“You may glory in a team triumphant, but you fall in love with a team in defeat. Losing after great striving is the story of man, who was born to sorrow, whose sweetest songs tell of saddest thought, and who, if he is a hero, does nothing in life as becomingly as leaving it.”

—  Roger Kahn

Source: The Boys Of Summer, Lines On The Transpontine Madness, p. xii

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "You may glory in a team triumphant, but you fall in love with a team in defeat. Losing after great striving is the stor…" by Roger Kahn?
Roger Kahn photo
Roger Kahn 30
American baseball writer 1927–2020

Related quotes

Percy Bysshe Shelley photo

“Our sweetest songs are those of saddest thought.”

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) English Romantic poet

Source: The Complete Poems

Percy Bysshe Shelley photo

“We look before and after,
And pine for what is not:
Our sincerest laughter
With some pain is fraught;
Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought.”

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) English Romantic poet

St. 18
To a Skylark (1821)
Source: The Complete Poems

Henrik Ibsen photo

“Nothing shall part us, and our life shall prove
A song of glory to triumphant love!”

Falk, Act III
Love's Comedy (1862)
Context: I feel myself like God's lost prodigal;
I left Him for the world's delusive charms.
With mild reproof He wooed me to his arms;
And when I come, He lights the vaulted hall,
Prepares a banquet for the son restored,
And makes His noblest creature my reward.
From this time forth I'll never leave that Light, —
But stand its armed defender in the fight;
Nothing shall part us, and our life shall prove
A song of glory to triumphant love!

John Wooden photo

“A player who makes a team great is more valuable than a great player. Losing yourself for the group, for the good of the group — that’s teamwork.”

John Wooden (1910–2010) American basketball coach

Interview on Charlie Rose https://archive.org/details/WHUT_20100614_130000_Charlie_Rose (2000), IBM Linux Commercial: The Prodigy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7ozaFbqg00#t=15.3s (2003)

Karen Blixen photo

“All sorrows can be borne if you put them into a story or tell a story about them.”

Karen Blixen (1885–1962) Danish writer

As quoted in The Human Condition (1958) by Hannah Arendt. This appears as part of a statement in a 1957 interview where she speaks of a friend's comments about her:
I am not a novelist, really not even a writer; I am a storyteller. One of my friends said about me that I think all sorrows can be borne if you put them into a story or tell a story about them, and perhaps this is not entirely untrue. To me, the explanation of life seems to be its melody, its pattern. And I feel in life such an infinite, truly inconceivable fantasy.
Interview with Bent Mohn in The New York Times Book Review (3 November 1957)
Paraphrased variant : All suffering is bearable if it is seen as part of a story.

Leo Buscaglia photo

“Trust is knowing that when a team member does push you, they're doing it because they care about the team.”

Patrick Lencioni (1965) American writer

Source: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable

Hope Solo photo

“What I love about this team is the fact that you can feel the energy and trust - even after the defeat against Sweden. That's the really special thing about this group. Even when we were a player down and a goal behind in extra time, you sensed that something was going to happen. The team kept fighting. You can't teach that. It's a feeling - and we play with that feeling.”

Hope Solo (1981) American association football player

As quoted in "Brazil-USA Quotes: USA goalkeeper and Player of the Match Hope Solo" http://www.fifa.com/womensworldcup/matches/round=255995/match=300144440/quotes.html, fifa.com (July 10, 2011)
2010s

John Mulaney photo
Sri Aurobindo photo

“O soldier and hero of God, where for thee is sorrow or shame or suffering? For thy life is a glory, thy deeds a consecration, victory thy apotheosis, defeat thy triumph.”

Sri Aurobindo (1872–1950) Indian nationalist, freedom fighter, philosopher, yogi, guru and poet

Thoughts and Aphorisms (1913), Karma

Related topics