Eric liddell quote
Executive summary
Eric Liddell is widely associated with the line “God made me fast. And when I run, I feel His pleasure,” a phrase that appears across many popular quotation sites and anthologies [1] [2] [3], but reporting tracing original sources cautions that the exact wording most people know likely comes from the 1981 film Chariots of Fire rather than a verbatim historical record [4] [5].
1. The familiar quote and where most readers encounter it
The sentence “God made me fast. And when I run, I feel His pleasure” is reproduced on mainstream quote collections and motivational pages, including BrainyQuote, Goodreads and various compilation sites, which present it as an Eric Liddell quotation without always sourcing a primary document [1] [2] [3]. That widespread circulation has cemented the line in public memory and on social media, so encountering it attributed to Liddell feels natural to modern audiences [3].
2. The film, the line, and provenance questions
Chariots of Fire, the 1981 biopic about Liddell, dramatizes his faith and athleticism and includes lines that echo the familiar phrasing, which has led researchers and writers to flag the movie as the likely origin of the popular wording rather than a verbatim historical quote from Liddell himself [4] [5]. At least one retrospective article explicitly states that the iconic line—especially the clause “when I run, I feel His pleasure”—is a creation of the film’s script and not found in Liddell’s surviving speeches or writings, urging caution about repeating film dialogue as historical fact [5].
3. What Liddell did say in his writings and sermons
Liddell’s genuine output—sermons, letters and his book The Disciplines of the Christian Life—contains many thematically similar statements emphasizing Christian purpose, discipline, and the integration of faith with action, such as reflections on doing one’s best in defeat and victory and the idea that Christians should live a God-guided life; these are documented in his published work and quote collections tied to his book [6] [2]. Other authentic attributed lines that recur across faith-focused sites include “We are all missionaries. Wherever we go we either bring people nearer to Christ or we repel them from Christ” and reflections about glory in effort, which better match Liddell’s pastoral and missionary voice [6] [7].
4. Why the distinction matters
Crediting a memorable sentence to Liddell because it appeared in a popular film risks flattening the historical record and conflating cinematic dramatization with primary testimony; scholars and fact-checkers emphasize that celebrated biopics often compress, paraphrase or invent dialogue to serve narrative and theme, and that appears to be the case here [4] [5]. At the same time, the cinematic line captures a truth many observers find consistent with Liddell’s life—the melding of athletic talent and Christian vocation—so while the exact wording may be cinematic, the sentiment resonates with documented themes in Liddell’s real speeches and writings [6] [4].
5. How to cite Liddell responsibly going forward
When using the famous line, responsible citation means acknowledging its likely origin in Chariots of Fire if quoting the exact phrase as popularly known, or instead drawing on Liddell’s documented writings for verbatim historical quotes; researchers who need authoritative sourcing should consult Liddell’s published sermons and The Disciplines of the Christian Life rather than unverified online quote compilations, because many aggregation sites reproduce phrases without primary citations [5] [6] [2].