It is a wonderful tribute to the game or to the dottiness of the people who play it that for some people somewhere there is no such thing as an insurmountable obstacle, an unplayable course, the wrong time of the day or year.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the indomitable spirit of individuals who view challenges as opportunities rather than obstacles.
In this quote, Alistair Cooke emphasizes the remarkable resilience and determination of certain individuals who perceive no boundaries in their pursuits, especially when faced with difficulties in a game or life. This mindset suggests that for some, obstacles are merely challenges that can be surmounted with ingenuity and spirit, reflecting a broader philosophy on the power of perseverance and a positive outlook.
In practice
In a motivational speech to a sports team when discussing overcoming challenges.
More than anything else, though, to anyone who would write about it, golf offers a four-hour drama in two acts, which becomes memorable even in the tape-recorded reminiscenses of old champs, and which - in the hands of someone like Herb Wind - can become a piece of war correspondence as artfully controlled as Alan Morehead's account of Gallipoli.
Man has an incurable habit of not fulfilling the prophecies of his fellow men.
It has been an unchallengeable American doctrine that cranberry sauce, a pink goo with overtones of sugared tomatoes, is a delectable necessity of the Thanksgiving board and that turkey is uneatable without it.
A professional is someone who can do his best work when he doesn't feel like it.
Curiosity endows the people who have it with a generosity in argument and a serenity in their own mode of life which springs from their cheerful willingness to let life take the form it will.
Liberty is the luxury of self-discipline, that those nations historically who have failed to discipline themselves have had discipline imposed by others.
What great thing would you attempt if you knew you could not fail?
Before I sat down and became a writer, before I began to do it habitually and for my living, there was a decades-long stretch when I was terrified that it would suck, so I didn't write. I think that marks a lot of people, a real terror at being bad at something, and unfortunately, you are always bad before you can get a little better.
Golf was my vehicle to competition and I can't play if I can't compete.
Be a warrior when it comes to delivering on your ambitions. And a saint when it comes to treating people with respect, modeling generosity, and showing up with outright love.
Always work hard on something uncomfortably exciting!
He who believes is strong; he who doubts is weak. Strong convictions precede great actions.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.