Top 35 Pierre de Coubertin Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “The important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle.”

— Pierre de Coubertin

2. “The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part; the essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well.”

— Pierre de Coubertin

Featured in: Engagement Quotes

3. “Winning medals wasn’t the point of the Olympics. It’s the participating that counts.”

— Pierre de Coubertin

4. “The important thing in life is not victory but combat; it is not to have vanquished but to have fought well.”

— Pierre de Coubertin

5. “All sports must be treated on the basis of equality.”

— Pierre de Coubertin

6. “Olympism seeks to create a way of life based on the joy found in effort, the educational value of a good example and respect for universal fundamental ethical principles.”

— Pierre de Coubertin

7. “Swifter, higher, stronger.”

— Pierre de Coubertin

8. “All sports for all people.”

— Pierre de Coubertin

9. “For each individual, sport is a possible source for inner improvement.”

— Pierre de Coubertin

10. “The essential thing in life is not so much conquering as fighting well.”

— Pierre de Coubertin

11. “Sport must be the heritage of all men and of all social classes.”

— Pierre de Coubertin

12. “The Olympic Spirit is neither the property of one race nor of one age.”

— Pierre de Coubertin

13. “In the name of all competitors, I promise that we will take part in these Olympic Games, respecting and abiding by all the rules which govern them in the true spirit of sportsmanship, for the glory of sport and the honour of our teams.”

— Pierre de Coubertin

14. “May joy and good fellowship reign, and in this manner, may the Olympic Torch pursue its way through ages, increasing friendly understanding among nations, for the good of a humanity always more enthusiastic, more courageous and more pure.”

— Pierre de Coubertin

15. “The Olympic Games are the quadrennial celebration of the springtime of humanity.”

— Pierre de Coubertin

16. “Olympism is a doctrine of the fraternity between the body and the soul.”

— Pierre de Coubertin

17. “Sport is part of every man and woman’s heritage and its absence can never be compensated for.”

— Pierre de Coubertin

18. “Festival of the impassioned efforts and manifold ambitions of all forms of youthful activity of every generation springing from the threshold of life.”

— Pierre de Coubertin

19. “The Olympic Games are for the world and all nations must be admitted to them.”

— Pierre de Coubertin

20. “The important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win, but to take part; the important thing in Life is not triumph, but the struggle; the essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well. To spread these principles is to build up a strong and more valiant and, above all, more scrupulous and more generous humanity.”

— Pierre de Coubertin

21. “A better world could be brought about only by better individuals.”

— Pierre de Coubertin

22. “Olympism is not a system – it is a state of mind. This state of mind has emerged from a double cult: that of effort and that of Eurythmy – a taste of excess and a taste of measure combined.”

— Pierre de Coubertin

23. “Holding an Olympic Games means evoking history.”

— Pierre de Coubertin

24. “The six colours, including the white background, represent the colours of all the world’s flags... this is a true international emblem.”

— Pierre de Coubertin

25. “Sport must be accessible to working class youth.”

— Pierre de Coubertin

26. “Success comprises in itself the seeds of its own decline and sport is not spared by this law.”

— Pierre de Coubertin

27. “In the Olympic Oath, I ask for only one thing: sporting loyalty.”

— Pierre de Coubertin

28. “The day when a sportsman stops thinking above all else of the happiness in his own effort and the intoxication of the power and physical balance he derives from it, the day when he lets considerations of vanity or interest take over, on this day his ideal will die.”

— Pierre de Coubertin

29. “The Olympic Games were created for the exhaltation of the individual athlete.”

— Pierre de Coubertin

30. “Sport is the habitual and voluntary cultivation of intensive physical effort.”

— Pierre de Coubertin

31. “The Olympic Movement gives the world an ideal which reckons with the reality of life, and includes a possibility to guide this reality toward the great Olympic Idea.”

— Pierre de Coubertin

32. “A country can truly call itself sporting when the majority of its people feel a personal need for sport.”

— Pierre de Coubertin

33. “In no way can sport be considered a luxury object.”

— Pierre de Coubertin

34. “Racial distinctions should not play a role in sport.”

— Pierre de Coubertin

35. “The important thing is that all stages from adolescent to mature man, work is done to spread the sporting spirit.”

— Pierre de Coubertin

36. “I therefore think that I was right in trying from the outset of the Olympic revival to rekindle a religious awareness.”

— Pierre de Coubertin

37. “The strength of Olympism comes to it from that which is simply human, hence worldwide is its essence.”

— Pierre de Coubertin