Quotes about champion
A collection of quotes on the topic of champion, world, likeness, making.
Quotes about champion
Yuzuru Hanyu (1994) Japanese figure skater (1994-)
Quote from an article on the Olympic Channel https://www.olympicchannel.com/en/stories/news/detail/yuzuru-hanyu-coy-cryptic-beijing-olympic-2022-chen-ankle/, published 3 April 2019. (Retrieved 11 September 2020) <br class="br">Other quotes, 2019
“The government of the United States is not the champion of freedom”
Ernesto Che Guevara (1928–1967) Argentine Marxist revolutionary
Address to the United Nations (1964)
Context: Those who kill their own children and discriminate daily against them because of the color of their skin; those who let the murderers of blacks remain free, protecting them, and furthermore punishing the black population because they demand their legitimate rights as free men — how can those who do this consider themselves guardians of freedom? The government of the United States is not the champion of freedom, but rather the perpetrator of exploitation and oppression against the peoples of the world and against a large part of its own population.
“Please don’t call me arrogant, but I’m European champion and I think I’m a special one.”
José Mourinho (1963) Portuguese association football player and manager
http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/news/newsid=1033132.html <br class="br">2004
Joel Osteen (1963) American televangelist and author
Source: Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential
Mark Satin (1946) American political theorist, author, and newsletter publisher
Source: Radical Middle (2004), Chapter 3, "Journey to the Radical Middle," p. 22.
Muhammad Ali book The Soul of a Butterfly
"The Silent Warrior", p. 114
The Soul of a Butterfly (2004)
“If you want to become a World Champion you should avoid playing in Open tournaments.”
Anatoly Karpov (1951) Russian chess player
Interview in Chess Life in 2003 quoted on anatolykarpovchessschool http://www.anatolykarpovchessschool.org/home/karpovinterview.html
“I have the heart and what its got to be champion and I did it, I proved it tonight again.”
Arturo Gatti (1972–2009) Italian-Canadian boxer
being interviewed after a dramatic comeback KO against Wilson Rodriguez.
1999
Kanye West (1977) American rapper, singer and songwriter
Through the Wire
Lyrics, The College Dropout (2004)
Jimmy Carter (1924) American politician, 39th president of the United States (in office from 1977 to 1981)
"A Community of the Free" address at the The Foreign Policy Association NY, NY (23 June 1976); this is often paraphrased: We cannot be both the world’s leading champion of peace and the world’s leading supplier of the weapons of war.
Pre-Presidency
Context: Sometimes we try to justify this unsavory business on the cynical ground that by rationing out the means of violence we can somehow control the world’s violence. The fact is that we cannot have it both ways. Can we be both the world’s leading champion of peace and the world’s leading supplier of the weapons of war?
Jimmy Carter (1924) American politician, 39th president of the United States (in office from 1977 to 1981)
Source: Beyond the White House: Waging Peace, Fighting Disease, Building Hope
“To be a great champion you must believe you are the best. If you’re not, pretend you are.”
Muhammad Ali (1942–2016) African American boxer, philanthropist and activist
“Hear oh hear, if my prayer be worthy and such as you yourself might whisper to my frenzy. Those I begot (no matter in what bed) did not try to guide me, bereft of sight and sceptre, or sway my grieving with words. Nay behold (ah agony!), in their pride, kings this while by my calamity, they even mock my darkness, impatient of their father's groans. Even to them am I unclean? And does the sire of the gods see it and do naught? Do you at least, my rightful champion, come hither and range all my progeny for punishment. Put on your head this gore-soaked diadem that I tore off with my bloody nails. Spurred by a father's prayers, go against the brothers, go between them, let steel make partnership of blood fly asunder. Queen of Tartarus' pit, grant the wickedness I would fain see.”
Exaudi, si digna precor quaeque ipsa furenti
subiceres. orbum visu regnisque carentem
non regere aut dictis maerentem flectere adorti,
quos genui quocumque toro; quin ecce superbi
—pro dolor!—et nostro jamdudum funere reges
insultant tenebris gemitusque odere paternos.
hisne etiam funestus ego? et videt ista deorum
ignavus genitor? tu saltem debita vindex
huc ades et totos in poenam ordire nepotes.
indue quod madidum tabo diadema cruentis
unguibus abripui, votisque instincta paternis
i media in fratres, generis consortia ferro
dissiliant. da, Tartarei regina barathri,
quod cupiam vidisse nefas.
