Ultimate Collection of Famous Inspirational Quotes for Athletes

"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

"I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."

- Michael Jordan

"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."

- Yogi Berra

"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

"If you can believe it, the mind can achieve it."

- Jimmy Demaret

"Keep your dreams alive. Understand to achieve anything requires faith and belief in yourself, vision, hard work, determination, and dedication. Remember all things are possible for those who believe."

- Gail Devers

"You miss 100 percent of the shots you don't take."

- Wayne Gretzky

"If you accept the expectations of others, especially negative ones, then you’ll never change the outcome."

- Michael Jordan

"I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I cannot accept not trying."

- Michael Jordan

"It does not matter how many times you get knocked down. What matters is how many times you get up."

- Vince Lombardi

"It’s not about winning, it’s about the will to win."

- Vince Lombardi

"A winner is a person that gets up one more time than she is knocked down."

- Mia Hamm

"It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up."

- Babe Ruth

"You have to remember that the hard days are what make you stronger. The bad days make you realize what a good day is. If you never had any bad days, you would never have that sense of accomplishment."

- Aly Raisman

"Don't count the days, make the days count."

- Muhammad Ali

"It isn't the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it's the pebble in your shoe."

- Muhammad Ali

"When I step onto the court, I don't have to think about anything. If I have a problem off the court, I find that after I play, my mind is clearer and I can come up with a better solution. It's like therapy. It relaxes me and allows me to solve problems."

- Michael Jordan

"Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice, and most of all, love of what you are doing."

- Javier Báez

"Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard."

- Tim Notke

"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

"Believe in yourself and all that you are. Know that there is something inside you that is greater than any obstacle."

- Christian D. Larson

"You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them."

- Michael Jordan

"You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great."

- Zig Ziglar

"Dreams don’t work unless you do."

- John C. Maxwell

"You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take."

- Wayne Gretzky

"It’s not the will to win that matters—everyone has that. It’s the will to prepare to win that matters."

- Paul Bryant

"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

"The will to win is important, but the will to prepare is vital."

- Joe Paterno

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts."

- Winston Churchill

"Your talent determines what you can do. Your motivation determines how much you are willing to do. Your attitude determines how well you do it."

- Lou Holtz

"I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I’ve been successful."

- Michael Jordan

"The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack in will."

- Vince Lombardi

"I can’t imagine anything more rewarding than striving for excellence and giving it your all."

- Michael Jordan

"I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination."

- Jimmy Dean

"If you can't accept losing, you can't win."

- Vince Lombardi

"Never let the fear of striking out get in your way."

- Babe Ruth

"Nothing will work unless you do."

- Maya Angelou

"Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will."

- Mahatma Gandhi

"Tough times never last, but tough people do."

- Robert Schuller

"My thoughts before a big race are usually pretty simple. I tell myself: Get out of the blocks, run your race, stay relaxed. If you run your race, you'll win... channel your energy. Focus."

- Carl Lewis

"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take."

- Wayne Gretzky

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

- John Wooden

"Success is found in the running of the race – your planning, preparation, practice, and performance – counts for everything"

- John Wooden

"The more difficult the victory, the greater the happiness in winning."

- Pele

"Champions keep playing until they get it right."

- Billie Jean King

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

- Tommy Lasorda

"You're never a loser until you quit trying."

- Mike Ditka

"Never give up! Failure and rejection are only the first step to succeeding."

- Jim Valvano

"The only way to do great work is to love what you do."

- Steve Jobs

"Believe you can and you’re halfway there."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm."

- Winston Churchill

"The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today."

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

"Don’t watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going."

- Sam Levenson

"The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary."

- Vidal Sassoon

"Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it."

- Henry David Thoreau

"The only thing standing between you and your goal is the story you keep telling yourself as to why you can’t achieve it."

- Jordan Belfort

"The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Make each day your masterpiece."

- John Wooden

"Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful."

- Albert Pujols

"The harder the battle, the sweeter the victory."

- Les Brown

"It’s not about perfect. It’s about effort. And when you bring that effort every single day, that’s where transformation happens."

- Jillian Michaels

"Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out."

- Robert Collier

"An athlete cannot run with money in his pockets. He must run with hope in his heart and dreams in his head."

- Gary Player

"If you aren’t going all the way, why go at all?"

- Joe Namath

"The best way to predict the future is to create it."

- Peter Drucker

"Overpower. Overtake. Overcome."

- Serena Williams

"Don’t count the days, make the days count."

- Muhammad Ali

"Success is not the result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire."

