Running is real. It’s all joy and woe, hard as diamond. It makes you weary beyond comprehension, but it also makes you free.

I had four gold medals, but you can't eat four gold medals.

It all goes so fast, and character makes the difference when it's close

I decided I wasn't going to come down. I was going to fly. I was going to stay up in the air forever.

I let my feet spend as little time on the ground as possible. From the air, fast down, and from the ground, fast up.

People come out to see you perform and you've got to give them the best you have within you.

If you don't try to win you might as well hold the Olympics in somebody's back yard.

Awards become corroded, friends gather no dust.

I fought, I fought harder . . . but one cell at a time, panic crept into my body, taking me over.

Only by God?s grace have I made it to see today and only by God?s grace will I ever see tomorrow.

Hitler didn't snub me - it was our president who snubbed me. The president didn't even send me a telegram.

The only bond worth anything between human beings is their humanness.

One chance is all you need.

Friendships born on the field of athletic strife are the real gold of competition. Awards become corroded, friends gather no dust.

The battles that count aren't the ones for gold medals. The struggles within yourself - the invisible, inevitable battles inside all of us - that's where it's at.

The only victory that counts is the one over yourself.

Find the good. It's all around you. Find it, showcase it and you'll start believing in it.

Love elevates. Love is what you live for.

To do something good, it has to scare you.