Source: Thebaid, Book I, Line 73
Bobby Fischer (1943–2008) American chess prodigy, chess player, and chess writer
Radio Interview, October 16 2006 http://www.geocities.jp/bobbby_b/mp3/F_35_3.MP3 <br class="br">2000s
Jack Johnson (boxer) (1878–1946) American boxer
As quoted in Introduction to "Knockout" at Unforgivable Blackness at PBS (2005) http://www.pbs.org/unforgivableblackness/knockout/
“I didn't aspire to be a good sport; "champion" was good enough for me.”
Fred Perry (1909–1995) English tennis player
As quoted in Tennis Confidential: Today's Greatest Players, Matches, and Controversies (2003) by Paul Fein, p. 146
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, 26th president of the United States
1910s, The Progressives, Past and Present (1910)
Noam Chomsky (1928) american linguist, philosopher and activist
Talk titled "Language & Mind", 1997.
Quotes 1990s, 1995-1999
Jesse Owens (1913–1980) American track and field athlete
Interview (1971); also quoted in "Owens pierced a myth" by Larry Schwartz http://espn.go.com/sportscentury/features/00016393.html in ESPN SportsCentury <br class="br">1970s
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
Campaign rally http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/10/19/remarks-president-campaign-event-fairfax-va, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, <br class="br">2012
“I don't want to be remembered as a beaten champion.”
Rocky Marciano (1923–1969) American boxer
Explaining why he wouldn't come out of retirement for a big payday against heavyweight champion Ingemar Johansson, as quoted in, "Remembering the Brockton Blockbuster", by Thomas Hauser, in The New York Sun (14 September 2005)
Anatoly Karpov (1951) Russian chess player
Interview on Chessbase 06.07.2005 http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=2495
Allen Iverson (1975) American basketball player
Clip from YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3h00oBDCODs <br class="br">Allen Iverson's reaction to being benched by Sixers coach Chris Ford in April 2004.
Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965) French-German physician, theologian, musician and philosopher
Memoirs of Childhood and Youth (1924)
“Faith is the champion of grace, and love the nurse; but humility is the beauty of grace.”
Thomas Brooks (1608–1680) English Puritan
Source: Quotes from secondary sources, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers, 1895, P. 221.
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American politician, 40th president of the United States (in office from 1981 to 1989)
Speech at Pointe du Hoc on the 40th Anniversary of D-Day http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1984/60684a.htm (6 June 1984) <br class="br">1980s, First term of office (1981–1985)
Hunter S. Thompson book The Great Shark Hunt
Gonzo Papers, Vol. 1: The Great Shark Hunt: Strange Tales from a Strange Time (1979)
1970s
Context: Myths and legends die hard in America. We love them for the extra dimension they provide, the illusion of near-infinite possibility to erase the narrow confines of most men's reality. Weird heroes and mould-breaking champions exist as living proof to those who need it that the tyranny of 'the rat race' is not yet final.
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
2016, DNC Address (July 2016)
Context: You know, the Donald is not really a plans guy. He’s not really a facts guy, either. He calls himself a business guy, which is true, but I have to say, I know plenty of businessmen and women who’ve achieved remarkable success without leaving a trail of lawsuits, and unpaid workers, and people feeling like they got cheated.
Does anyone really believe that a guy who’s spent his 70 years on this Earth showing no regard for working people is suddenly going to be your champion? Your voice?
If so, you should vote for him. But if you’re someone who’s truly concerned about paying your bills, if you're really concerned about pocketbook issues and seeing the economy grow, and creating more opportunity for everybody, then the choice isn’t even close. If you want someone with a lifelong track record of fighting for higher wages, and better benefits, and a fairer tax code, and a bigger voice for workers, and stronger regulations on Wall Street, then you should vote for Hillary Clinton.
“Magnus Bane,” said Magnus. “High Warlock of Brooklyn and Scrabble champion.”