- Arnold H. Glasow

"You don’t have to be better than everybody else, you just have to be better than you ever thought you could be."

- Ken Venturi

"The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do."

- Walter Bagehot

"You can’t put a limit on anything. The more you dream, the farther you get."

- Michael Phelps

"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"Success is not about the destination, but the journey."

- Zig Ziglar

"The only way to achieve the impossible is to believe it is possible."

- Charles Kingsley

"If you want to be the best, you have to do things that other people aren’t willing to do."

- Michael Phelps

"It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog."

- Archie Griffin

"The only one who can tell you ‘you can’t win’ is you and you don’t have to listen."

- Jessica Ennis-Hill

"Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment."

- Jim Rohn

"You have within you right now, everything you need to deal with whatever the world can throw at you."

- Brian Tracy

"Don’t be afraid to fail. Failure is a part of life. The next time you fail, ask yourself, ‘What did I learn from that?’ and move on."

- Richard Branson

"To give any less than your best is to sacrifice a gift."

- Steve Prefontaine

"There may be people that have more talent than you, but there’s no excuse for anyone to work harder than you do."

- Derek Jeter

"Success is where preparation and opportunity meet."

- Bobby Unser

"Work hard in silence, let your success be the noise."

- Frank Ocean

"The best motivation always comes from within."

- Michael Johnson

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

- Arthur Ashe

"The measure of who we are is how we react if something doesn’t go our way."

- Usain Bolt

"Sport teaches you character, it teaches you to play by the rules, it teaches you to know what it feels like to win and lose - it teaches you about life."

- Billie Jean King

"The will to win is nothing without the will to prepare."

- Juma Ikangaa

"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."

- Lance Armstrong

"I am not a perfectionist, but I like to feel that things are done well. More important than that, I feel an endless need to learn, to improve, to evolve, not only to please the coach and the fans, but also to feel satisfied with myself. It is my conviction that there are no limits to learning, and that it can never stop, no matter what our age."

- Cristiano Ronaldo

"To me, football is so much about mental toughness, it's digging deep, it's doing whatever you need to do to help a team win and that comes in a lot of shapes and forms."

- Tom Brady

"Doctors and scientists said that breaking the four-minute mile was impossible, that one would die in the attempt. Thus, when I got up from the track after collapsing at the finish line, I figured I was dead."

- Roger Bannister

"Excellence is the gradual result of always striving to do better."

- Pat Riley

"You can't win if you don't play as a unit."

- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

"We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline, and effort."

- Jesse Owens

"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 club won't be worth a dime."

- Archie Griffin

"It's not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog!"

- Greg LeMond

"Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can."

- Arthur Ashe

"You need to play with supreme confidence, or else you'll lose again, and then losing becomes a habit."

- Pat Riley

"There are only two options regarding commitment. You're either IN or you're OUT. There is no such thing as life in-between."

- Andre Agassi

"You have to have the mentality of executing your game when you don't feel like there's a lot of hope. I think the best feeling is when somebody pushes you to the limit and you dig down a little bit extra. By the same token, you also need a little luck. Sometimes they come together."

- Ronnie Lott

"Ask not what your teammates can do for you. Ask what you can do for your teammates."

- Tom Landry

"You can’t control what people say about you and what they think about you. You can’t plan for bad luck. You can only work your hardest and do your best and tell the truth. In the end, it’s the effort that matters. The rest is beyond your control."

- Maria Sharapova

"Set your goals high, and don’t stop until you get there."

- Bo Jackson

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

- Tony Dorsett

"To succeed...You need to find something to hold on to, something to motivate you, something to inspire you."

- Steve Garvey

"It doesn’t matter what your background is or where you came from. If you have dreams and goals, that’s all that matters."

- Serena Williams

"Courage doesn’t mean you don’t get afraid. Courage means you don’t let fear stop you."

- Bethany Hamilton

"I’ve worked too hard and too long to let anything stand in the way of my goals. I will not let my teammates down, and I will not let myself down."

- Mia Hamm

"The more I practice, the luckier I get."

- Ted Walsh

"You play to win the game...Hello. You play to win the game."

- Harry Caray

"Just play. Have fun. Enjoy the game."

- Michael Jordan

"Figure out how to climb it, go through it or work around it."

- Michael Jordan

"Winning takes talent; to repeat takes character."

- John Wooden

"Ability may get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there."

- John Wooden

"The best competition I have is against myself to become better."

- John Wooden

"Do what needs to be done, when it needs to be done the best way it can be done, and do it that way every time."

- Bobby Knight

"The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender."

- Marv Levy

"The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary."

- Vince Lombardi

"Talent is never enough. With few exceptions, the best players are the hardest workers"

- Magic Johnson

"I am building a fire, and every day I train, I add more fuel. At just the right moment, I light the match."

- Mia Hamm

"The highest compliment that you can pay me is that I work hard every day, that I never dog it."

- Wayne Gretzky

"Adversity causes some to break; others to break records."

- William Ward

"If you train hard, you’ll not only be hard, you’ll be hard to beat."

- Herschel Walker

"The will to win is important, but what’s more important is the will to prepare to win."

- Bobby Knight

"Work hard, stay positive, and get up early. It’s the best part of the day."

- George Allen, Sr.

"The only limits that exist are the ones you place on yourself."

- Wayne Dyer

"You can’t climb the ladder of success with your hands in your pockets."

- Arnold Schwarzenegger

"Somebody gives you an opportunity, say yes to it. So what if you fail? you won’t know if you fail or succeed unless you try."

- Ann Meyers

"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."

- Bo Jackson

"If you don't have confidence, you'll always find a way not to win."

- Carl Lewis

"No matter how good you get you can always get better, and that's the exciting part."

- Tiger Woods

"Don’t be afraid of your fears. They’re not there to scare you. They’re there to let you know that something is worth it."

- C. JoyBell C.

"I just knew if it could be done, it had to be done, and I did it."

- Gertrude Ederle

"I’d rather regret the risks that didn’t work out than the chances I didn’t take at all."

- Simone Biles

"Persistence can change failure into extraordinary achievement."

- Arnold Palmer

"The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential… these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence."

- Confucius

"Courage is not the absence of fear but the triumph over it."

- Nelson Mandela

"Fail to prepare, prepare to fail"

- Roy Keane

"To me, teamwork is the beauty of our sport, where you have five acting as one. You become selfless."

- Mike Krzyzewski

"Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude."

- Zig Ziglar

"It’s not how big you are but how big you play."

- John Wooden

"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

"The Spirit of Sports: The spirit of sports gives each of us who participate an opportunity to be creative. Sports knows no sex, age, race or religion. Sports gives us all the ability to test ourselves mentally, physically and emotionally in a way no other aspect of life can. For many of us who struggle with ‘fitting in’ or our identity – sports gives us our first face of confidence. That first bit of confidence can be a gateway to many other great things!"

- Gordie Howe

"Every kid around the world who plays soccer wants to be Pele. I have a great responsibility to show them not just how to be like a soccer player, but how to be like a man."

- Jimmy Johnson

"Treat a person as he is, and he will remain as he is. Treat him as he could be, and he will become what he should be."

- Doug Williams

"You have to be able to center yourself, to let all of your emotions go. Don’t ever forget that you play with your soul as well as your body."

- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

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

- John McEnroe

"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."

- Marv Levy

"Football doesn't build character, it reveals character!"

- Herschel Walker

"I figure practice puts your brains in your muscles."

- Emil Zatopek

"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

"The five S’s of sports training are: stamina, speed, strength, skill, and spirit; but the greatest of these is spirit."

- Ken Doherty

"One man practicing sportsmanship is far better than a hundred teaching it."

- Knute Rockne

"Show me a guy who’s afraid to look bad, and I’ll show you a guy you can beat every time."

- Lou Brock

"Surround yourself with good people. People who are going to be honest with you and look out for your best interests."

- Derek Jeter

"May you always remember to enjoy the road, especially when it’s a hard one."

- Kobe Bryant

"You owe it to yourself to be the best you can possibly be - in baseball and in life."

- Pete Rose

"The ideal attitude is to be physically loose and mentally tight."

- Arthur Ashe

"Do not wait to strike till the iron is hot, but make it hot by striking."

- William Butler Yeats

"I always felt that my greatest asset was not my physical ability, it was my mental ability."

- Bruce Jenner

"Good, better, best. Never let it rest. Until your good is better and your better is best."

- Tim Duncan

"Toughness is in the soul and spirit, not in muscles."

- Alex Karras

"One man practicing sportsmanship is far better than 50 preaching it."

- Knute Rockne

"Make sure your worst enemy doesn't live between your own two ears."

- Laird Hamilton

"I believe in the impossible because no one else does."

- Florence Griffith Joyner

"Success is not in what you have, but who you are."

- Bo Bennett

"Adversity causes some men to break; others to break records."

- William Arthur Ward

"I've never lost a game. I just ran out of time."

- Michael Jordan

"You can't put a limit on anything. The more you dream, the further you get."

