Quotes & Sayings About Medals

Every generation has its war. I have just been reminded of mine. It ended in 1989, 43 years after it began, the longest war Britain fought and certainly the most expensive. Its climax was total victory. Yet there was no parade, no medals, no colours hung in cathedrals. The Cold War saw no battles and cost almost no blood. Where there is no blood there is no glory and hence no history. Asked What did you do in the war, Daddy?, I could say only that I paid my taxes and left it at that. — Simon Jenkins

People have to identify with something to show they have reached a certain goal. Anyway, in Russia it's done with medals. You put on all these medals to show who you are. — Emilio Pucci

Much of the demand for women in combat comes from female officers who are eager for medals and promotions. — Phyllis Schlafly

I know that God is working through me within this sport. I know He's put me here for a purpose and it's not just to win medals. Winning is great and hopefully it gives me a platform to spread His love and spread His Word, but at the end of the day, I'm called to do what He wants me to do. — Elana Meyers

Even though Hubbard is dead, his business still repeats his lies, ... and in my opinion the proposed Act should also punish businesses and organizations that repeat such falsehoods. It is a gross insult to American men and women who have actually been wounded and who have actually earned the medals and awards that frauds and con-artists falsely claim. — David Rice

If one man tells you to murder, you get a jail cell - if another man tells you to murder, you get medals and a pension. — Stefan Molyneux

An Army is an instrument of government. It must be used in such a way that it furthers the interests of government. Otherwise what use is it? Only an extremely costly machine for ... minting medals. — Joe Abercrombie

Sometimes I feel envious when my friends go to parties and I have to go to bed. But my friends always tell me that the parties really aren't that much fun anyway. Whatever I've missed, I've made up for. Most kids don't get to go to the Olympics and win three gold medals. It's definitely been worth it and I wouldn't do it if I didn't want to. — Janet Evans

Heck, gold medals, what can you do with them? — Eric Heiden

A conqueror's victories are his medals, and his enemies are his trophies. — Matshona Dhliwayo

Winning medals wasn't the point of the Olympics. It's the participating that counts. — Pierre De Coubertin

Ciba: "I thought you were supposed to be some big brave war hero. What about that goddamn gold star you polish every night?"
Natalya: "You know what this shiny piece of tin is, you fucking space cadet? It's the way stupid boys trick other stupid boys into dying for bullshit causes ... and I'm done acting like one of them. — Brian K. Vaughan

You know, me winning two gold medals, going for a third one, that's nice. But being there with Mark and my sister, and my brother being the coach, it's a dream come true. It's going to be awesome. — Diana Lopez

Medals are great encouragement to young men and lead them to feel their work is of value, I remember how keenly I felt this when in the 1890s. I received the Darwin Medal and the Huxley Medal. When one is old, one wants no encouragement and one goes on with one's work to the extent of one's power, because it has become habitual. — Karl Pearson

At any innocent tea-table we may easily hear a man say, "Life is not worth living." We regard it as we regard the statement that it is a fine day; nobody thinks that it can possibly have any serious effect on the man or on the world. And yet if that utterance were really believed, the world would stand on its head. Murderers would be given medals for saving men from life; firemen would be denounced for keeping men from death; poisons would be used as medicines; doctors would be called in when people were well; the Royal Humane Society would be rooted out like a horde of assassins. Yet we never speculate as to whether the conversational pessimist will strengthen or disorganize society; for we are convinced that theories do not matter. — G.K. Chesterton

I never got into MMA to be famous, I got into it to compete and pursue athletic aspirations. They were my pure intentions. I came from a true sport, an Olympic background, winning multiple national, international and Olympic medals. So I entered MMA as a sport. — Matt Lindland

We eat and sleep and shuffle through the fog, walking a marathon with no finish line, no medals, no cheering. — Isaac Marion

Disease is surely one of the ways in which we are tried by life and offered the chance to be heroic. Though few of us will win Olympic gold medals or slay dragons, disease can be the spark or gift that allows many of us to live out our personal myths and become heroes. — Bernie S. Siegel

Many people talk about winning two straight gold medals, but I'm not focusing on defending the title. — Kim Yuna

I follow the teachings of Major General Smedley Darlington Butler, United States Marine Corps. He won two Congressional Medals of Honor, and he wrote the highly controversial antiwar book 'War is a Racket.' — Jesse Ventura

