"Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do."
"I've come to accept that the life of a frontrunner is a hard one, that he will suffer more injuries than most men and that many of these injuries will not be accidental."
"Everything is practice."
"A penalty is a cowardly way to score."
"Enthusiasm is everything. It must be taut and vibrating like a guitar string."
"Everybody knows my life. I won a lot of tournaments and scored more than 1,000 goals, won three World Cups but I could not play in Olympic Games."
"Wherever you go, there are three icons that everyone knows: Jesus Christ, Pele and Coca-Cola."
"When I was a footballer, I surrounded myself with footballers. We were all friends. But in Brasilia you don't know who your friends are. It can be a dangerous place."
"Everything on earth is a game. A passing thing. We all end up dead. We all end up the same, don't we?"
"Of course, my father was a soccer player. He used to play very good. Then, when I was young, eight or nine years old, ten years old, I just want to be like my father."
"The bicycle kick is not easy to do."
"Pele doesn't die. Pele will never die. Pele is going to go on for ever."
"If you don't give education to people, it is easy to manipulate them."
"I represent Brazil all over the world. Wherever I go I have to do my best, to not disappoint the Brazilian people. And that I've done."
"The World Cup is a very complicated tournament - six games, seven if you make it to the final - and maybe if you lose one game you're out, even if you're the best."
"I sometimes lie awake at night and wonder why I am still so popular and, to be honest, I don't know."
"Yes, I have a lot of business interests. But I don't work for just anyone, and I choose the companies very carefully."
"Over the years I've learnt to live with two persons in my heart. One is Edson, who has fun with his friends and family; the other is the football player Pele. I didn't want the name. 'Pele' sounds like baby-talk in Portuguese."
"To be a striker you need to be in good shape."
"I always think that I would have become an actor if I hadn't been a soccer player."
"When I was minister of sport in Brazil, I tried to bring in a law that would make the chairmen of clubs reveal their accounts like other businesses. It was turned down, but I think it is an important story that will make a good film."
"No doubt, I am earning more money with my endorsements than I ever earned playing soccer."
"I don't think I'm a very good businessman. I act too much with my heart."
"Sport is something that is very inspirational for young people."
"The level of football in England is the top. English football is the leader in the world."
