It is a wonderful tribute to the game or to the dottiness of the people who play it that for some people somewhere there is no such thing as an insurmountable obstacle, an unplayable course, the wrong time of the day or year.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the indomitable spirit of individuals who view challenges as opportunities rather than obstacles.
In this quote, Alistair Cooke emphasizes the remarkable resilience and determination of certain individuals who perceive no boundaries in their pursuits, especially when faced with difficulties in a game or life. This mindset suggests that for some, obstacles are merely challenges that can be surmounted with ingenuity and spirit, reflecting a broader philosophy on the power of perseverance and a positive outlook.
In practice
In a motivational speech to a sports team when discussing overcoming challenges.
More than anything else, though, to anyone who would write about it, golf offers a four-hour drama in two acts, which becomes memorable even in the tape-recorded reminiscenses of old champs, and which - in the hands of someone like Herb Wind - can become a piece of war correspondence as artfully controlled as Alan Morehead's account of Gallipoli.
Man has an incurable habit of not fulfilling the prophecies of his fellow men.
It has been an unchallengeable American doctrine that cranberry sauce, a pink goo with overtones of sugared tomatoes, is a delectable necessity of the Thanksgiving board and that turkey is uneatable without it.
A professional is someone who can do his best work when he doesn't feel like it.
Curiosity endows the people who have it with a generosity in argument and a serenity in their own mode of life which springs from their cheerful willingness to let life take the form it will.
Liberty is the luxury of self-discipline, that those nations historically who have failed to discipline themselves have had discipline imposed by others.
The possible has been tried and failed. Now it's time to try the impossible.
Set a goal to achieve something that is so big, so exhilarating that it excites you and scares you at the same time.
Focus on the solution, not on the problem.
Don't let the negatives of life control you. Rise above them. Use them as your stepping stones to go higher than you ever dreamed possible
See every problem as an opportunity to exercise creative energy.
When I was young and ocean-racing competitively, and working the rest of the time, I was going 24 hours. I was on the verge of collapsing. But you've got to slow down a bit.
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