People say that it was degrading for an Olympic champion to run against a horse, but what was I supposed to do? I had four gold medals, but you can't eat four gold medals. There was no
television, no big advertising, no endorsements then. Not for a black man, anyway. — Jesse Owens

For my first pretty big international competition and the Olympics, I think I did pretty well. Medals aren't everything. It's all about you going out there and having a good time. I feel proud of myself. — Kimmie Meissner

He wore his medals. He had a surprising number of them, the real kind, not the ones you got for turning up. Although turning up was no mean thing, some days. — Nick Harkaway

I am remarkably likeable. Few people have ever been as likeable as I am. There is, frankly, no end to my likeability. People gather together in public assemblies to discuss how much they like me. I have several awards, and a small medal from a small country in South America which pays tribute both to how much I am liked and my general all around wonderfulness. I don't have it on me, of course. I keep my medals in my sock drawer. — Neil Gaiman

Yet reason frowns in war's unequal game,
Where wasted nations raise a single name;
And mortgag'd states their grandsire's wreaths regret,
From age to age in everlasting debt;
Wreaths which at last the dear-bought right convey
To rust on medals, or on stones decay. — Samuel Johnson

Some people get medals and awards and all that, and maybe not intentionally - maybe the world is making them do it - but they sort of just follow what they were doing. Repeat or follow what they were doing all their lives, in their style of music or whatever. In my case, I always try to start from scratch. It's very nerve-wracking actually, but it's interesting. — Yoko Ono

From a personal point of view I want some medals because that is what you aim for when you start out playing. — Jamie Redknapp

His white admiral's jacket gleamed with medals, nut Loki wasn't exactly wearing it regulation-style. It was open over a black T-shirt featuring Jack Nicholson's face from The Shinnig. The caption read: HEEEERE'S LOKI! — Rick Riordan

Olympic medals are the one medal that I don't have; I've won just about every other competition that I've been at. — Eric Shanteau

There'll be guys who were in wars hearing what we did and thinking, 'Whoa.' You and me, we can say, 'You got yourself some medals solider? Yeah, well, I lived through the FAYZ. — Michael Grant

When I came back on the rink in 2012, I set a goal of wrapping up my career well rather than just winning medals. I'm not preparing for any special skills for Sochi because I don't feel like they are necessary. — Kim Yuna

The human mind has a natural tendency to explore what has passed in distant ages in scenes with which it is familiar: hence the taste for National and Local Antiquities. Geology gratifies a larger taste of this kind; it inquires into what may appropriately be termed the Antiquities of the Globe itself, and collects and deciphers what may be considered as the monuments and medals of its remoter eras. — William Buckland

As the Olympic torch neared Lake Placid, N.Y., in 1980, signaling the opening of that year's Winter Olympics, newspapers and magazines throughout the world offered predictions on who would win medals in the major sports. Not a single publication gave the American men's hockey team a chance against the world powers. — Don Yaeger

We moved to the city when I was 7, and the lack of exercise made me frustrated. I started fighting with my sisters, and my parents put me in judo as an outlet. I became very competitive and won a lot of medals. — Cesar Millan

Maybe he knew it and maybe he didn't, but for someone like me, words like that are worth all the medals in the world. — R.J. Palacio

There should be medals struck for men who produce tea at exactly the moment it's needed. — Jodi Taylor

Nobody cares about the bronze or silver medals. — Buzz Aldrin

How do people do this? How do people work up the courage to be themselves even if it means facing rejection from people who love them? Why don't people get medals for this? — Sara Farizan

Competition in its best form is a test of self. It has nothing to do with medals. The winner is the person who gets the most out of themselves. — Al Oerter

A true preacher is best measured not by how many bouquets have been pinned on him but by how many brickbats have been pitched at him. Prophets have been on the receiving end of mud more than medals. — Vance Havner

One of the most intensely unlikeable figures of the twentieth century, fanatical anti-Semite, enemy of labour unions and proud recipient of medals from Nazi Germany, where Hitler held him in veneration, Henry Ford was also an employer who paid his workers more than his competitors, an innovator who pioneered the assembly line and a visionary whose part in the creation of the twentieth century was so great that Aldous Huxley, in his Brave New World, prefigured a society whose calendar was divided into BF and AF-Before Ford and After Ford. — Stephen Fry

