Inspired By The Olympics: Citius, Altius, Fortius

Watching the Olympics is big in our family. We spend many hours in awe of the greatness of those games. Not only are they fun to watch, but it is also very inspiring to see the achievement of such skilled athletes in so many areas. When you think of all the training and experience that goes into their efforts, it is truly amazing. Their experience usually includes a lot of falling or crashing, getting injured, getting down, getting up, rehabilitating, and re-conditioning, as well as the many heartbreaks of not quite achieving what they wanted, when they wanted, or how they wanted. But the good ones keep going, keep trying, and ultimately achieve glory - whether through a medal or the through the shear victory of accomplishing a goal, finishing and doing their best.

Some famous Olympic athletes have achieved their highest attainment and glory after having overcome a serious setback or injury, or while they are still in the mode of returning to their best form. Others achieve the top honors after a long period of having expended the greatest training efforts of their lives.

The Olympic competitors are in the pursuit of the great Olympian ideals: Citius, Altius and Fortius, which translated from Latin mean Swifter, Higher and Stronger. They also believe in the Olympic Creed, which is:

"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."

We are not all, nor can we all, be Olympic level athletes. But we all can take inspiration from these Olympic ideals and the heroes that have applied them so well in their lives. We can be heroes in our own right by overcoming our trials and achieving the swiftest, the highest and the strongest within us.

Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes

1. A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature.

2. A great man is always willing to be little.

3. A great part of courage is the courage of having done the thing before.

4. A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is brave five minutes longer.

5. A man is a method, a progressive arrangement; a selecting principle, gathering his like to him; wherever he goes.

6. A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his work and done his best; but what he has said or done otherwise shall give him no peace.

7. A man is what he thinks about all day long.

8. A man's growth is seen in the successive choirs of his friends.

9. Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.

10. All I have seen teaches me to trust the creator for all I have not seen.

11. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.

12. Always do what you are afraid to do.

13. America is another name for opportunity.

14. An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory.

15. As a cure for worrying, work is better than whiskey.

16. As long as a man stands in his own way, everything seems to be in his way.

17. Bad times have a scientific value. These are occasions a good learner would not miss.

18. Before we acquire great power we must acquire wisdom to use it well.

19. Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door.

20. Character is higher than intellect. A great soul will be strong to live as well as think.

21. Common sense is genius dressed in its working clothes.

22. Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.

23. Do the thing we fear, and death of fear is certain.

24. Don't be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.

25. Earth laughs in flowers.

26. Enthusiasm is the mother of effort, and without it nothing great was ever achieved.

27. Every man has his own courage, and is betrayed because he seeks in himself the courage of other persons.

28. Every man in his lifetime needs to thank his faults.

29. Every man is a quotation from all his ancestors.

30. Every natural fact is a symbol of some spiritual fact.

31. Every wall is a door.

32. Flowers... are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty outvalues all the utilities of the world.

33. For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind.

34. For everything you have missed, you have gained something else, and for everything you gain, you lose something else.

35. God enters by a private door into every individual.

36. He who is not everyday conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life.

37. Hitch your wagon to a star.

38. I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.

39. I hate the giving of the hand unless the whole man accompanies it.

40. I have no hostility to nature, but a child's love to it. I expand and live in the warm day like corn and melons.

41. I have thought a sufficient measure of civilization is the influence of good women.

42. I like the silent church before the service begins, better than any preaching.

43. If a man can... make a better mousetrap, the world will make a beaten path to his door.

44. If you would lift me up you must be on higher ground.

45. In skating over thin ice our safety is in our speed.