Gambling is the child of avarice, the brother of iniquity, and the father of mischief.

If I played in New York, they’d name a candy bar after me.

I never yet could make out why men are so fond of hunting; they often hurt themselves, often spoil good horses, and tear up the fields—and all for a hare or a fox or a stag that they could get more easily some other way.

A win always seems shallow: it is the loss that is so profound and suggests nasty infinities.

These useless men ought to be cut up and served at a banquet. I really believe that athletes have less intelligence than swine.

Courage and grace is a formidable mixture. The only place to see it is in the bullring.

Let me tell you what I think of bicycling. I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world: it gives women a feeling of freedom and self-reliance. I stand and rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel. The picture of free, untrammeled womanhood.

Two things only the people anxiously desire, bread and the circus games.

The sadness of the end of a career of an older athlete, with the betrayal of his body, is mirrored in the rest of us. Consciously or not, we know: there, soon, go I.

One great reason why many children abandon themselves wholly to silly sports and trifle away all their time insipidly is because they have found their curiosity baulked and their inquiries neglected.

No human being is innocent, but there is a class of innocent human actions called games.

I do love cricket—it’s so very English.I do love cricket—it’s so very English.

The gods play games with men as balls.