Daniel Topolski famous quotes

...well this US eight, with all its material occupying every seat just would not go fast. They rowed their hearts out but it never started to sing through the water. And no one ever found out why. The answer to this is slightly mystical because the sum of a crew is greater than its parts. Those eight heavyweights had not time to develop the bond, the sacred trust, that can make a racing eight fly.
-- Daniel Topolski

#Heart #Eight #Water

[He] would drive his sculling boat through mile after mile, in a silent brutal programe of conditioning - he would work all alone, at first light, punishing himself without mercy. His was the private dignity of the lone athlete, with a grim purpose, fighting a solitary war with himself, toward a goal only he can see.
-- Daniel Topolski

#War #Athlete #Fighting

Anyone who has not rowed in a really close boatrace cannot comprehend the level of pain.
-- Daniel Topolski

#Pain #Levels #Rowing

I watched them carefully, as always, searching for a sign of mental weakness. But there was none. Every man was coping well with the hardship, each one of them locked into his task. But it is one thing to practice, and quite another to race. And the trouble is, you never know who, on the day, will find it within his soul to give more than he has ever given before. It takes a kind of madness to compete like that, because of the will power and the ego, and his loyalty. And while some men have it, others have yet to find it. And a coach can only use his best judgement as to who those men will be.
-- Daniel Topolski

#Loyalty #Men #Race

Piglet noticed that even though he had a Very Small Heart, it could hold a rather large amount of Gratitude.

A divided heart loses both worlds.

Because I liked you better Than suits a man to say, It irked you, and I promised I'd throw the thought away. To put the world between us We parted stiff and dry: 'Farewell,' said you, 'forget me.' 'Fare well, I will,' said I. If e'er, where clover whitens The dead man's knoll, you pass, And no tall flower to meet you Starts in the trefoiled grass, Halt by the headstone shading The heart you have not stirred, And say the lad that loved you Was one that kept his word.

He would not stay for me, and who can wonder? He would not stay for me to stand and gaze. I shook his hand, and tore my heart in sunder, And went with half my life about my ways.

Baseball should be the only thing on an eight year old boy's mind.

The optimum population is modeled on the iceberg- eight-ninths below the water line, one-ninth above.

I study chess eight hours a day, on principle.

Dinner with water is dinner for prisoners

That's a bit like asking a man crawling across the Sahara whether he would prefer Perrier or Malvern water.

Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.