I was blessed with a long career where I won gold medals for myself and my country. Nothing stands out as a disappointment. — Gail Devers

It has been a wonderful experience to compete in the Olympic Games and to bring home a gold medal. But since I have been a young lad, I have had my eyes on a different prize. You see, each one of us is in a greater race than any I have run in Paris, and this race ends when God gives out the medals. — Eric Liddell

We have to be able to grow up. Our wrinkles are our medals of the passage of life. They are what we have been through and who we want to be. — Lauren Hutton

Being a man is a privilege, not an entitlement. It is a surrender of our priority. It is a laying down of our lives, not physically but inwardly - our preferences, our pleasures, sometimes even our dreams. Our version of Witold Pilecki's medals comes in the lives we offer to God, lives we have bled and sweated and prayed and given ourselves for. This is what it means to be a man. — Stephen Mansfield

What you don't know going in is that when you come out, you will be scarred for life. Whether you were in for a week, a month, or a year - even if you come home without a scratch - you are never, ever going to be the same.
When I went in, I was eighteen. I thought it was all glory and you win lots of medals. You think you're going to be the guy. Then you find out the cost is very great. Especially when you don't see the kids you were with when you went in. Living with it can be hell. It's like the devil presides in you. I knew what I sighed up for, yes, and I would do it again. But the reality of war - words can't begin to describe it. — William Guarnere

The campaign for the White House is heating up with John Kerry taking heat for throwing his Vietnam medals away, getting a $1000 haircut, and wearing a 1970s wig known as 'the Leno.' There are really two sides to this story. And America can't wait for Kerry to present both of them. — David Letterman

It's incredible, they're [the medals] beautiful and as soon as they put them around your neck, it's pretty amazing. Shannon played outstandingly well. She was so calm, composed and she was just moving so well. — Jennifer Botterill

She left the event with gold medals in the all-around, vault, floor and uneven bars. She also nabbed the silver medal on the balance beam. — Christine Dzidrums

I wouldn't swap the era I competed in for anything, not a day of it. I started out as an amateur, and people like myself, Seb Coe, Steve Ovett, Steve Cram, Tessa Sanderson and the rest did it for the glory of winning medals for our country. — Daley Thompson

The 2012 Olympics is going to cost £8 billion which is a lot of money. It'll probably bankrupt London. But you can't put a price on two bronze medals in cycling. — Jimmy Carr

If life is a battle, then my inner scars are medals for valor, for swiftness, for courage, for passion. Evil is the dark-haired brother of Good; they walk hand in hand - always. — Storm Constantine

On the last day, Jesus will look us over not for medals, diplomas, or honors, but for scars. — Brennan Manning

That's because the International Olympic Committee has a policy of never replacing medals. — Mary Lou Retton

The dynamic has really changed in the U.S. Americans believe they can be competitive, that they can win medals. — Alberto Salazar

Cigarettes took them to medals, which took them to guns, which took them to radios, which took them to jeeps. By midnight, Samad had won three jeeps, seven guns, fourteen medals, the land attached to Gozan's sister's house, and an IOU for four horses, three chickens and a duck. — Zadie Smith

You know I am an actor, and I have medals for diction. — Paul Robeson

The same people who recognize I came out with no medals should recognize I could have won three. — Bode Miller

I've been training super hard at the Lopez Taekwondo Academy in Houston, which belongs to my brother Jean. For me, I think confidence is the biggest thing; it's all mental. I train with the best of the best, including my brother Steven, a five-time world champion who won Olympic gold medals. — Diana Lopez

Did you know? Duke Kahanamoku competed in four Olympics from 1912 to 1932 setting three world-records, while winning three gold medals, two silver, and one bronze. — John Richard Stephens

The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth disputed whether John Kerry deserved some of his five medals. A large part of Kerry's defense was an appeal to the authority of veterans who supported him-one of whom has now been revealed to have received a medal he doesn't deserve. This doesn't prove the Kerry detractors were right, but it certainly doesn't weaken their case. — James Taranto

Because Banshees don't think much of medals! — Henry V. O'Neil

I believe people run marathons every day of their lives in one way or another, and we need to remember to give ourselves the finishers' medals we deserve. — Zoe Koplowitz

Why should men be allowed to strut under the privilege of their life adventures, wearing them like a breast full of medals, while women went all gray and silent beneath the weight of theirs? — Carol Shields

