Always, through my whole life, I've had a thirst for knowledge.

I've given everything I can possible to the game, on and off the field.

For me, winning isn't something that happens suddenly on the field when the whistle blows and the crowds roar. Winning is something that builds physically and mentally every day that you train and every night that you dream.

It's been a tremendous ride. My 15 years, my 15 minutes of fame, is up.

Always, through my whole life, I've had a thirst for knowledge.

Consistency is one of the hallmarks of my career. You knew what you were going to get out of E-Smith every game, every year, no matter if I was 22, 21 or 35 years old.

Demand excellence.

I don't have to get up in the morning and go beat up my body like I used to. I don't have to be out there in August in 108 degree weather down in Texas.

I don't have to put on shoulder pads and run out there and let somebody hit on me a little bit.

I enjoyed being a teammate of Deion Sanders. He brings different elements to the game that many people would not even realize, and to watch and witness a superior talent like him and watch him prepare and train, and study the game is truly amazing.

I have achieved everything that I ever wanted to accomplish in this game and more so, for me, I have been fulfilled.

I have been a Cowboys fan since I was a little bitty boy. And my dream has finally become a reality, of not only just playing a professional, becoming a professional athlete, but playing for the team that I always wanted to play for.

I know how important it is to have your quarterback standing upright. Matter of fact, I know how important it is not to allow someone hit on him period because I want him to think that this pocket is completely safe, no one is going to get to me and I got all the time in the world to make whatever decisions I need to make.

I used to imagine what it would be like to do what Jim Brown was doing. I used to imagine what it would be like to be like a Tony Dorsett. I used to imagine what it would be like to be like a Walter Payton. I was imagining Emmitt Smith doing exactly what they were doing.

I used to send Tony Romo texts throughout the season just to encourage him, just to wish him luck and just to tell him to get on his offensive line. I hated watching this young man get sacked as much as he did, especially when it came down to big games.

I was actually looking for answers where I kept asking myself - what am I doing?

I was going through a little bit of turbulence in my career. And so, it's funny how turbulence itself will make you hold onto something for security. And so the only thing I knew is trust in the Lord and lean not unto your own heart, in all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy path.

I'm an enigma, an unknown. You can't really figure out what I'm going to do next. I like it like that.

I've learned that football sometimes was an outlet. It was a way for me to release anger, release frustration.

If I didn't have a scholarship to go to the University of Florida or any school, I probably would have considered the military because my family could not afford to send me to college.

If you know anything about me, I've never been a trash-talker. That's not even part of my DNA.

If you're not settled spiritually, things can be a little bit more chaotic than normal.

My father is Emmit and my grandfather is Emmit, but I wanted something extra so I could separate my Emmitt from the rest of them. Even though on my birth certificate it has one T, I just added the extra T for me.

My mom said, 'Don't get married. You're too young. Go out there and experience what life has to offer.' And I did.

One thing I can say about the Dallas Cowboys: They have always had talent around them. They have been one of the most talented football teams in all of football.

Sixteen games, to me, is a long enough schedule for anybody. We're already concerning ourselves with head injuries and bodily harm to all of the professional athletes. Add to extra games to it, (and) you are just increasing those risks.

Vision gets the dreams started. Dreaming employs your God-given imagination to reinforce the vision. Both are part of something I believe is absolutely necessary to building the life of a champion, a winner, a person of high character who is consistently at the top of whatever game he or she is in.

Winning is something that builds physically and mentally every day that you train and every night that you dream.

I may win and I may lose, but I will never be defeated.

Dreaming means ˜rehearsing' what you see, playing it over and over in your mind until it becomes as real to you as your life right now.

You cannot change the stripes of a leopard.

We are all born naked into this world, but each of us is fully clothed in potential.

If you want to stay perfect, you cannot go undefeated with a blemish on your record.

If I had to come up with something that just came to me, I think growing up in a small town, I want knowledge. I still think today, knowledge is one of the keys.

My mom took me to see Carnal Knowledge and The Wild Bunch and all these kind of movies when I was a kid.

Education is a private matter between the person and the world of knowledge and experience, and has little to do with school or college.

Contention is inseparable from creating knowledge. It is not contention we should try to avoid, but discourses that attempt to suppress contention.

Harvard is first and foremost a university and not a consulting operation, and our job here is to teach and to research and to create knowledge on Asia in conjunction and in cooperation with scholars as well as with political, intellectual, and cultural leaders in Asia.

It was very interesting for me because DNA made music without much technical knowledge at all.

But, in the name of the experimental method and out of our poor knowledge, are we really entitled to claim that everything happens by chance, to the exclusion of all other possibilities?

The greatest gift is the passion for reading. It is cheap, it consoles, it distracts, it excites, it gives you knowledge of the world and experience of a wide kind. It is a moral illumination.

We must develop knowledge optimization initiatives to leverage our key learnings.

When a doctor does go wrong he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge.

There are in fact two things, science and opinion; the former begets knowledge, the later ignorance.

Knowledge is the treasure of a wise man.

We don't focus as much in schools on educational knowledge which requires thinking and application, as we do on acquiring facts.

The man of knowledge must be able not only to love his enemies but also to hate his friends.

The art and science of asking questions is the source of all knowledge.

The benefits of education and of useful knowledge, generally diffused through a community, are essential to the preservation of a free government.