- Michael Phelps

"Mental will is a muscle that needs exercise, just like muscles of the body."

- Lynn Jennings

"The principle is competing against yourself. It's about self-improvement, about being better than you were the day before."

- Steve Young

"If you fail to prepare, you're prepared to fail."

- Mark Spitz

"Push yourself again and again. Don't give an inch until the final buzzer sounds."

- Larry Bird

"A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be."

- Wayne Gretzky

"Confidence comes not from always being right but from not fearing to be wrong."

- Peter T. McIntyre

"Wisdom is always an overmatch for strength."

- Phil Jackson

"Always make a total effort, even when the odds are against you."

- Michael Jordan

"Never let your head hang down. Never give up and sit down and grieve. Find another way."

- Satchel Paige

"If you aren't going all the way, why go at all?"

- Joe Namath

"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

"When I'm down or maybe when it's close in the match, I feel like I'm still in it. I don't feel like I'm letting down. Mentally, I'm still really, really, tough."

- Maria Sharapova

"A champion is someone who gets up when he can't."

- Jack Dempsey

"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

"The secret of winning football games is working more as a team, less as individuals. I play not my 11 best, but my best 11."

- Knute Rockne

"Slump? I ain't in no slump. I just ain't hittin."

- Yogi Berra

"I think I was given a gift to play golf and to be mentally strong."

- Karrie Webb

"I'm stronger than I think I am. Mentally, physically."

- Misty May-Treanor

"The rewards are going to come, but my happiness is just loving the sport and having fun performing."

- Jackie Joyner-Kersee

"Why does everyone talk about the past? All that counts is tomorrow's game."

- Roberto Clemente

"I'm reflective only in the sense that I learn to move forward. I reflect with a purpose."

- Kobe Bryant

"Don't tell me how rocky the sea is, just bring the ship in."

- Lou Holtz

"If we all did the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves."

- Thomas Alva Edison

"Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"Know yourself and you will win all battles."

- Lao Tzu

"I never criticize a player until they are first convinced of my unconditional confidence in their abilities."

- John Robinson

"I feel like I'm the best, but you're not going to get me to say that."

- Pat Williams

"I have always tried to be true to myself, to pick those battles I felt were important. My ultimate responsibility is to myself. I could never be anything else."

- Pele

"Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value."

- Albert Einstein

"One day of practice is like one day of clean living. It doesn't do you any good."

- Sam Snead

"Do you know what my favorite part of the game is? The opportunity to play."

- Mike Singletary

"Perhaps the single most important element in mastering the techniques and tactics of racing is experience. But once you have the fundamentals, acquiring the experience is a matter of time."

- Joe Paterno

"Procrastination is one of the most common and deadliest of diseases and its toll on success and happiness is heavy."

- Wayne Gretzky

"Baseball is 90 percent mental. The other half is physical."

- Yogi Berra

"Sports creates a bond between contemporaries that lasts a lifetime. It also gives your life structure, discipline and a genuine, sincere, pure fulfillment that few other areas of endeavor provide."

- Bobby Jones

"My dad has always taught me these words: care and share. That's why we put on clinics. The only thing I can do is try to give back. If it works, it works."

- Tiger Woods

"I always tell kids, you have two eyes and one mouth. Keep two open and one closed. You never learn anything if you’re the one talking."

- Bob Cousy

"Some people believe football is a matter of life and death. I'm very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that."

- Bill Shankly

"The fewer rules a coach has, the fewer rules there are for players to break."

- Abe Lemons

"Your body can stand almost anything. It’s your mind that you have to convince."

- Anon

"It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get up."

"I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have."

"Never give up on your dreams. If you do, you’ll end up with nothing."

"It’s not about being the best. It’s about being better than you were yesterday."

"Your potential is endless. Go do what you were created to do."

"The more you sweat in practice, the less you bleed in battle."

"Great things never come from comfort zones."

"Don’t run away from challenges. Run over them."

"The only person you should try to be better than is the person you were yesterday."

"Believe in yourself and you will be unstoppable."

"It’s not about how many times you fall down, it’s about how many times you get back up."

"Your dreams don’t have an expiration date. Take a deep breath and try again."

"You don’t have to be extraordinary to be successful; you just have to be consistent."

"The pain you feel today will be the strength you feel tomorrow."

"Your only limit is you."

- Unknown

"Your attitude determines your direction."

"Don’t stop when you’re tired, stop when you’re done."

"Push yourself because no one else is going to do it for you."

"Success is not just about winning; it’s about the lessons learned through the journey."

"Hard work is a two-way street. You get back exactly what you put in."