Harold M. Abrahams Quotes in Chariots of Fire (1981)

Harold M. Abrahams: If I can't win, I won't run!

Sybil Gordon: If you don't run, you can't win.

Harold M. Abrahams: You, Aubrey, are my most complete man.

Harold M. Abrahams: You're brave, compassionate, kind: a content man. That is your secret, contentment; I am 24 and I've never known it.

Harold M. Abrahams: I'm forever in pursuit and I don't even know what I am chasing.

Harold M. Abrahams: And now in one hour's time I will be out there again.

Harold M. Abrahams: I will raise my eyes and look down that corridor; 4 feet wide, with 10 lonely seconds to justify my whole existence. But WILL I?

Harold M. Abrahams: Aubrey, I've known the fear of losing but now I am almost too frightened to win.

Sam Mussabini: Eric Liddell? He's no real problem...

Harold M. Abrahams: [Eric has already beaten Harold once] You could have fooled me.

Sam Mussabini: Yeah, he's fast! But he won't go any faster. He's a gut runner, digs deep! But a short sprint is run on nerves. It's tailor-made for neurotics.

Harold M. Abrahams: That was the miscalculation of my life.

Henry Stallard: [the athletes are playing cricket in the ballroom of their hotel. Henry Stallard is the umpire; Aubrey Montague bowls a delivery to Eric Liddell, batting] No ball!

Harold M. Abrahams: [desperate to get into bat] Come on, Aubrey, the old leg-break!

Harold M. Abrahams: [Aubrey bowls another delivery, which deceivingly appears to have gotten Eric out] HowZAT!

Henry Stallard: Not out!

Harold M. Abrahams: What do you mean, not out? You could've heard it from bloody Bournemouth! Come on, Liddell, my innings.

Eric Liddell: I didn't touch it, I swear it, must've been the crack of my wrist!

Harold M. Abrahams: He's out I tell you, you're all deaf - deaf and bloody blind! Aubrey I ask you, for God's sake!

Harold M. Abrahams: [No response from Aubrey, dramatic pause]

[punching the air]

Harold M. Abrahams: It's not FAIR!

[the athletes break into laughter, Abrahams eventually joining them]

Sybil Gordon: [about running] Do you love it?

Harold M. Abrahams: I'm more of an addict. It's a compulsion with me, a weapon I can use.

Sybil Gordon: Against what?

Harold M. Abrahams: Being Jewish I suppose.

Sybil Gordon: [laughs incredulously] You're not serious! People aren't like that, people don't care. Can it be as bad as all that?

Harold M. Abrahams: You're not Jewish, or you wouldn't have had to ask.

Harold M. Abrahams: [making a toast] To Sam Mussabini, the greatest trainer in the world.

Harold M. Abrahams: Aubrey, I've known the fear of losing but now I am almost too frightened to win.