The Smartest Things Ever Said About Fitness

SHAPE magazine
Mahatma Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi

These fitness nuggets of wisdom from Mahatma Gandhi, Michael Jordan, and more inspirational figures will cheer you up on the days you need a little bit of extra encouragement!

1. Mahatma Gandhi: "Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will."

2. Michael Jordan: "I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."

3. Ellen DeGeneres: "You have to stay in shape. My grandmother, she started walking five miles a day when she was 60. She's 97 today and we don't know where the hell she is."

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4. Oprah Winfrey: "There is no easy way [to exercise]. Believe me, if there were, I would have bought it. And it would be one of my favorite things!"

5. President John F. Kennedy: "Physical fitness is not only one of the most important keys to a healthy body, it is the basis of dynamic and creative intellectual activity."

6. Vincent Lombardi: "The good Lord gave you a body that can stand most anything. It's your mind you have to convince."

7. Paula Newby-Fraser, triathlete: "Everyone has limits on the time they can devote to exercise, and cross training simply gives you the best return on your investment: balanced fitness with minimum injury risk and maximum fun."

8. T. Campbell and Gisele Lagace: "I like weights. You know where you stand with them. Well, sometimes you're lying under them, trying not to let them crush you, but you see, you know they'd crush you if they could. There's honesty."

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9. Joan Welsh: "A man's health can be judged by which he takes two at a time-pills or stairs."

10. Edward Stanley, Earl of Derby: "Those who do not find time for exercise will have to find time for illness."

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