Nov 17

Among those who have (the sporting instinct), not all reach the limits of what they can achieve. Not all seek out fear in order to overcome it, fatigue to triumph over it, and difficulty to master it.

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Nov 16

As Goethe said: ‘Keep firm in the saddle, boys; strike boldly through the mist’ and have no fear. The future is with you.

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Nov 15

With success comes risk, and the greater the success, the heavier the consequences.

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Nov 14

I wish to see a revival in a … modernized form of the municipal gymnasium of antiquity … where any adult … may practice the simplest forms of exercise ...

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Nov 13

The Middle Ages made a gross error in treating the human body as a pile of rags, and in teaching man to despise life.

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Nov 12

The revival (of the Olympic Games) was not … a spontaneous dream, but … the logical consequence of the great cosmopolitan tendencies of our times.

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Nov 11

“(Olympism) advocates a broad-based athletic education accessible to all … serving as an engine for national life and as a basis for civic life.”

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Nov 10

The evolution of the soul … of an institution (must) … remain as steadfast as the principles on which the institution is based.

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Nov 09

“Never had a Swedish summer been more glorious … nature was resplendent, the sun perpetually shining ... the general gaiety of the young knew no bounds.”

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Nov 08

Above all, Hellenism is the cult of humanity in its present life … make no mistake … it (is) present-day existence that constitutes happiness.

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Nov 07

Fortune loves boldness.

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Nov 06

Sport calls for an intense spirit of competition and solid camaraderie.

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Nov 05

(The 1920 Antwerp Games) have shown the universe, in radiant relief, the educational, moral and social dynamism … (of) modernized Olympism.

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Nov 04

The pleasure of the muscles, that source of joy, energy, calm, and purity, must be placed within the grasp of the most humble.

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Nov 03

The grandeur and dignity of processions, the impressive splendor of ceremonies, the concurrence of all the arts, popular emotion and generous sentiment, must all collaborate together.

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Nov 02

For the adult (who is) over-taxed and exhausted by modern life … sport constitutes an essential counterbalance, an almost infallible means of recovery, a discipline that nothing can replace.

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Nov 01

Here in Olympia we stand on the ruins of the first capital of the kingdom of harmony and balance (eurythmy) … not merely in the field of art … (but) in life.

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