Corny to say, but the book and movie affected my worldview. But the movie had the best quotes.
"You’re not your job. You’re not how much money you have in the bank. You’re not the car you drive. You’re not the contents of your wallet. You’re not your fucking khakis. We are the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world. "
or
“You have to consider the possibility that God does not like you. He never wanted you. In all probability, he hates you. This is not the worst thing that can happen. We don’t need Him. Fuck damnation, man, fuck redemption! If we are God’s unwanted children, so be it!”
or
"You are not special. You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake. You are the same decaying organic matter as everything else, and we are all apart of the same compost heap."
or
“Stop trying to control everything and just let go.”
Let me correct this quote once and for all. It’s from Sun Tzu’s The Art of War: “The will to win means nothing without the will to prepare.”
I keep going back to the Austrian swimmer Markus Riegel (???) about the Speedo LZR. “I tested it. I threw it in the water and it didn’t move, so I still have to swim.”
“Does it taste like pennies? Hemingway says it’s the taste of death.” Colorado XC coach Mark Wetmore, quoted in “Running With the Buffaloes.”
“It’s better to burn out than to fade away.” Neil Young.
“Running to him was real, the way he did it the realest thing he knew. It was all joy and woe, hard as diamond; it made him weary beyond comprehension. But it also made him free.” John L. Parker, “Once a Runner”
*“I always start these events with very lofty goals, like I’m doing to do something special, and after a point of body deterioration and the goals get evaluated down, which is basically where I am at now, where the best I can hope for is to avoid throwing up on my shoes.” *
Ephrain Romesberg, 65 miles into the Badwater Ultramarathon
Not sure why I find this motivational. Probably because that’s how I feel, alot. Plus it is really funny.