Sir Roger Bannister Quotes

However ordinary each of us may seem, we are all in some way special, and can do things that are extraordinary, perhaps until then…even thought impossible. ~ Roger Bannister

Sport is not about being wrapped up in cotton wool. Sport as about adapting to the unexpected and being able to modify plans at the last minute. Sport, like all life, is about taking risks. ~ Roger Bannister

We read you. Talk to us son. What are you seeing?'
"Ahhh. Captain I don't need a light anymore."
"Repeat last transmission, you say your light is back on?"
"Negative Sir. I don't need a light, I can see. Captain, you said Chado was talking to God?"
"Roger that."
"Well I believe God is down here right now. ~ Russell L. Martin

The mile has all the elements of a drama. ~ Roger Bannister

My family actually lived in the same village for about 400 years. They had great stability until the last century. People lived and intermarried in small villages. ~ Roger Bannister

Without the concentration of the mind and the will, performance would not result. ~ Roger Bannister

I lived on the top of one hill and the school was at the top of another hill. Nobody ever went to school by car - we didn't have any cars during the war. So that to and from school was itself a training. ~ Roger Bannister

I found longer races boring. I found the mile just perfect. ~ Roger Bannister

I raced supremely well. I felt I was as well fitted to do it as I had ever been, and as perhaps I might ever be. I went climbing three weeks before, because I was feeling fed up with running. ~ Roger Bannister

If a man coaches himself, then he has only himself to blame when he is beaten. ~ Roger Bannister

It's a question of spreading the available energy, aerobic and anaerobic, evenly over four minutes. If you run one part too fast, you pay a price. If you run another part more slowly your overall time is slower. ~ Roger Bannister

It had always been a British preoccupation to hold this mile record. ~ Roger Bannister

If I faltered, there would be no arms to hold me and the world would be a cold and forbidding place. ~ Roger Bannister

I couldn't disappoint people. I did not want to fail and exhaust myself, because I was the kind of runner who trained so little that I couldn't race again within another 10 days. ~ Roger Bannister

The reason sport is attractive to many of the general public is that it's filled with reversals. What you think may happen doesn't happen. A champion is beaten, an unknown becomes a champion. ~ Roger Bannister

I trained for less than three-quarters of an hour, maybe five days a week - I didn't have time to do more. But it was all about quality, not quantity - so I didn't waste time jogging, ever. ~ Roger Bannister

It is a paradox to say the human body has no 'limit.' There must be a limit to the speed at which men can run. I feel this may be around 3:30 for the mile. However, another paradox remains - if an athlete manages to run 3:30, another runner could be found to marginally improve on that time. ~ Roger Bannister

And if that is the Foremast, what do you think that sail might be called, Mr. Wheeler?"
"The Foresail?"
"Very good, Mr. Wheeler, and the next one up would be called ... "
... "The Next Sail, Sir?"
"Alas, no, Mr. Wheeler. ~ L.A. Meyer

May is a very early time in the year and the weather is usually bad. You cannot run a fast mile race if there is a strong wind, because it makes your running uneven. ~ Roger Bannister

Sport, like all of life, is about taking your chances. ~ Roger Bannister

We run, not because we think it is doing us good, but because we enjoy it and cannot help ourselves ... The more restricted our society and work become, the more necessary it will be to find some outlet for this craving for freedom. No one can say, 'You must not run faster than this, or jump higher than that.' The human spirit is indomitable. ~ Roger Bannister

The man who goes on, even when it's the hardest to be the winner. ~ Roger Bannister

No longer conscious of my movement, I discovered a new unity with nature. I had found a new source of power and beauty, a source I never dreamt existed. ~ Roger Bannister

I've always been very impatient. At age 10 I frankly found life boring, and I can remember age 9 having the awful thought, as it seems now looking back on it, A war! That should liven things up a bit! ~ Roger Bannister

I have often thought, says Sir Roger, it happens very well that Christmas should fall out in the middle of Winter. ~ Joseph Addison

