Dean Karnazes Quotes

Run when you can, walk if you have to, crawl if you must; just never give up.

I have my whole office set-up at waist level; I don’t sit at all during the day. Sitting, to me, is the devil.

The human body has limitations. The human spirit is boundless.

Runners are competitive folks. I think some might feel slighted they haven’t got more recognition. I think they have a point. In running, you won’t necessarily get noticed just for turning in good performances.

I went to college, grad school. I got an M.B.A., had a really cush corporate job. But I was just bored stiff. I didn’t fit that mold.

Sure I’m cut but not for the sake of vanity.

If you just go out there and run 100 miles, it breaks down a lot of barriers in terms of self-imposed limitations.

People think I’m crazy to put myself through such torture, though I would argue otherwise. Somewhere along the line we seem to have confused comfort with happiness… Dostoyevsky had it right: ‘Suffering is the sole origin of consciousness.’ Never are my senses more engaged than when the pain sets in. There is a magic in misery. Just ask any runner.

Listen to everyone, follow no one.

Some seek the comfort of their therapist’s office, other head to the corner pub and dive into a pint, but I chose running as my therapy.

Adventure books are my personal favorites. ‘The Endurance,’ a story about Ernest Shackleton’s legendary Antarctica expedition, or ‘Into Thin Air,’ Jon Krakauer’s personal account of the 1996 disaster on Mt Everest, are two notables.

Running is a simple, primitive act, and therein lays its power. For it is one of the few commonalities left between us as a human race.