Champions are not made in the ring, they are merely recognized there.

There is no shortcut. You must work hard and earn every triumph.

Go, stranger, and tell the Lacedaemonians that here we lie, obedient to their commands.

-- The Spartan king who led 300 warriors in a suicidal last stand at Thermopylae

The die is cast.

-- The Roman general

Imagination rules the world.

-- The French emperor whose military genius reshaped

There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humour.

-- Charles Dickens

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.

-- Oscar Wilde

I could have run all day.

-- Born in Jato, Ethiopia in 1932, Abebe Bikila ran the 1960 Rome Olympic marathon barefoot and won - then defended his title wearing shoes at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. He heralded the era of African distance running dominance. From Imperial Guard to Olympic champion to paraplegic after a car accident, his