"As a child I was myself exceedingly delicate. More than once, indeed, my life was despaired of. Until I was in my tenth year, I scarcely knew what strength was. Then it happened that I saw it in bronze and stone. My father took me with him to Italy, and in the art galleries of Rome and Florence I was struck with admiration for the finely developed forms of the sculptured figures of the athletes of old. I remember asking my father if people were as well developed in these “modern times”. He pointed out that they were not, and explained that these were the figures of men who lived when might was right, when men’s own arms were their weapons, and often their lives depended upon their physical strength. Moreover, they knew nothing of the modern luxuries of civilization, and, besides their training and exercise, their muscles, in the ordinary course of daily life, were always being brought prominently into play.
The memory of these muscular figures was everpresent, and when we returned to my home in Königsberg I wanted to become strong like them."
Eugene Sandow, Natural bodybuilder
