Karolyi Bela Quotes & Sayings

What is a better way to prove that your methods work than by winning? I have proved that my methods work. — Bela Karolyi

What makes the vault so spectacular is because it's a very athletic type of event, where it needs a lot of speed, a lot of explosive action and, of course, great coordination. — Bela Karolyi

The Olympics shows the community what gymnastics is all about. — Bela Karolyi

I believe in playing with your heart, with every fiber in your body-fairly, squarely, by the rules-to win. And I believe that any man's finest moment, the greatest fulfillment of all he holds dear, is that moment when he has worked his heart out and lies exhausted on the floor of battle-victorious. — Bela Karolyi

A good 80 percent of the vault is still physical and another percentage of it, 20, 25 percent is mental. Mental is always the mental strength, the confidence building up to that contest or repetition, practice, practice, and practice. — Bela Karolyi

She liked his tears so much that she put out her beautiful finger and let them run over it.
Her voice was so low that at first he could not make out what she said. Then he made it out. She was saying that she thought she could get well again if children believed in fairies. — J.M. Barrie

You have to have competent people evaluating the athlete, not the housewives! — Bela Karolyi

So you see that the eye of the intellect has received supernatural light, infused by grace, by which the doctors and saints knew light in darkness, and of darkness made light. — Catherine Of Siena

What is the cruelest thing you can do to someone who is trying to concentrate? Call their name. — Bela Karolyi

We are all so afraid, we are all so alone, we all so need from the outside the assurance of our own worthiness to exist. So, for a time, if such a passion come to fruition, the man will get what he wants. He will get the moral support, the encouragement, the relief from the sense of loneliness, the assurance of his own worth. But these things pass away; inevitably they pass away as the shadows pass across sundials. It is sad, but it is so. The pages of the book will become familiar; the beautiful corner of the road will have been turned too many times. Well, this is the saddest story. — Ford Madox Ford

I would love very much to win a medal at the Olympics for myself, by my own performance. But that will never happen. — Bela Karolyi

That voice didn't have logic on its side, but it didn't need to. It had good lungs and just outscreamed logic. — Stephen King

Most Wicked Words!-Forbear to Speak Them Out

Most wicked words!-forbear to speak them out.
Utter them not again; blaspheme no more
Against our love with maxims learned from Doubt:
Lest Death should get his foot inside the door.
We are surrounded by a hundred foes;
And he that at your bidding joins our feast,
I stake my heart upon it, is one of those,
Nor in their councils does he sit the least.
Hark not his whisper: he is Time's ally,
Kinsman to Death, and leman of Despair:
Believe that I shall love you till I die;
Believe; and thrust him forth; and arm the stair;
And top the walls with spikes and splintered glass
That he pass gutted should again he pass. — Edna St. Vincent Millay

All I ever wanted was to sing to God. He gave me that longing and then made me mute. — Peter Shaffer

The rest of the world laughed at American gymnastics before I came. — Bela Karolyi

This team just wasn't good enough today, but they had the unity I always wanted. To have an American team like this has always been a dream of mine. — Bela Karolyi

Training with Bela and Marta Karolyi took the joy out of the Olympics for me. I look back and feel there was a lot of verbal and physical abuse. For years, I felt it was my problem. — Dominique Moceanu

The ideal gymnast would be between 4 feet 7 and 5-2. I wouldn't be able to pinpoint an ideal height, however. It would be foolish to say that a gymnast above 5-2 could not be great. — Bela Karolyi

I still love to find and develop the young athletes in traditional ways. I like to watch the physical and mental growth. That has always been very exciting. — Bela Karolyi

I consider myself very lucky that I could live my life through all the ups and downs. — Bela Karolyi

Government spending is taxation. When you look at this, I've never heard of a poor person spending himself into prosperity; let alone I've never heard of a poor person taxing himself into prosperity. — Arthur Laffer

Success depends on how much you are willing to sacrifice, how much you are willing to alter your everyday life for a particular goal. — Bela Karolyi

I know gymnastics. It's always been a subjective appreciation. — Bela Karolyi

I'm tired of being hunted all over. I can't go anywhere without criticism. — Bela Karolyi

Back in Romania, always I was struggling to compete with Vladislav Rastorotsky, the great Russian coach of Lyudmila Turishcheva. He was a powerful coach, internationally. I took him like the major challenge of my life, and pretty soon I'm beating him and we are pushing each other so hard, so fierce. But out of the arena, we are friends. — Bela Karolyi

I am very familiar with Hungary, because I grew up in Romania, which borders it. — Bela Karolyi

I held my breath, and refused to blink; he placed his hand on the bed to brace himself as he leaned towards me. Slowly, carefully, his lips
soft, warm, and perfect
found their way to mine. I want to say that it was magical, that I saw rainbows and fairy dust or something fantastic like that, but I couldn't. It was more. Much more.
It was as though the world has fallen down around us, and everything was frozen in ice. But I wasn't cold. I was blazing hot, the fire starting where our lips joined, where angel met mortal, and I could feel the flames flickering out towards the limbs that I was fighting with desperately to keep still, not wanting them to latch onto him, not wanting to seem out of control because at that moment, I would have given anything to be just that. — S.L. Naeole

Just like an animal, when you want to survive, you don't think anymore. — Bela Karolyi

The time leading up to the 1996 Olympics was the most demanding and stressful of my career. The sport I had loved so much was slowly becoming a nightmare as I trained with Bela and Marta Karolyi the summer before the Olympics. — Dominique Moceanu

Genetics is all about showcasing human beauty along with high-quality performance. — Bela Karolyi

The crowd sometimes plays a tremendous role to give you wings and carry you to victory. — Bela Karolyi

My gymnasts are always the best-prepared in the world. And they win. In the end, that's what matters. — Bela Karolyi

In gymnastics, smaller will always be better in many ways. The stress in the head, that will be the same for all. But the stress on the body and the concussions it must endure, that will always be easier for the little ones. — Bela Karolyi