Race Quotes by Roger Bannister

Our concept of a family holiday was going to a guest house in the Lake district or Wales where walking was part of the…

— Roger Bannister

Mothers, unless they were very poor, didn't work. Both of my parents had to leave education. My mother had to work in a cotton…

— Roger Bannister

My concentration was really on getting to university and becoming a doctor. My parents let me know that school marks were important. Achievement was…

— Roger Bannister

If there was the opportunity to climb a mountain, or to go ballooning, or some adventurous activity, I would always be keen to do…

— Roger Bannister

Sport is not about being wrapped up in cotton wool. Sport as about adapting to the unexpected and being able to modify plans at…

— Roger Bannister

The mile has all the elements of a drama.

— Roger Bannister

May is a very early time in the year and the weather is usually bad. You cannot run a fast mile race if there…

— Roger Bannister

My family actually lived in the same village for about 400 years. They had great stability until the last century. People lived and intermarried…

— Roger Bannister

The human spirit is indomitable. No one can ever say you must not run faster than this or jump higher than that. There will…

— Roger Bannister

Doctors and scientists said breaking the four-minute mile was impossible, that one would die in the attempt. Thus, when I got up from the…

— Roger Bannister

Beating John Landy was my defining race.

— Roger Bannister

I had always wanted to become a neurologist, which is one of the most demanding vocations in medicine. Where do you stop, after all,…

— Roger Bannister

The man who can drive himself further once the effort gets painful is the man who will win.

— Roger Bannister

I was playing rugby and the other games English school children do, and there was an event in which races were run, and I…

— Roger Bannister

If a man coaches himself, then he has only himself to blame when he is beaten.

— Roger Bannister