Cassandra Clare (1973) American author
Source: What to Buy the Shadowhunter Who Has Everything
Muhammad Ali (1942–2016) African American boxer, philanthropist and activist
On training, as quoted in "Ali: Born Again!" by Pete Axthelm and Peter Bonventre, Newsweek (25 September 1978)
John Quincy Adams (1767–1848) American politician, 6th president of the United States (in office from 1825 to 1829)
Independence Day address (1821)
Context: America, in the assembly of nations, since her admission among them, has invariably, though often fruitlessly, held forth to them the hand of honest friendship, of equal freedom, of generous reciprocity. She has uniformly spoken among them, though often to heedless and often to disdainful ears, the language of equal liberty, of equal justice, and of equal rights. She has, in the lapse of nearly half a century, without a single exception, respected the independence of other nations while asserting and maintaining her own. She has abstained from interference in the concerns of others, even when conflict has been for principles to which she clings, as to the last vital drop that visits the heart. She has seen that probably for centuries to come, all the contests of that Aceldama the European world, will be contests of inveterate power, and emerging right. Wherever the standard of freedom and Independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will her heart, her benedictions and her prayers be. But she goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own. She will commend the general cause by the countenance of her voice, and the benignant sympathy of her example. She well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself beyond the power of extrication, in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy, and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom. The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force. The frontlet on her brows would no longer beam with the ineffable splendor of freedom and independence; but in its stead would soon be substituted an imperial diadem, flashing in false and tarnished lustre the murky radiance of dominion and power. She might become the dictatress of the world; she would be no longer the ruler of her own spirit.... Her glory is not dominion, but liberty. Her march is the march of the mind. She has a spear and a shield: but the motto upon her shield is, Freedom, Independence, Peace. This has been her Declaration: this has been, as far as her necessary intercourse with the rest of mankind would permit, her practice.
“The world's greatest champion of woman and womanhood is Jesus the Christ.”
James E. Talmage (1862–1933) American Mormon leader
Source: Jesus the Christ
“In my family, Father is the world champion at ending conversations.”
Jonathan Safran Foer book Everything Is Illuminated
Source: Everything Is Illuminated
“I can sleep like a champion. I once slept through a smoke alarm going off. For three hours.”
Maureen Johnson book Let It Snow
Source: Let It Snow: Three Holiday Romances
Garth Stein The Art of Racing in the Rain
Source: The Art of Racing in the Rain
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–1973) American politician, 36th president of the United States (in office from 1963 to 1969)
1960s, Remarks at the signing of the Immigration Bill (1965)
“The world still needs
Its champion as of old, and finds him still.”
Lewis Morris (poet) (1833–1907) Welsh poet in the English language
The Epic of Hades (1877), "Herakles".
Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924) Russian politician, led the October Revolution
Collected Works, Vol. 41, pp. 262–66
Collected Works
William Ewart Gladstone (1809–1898) British Liberal politician and prime minister of the United Kingdom
Speech in Leigh, Lancashire (20 October 1868), quoted in The Times (21 October 1868), p. 11.
1860s
Matt Taibbi (1970) author and journalist
"David Brooks and the DLC: Best Friends Forever?", AlterNet (3 August 2006)
“Back to Foulke, Red Sox fans have longed to hear it! The Boston Red Sox are World Champions!”
Joe Buck (1969) American sportscaster
Calling the last play of the 2004 World Series in Game 4. The Red Sox swept the St. Louis Cardinals for their first World Series title in 86 years.
2000s
Phil Brooks (1978) American professional wrestler and mixed martial artist
January 29, 2010
Friday Night SmackDown
“O love, o wonder; love new born, new bred,
Now groan, now armed, this champion captive led.”
Torquato Tasso (1544–1595) Italian poet
Oh meraviglia! Amor, ch'appena è nato,
Già grande vola, e già trionfa armato.