No matter how old you are now. You are never too young or too old for success or going after what you want. Here's a short list of people who accomplished great things at different ages
1) Helen Keller, at the age of 19 months, became deaf and blind. But that didn't stop her. She was the first deaf and blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree.
2) Mozart was already competent on keyboard and violin; he composed from the age of 5.
3) Shirley Temple was 6 when she became a movie star on "Bright Eyes."
4) Anne Frank was 12 when she wrote the diary of Anne Frank.
5) Magnus Carlsen became a chess Grandmaster at the age of 13.
6) Nadia Comăneci was a gymnast from Romania that scored seven perfect 10.0 and won three gold medals at the Olympics at age 14.
7) Tenzin Gyatso was formally recognized as the 14th Dalai Lama in November 1950, at the age of 15.
8) Pele, a soccer superstar, was 17 years old when he won the world cup in 1958 with Brazil.
9) Elvis was a superstar by age 19.
10) John Lennon was 20 years and Paul Mcartney was 18 when the Beatles had their first concert in 1961.
11) Jesse Owens was 22 when he won 4 gold medals in Berlin 1936.
12) Beethoven was a piano virtuoso by age 23
13) Issac Newton wrote Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica at age 24
14) Roger Bannister was 25 when he broke the 4 minute mile record
15) Albert Einstein was 26 when he wrote the theory of relativity
16) ~ Pablo

The human spirit is indomitable. No one can ever say you must not run faster than this or jump higher than that. There will never be a time when the human spirit will not be able to better existing records. ~ Roger Bannister

I enjoy singing, and the instruments which truly move me are the horn, the trumpet and the cello. ~ Roger Bannister

I couldn't touch my toes with straight legs, but I could break 4 minutes for the mile. ~ Roger Bannister

It is the brain, not the heart or lungs, that is the critical organ. ~ Roger Bannister

My introduction to track racing was through the background of cross country running, which is not a sport perhaps as popular in America as it is in England. ~ Roger Bannister

The man who can drive himself further once the effort gets painful is the man who will win. ~ Roger Bannister

Just because they say it's impossible doesn't mean you can't do it. ~ Roger Bannister

A brick could be used in a knee replacement surgery, to build back the wall separating man from a sub four-minute mile. Damn you, Roger Bannister! ~ Jarod Kintz

To move into the lead means making an act requiring fierceness and confidence. But fear must play some part ... no relaxation is possible, and all discretion is thrown into the wind. ~ Roger Bannister

Your spikes, which were really quite long then, would catch the material of the track and your shoe would get heavier. I was simply filing them down and rubbing some graphite on the spikes. I thought I would run more effectively. ~ Roger Bannister

You don't have to call me ma'am," I told him, wrapping my arms around myself some more as I entered the dining room.

His eyebrows lifted, eyeing me carefully. "You are in a relationship with Maxwell Alexander Emerson, are you not?"

"I am."

"Well, it just so happens Mr. Emerson is my employer and as such, so are you, hence the title 'ma'am', just as I call Mr. Uhler 'sir.'"

"You know about that."

"I was not aware it was a secret, and if it were, the lot of you are very poor at keeping it." He snickered ~ Amelia LeFay

Athletics is a luxury. ~ Roger Bannister

Roger, listening intently, couldn't keep from asking a question at this point.
Is it true Colonel Stark said 'Don't fire till you see the whites of their eyes?'
Lee coughed discreetly.
Well sir. I couldn't say for sure as no one said that, but I didn't hear it myself. Mind, I DID hear one colonel call out, 'Any whoreson fool wastes his powder afore the bastards are close enough to kill is gonna get his musket shoved up his arse butt-first! ~ Diana Gabaldon

Our house was bombed, and the roof fell in. We were sitting under the stairs of the basement, and we were quite safe, but it brought home the realization. In two nights 400 people were killed in small town. ~ Roger Bannister

There were only 170 neurologists in Britain then and, whether spoken or unspoken, there was this insidious feeling. How can Bannister, a mere athlete, probably spoilt by all the publicity and fame, dare aspire to neurology? But I'd done a lot of research, and my academic record was very good. ~ Roger Bannister

I was involved in music, acting, and some running, but my firm wish was to become a doctor. That was the formative age when I had decided on the pattern of my career. ~ Roger Bannister

I had always wanted to become a neurologist, which is one of the most demanding vocations in medicine. Where do you stop, after all, with the brain? How does it function? What are its limits? The work seems unending. ~ Roger Bannister

I think that is a universal adolescent feeling, trying to find your place. The adolescent who is perfectly adjusted to his environment, I've yet to meet. ~ Roger Bannister