Unlike any other business in the United States, sports must preserve an illusion of perfect innocence. The mounting of this illusion defines the purpose and accounts for the immense wealth of American sports. It is the ceremony of innocence that the fans pay to see -- not the game or the match or the bout, but the ritual portrayal of a world in which time stops and all hope remains plausible, in which everybody present can recover the blameless expectations of a child, where the forces of light always triumph over the powers of darkness.

It is very certain that the desire of life prolongs it.

Lord (George Gordon) Byron

The violence and obscenity are left unadulterated, as manifestation of the mystery and pain which ever accompanies the act of creation.

Anais Nin

...I long to be known as an extravagant worshiper...that God would discover the song in my heart to be elaborate, overgenerous, and wasteful in my pursuit of Him.

Darlene Zschech

I've failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.

Michael Jordan

There is always a best way of doing everything.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

I am deeply touchednot as deeply touched as you have been coming to this dinner, but nevertheless it is a sentimental occasion.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Tennis is more than just a sport. It's an art, like the ballet. Or like a performance in the theater. When I step on the court I feel like Anna Pavlova. Or like Adelina Patti. Or even like Sarah Bernhardt. I see the footlights in front of me. I hear the whisperings of the audience. I feel an icy shudder. Win or die! Now or never! It's the crisis of my life.

Bill Tilden

Brave men are all vertebrates; they have their softness on the surface and their toughness in the middle.

G. K. Chesterton

For if Men are to be precluded from offering their Sentiments on a matter, which may involve the most serious and alarming consequences, that can invite the consideration of Mankind, reason is of no use to us; the freedom of Speech may be taken away, and, dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep, to the Slaughter.

George Washington

Growth means change and change involves risk, stepping from the known to the unknown.

George Shinn

Mom thinks I live in this dream world where everybody's Ivana Trump.

Kathie Lee Gifford

Know what's weird? Day by day, nothing seems to change, but pretty soon... Everything is Different.

Bill Watterson