Sport allows us to engage in dialogue and to build bridges, and it may even have the capacity to reshape international relations. The Olympic Games embody perfectly this universal mission.

Female success stories from sporting events like the Olympic Games have played a role in shifting the Indian perception to see the female athlete as a hero and a role model for young Indian girls.

Sport is a great equalizer that can build bridges, transcend borders and cultures, and render even the fiercest conflicts temporarily irrelevant.

Sport is one of the few spaces where people can learn about different cultures in a spirit of trust and friendship.

When kids are young, before the age of ten, there is a critical window of opportunity when their habits and motivations can be influenced.

If women are the key to Africa's future - and I believe they are - we must figure out how to take away the barriers to their participation.

For African societies, no issue looms larger than employment. Only vibrant entrepreneurship and thriving small businesses can hope to provide the millions of jobs that are needed.

Sport is and should remain a great school of life that supports young people in their personal development. It teaches respect for others and also for oneself.

Bringing more large sporting events to Africa would help the continent develop sports policies and at the same time optimize its peoples' chances of achieving competitive success.

Improving Africa's farming sector would have multiple positive outcomes for African people.

Inspiration, in its rich variety, must be present in any discussion about Africa. We need role models - they are essential to the advancement of our society.

To some extent the history of plagiarism is a history of notebooks.

To wake up each morning is a blessed gift.

Ambition had never troubled me, so I decided to begin by watching life at my leisure for a few years, waiting until I finally felt tempted to find some circle of influence for myself.

Irony is wasted on the stupid

My father played five years for Valence in France's second division. I'd always cry when he would leave for training. Every morning, I'd say, 'Dad, take me with you. Please, please take me with you!'

Editing might be a bloody trade. But knives aren't the exclusive property of butchers. Surgeons use them too.

You can wear black in any moment of the day, no matter your age. You can wear black with almost any occasion. A black dress is essential for every woman.

I think if two people love each other, they should be able to get married. That's pretty much simple.

Rome is the one great spiritual organisation which is able to resist and must, as a matter of life and death, the progress of science and modern civilization

Black is like the silence of the body after death, the close of life.