And don’t forget to check out these and .
1. “Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.” – Tim Notke
2. “I don’t count my situps. I only start counting once it starts hurting.” –
3. “Only he who can see the invisible can do the impossible.” – Frank L. Gaines
4. “The only way to prove that you’re a good sport is to lose.” – Ernie Banks
5. “If something stands between you and your success, move it. Never be denied.” – Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson
6. “The man who has no imagination has no wings.” – Muhammad Ali
7. “You dream. You plan. You reach. There will be obstacles. There will be doubters. There will be mistakes. But with hard work, with belief, with confidence and trust in yourself and those around you, there are no limits.” – Michael Phelps
8. “It is more difficult to stay on top than to get there.” – Mia Hamm
9. “Don’t be afraid of failure. This is the way to succeed.” – LeBron James
10. “When you’re riding, only the race in which you’re riding is important.” – Bill Shoemaker
11. “It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up.” –
12. “Today, you have 100% of your life left.” – Tom Landry
13. “I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and miss. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” – Michael Jordan
14. “Age is no barrier. It’s a limitation you put on your mind.” – Jackie Joyner-Kersee
15. “I always felt that my greatest asset was not my physical ability, it was my mental ability.” – Bruce Jenne
16. “There may be people that have more talent than you, but there’s no excuse for anyone to work harder than you do.” –
17. “A trophy carries dust. Memories last forever.” – Mary Lou Retton
18. “If you fail to prepare, you’re prepared to fail.” – Mark Spitz
19. “The harder the battle, the sweeter the victory.” – Les Brown
20. “One man practicing sportsmanship is far better than 50 preaching it.” – Knute Rockn
21. “Champions keep playing until they get it right.” – Billie Jean King
22. “You must not only have competitiveness but ability, regardless of the circumstance you face, to never quit.” – Abby Wambach
23. “Never say never because limits, like fears, are often just an illusion.” –
24. “It’s going to be a journey. It’s not a sprint to get in shape.” – Kerri Walsh Jennings
25. “It is not the size of a man but the size of his heart that matters.” – Evander Holyfield
26. “Just believe in yourself. Even if you don’t pretend that you do and at some point, you will.” – Venus Williams
27. “Always make a total effort, even when the odds are against you.” – Arnold Palmer
28. “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” – Wayne Gretzky
29. “Winners never quit and quitters never win.” –
30. “Number one is just to gain a passion for running. To love the morning, to love the trail, to love the pace on the track. And if some kid gets really good at it, that’s cool too.” – Pat Tyso
31. “The more difficult the victory, the greater the happiness in winning.” – Pele
32. “You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.” – Michael Jordan
33. “If it doesn’t challenge you, it won’t change you.” – Fred Devito
34. “Most people give up just when they’re about to achieve success. They quit on the one yard line. They give up at the last minute of the game one foot from a winning touchdown.” – Ross Perot
35. “If you persevere long enough, if you do the right things long enough, the right things will happen.” – Manon Rheaume
36. “Stubbornness usually is considered a negative, but I think that trait has been a positive for me.” – Cal Ripken Jr.
37. “Winning isn’t everything, but wanting to win is.” – Vince Lombardi
38. “It doesn’t matter what you’re trying to accomplish. It’s all a matter of discipline.” – Wilma Rudolph
39. “You have to do something in your life that is honorable and not cowardly if you are to live in peace with yourself.” – Larry Brown
40. “To uncover your true potential you must first find your own limits and then you have to have the courage to blow past them.” – Picabo Street
41. “The only person who can stop you from reaching your goals is you.” – Jackie Joyner-Kersee
42. “If you are afraid of failure you don’t deserve to be successful!” – Charles Barkley
43. “Sports do not build character. They reveal it.” – Heywood Broun
44. “Victory is in having done your best. If you’ve done your best, you’ve won.” – Billy Bowerman
45. “I became a good pitcher when I stopped trying to make them miss the ball and started trying to make them hit it.” – Sandy Koufax
46. “There are only two options regarding commitment. You’re either in or you’re out. There is no such thing as life in-between.” – Pat Riley
47. “When you’ve got something to prove, there’s nothing greater than a challenge.” – Terry Bradshaw
48. “Today I will do what others won’t, so tomorrow I can accomplish what others can’t.” – Jerry Rice
49. “Do you know what my favorite part of the game is? The opportunity to play.” – Mike Singletary
