Bannister Quotes & Sayings

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

I came from such a simple origin, without any great privilege, and I would say I also wanted to make a mark. It wasn't until I was about 15 that I appeared in a race. — Roger Bannister

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

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

Every time I ran the mile I was aware of my own weakness, there was some opponent who could give me a hell of a fight, so I never went into a race with a sense of invincibility. I always had that feeling of fragility and nerves which made me run faster. — Roger Bannister

I bite my lip as I begin reading: She needs some sun! Her eyes are hard to see - they're too dark; her nose is thin; no cheek bones!; I think her lips are uneven; her chin is really square, and my favorite: is that a mole or a zit? Awesome. Twenty pages of these cryptic remarks sure do make a girl feel good about herself. The last page changes my sour mood completely. On it there is a sketch of my face - no, sketch is the wrong word. It's too common a word. This is more than a sketch. This is a portrait of my face. The image of the girl staring back at me is so stunning, that I actually gasp. The handwriting on the bottom of the page, which is small and elegant, holds only two words: You're perfect. — Danielle Bannister

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

Ray Bannister started to build the guillotine the day Jerry Renault returned to Monument. — Robert Cormier

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

I was playing rugby and the other games English school children do, and there was an event in which races were run, and I won these by a considerable margin. — 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

I wanted to be a neurologist. That seemed to be the most difficult, most intriguing, and the most important aspect of medicine, which had links with psychology, aggression, behavior, and human affairs. — 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

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

I am in good company, simply following those in front of me and knowing others are following behind. We are on our way up a narrow staircase. The bannister is a thick rope suggesting safety. The stairs go around and around inside a church tower; or perhaps it is a minaret? The whorls of the staircase grow narrower and narrower, but as there are so many people behind there is no longer any possibility of turning around or even stopping. The pressure from behind foeces me on. The staircase suddenly stops at a garbage chute in the wall. When i open the hatch and squeeze my way through the hole, i find myself on the outside of the tower. The rope has dissappeared. It is totally dark. I cling on to the slippery, icy wall of the tower while vainly trying to find a foothold in the emptiness. — Sven Lindqvist

I hold my plush monkey over the bannister and let it drop. Its eyes light up when you squeeze its kidneys as whose eyes, I suppose, would not. — Frederick Buechner

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 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

jumped out of her way. She burst into her office's reception area and found Margaret Daly. 'Margaret, do you know what Jacinta found out about Gobber magazine, by any chance?' Daly was taken aback by Allie's brusqueness. 'No, no, sorry, she didn't say. But she was on the phone about it, I know — Steven 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

OCD is an anxiety disorder, one that brings conscious intrusive thoughts and compulsions - 'Touch the bannister. Pick up that rock. You'd better do it, or something terrible will happen.' — Tim Howard

The Athletic Association competed against the University. So there was an event. You cannot break world records unless it is an established event, and you have three timekeepers, and the whole thing is organized. — Roger Bannister

My athleticism was really the core to social acceptance, because in those days the overwhelming number of students came from more of a public school background than I did. — Roger Bannister

There was nothing unusual about my victory. The entire story was back in eighth place. There is simply no way to imagine how good Jim Ryun is or how far he will go after he becomes an adult. What he did was more significant than Roger Bannister's first mile under 4 minutes. — Dyrol Burleson

Doctors and scientists said breaking the four-minute mile was impossible, that one would die in the attempt. Thus, when I got up from the track after collapsing at the finish line, I figured I was dead — Roger Bannister

Never give up hope, and look for the rainbows and happiness! — Nonna 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

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

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

Whether we athletes liked it or not, the 4-minute mile had become rather like an Everest: a challenge to the human spirit, it was a barrier that seemed to defy all attempts to break it, an irksome reminder that men's striving might be in vain. — 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

The past is gone and what is ahead is still to be felt. — Nonna Bannister

Truth is the silliest thing under the sun. Try to get a living by the Truth and go to the Soup Societies. Heavens! Let any clergyman try to preach the Truth from its very stronghold, the pulpit, and they would ride him out of his church on his own pulpit bannister. — Herman Melville

Dead people will not rest unless they can tell one last story. — Tammi Browne-Bannister

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

Mothers, unless they were very poor, didn't work. Both of my parents had to leave education. My mother had to work in a cotton mill until 18 or 19, when she took some training in domestic science. — Roger Bannister

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

Athletics is a luxury. — 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

If Patti Lupone was born to play Evita then Madonna was born to play Patti Lupone playing Evita. — Buck Bannister

It's amazing that more people have climbed Mount Everest than have broken the 4-minute mile. — Roger Bannister

Beating John Landy was my defining race. — Roger Bannister

My concentration was really on getting to university and becoming a doctor. My parents let me know that school marks were important. Achievement was something which came by hard work. — Roger Bannister

Look out, Hadrian," he shouted. "It's an ambush, there's two of them! — Paul 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

Lloyd did what he achieved with that shot. — Jack Bannister

I was always a great bundle of energy. As a child, instead of walking, I would run. And so running, which is a pain to a lot of people, was always a pleasure to me because it was so easy. — 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

When I was about to break a world record and become well known, my mother used to say that for her the important thing was for me to become a doctor - a career which had not been possible in her generation and in her society. Sport was something to be set aside. — Roger Bannister

Our concept of a family holiday was going to a guest house in the Lake district or Wales where walking was part of the holiday. — Roger Bannister

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

You get very tired, and there was a certain amount of pain and you slow up. Your legs are so tired that you are in fact slowing. If you don't keep running, keep your blood circulating, the muscles stop pumping the blood back and you get dizzy. — Roger Bannister

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

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

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

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

If there was the opportunity to climb a mountain, or to go ballooning, or some adventurous activity, I would always be keen to do it. I loved the countryside. — Roger Bannister

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

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

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

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

Life was very simple. My parents had come from the North of England, which is a fairly rugged, bleak, hard-working part of England, and so there was not the expectation of luxury. — Roger Bannister

Sam Snead did to the tee-shot what Roger Bannister did to the four-minute mile. — Byron Nelson

Our father came to sleep in our house that night. He carried a small suitcase with a black mourning suit and a pair of polished shoes. Corrigan stopped him as he made his way up the stairs. 'Where d'you think you're going?'Our father gripped the bannister. His hands were liverspotted and I could see him trembling in his pause. 'That's not your room,' sad Corrigan. Our father tottered on the stairs. He took another step up. 'Don't,' said my brother. His voice was clear, full, confidant. Our father stood stunned. He climbed one more step and then turned, descended, looked around, lost.
'My own sons,' he said.
We made a bed for him on a sofa in the living room, but even then Corrigan refused to stay under the same roof; he went walking in the direction of the city center and I wondered what alley he might be found in later that night, what fist he might walk into, whose bottle he might climb down inside. — Colum McCann

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 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

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