Percy Cerutty Quotes

Hard things take time to do. Impossible things take a little longer.

— Percy Cerutty

Run hard, be strong, think big!

— Percy Cerutty

Runners don't run with their legs, they run ON their legs. In reality, they run with their Arms!

— Percy Cerutty

“Vincit qui patitur: he conquers, who endures.”

— Percy Cerutty

“To be great, one does not have to be mad, but definitely it helps.”

— Percy Cerutty

Fail, it's not in my dictionary. I've got a good dictionary up there and the words 'fail' and 'failure' have been ruled out for years. I don't know what people are talking about who use that word. All I do know is temporary non-success, even if I've got to wait another 20 years for what I'm after, and I try to put that into people, no matter what their object in life.

— Percy Cerutty

Endurance? You've only got to get out there and do it. Face up to it: man was meant to run.

— Percy Cerutty

“Thus I urge you to go onto your greatness if you believe it is in you. Think deeply and separate what you wish from what you are prepared to do.”

— Percy Cerutty

“Great people and great athletes realize early in their lives their destiny, and accept it. Even if they do not consciously realize the how, the where, the what.”

— Percy Cerutty

“Pain is the purifier. Love pain. Embrace pain.”

— Percy Cerutty

“Ignore, then, whether you are tall and thin or short and stocky- whether they laughed at you at home (where they are often unkind) or at school (where they are mostly blind, anyway). Indeed-to hell with the lot of them if you 'feel' you can do it.”

— Percy Cerutty

“If it hurts, make it hurt more.”

— Percy Cerutty

“The mastery of the true self, and the refusal to permit others to dominate us, is the ultimate in living and self-expression in athletics.”

— Percy Cerutty

“Let the smokers and the gluttons die ... and leave the living to us who know how to use it.”

— Percy Cerutty

“If you die, I will bury you in the sandhills with all the other runners.”

— Percy Cerutty

“I have found life highly competitive. I accept it. It is useless, merely a hypocritical humbug, to sincerely wish your opponent to win. If you are out to win you are better not wanting to know your opponent, much less grow to like him - and wish him, honestly success over you. I have never functioned that way.”

— Percy Cerutty

“While a man is racing he must hate himself and his competitors.”

— Percy Cerutty

“I'm not interested in athletics, I'm only interested in achievement. Fix your goal and work for it.”

— Percy Cerutty

“But don't forget my ideas are only what's been written down in history by the great people of the world who've gone before. All I've done is condense the wisdom of the world into an attitude for athletics. Athletics aren't just running, it's a way of life”

— Percy Cerutty

“The introduction of resistance in form of sand and hill is too important to be ignored.”

— Percy Cerutty

If the coach cannot do it, he cannot 'teach' it-only talk about it.

— Percy Cerutty