50. “You might not be able to outthink, out market or outspend your competition, but you can outwork them.” – Lou Holtz
51. “What do you do with a mistake? Recognize it, admit it, learn from it, forget it.” – Dean Smith
52. “The five S’s of sports training are—stamina, speed, strength, skill, and spirit—but the greatest of these is spirit.” – Ken Doherty
53. “Never let your head hang down. Never give up and sit down and grieve. Find another way.” –
54. “If you can’t outplay them, outwork them.” – Ben Hogan
55. “An athlete cannot run with money in his pockets. He must run with hope in his heart and dreams in his head.” – Emil Zatopek
56. “I think sports gave me the first place where this awkward girl could feel comfortable in my own skin. I think that’s true for a lot of women—sports gives you a part of your life where you can work at something and you look in the mirror and you like that person.” – Teri McKeever
57. “Never give up, never give in, and when the upper hand is ours, may we have the ability to handle the win with the dignity that we absorbed the loss.” – Doug Williams
58. “Wisdom is always an overmatch for strength.” – Phil Jackson
59. “Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths.” – Arnold Schwarzenegger
60. “Somewhere behind the athlete you’ve become and the hours of practice and the coaches who have pushed you is a little girl who fell in love with the game and never looked back—play for her.” – Mia Hamm
61. “It’s just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people.” – Muhammad Ali
62. “When you don’t give up, you cannot fail.” – Adrian Peterson
63. “Excellence is not a singular act but a habit. You are what you do repeatedly.” – Shaquille O’Neal
64. “I learned that if you want to make it bad enough, no matter how bad it is, you can make it.” – Gale Sayers
65. “I can’t play being mad. I go out there and have fun. It’s a game, and that’s how I am going to treat it.” – Ken Griffey Jr.
66. “There are no shortcuts—everything is reps, reps, reps.” – Arnold Schwarzenegger
67. “To be the man, you have to beat the man.” –
68. “Sportsmanship, for me, is when a guy walks off the court and you really can’t tell whether he won or lost, when he carries himself with pride either way.” – Jim Courier
69. “You cannot make progress with excuses.” – Cam Newton
70. “Most people run a race to see who is fastest. I run a race to see who has the most guts.” –
71. “When my time on earth is gone, and my activities here are past, I want them to bury me upside down, and my critics can kiss my ass.” – Bobby Knight
72. “They are who we thought they were!” – Dennis Green
73. “A good coach will make his players see what they can be rather than what they are.” – Ara Parseghian
74. “Never limit yourself, never be satisfied, and smile—it’s free!” – Jennie Finch
75. “You were born to be a player. You were meant to be here. This moment is yours.” – Herb Brooks
76. “Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they’ve got a second.” –
77. “Persistence can change failure into extraordinary achievement.” – Marv Levy
78. “It’s not whether you get knocked down—it’s whether you get up.” – Vince Lombardi
79. “The key is not the will to win. Everybody has that. It is the will to prepare to win that is important.” – Bobby Knight
80. “I’ve learned that something constructive comes from every defeat.” – Tom Landry
81. “Success is where preparation and opportunity meet.” – Bobby Unser
82. “I don’t plan on being disappointed. We plan on being really good, and obviously, we plan on winning.” – Gregg Troy
83. “When I race my mind is full of doubts—who will finish second, who will finish third?” – Noureddine Morceli
84. “In baseball and in business, there are three types of people. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen, and those who wonder what happened.” –
85. “You can’t get much done in life if you only work on the days when you feel good.” – Jerry West
86. “Good is not good when better is expected.” – Vin Scully
87. “Without self-discipline, success is impossible, period.” – Lou Holtz
88. “A champion is afraid of losing. Everyone else is afraid of winning.” – Billie Jean King
89. “It’s not the will to win that matters—everyone has that. It’s the will to prepare to win that matters.” – Paul ‘Bear’ Bryant
90. “Make sure your worst enemy doesn’t live between your own two ears.” – Laird Hamilton
91. “Continuous effort—not strength or intelligence—is the key to unlocking our potential.” – Liane Cardes
92. “I’ve got a theory that if you give 100% all of the time, somehow things will work out in the end.” – Larry Bird
93. “Run when you can, walk if you have to, crawl if you must, just never give up.” – Dean Karnazes
94. “To give any less than your best is to sacrifice a gift.” – Steve Prefontaine
95. “The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a person’s determination.” – Tommy Lasorda
96. “What makes something special is not just what you have to gain, but what you feel there is to lose.” – Andre Agassi
97. “Heroes get remembered, but legends never die.” – Babe Ruth
98. “Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.” –
99. “Talent is God given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful.” – John Wooden
100. “It’s all about the journey, not the outcome.” – Carl Lewis
101. “You win a few, you lose a few. Some get rained out. But you got to dress for all of them.” – Satchel Paige
102. “Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever.” – Lance Armstrong
103. “Never give up! Failure and are only the first step to succeeding.” – Jim Valvano
104. “Nobody who ever gave his best regretted it.” – George Halas
105. “The principle is competing against yourself. It’s about self-improvement, about being better than you were the day before.” – Steve Young
106. “You are never really playing an opponent. You are playing yourself, your own highest standards, and when you reach your limits, that is real joy.” – Arthur Ashe
107. “In the end, the game comes down to one thing—man against man. May the best man win.” – Sam Huff
108. “You’ve got to take the initiative and play your game. In a decisive set, confidence is the difference.” – Chris Evert
109. “When you win, say nothing, when you lose, say less.” – Paul Brown
110. “The hardest skill to acquire in this sport is the one where you compete all out, give it all you have, and you are still getting beat no matter what you do. When you have the killer instinct to fight through that, it is very special.” – Eddie Reese
111. “I never worry about the problem. I worry about the solution.” – Shaquille O’Neal
112. “I never left the field saying I could have done more to get ready and that gives me peace of mind.” – Peyton Manning
113. “You can motivate by fear, and you can motivate by reward. But both those methods are only temporary. The only lasting thing is self motivation.” – Homer Rice
114. “The highest compliment that you can pay me is to say that I work hard every day, that I never dog it.” – Wayne Gretzky
115. “You find that you have peace of mind and can enjoy yourself, get more sleep, and rest when you know that it was a one hundred percent effort that you gave—win or lose.” – Gordie Howe
116. “Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.” – Michael Jordan
117. “If you don’t have confidence, you’ll always find a way not to win.” – Carl Lewis
118. “People ask me what I do in winter when there’s no . I’ll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring.” – Rogers Hornsby
119. “There are certain basic qualities and characteristics you’ve got to have. Number one—you’ve got to have a will to win.” – Bob Richards
120. “Finding good players is easy. Getting them to play as a team is another story.” – Casey Stengel
121. “You’ll score a lot of goals in your career but not one of them will happen without the help of a teammate.” – Abby Wambach
122. “Most talented players don’t always succeed. Some don’t even make the team. It’s more what’s inside.” – Brett Favre
123. “The secret of winning games is working more as a team, less as individuals. I play not my 11 best, but my best 11.” – Knute Rockne
124. “One man can be a crucial ingredient on a team, but one man cannot make a team.” – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
125. “I am no genius—I just worked hard like my other teammates, and I believe all my teammates can win the title as they work hard, too.” – Lin Dan
126. “To me, the beauty of is the beauty of our sport, where you have five acting as one. You become selfless.” – Coach Mike Krzyzewski
127. “I am a member of a team, and I rely on the team, I defer to it and sacrifice for it, because the team, not the individual, is the ultimate champion.” – Mia Hamm
128. “To succeed—you need to find something to hold on to, something to motivate you, something to inspire you.” – Tony Dorsett
129. “I would have thought that the knowledge that you are going to be leapt upon by half-a-dozen congratulatory, but sweaty teammates would be an inducement not to score a goal.” – Arthur Marshall
130. “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.” – Emmitt Smith
131. “I’ve never lost a game. I just ran out of time.” – Michael Jordan
132. “Winning solves everything.” –
133. “So many people along the way, whatever it is you aspire to do, will tell you it can’t be done. But all it takes is imagination. You dream. You plan. You reach.” – Michael Phelps
134. “The most rewarding things you do in life are often the ones that look like they cannot be done.” – Arnold Palmer
135. “Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up.” – Jim Valvano
136. “Life is gonna throw you curveballs and it’s how you deal with them and your attitude and your work ethic.” – Kerri Strug
137. “It never gets easier. You just get better.” – Jordan Hoechlin
138. “It’s not about perfect. It’s about effort.” – Jillian Michaels
139. “Winning means you’re willing to go longer, work harder, and give more than anyone else.” – Vince Lombardo
140. “You are the handicap you must face. You are the one who must choose your place.” – James Lane Allen
141. “I’ve always made a total effort, even when the odds seemed entirely against me. I never quit trying—I never felt that I didn’t have a chance to win.” – Arnold Palmer
142. “In sports, players need to be reminded of their competition to become motivated to practice. The same can be applied in business.” – Gavin McGinn
143. “Bodybuilding is much like any other sport. To be successful, you must dedicate yourself 100% to your training, diet and mental approach.” – Arnold Schwarzenegger
144. “Believe me, the reward is not so great without the struggle.” – Wilma Rudolph
145. “Goals prepare Olympic athletes physically and mentally. Did you know that goals are used by sports psychologists in order to help athletes improve their performance?” – Paul Bailey
146. “Everybody’s got plans—until they get hit.” –
147. “Champions aren’t made in the gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them—a desire, a dream, a vision.” – Muhammad Ali
148. “Losing feels worse than winning feels good.” – Vin Scully
149. “Pressure is a word that is misused in our vocabulary. When you start thinking of pressure, it’s because you’ve started to think of failure.” – Tommy Lasorda
150. “You’ve got to be very careful if you don’t know where you are going, because you might not get there.” –
151. “Every champion was once a contender that refused to give up.” – Rocky Balboa
152. “If you train hard, you’ll not only be hard, you’ll be hard to beat.” – Herschel Walker
153. “Just be patient. Let the game come to you. Don’t rush. Be quick, but don’t hurry.” – Earl Monroe
154. “At one point in your life you either. Sports serve society by providing vivid examples of excellence.” – George F. Will
155. “Kill them with success and bury them with a smile.” – Usain Bolt
156. “I’ve had to learn to fight all my life—got to learn to keep smiling. If you smile, things will work out.” – Serena Williams
157. “Watch your actions, they become your habits. Watch your habits, they become your character.” – Vince Lombardi
158. “Make each day your masterpiece.” – John Wooden
159. “A champion is someone who does not settle for that day’s practice, that day’s competition, that day’s performance. They are always striving to be better. They don’t live in the past.” – Briana Scurry
160. “You don’t play against opponents, you play against the game of basketball.” – Bobby Knight
161. “I mean, it’s not important what kind of pants you wear, it’s how you wear them.” – Ronnie Lott
162. “Ability may get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there.” – John Wooden
163. “I’d like to thank everyone who voted for me. And the one guy who didn’t vote for me, thank you, too.” – Shaquille O’Neal
164. “Show me a gracious loser and I’ll show you a failure.” – Knute Rockne
165. “I don’t have to wait for nobody, I move when I wanna move.” – Floyd Mayweather
166. “Nothing is black-and-white, except for winning and losing, and maybe that’s why people gravitate to that so much.” – Steve Nash
167. “Victory is fleeting. Losing is forever.” – Billie Jean King
168. “My motto was always to keep swinging. Whether I was in a slump or feeling badly or having trouble off the field, the only thing to do was keep swinging.” –
169. “During my 18 years I came to bat almost 10,000 times. I struck out about 1,700 times and walked maybe 1,800 times. You figure a ballplayer will average about 500 at bats a season. That means I played seven years without ever hitting the ball.” –
170. “Never let the fear of striking out get in your way.” – Babe Ruth
171. “From what we get, we can make a living. What we give, however, makes a life.” – Arthur Ashe
172. “There is only one way to succeed in anything—and that is to give it everything.” – Vince Lombardi
173. “I tell the kids, somebody’s gotta win, somebody’s gotta lose. Just don’t fight about it. Just try to get better.” – Yogi Berra
174. “At a young age, winning is not the most important thing—the important thing is to develop creative and skilled players with good confidence.” – Arsene Wenger
175. “Leadership, like coaching, is fighting for the hearts and souls of men and getting them to believe in you.” – Eddie Robinson
176. “The best motivation always comes from within.” – Michael Johnson
177. “I wouldn’t let the boys down, no way. If my arm came off I’d still play.” – Jack Bird
178. “Just keep going. Everybody gets better if they keep at it.” –
179. “Don’t measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your ability.” – John Wooden
180. “There’s always a dream that everything can get better. It’s a game of wonders.” – Fredrik Backman
181. “Passion first and everything will fall into place.” – Holly Holm
182. “Gold medals aren’t really made of gold. They’re made of sweat, determination, and a hard-to-find alloy called guts.” – Dan Gable
183. “Difficulties in life are intended to make us better, not bitter.” – Dan Reeves
184. “Show me a guy who’s afraid to look bad, and I’ll show you a guy you can beat every time.” – Lou Brock
