Pierre De Coubertin

In the Olympic Oath, I ask for only one thing: sporting loyalty.

Success comprises in itself the seeds of its own decline and sport is not spared by this law.

The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part; the essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well.

The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.

The day when a sportsman stops thinking above all else of the happiness in his own effort and the intoxication of the power and physical balance he derives from it, the day when he lets considerations of vanity or interest take over, on this day his ideal will die.

May joy and good fellowship reign, and in this manner, may the Olympic Torch pursue its way through ages, increasing friendly understanding among nations, for the good of a humanity always more enthusiastic, more courageous and more pure.

In our view the Olympic idea involves a strong physical culture supplemented on the one hand by mobility, what is so aptly called 'fair play', and on the other hand by aesthetics, that is the cultivation of what is beautiful and graceful.

Holding an Olympic Games means evoking history.

Sport is part of every man and woman's heritage and its absence can never be compensated for.

The important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle.