Sports-Related Quotes

"The time when there is no one there to feel sorry for you or to cheer for you is when a player is made."
---Tim Duncan

"If you meet a team with desire, you better be able to match that desire or you will lose."
---Unknown

"I firmly believe that any man's finest hour is that moment when he has worked his heart out in good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle, victorious."
---Vince Lombardi

"A quitter never...
...kisses the cup.
...kisses the ground.
...runs out a grounder.
...runs through the signs.
...signs autographs.
...signs for free.
...plays for free.
...plays for keeps.
...keeps her promises.
...keeps going.
...gets going.
...gets it together.
...gets noticed.
...gets promoted.
...gets an A.
...brings his A game.
...has game.
...has fun.
...has to work hard.
...works a little more.
...reaches a little deeper.
...reaches the finish line.
---Spike, Finish Line magazine

"True champions are team players."
---Alan Cohen

"Every day the word 'gift' is used to define talent, ability, and performance. Being gifted has an even deeper meaning, a meaning that isn't always measured in points per game or win/loss records--it's measured by heart, effort, and desire."
Alan Cohen

"I see beauty and elegance in every female athlete. I don't think being an athlete is unfeminine."
---Jackie Joyner-Kersee

"Talent is the gift plus the passion--a desire to succeed so intense that no force on earth can stop it."
---Neil Simon

"The most important lesson you can learn from winning is that you can."
---Dave Weinbaum

"Being a winner doesn't have anything to do with a win-lost record."
---Country magazine

"Let me win. But if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt."
---Special Olympics Oath

"Champions aren't made in gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them: A desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have late minute stamina, they have to be a little faster, they have to have the skill and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill."
---Muhammed Ali

"I've never been afraid to fail."
---Michael Jordan

"I have bever stolen a ball, scored a goal, or won a game alone."
---Kristin Lilley, Adidas commercial

"It's always too early to quit."
---Norman Vincent Pearle

"Being focused is great. Being passionate about something can be even better. But if you're so intense that you're stressed out and preoccupied with one aspect of life to the exclusion of everything else, you're missing out."
---Life's Playbook for Success by GTE Academic All-America Hall of Famers

"In the contest between talent and hard work as to which is the more important element of success, there's no comparison. A mediocre talent with lots of hard work will go farther than a stellar talent who just coasts."
---Dave Joyner

"The more honor and respect among the players, the greater the team."
---Unknown

"Champions expect pain, endure pain, and never complain."
---Unknown

"Good coaching is about leadership and instilling respect in your players. Dictators lead through fear--good coaches do not."
---John Wooden

"So many coaches forget that when they take the fun out of something, it's just not something people want to do."
---Michelle Johnson

"Perseverance isn't just the willingness to work hard. It's that, plus the willingness to be stubborn about your own belief in yourself."
---Merlin Olsen

"When I was younger, I thought that the key to success was just hard work. But the real foundation is faith. Faith--the idea that 'I can do it'--is the opposite of fear ('What if I fail?'). And faith creates motivation which in turn leads to commitment, hard work, preparation...and eventually success."
---Howard Twilley

"Don't think expensive equipment will make up for lack of talent or practice."
---Unknown

"Good athletes prepare themselves to play, but more importantly, prepare themselves to WIN!"
---Michael Lasher, Asst. Coach, Peters Township Varsity Hockey team

"In order for there to be ups, there must be downs. Remember all your failures, so when you succeed you can look back and have pride that you had strength enough to overcome."
---Unknown

"Sweat plus sacrifice equals success."
---Charlie Finley

"Improve your performance by improving your attitude."
---Unknown

"Besides pride, loyalty, discipline, heart, and mind, confidence is the key to all the locks."
---Joe Paterno

"...we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph."
---Thomas Paine

"People do not lack strength; they lack will."
---Victor Hugo

"Grind it out. Hanging on just one second longer than your competition makes you the winner."
---Unknown

"Strive for excellence, not perfection."
---Unknown

"The only one who can tell you 'you can't' is you. And you don't have to listen."
---Nike

"There are some defeats more triumphant than victories."
---Michel de Montaigne

"Victories that are easy are cheap. Those only are worth having which come as the result of hard fighting."
---Henry Ward Beecher

"Quitting is only a shortcut to losing."
---Unknown

"Persevere and never fear."
---Unknown

"So long as there is breath in me, that long I will persist. For now I know one of the greatest principles on success; if I persist long enough I will win."
---Og Mandino

"What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight--it's the size of the fight in the dog."
---Dwight D. Eisenhower

We learn early on that, in order to be a winner, you have to believe in yourself. You have to have the confidence to make things happen. And you have to have personal pride."
---Alan Cohen

"Sure, basketball's a team game. But each player has a man to break down. A guy that's his to get around. And while it's true there's no 'I' in TEAM, consider this: There is an 'I' in WIN."
---Nike

"If you wanna get better, concentrate on the areas you'd rather not. Force yourself to work the weak link. Physically. Mentally. But most of all, repeatedly."
---Nike