Give me enough medals and I'll win you any war — Napoleon Bonaparte

This is what happens when they give you medals for breaking the rules: you forget the rules apply to you. — Hugh Howey

You remember what you told me, Mom? That there are no medals for the completion of a good life? I've been thinking about that. About how no one wins. Like you said, it's impossible to win, because the finish line is death. — J.A. Konrath

They did not hang medals, in those days, on all who by accident had heard a gun fired. — Rudyard Kipling

Is it not a strange blindness on our part to teach publicly the techniques of warfare and to reward with medals those who prove to be the most adroit killers? — Marquis De Sade

Along with all those books about Lincoln, Obama might read some biographies of Napoleon. The general who established the Legion d'Honneur understood that people fought as much for medals as for morals. — Tina Brown

This is my last Commonwealth Games. Five CWG and nine medals, it is enough for me. — Abhinav Bindra

You know, there's something especially lonely about a gold medal hanging all by itself on a bedroom wall, something that says "fluke," or "beginner's luck," or "one in a million," but two gold medals, now that says something completely different. That says, "Oh, yeah, baby, this is the real deal! — Christopher Paul Curtis

It was plague. We've had the plague here.' You'd almost think they expected to be given medals for it. But what does that mean
'plague'? Just life, no more than that. — Albert Camus

Queen Bee hates me. I know, as I reach the door, that nothing good waits for me on the other side. When you're called to see the Commanding Officer, you're either getting a medal or a kick in the arse.

And I'm not getting any medals. — John Owen Theobald

The president, the secretary of state, the businessman, the preacher, the vendor, the spies, the clients and managers - all walking around Wall Street like chickens with their heads cut off - rushing to escape bankruptcy - plotting to melt down the Statue of Liberty - to press more copper pennies - to breed more headless chickens - to put more feathers in their caps - medals, diplomas, stock certificates, honorary doctorates - eggs and eggs of headless chickens - multitaskers - system hackers - who never know where they're heading
northward, backward, eastward, forward, and never homeward - (where is home) - home is in the head - (but the head is cut off) - and the nest is full of banking forms and Easter eggs with coins inside. Beheaded chickens, how do you breed chickens with their heads cut off? By teaching them how to bankrupt creativity. — Giannina Braschi

On December 29, 1890, Big Foot and two hundred or more unarmed Minnecojou men, women, and children, with a few fugitives from Sitting Bull's Hunkpapa band, were slaughtered by the Seventh Cavalry at Wounded Knee. Custer's former regiment, decimated by Indians at the battle of The Greasy Grass (Little Big Horn), was avenged. For this barbarous and cowardly act, 20 soldiers received Congressional Medals of Honor. — Antoinette Nora Claypoole

We're all Running People, as the Tarahumara have always known. But the American approach
ugh. Rotten at its core. It was too artificial and grabby, Vigil believed, too much about getting stuff and getting it now: medals, Nike deals, a cute butt. It wasn't art; it was business, a hard-nosed quid pro quo. No wonder so many people hated running; if you thought it was only a means to an end
an investment in becoming faster, skinnier, richer
then why stick with it if you weren't getting enough quo for your quid? — Christopher McDougall

From elementary school through high school, my siblings and I were hectored to excel in every class, to win medals in science fairs, to be chosen princess of the prom, to win election to student government. Thereby and only thereby, we learned, could we expect to gain admission to the right college, which in turn would get us into Harvard Medical School: life's one sure path to meaningful success and lasting happiness. — Jon Krakauer

On television, I have watched countless athletes from different countries, sports and Olympics stand proudly at the top of the podium and shed tears. They symbolized the Olympics for me because Olympic medals represent all of the hard work and sacrifices made by the athletes as well as the people who helped them reach the top of their sports. — Hannah Kearney

You tell me that class distinctions are baubles used by monarchs, I defy you to show me a republic, ancient or modern, in which distinctions have not existed. You call these medals and ribbons baubles; well, it is with such baubles that men are led. I would not say this in public, but in a assembly of wise statesmen it should be said. I don't think that the French love liberty and equality: the French are not changed by ten years of revolution: they are what the Gauls were, fierce and fickle. They have one feeling: honour. We must nourish that feeling. The people clamour for distinction. See how the crowd is awed by the medals and orders worn by foreign diplomats. We must recreate these distinctions. There has been too much tearing down; we must rebuild. A government exists, yes and power, but the nation itself - what is it? Scattered grains of sand. — Napoleon Bonaparte

