Some of Ray's Favorite Quotes

Ray grabbing a snack in Antarctica.

• Are you committed to this? Can you hike 55 miles with 6 socks on that foot? (Ray to Paul Goransson after the sole of Paul's shoe sole fell off halfway into the 100-mile wilderness in northern Maine.)
• I have had a lot of patience over the last few months. (Ray Greenlaw)
• It was at least three and a half meters long ... (Ray Greenlaw)
• People are sometimes running too fast to their goal, and they forget to look at how beautiful things on the sides of the road are.
• Most people live their lives for themselves; few people live their lives for others.

• Don't worry about the world coming to an end. It's already tomorrow in Australia. (Charles Schultz)
• Everything we do in life, well, we need to do it some way. And the way we do it gives us a certain experience. Enjoy that experience, learn from it, and grow. (Ray Greenlaw)
• Relax.
• Never ever give up. Ever. (Jim Valvano)
• What have you done, lately? (Neil Sullivan)
• Some people dream of worthy accomplishments while others stay awake and do them.

• I miss you, Dad! (Ray Greenlaw)
• I like running in the rain. (Ray Greenlaw during tropical storm)
• Don't limit your challenges; challenge your limits.
• We rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us. (Romans 5:35)
• A long journey is well started, once you are on the other side of the door. (Dutch proverb)

• Dogs don't bark at parked cars. (J.T. Watts Jr.)
• When my legs begin to move, the thoughts begin to flow. (H.D. Thoreau)
• If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.
• Give me another Heifeweisen. (Stefan Wirtz, John Allen, Ray Greenlaw, and millions of others)
• Don't give me another Heifeweisen at the moment. (Ray Greenlaw)

• The choices we make, dictate the life we lead.
• Only a mediocre man is always at his best. (John Schuerholz)
• Buy the best you can, and you cry only once. (Ancient Chinese Proverb)
• Give me a Heine, and I'll give you back an empty (and quickly). (Dave Lawson)
• The conditions in this mine are deplorable. {While digging a snow kitchen in Antarctica.} (Kevin "Neo" Neil)

• If language is not correct, then what is said is not what is meant; if what is said is not what is meant, then what ought to be done remains undone. (Confucius)
• When I have a rock in my shoe, I stop to take it out. (Ray Greenlaw)
• In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks. (John Muir)
• If the mind accepts, the body will adapt. (Gym rat)
• I have a new name for you...STEEL MAN...You have surpassed the iron man category. (John Veldhuis)

• The unexamined life is not worth living. (Socrates)
• It's too bad that this is almost over. (Agust Kvaran)
• I think we only have about 40 more miles to go ... (Ultrarunning Pacer)
• I can't breath. (Ray Greenlaw at 18,000 feet.)
• At the gates of the forest, the surprised man of the world is forced to abandon his city estimates of great and small ... The knapsack of custom falls off his back. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

• Hey, I just figured out why God gave us eyebrows. That's, the only thing between this salt river and my eyes. (Peter Solomon)
• The equipment failed again. (Ray Greenlaw)
• I did just get hit by lightening. (Ray Greenlaw)
• If I'm laying on the ground mumbling, I'm probably saying something like "Give me a Dels." (Ray Greenlaw)
• I go running in outer space. (Alice Cooper)

• 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. (Pierre de Courbertin)
• To strive, to seek, and not to yield. (Alfred Lord Tennyson)
• It never always gets worse.
• Do the thing and have the power. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
• I have met my hero, and he is me. (George Sheehan)

• I think I can ... I think I can ... I think I can ... (The Little Engine That Could)
• Life is not tried, it is merely survived, if you're standing outside the fire. (Garth Brooks)
• Never look back, someone might be gaining on you. (Satchel Paige)
• The road to excess leads to the palace of wisdom, for we can never know what is enough until we have experienced too much. (William Blake)
• That which does not destroy me makes me stronger. (Nietzsche)

• It's nice to at least once a year have a near-death experience. (Mark Allen)
• It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who at the worst, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat. (Teddy Roosevelt)
• The story of mountaineering is a story of faith and affirmation-that the high road is the good road; that there are still among us those who are willing to struggle and suffer greatly for wholly ideal ends; that security is not the be-all and end-all of living; that there are conquests to be won in the world other than over our fellow man. The climbing of the earth's heights in itself means little. That men want and try to climb them means everything. For it is the ultimate wisdom of the mountains that man is never so much a man as when he is striving for what is beyond his grasp, and that there is no battle worth the winning save that against his own ignorance and fear. (From ``The Age of Mountaineering'')
• Fatigue makes cowards of us all. (Vince Lombardi)
• Whoever fights monsters should see that in the process he does not become a monster. When you look long into the abyss, the abyss also looks into you. (Nietzshe)

• A man's reach must exceed his grasp, or else what's a heaven for? (Robert Browning)
• Whatever you think you can do or believe you can do, begin it. Action has magic, grace and power in it. (Goethe)
• Running is not just a sport but a biological necessity. (Yiannis Kouros)
• The 1300-Mile Race isn't something you die for once. You die eighteen times, every single day. (Trishul Cherns)
• If I am beaten the next time I run, I do not mind. If you have a salad that is all one thing, all lettuce, it is not good. It has no flavour. So victory always would be flat. You must mix it with defeat to gain the flavour. (Gerard Cote)

• I like those people. They are calmer and cooler, I think. Personality-wise, they are rich. An ultrarunner is not somebody who is normally going to wish you bad. On the contrary, if you are down an ultrarunner will help you. (Michel Careau)
• Life and sports cannot be separated; they are one. (Sri Chinmoy)
• Getting up in the morning to run an ultramarathon is like getting up to be hanged -- on an empty stomach. (Trevor Banks)
• Many of the ordinary pleasures of life have to be almost banished for a long time while you are preparing for a peak achievement. (Arthur Newton)
• I have learnt where my real priorities are and that is to witness and experience life itself. (Tony Rafferty)

• It made me feel good ... Many times my feet hardly touched the ground. I felt that proud and that light. (Walter Young)
• It has been a privilege to run across our country. Each province has its own gift and uniqueness. (Kanchan Stott)
• Behold a man running alone. (The Bible (II Samuel 18 v.24))
• I did it for all the fat men sitting at Tim Horton's. (Glen Chenell)
• I get about 55 miles to the gallon - only one passenger, though. (Andy Jones)

• All athletes, without fail, are potentially great and good. A great athlete is a little man tirelessly inspired. (Sri Chinmoy)
• It is a great art to saunter. (Henry David Thoreau)
• I sat down and wondered about the strange shape of the bird on the light post. I think that was the first time I went right over the edge. I had flipped out. I had taken the express train to Bonkersville. (Matt Pratt)
• Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go. (TS Eliot)
• Anyone who thinks the sky is the limit has a limited imagination.

• When going out into the universe, remember: Boldly go where no man has gone before! (Star Trek)
• Nothing beats experience.
• Mental fortitude is more important than physical endurance.
• Champions are born with the right stuff, but still must suffer the stresses of training to achieve full potential.
• Throw your heart over the bar and your body will follow. (Bob Mathias)

• The mind learns the body can go at least a bit farther even though it feels increasingly uncomfortable. (Pritikin)
• Sometimes you should overcome the tiredness and speed up when you'd normally slow down. Great source of strength and power.
• Sweetness and release can only taste the way they do after one deserves them.
• The body is given out on loan --- don't waste it and expect to use it tomorrow.
• Too much knowledge can hold you back. Ignorance on the other hand, now that was something that could get you to the finish line. (Will Weber)

Ray's running page | Ray's main page