"Gold medals don't make champions...hard work does."
---Unknown

"Losers quit when they're tired...Champions quit when they hold the gold."
---Unknown

"100% percent of shots not taken don't go in."
---Wayne Gretzky

"The will to win is not worth a nickel unless you have the will to practice."
---Unkown

"My boyfriend said if I spend one more weekend at the gym he'll leave me...I'm sure gonna miss him."
---Unknown

"You gotta lose 'em sometimes. When you do, lose 'em right."
---Unknown

"The greatest test of courage on the earth is to bear defeat without losing heart."
---Robert Green Ingersoll

"You can be an ordinary athlete by getting away with less than your best. But if you want to be a great athlete, you have to give it all you've got--your everything."
---Unknown

"Somewhere, someplace there is a person that is practicing while you are not, and when you face that person face to face he will beat you."
---Unknown

"If you think you can win, you can win. Faith is necessary to victory."
---Unknown

"The only thing better than winning is losing knowing you gave your best."
---Michael Ip

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us."
---Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Winners make goals, losers make excuses." ---Unknown "If you can't win, make the fellow ahead of you break the record." ---Unknown "Each day you don't practice is one more day you have to practice to get better." ---Unknown "There are no gains without pains." ---Benjamin Franklin "Hold up your head! You were not made for failure, you were made for victory. Go forward with a joyful confidence." ---George Eliot "Accept challenges so that you may feel the exhilaration of victory." ---Unknown "All glory comes from daring to begin." ---Unknown "Champions believe in themselves even if no one else does." ---Unknown "I have never lost a race in my life. Occasionally I have just run out of time." ---Unknown "Success is a state of mind. If you want success, start thinking of yourself as a success." ---Dr. Joyce Brothers
"Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional."
---M. Kathleen Casey

"Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success."
---Henry Ford

"Know that you are great...so dominate."
---Ella Wheeler Wilcox

"Failure will hurt but not hinder us."
---Babcock

"Together we stand, by ourselves we fall flat."
---Unknown

"The price of success: hard work, patience, and a few sacrifices."
---Edward Bok

"There is no such thing as a great talent without a great willpower."
---Honore de Balzac

"Always imitate the behavior of the winners when you lose."

---George Meredith

"Strength Within, Pride Throughout."
---Acton-Boxboro Varsity Girls Basketball

"Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising each and every time we fail."
---Confucious

"When champions fail, they get back up and try again. They don't let failure discourage them."
---Mary Ellen Clark

"The size of your heart--how much determination you have--is what matters. If you work hard enough at whatever you do, you'll be able to accomplish it, regardless of your size."
---Erica Routt

"Good coaches teach respect for the opposition, love of competition, the value of trying your best, and how to win and lose graciously."
---Brooks Clark

"Winning as a team is better than anything. It's great to share success."
---Jim Harbaugh

"Players win games, teams win championships."
---Bill Taylor

"The minute you start talking about what you're going to do if you lose, you've lost."
---George Shultz

"Take the criticism as a challenge to work hard. It will make you a better athlete and a better person."
---Cristi Millward

"Above all, really enjoy your sport. When you are passionate about what you are doing and love doing it, you can do anything."
---Carole Merle

"Remember that sports are meant to be fun. Don't let someone make the sport unfun for you."
---A.J. Kitt

"It's hard to go out and practice every single day, and you get really tired. But you have to believe in yourself."
---Summer Sanders

"We have not yet begun to fight."
---Patrick Henry

"There are times when you're tired and times when you don't believe in yourself. That's when you have to stick it out and draw on the confidence that you have deep down beneath all the doubts and worries."
---Jim Abbott

"We are the stuff of which winners are made."
---Kif Anderson

"Winning--it's everything in sports. No matter how many times we've said, or have been told, 'It's not whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game,' we all want to win."
---Sandy Stiefer

"What makes you really come together under pressure is determination and focus and toughness."
---Debi Thomas

"A heavy hitter is nothing more than a little hitter who kept on hitting."
---Pete Zafra

"A winner is a loser who was willing to fail and get up, fail and get up, fail and get up, fail and get up and win."
---Pete Zafra

"Never underestimate the heart of a champion." ---1997-98 Fairfield High Girls Varsity Basketball, Fairfield, CA

"If size is all that matters, how come the whale is endangered and the ant continues to do just fine?"
---Kelly Marshall

"Winners don't blame fate for their failures nor luck for their successes. They know that a goal is only as worthy as the effect that's required to achieve it."
---Unknown

"While it's important to win, it's imperative to compete."
---Dave Weinbaum

"Never give up, never let up, and you'll never let yourself down."
---Dave Weinbaum
"If you can't excel with talent, triumph with effort."
---Dave Weinbaum

"We cannot fail to win unless we fail to try."
---Tom Clancy

"Everyone likes a good loser, especially when he is on the opposing team."
---Milton Segal

"For when the One Great Scorer comes to mark against your name, He writes not that you won or lost--but how you played the game!"
---Grantland Rice

"Doing what is right, fair, and honorable is more important than winning or losing."
---Chick Moorman

