Roger Bannister quotes

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)
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. View quote
Roger Bannister
The man who can drive himself further once the effort gets painful is the man who will win. View quote
Roger Bannister
Athletics is a luxury. View quote
Roger Bannister
I found longer races boring. I found the mile just perfect. View quote
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. View quote
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. View quote
Roger Bannister
We run, not only because we think it is doing us good, but ... because it helps us to do other things better. View quote
Roger Bannister
I enjoy singing, and the instruments which truly move me are the horn, the trumpet and the cello. View quote
Roger 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. View quote
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)
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. View quote
Roger Bannister
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. View quote
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. View quote
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. View quote
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. View quote
Roger 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. View quote
Roger Bannister
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. View quote
Roger 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. View quote
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. View quote
Roger Bannister
It had always been a British preoccupation to hold this mile record. (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. View quote
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. View quote
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. View quote
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. View quote
Roger Bannister