I have two hands. I can hold two medals. — Shani Davis

Tell me, what kind of woman managed to land the most decorated soldier in England?'
'The kind who cares nothing for medals or laurels.'
Giving him a frankly disbelieving glance, Fenwick said, 'How can that be true? Of course she cares about such things. She is now the wife of an immortal.'
Christopher stared at him blankly. 'Pardon?'
' ... warriors are revered. They are never forgotten. — Lisa Kleypas

When you see athletes like me win gold medals, you only see the finished product, you dont see the real effort that the likes of Ron have put into making that product. Without the Ron Roddans of this world, you would have no sport. — Linford Christie

We have no target for the number of medals we hope to win in 2012 - yet. But we want every kid in the country to have the chance to have the best opportunities. — Tessa Jowell

When I broke my knee, no one cared how I was; they just wanted me to get better and come back to gymnastics to win more medals for their country. — Lavinia Agache

More Medals of Honor were given for the indiscriminate slaughter of women and children than for any battle in World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq or Afghanistan. — Aaron Huey

I do not care how brave a president is; I do not care how many medals he may wear. I do not care how well trained his guards may be. If he violates the will of the people, he shall be eliminated. — Ferdinand Marcos

But I'm after medals more than anything. Championships don't get taken away from you but records do, so I think I'd rather have medals at every championships rather than times. A world record would be a bonus, but I'm still only 25 in 17 days. — Sally Pearson

It's hard to think it's important to try out as cheerleader when you're starring on Broadway. But you do kind of miss the things that I now see my children doing. I'm just happy they are not actors. The Valentine's Day dance is really important. Pitching in Little League is very important. And the medals and the scouts are really important. — Bonnie Bedelia

A study of figure skaters found that sub-elite skaters spent lots of time working on the jumps they could already do, while skaters at the highest levels spent more time on the jumps they couldn't do, the kind that ultimately win Olympic medals and that involve lots of falling down before they're mastered. — Geoff Colvin

For six years, I kept my five Olympic medals wrapped in a plastic bread bag beneath my bed. — Mary Lou Retton

I used to think I saw honour in battles and accomplishments and medals. But now I see those are the honours of men, which are as dust. The honour of the heart is another matter entirely. — Marc Secchia

In the middle of the swinging sixties people in England were apparently under some sort of obligation to have a good time and most of them didn't. A Russian and an American walked about in space to no one's particular advantage. The Beatles received their British Empire medals and, so it was said, smoked cannabis in the lavatories at Buckingham Palace. American aeroplanes were bombing Vietnam, but no one seemed to talk about the nuclear holocaust any more. — John Mortimer

Blue-Eyed One, never again shall you cover your shoulders. I declare your scars to be medals of gallantry great than any I could bestow, and it is my will that all the Black Land look upon them, and learn the nature of courage. — Eloise Jarvis McGraw

You who wronged a simple man
Bursting into laughter at the crime,
And kept a pack of fools around you
To mix good and evil, to blur the line,
Though everyone bowed down before you,
Saying virtue and wisdom lit your way,
Striking gold medals in your honor,
Glad to have survived another day,
Do not feel safe. The poet remembers.
You can kill one, but another is born.
The words are written down, the deed, the date.
And you'd have done better with a winter dawn,
A rope, and a branch bowed beneath your weight. — Czeslaw Milosz

Men tell stories. Women get on with it. For us it was a shadow war. There were no parades for us when it was over, no medals or mentions in history books. We did what we had to during the war, and when it was over, we picked up the pieces and started our lives over. — Kristin Hannah

I don't know where my medals are. — Eric Cantona

Great Britain have won 40% of their medals in cycling. If only there was snooker, darts and a dog show. — Jim Lampley

he inadvertently opened the door to a storeroom on the station and found it full of aircrew uniforms on hangers. He thought they must be replacement issue until he looked more closely and saw the brevets and stripes and ribbon medals and realized they had come off the bodies of the dead and injured. The empty uniforms would have provided a poetic image if he hadn't more or less relinquished poetry by then. — Kate Atkinson

Scars are medals branded on the flesh, and your enemies will be frightened by them because they are proof of your long experience of battle. — Paulo Coelho