Canto I, stanza 47 (tr. Fairfax)
Gerusalemme Liberata (1581)
Stephen Kosslyn (1948) American psychologist
Stephen M. Kosslyn, "Mental images and the brain." Cognitive Neuropsychology 22.3-4 (2005): p. 333
Viswanathan Anand (1969) Indian chess player
Quotations by 60 Greatest Indians, Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology http://resourcecentre.daiict.ac.in/eresources/iresources/quotations.html,
Phil Brooks (1978) American professional wrestler and mixed martial artist
September 25, 2009
Friday Night SmackDown
Arsène Wenger (1949) French footballer and manager
Arsenal 4-2 Liverpool (9 April 2004) http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/a/arsenal/3606745.stm <br class="br">Interviews
Katy Perry (1984) American singer, songwriter and actress
Roar, written by Katy Perry, Lukasz Gottwald, Max Martin, Bonnie McKee, and Henry Walter
Song lyrics, Prism (2013)
R. Lee Wrights (1958–2017) American gubernatorial candidate
2012, " The Fair Tax Isn't Fair, It's a Farce http://www.libertyforall.net/?p=7101"
Eugene V. Debs (1855–1926) American labor and political leader
The Canton, Ohio Speech, Anti-War Speech (1918)
George Steiner (1929–2020) American writer
Source: Real Presences (1989), II: The Broken Contract, Ch. 7 (p. 117).
Masha Gessen (1967) Russian-American journalist and activist
"Putin's Russia: Don't Walk, Don't Eat, and Don't Drink" http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/putins-russia-dont-walk-dont-eat-and-dont-drink?intcid=mod-yml (28 May 2015), The New Yorker.
“They're cheering a young lad, the champion playboy of the Western World.”
John Millington Synge The Playboy of the Western World
Act III.
The Playboy of the Western World (1907)
Zoran Đinđić (1952–2003) Serbian politician
Tribunal Serbia on the right track in Leskovac, 09.03.2002.
“Being a champion opens lots of doors—I'd like to get a real estate license, maybe sell insurance.”
Mike Tyson (1966) American boxer
http://jco.usfca.edu/boxing/desert.html
On boxing
Amy Grant (1960) American musician
"I Will Remember You", co-written with Gary Chapman and Keith Thomas
Song lyrics, Heart in Motion (1991)
William Morley Punshon (1824–1881) English Nonconformist minister
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 67.
“It will be the strongest Champions League ever. Every shark will be there.”
José Mourinho (1963) Portuguese association football player and manager
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/c/chelsea/3769431.stm <br class="br">Chelsea FC
Michael Scheuer (1952) American counterterrorism analyst
As quoted in Michael Scheuer's Non-Intervention http://non-intervention.com/1689/democrats-scourge-the-south-after-the-battle-flag-it%e2%80%99s-on-to-old-hickory/ (9 July 2015), by M. Scheuer. <br class="br">2010s
Statement of (3 February 1906) after his win against Marvin Hart, as quoted in a profile of Jack Johnson, at Unforgivable Blackness at PBS (2005) http://www.pbs.org/unforgivableblackness/sparring/rise.html.
Phil Brooks (1978) American professional wrestler and mixed martial artist
At Night of Champions 2009
Friday Night SmackDown
Eric Hobsbawm (1917–2012) British academic historian and Marxist historiographer
Source: Bandits (1969), Chapter One, What is Social Banditry
Wilhelm Liebknecht (1826–1900) German socialist politician
No Compromise – No Political Trading (1899)
Michael Scheuer (1952) American counterterrorism analyst
As quoted in Michael Scheuer's Non-Intervention http://non-intervention.com/1689/democrats-scourge-the-south-after-the-battle-flag-it%e2%80%99s-on-to-old-hickory/ (9 July 2015), by M. Scheuer. <br class="br">2010s
The Divine Commodity: Discovering A Faith Beyond Consumer Christianity (2009, Zondervan)
Douglas Coupland (1961) Canadian novelist, short story writer, playwright, and graphic designer
Generation X (1991)
Michael Moorcock (1939) English writer, editor, critic
Book 3, Chapter 2 (p. 646)
The Dragon in the Sword (1986)
Antonio Negri book Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire
50
Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire
David Morrison (1956) Australian army general
Address at the International Women's Day Conference (2013)
Phil Brooks (1978) American professional wrestler and mixed martial artist
(long pause)
"Zero."
Addressing Jeff Hardy before his match with the Great Khali, both to prove that his eye injury is real (in storyline) and to drive home a point about the drug-related mistakes of Jeff's past as recently as 16 months ago. July 10, 2009.
Friday Night SmackDown
John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892) American Quaker poet and advocate of the abolition of slavery
Rantoul, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
Amartya Sen (1933) Indian economist
Amartya Sen, "Dr. BR Ambedkar: As an Economist." International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Invention 2.3 (2013): 24-27.
2010s