I'm reading "The Wonder Crew", an account of the 1920 Navy eight that won the gold medal at the Olympic Games, and came across this most excellent quote:
"I have never heard anyone profess indifference to a boat race. Why should you row a boat race? Why endure long months of pain in preparation of a fierce half hour, or even six minutes, that will leave you all but dead? Does anyone ask the question? Is there anyone who would not go through all its costs, and more, for the moment when anguish breaks into triumph--or even for the glory of having nobly lost? Is life less then a boat race? If a man will give all the blood in his body to win the one, will he not spend all the might of his soul to prevail in the other?"
-- Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., Yale University commencement, 1886
