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"You need to become more than one type of athlete. You have to be a sprinter, a weight man and a distance guy all in one."
Man
"As a young athlete, it was first about having fun; then it was about winning."
Winning
"Through everything I've gone through- and I've been everywhere, at the top of the world, in jail, hung over drunk - I never gave up my dream of winning a gold medal in the Olympics."
Dream
"It took me time to realize that the men who won Olympic gold medals in the decathlon are just men, just like me."
Man
"I think what my parents did was perfect. They were strict, concerned about my safety and held me back just a little."
Parenting
"As a young child, I was never a crier. I never cried to get my way, or even when I was in pain."
Pain
"Take pride in exactly what it is you do and remember it's okay to fail as long as you don't give up."
Confidence
"There is nothing better than having a personal-best day, being in shape and pushing myself beyond my own limits."
Being
"You have to be able to be a good loser. You have to be okay knowing you're going to fail every day in something without getting mad and upset."
Resilience
"To me, the decathlon is its own little society and I am part of that culture."
Society
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"That we shall use every discovery of science in the preservation of our children's health goes without saying; but we shall do more than this - we shall give them a free start, not loading them up with our own ideas and experiences, nor advising them to live according to our lights. We were burned in the fire here and there, but - who knows? - fire may not burn our children, and if we warn them away from it they may end by never growing warm. We will not even inflict our cynicism on them as the sentimentality of our fathers was inflicted on us. The most we will do is urge a little doubt, asking that the doubt be exercised on our ideas as well as on all the mortal things in this world."
Author Name
Personal Development
"Tiffany jumped when she saw a balloon sail up above the trees, catch the wind, and swoop away, but it turned out to be just a balloon and not a lump of excess Brian. She could tell this because it was followed by a long scream of rage mixed with a roar of complaint: "AAaargwannawannaaaagongongonaargggaaaaBLOON! which is the traditional sound of a very small child learning that with balloons, as with life itself, it is important to know when not to let go of the string. The whole point of balloons is to teach small children this."
Author Name
Personal Development
"We pretend that we know our children, because it's easier than admitting the truth--from the minute that cord is cut, they are strangers. It's far easier to tell yourself your daughter is still a little girl than to see her in a bikini and realize she has the curves of a young woman; it's safer to say you're a good parent who has all the right conversations about drugs and sex than to acknowledge there are a thousand things she would never tell you."
Author Name
Personal Development
"Being a parent wasn't just about bearing a child. It was about bearing witness to its life."
Author Name
Personal Development
"Disciplining a child is easier than disciplining a grown person, and forgiving a child's insolence is easier than forgiving a grown person's impudence."
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Personal Development
"Don't box your children in and tell them that everything is a sin. You'll produce either rebels, or very boring people."
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Personal Development
"Every child gets a good mother, but not every mother gets a good child."
Author Name
Personal Development
"Parents' transmit their attitude towards education to children via soundless, aphonic messages."
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Personal Development
"Effective parenting requires being the grown up version of what you want your children to be. Why? Because example is the most compelling superpower."
Author Name
Personal Development
"Sometimes, kids want you to hurt the way they hurt."
Author Name
Personal Development
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