"Nobody ever drowned in sweat!"
---Kelly Marshall

"Good, better, best. Never rest till good be better and better be best!"
---Plum High School Swim Team

"It does not matter how many times you get knocked down, but how many times you get up."
---Vince Lombardi

"Take a minute: look at your goals. Look at your performance. See if your performance matches your goals."
---Dan Kelly

"There are few positions in life in which difficulties have not to be encountered. These difficulties are, however, our best instructors, as our mistakes often form our best experience."
---Paxton Hood

"Gold medals aren't really made of gold. They're made of sweat, determination, and a hard-to-find alloy called guts."
---Dan Gable

"The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a person's determination."
---Tommy Lasorda

"I always thought there was at least one person in the stands who had never seen me play, and I didn't want to let him down."
---Joe Dimaggio

"Good players give their best in every match, every game, every move."
---Unknown

"Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do."
---John Wooden

"You have no control over what the other guy does. You only have control over what you do."
---A.J. Kitt

"Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much."
---Helen Keller

"Success doesn't come to you....you go to it."
---Marva Collins

"If you train hard, you'll not only be hard, you'll be hard to beat."
---Herschel Walker

"We must either find a way or make one."
---Hannibal

"Set your goals high, and don't stop till you get there."
---Bo Jackson

"Winners never quit, and quitters never win."
---Unknown

"It's not necessarily the amount of time you spend at practice that counts; it's what you put into practice that makes the difference."
---Eric Lindros

"I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it."
---Thomas Jefferson

"The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don't play together, the team won't be worth a dime."
---Babe Ruth

"The day you take complete responsibility for yourself, the day you stop making excuses, that's the day you start to the top."
---O.J. Simpson

"Think big, believe big, act big, and the results will be big."
---Unknown

"Winning isn't everything. Wanting to is."
---Catfush Hunter

"Other people may not have high expectations for me...but I have high expectations for myself."
---Shannon Miller

"When all else fails, follow instructions."
---Unknown

"Never give advice unless asked."
---German Proverb

"Success is measured by effort."
---Unknown

"T.E.A.M. stands for T.ogether E.veryone A.chieves M.ore."
---Unknown

"You can't possibly hit the ball, catch a pass, sink a shot, or score a goal if you are thinking about all the possible ways you could miss."
---Unknown

"The first thing we need to know is that we won't get anywhere if we don't get there together."
---Cotton Commercial

"An athlete is never made by mere instruction. We must go forward, not stand still simply listening and learning. To see it and not to do it is a most disastrous thing."
---Unknown

"Some people dream of success while others wake up and achieve it."
---Unknown

"The only points you can be dead sure of are those you've already made."
---Byron Nelson

"Most players prepare for disaster, A good player prepares for success."
---Bob Toski

"Whoever said 'It's not whether you win or lose that counts' probably lost."
---Martina Navratilova

"It is not true that nice guys finish last. Nice guys are winners before the game even starts."
---Addison Walker

"Competitive sports are played mainly on a five-and-a-half-inch court or field, the space between your ears."
---Bobby Jones

"You've just one problem. You stand too close to the ball--after you've hit it."
---Sam Snead

"The harder you work, the luckier you get."
---Gary Player

"Sports are 90% inspiration and 10% perspiration."
---Johnny Miller

"Fair play is primarily not blaming others for anything that is wrong with us."
---Eric Hoffer

"Don't bunt. Aim out of the ballpark."
---David Ogilvy

"In the long run, you hit only what you aim at."
---Henry David Thoreau

"The trouble with not having a goal is that you can spend your life running up and down the field or court and never scoring."
---Bill Copeland

"Goals determine what you're going to be."
---Julius Erving

"We can, with the hard work of a team, beat the odds and win the game."
---Kif Anderson

"The strongest people are not always the people who win, but the people who don't give up when they lose."
---Ashley Hodgeson

"Winners must have two things, definite goals and a burning
desire to achieve them."
---Brad Burden

"Champions take responsibility. When the ball is coming over the net, you can be sure I want the ball."
---Billie Jean King

"Sports do not build character. They reveal it."
---Heywood Hale Brown

"How a man plays the game shows something of his character; how he loses shows it all."
---Tribune (Camden County, Georgia)

"In our play we reveal what kind of people we are."
---Ovid

"One man practicing sportsmanship is far better than 50 preaching it."
---Knute K. Rockne

"Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did."
---Newt Gingrich

"Victory is in the quality of competition, not the final score."
"---Mike Marshall
"
""Champions do not become champions when they win the event, but in the hours, weeks, months, and years they spend preparing for it. The victorious performance itself is merely the demonstration of their championship character."
"---T. Alan Armstrong
"
""There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure."
"---General Colin L Powell
"
"---Mike Ditka
"
""Don't aim for success if you want it; just do what you love and believe in, and it will come naturally."
"---David Frost
"
""Sports serve society by providing vivid examples of excellence."
"---George F. Will
"
""The pains measure the gains."
"---Jennifer Epperson