185. “You’re never a loser until you quit trying.” – Mike Ditka
186. “If you think it’s hard to meet new people, try picking up the wrong golf ball.” – Jack Lemmon
187. “A champion needs motivation above and beyond winning.” – Pat Riley
188. “How you respond to the challenge in the second half will determine what you become after the game, whether you are a winner or a loser.” – Lou Holtz
189. “It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out, it’s the pebble in your shoe.” – Muhammad Ali
190. “If you can believe it, the mind can achieve it.” – Ronnie Lott
191. “He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.” – Muhammad Ali
192. “It ain’t over ’til it’s over.” – Yogi Berra
193. “It ain’t about how hard you can hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward.” – , Rocky Balboa
194. “Winning is not a sometime thing, it is an all the time thing. You don’t do things right once in a while. You do them right all the time.” – Vince Lombardi
195. “The mind is the limit. As long as the mind can envision the fact that you can do something, you can do it, as long as you really believe 100 percent.” – Arnold Schwarzenegger
196. “Once you learn to quit, it becomes a habit.” – Vince Lombardi
197. “What keeps me going is not winning, but the quest for reaching potential in myself as a coach and my kids as divers. It’s the pursuit of excellence.” – Ron O’Brien
198. “Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.” – Muhammad Ali
199. “You win some, you lose some, and some get rained out, but you gotta suit up for them all.” – J. Askenberg
200. “Competitive sports are played mainly on a five-and-a-half inch court, the space between your ears.” – Bobby Jones
201. “You will never get the best out of anyone professionally unless you understand what motivates and makes them tick personally as a human being.” – Rasheed Ogunlaru
202. “No matter how much you’ve won, no matter how many games, no matter how many championships, no matter how many Super Bowls, you’re not winning now, so you stink.” – Bill Parcells
203. “Nothing else will show your true character than how you lose.” – Ken Gleed
204. “There is no getting around the fact that the moment you are at your very best is the moment you begin to become worse and worse. Others will come along who can run faster, jump higher, hit harder, and you will be forgotten. Your winning moment is dated to die.” – Charlie Higson
205. “Excellence is the gradual result of always striving to do better.” – Pat Riley
206. “Win if you can, lose if you must, but never quit!” – Cameron Trammell
207. “Winning is the most important thing in my life, after breathing. Breathing first, winning next.” – George Steinbrenner
208. “Losing teaches you how to win, winning teaches you how not to lose.” – Matshona Dhliwayo
209. “You can’t win unless you learn how to lose.” – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
210. “If you have everything under control, you’re not moving fast enough.” – Mario Andretti.
211. “Push yourself again and again. Don’t give an inch until the final buzzer sounds.” – Larry Bird
212. “If you aren’t going all the way, why go at all?” – Joe Namath
213. “Never underestimate the heart of a champion!” – Doc Rivers
214. “Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterward.” – Vernon Law
215. “Leadership is a matter of having people look at you and gain confidence, seeing how you react. If you’re in control, they’re in control.” – Tom Landry
216. “You can’t put a limit on anything. The more you dream, the farther you get.” – Michael Phelps
217. “The rewards are going to come, but my happiness is just loving the sport and having fun performing.” – Jackie Joyner Kersee
218. “The will to win is important, but the will to prepare is vital.” – Joe Paterno
219. “Winning is a habit, leadership is calmly maintaining that habit against all odds.” – Amit Ray
220. “Adversity causes some men to break, others to break records.” – William A. Ward
221. “Some people say I have attitude—maybe I do—but I think you have to. You have to believe in yourself when no one else does that makes you a winner right there.” – Venus Williams
222. “I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‘Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.’” – Muhammad Ali
223. “We old athletes carry the disfigurements and markings of contests remembered only by us and no one else. Nothing is more lost than a forgotten game.” – Pat Conroy
224. “A champion is someone who gets up when he can’t.” – Jack Dempsey
225. “If you don’t fall, how are you going to know what getting up feels like?” –
226. “You’re only as strong as your weakest link.” – Phil Jackson
227. “The more I practice, the luckier I get.” – Gary Player
228. “You play to win the game.” – Herman Edwards
229. “I feel like I’m the best, but you’re not going to get me to say that.” – Jerry Rice
230. “This is really a lovely horse, I once rode her mother.” – Ted Walsh