100+ Famous Inspirational Quotes from Athletes to Motivate Your Journey

"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

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

- Michael Jordan

"Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, and others make it happen."

- Michael Jordan

"I can only control my performance. If I do my best, then I can feel good at the end of the day"

- Michael Phelps

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

- Wayne Gretzky

"I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six 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

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

- Dan Gable

"There’s no way around hard work. Embrace it. You have to put in the hours because there is always something you can improve on"

- Roger Federer

"Don’t get bitter, get better"

- Tiger Woods

"I hated every minute of it [training]. But I said to myself, ‘Suffer now, and live the rest of your life as a champion.’"

- Muhammad Ali

"Dreams are free. Goals have a cost. While you can daydream for free, goals don’t come without a price. Time, Effort, Sacrifice, and Sweat. How will you pay for your goals?"

- Usain Bolt

"Hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard."

- Kevin Durant

"There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure."

- Colin Powell

"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

"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."

- Pele

"Champions aren’t made in gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside of them; a desire, a dream, a vision."

- 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

"The minute you get away from fundamentals – whether its proper technique, work ethic or mental preparation – the bottom can fall out of your game, your schoolwork, your job, whatever you’re doing."

- Michael Jordan

"The harder I work, the luckier I get."

- Gary Player

"I think that everything is possible as long as you put your mind to it and you put the work and time into it. I think your mind really controls everything."

- Michael Phelps

"People say to me all the time, ‘You have no fear.’ I tell them, ‘No, that’s not true. I’m scared all the time. You have to have fear in order to have courage. I’m a courageous person because I’m a scared person."

- Ronda Rousey

"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

"It’s the repetition of affirmations that leads to belief. And once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen."

- Muhammad Ali

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

- Wayne Gretzky

"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

"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

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

- Michael Phelps

"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

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

- John Wooden

"I’ve been in a poor physical shape many times in my career and I’ve had some of my best results. My best performances happened because my mind was in the right place. The mind is definitely stronger than the body."

- Kelly Slater

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

- Michael Jordan

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

- Muhammad Ali

"The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in determination."

- Usain Bolt

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

- Babe Ruth

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

- John Wooden

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

- Larry Bird

"Worrying gets you nowhere. If you turn up worrying about how you’re going to perform, you’ve already lost. Train hard, turn up, run your best and the rest will take care of itself."

- Usain Bolt

"If there's a sport that demands the utmost self-belief and inner confidence in yourself, it has to be track and field. In a sport where you and only you can affect your performance, a great deal of responsibility and pressure can weigh on your shoulders."

- Jesse Owens

"A warrior is not a person that carries a gun. The biggest war you ever go through is right between your own ears. It's in your mind. We're all going through a war in our mind, and we have to callus our mind to fight that war and to win that war."

- David Goggins

"It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear out, it’s the pebble inside your shoe"

- Muhammad Ali

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

- Michael Phelps

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

- Carl Lewis

"Nothing will work unless you do."

- Maya Angelou

"Failure I can live with. Not trying is what I can’t handle."

- Sanya Richards-Ross

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

- Steve Young

"I decided I wasn't going to come down. I was going to fly. I was going to stay up in the air forever."

- Jesse Owens

"Preparation is everything and focus is the key. It’s easy to say you gave it your all out on the pitch. But the point is if you’d prepared you’d have had more to give and you’ve played better."

- Eric Cantona

"It’s not about positive thinking it’s about taking positive action, no matter what you feel. There are no gold medals for the best positive self talk at the Olympics. Sport is a behaviour."

- Jonah Oliver

"It’s what you learn after you think you know it all that really counts."

- John Wooden

"Good teams become great ones when the members trust each other enough to surrender the Me for the We."

- Phil Jackson

"Don’t wait until everything is just right. It will never be perfect. There will always be challenges, obstacles, and less-than-perfect conditions. So what? Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident, and more and more successful."

- Mark Victor Hansen

"Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sail. Explore. Dream. Discover."

- Mark Twain

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

- Jessica Ennis-Hill

"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

"Continuous effort—not strength or intelligence—is the key to unlocking our potential."

- Liane Cardes

"What you feel doesn’t matter in the end; it’s what you do that makes you brave."

- Andre Agassi

"Always work hard, never give up, and fight until the end because it’s never really over until the whistle blows."

- Alex Morgan

"You were born to be a player. You were meant to be here. This moment is yours."

- Herb Brooks

"Everyone wants to win. But to truly succeed—whether it is at a sport or at your job or in life—you have to be willing to do the hard work, overcome the challenges, and make the sacrifices it takes to be the best at what you do."

- Ronda Rousey

"My motto was always to keep swinging. Whether I was in a slump or feeling badly or having troubles off the field, the only thing to do was keep swinging."

- Hank Aaron

"I’m chasing perfection… and if I don’t get it, I’m going to get this close."

- Kobe Bryant

"I don’t focus on what I’m up against. I focus on my goals and I try to ignore the rest."

- Venus Williams

"Dream as big as you can dream, and anything is possible."

- Michael Phelps

"Winning isn’t everything, but wanting to win is."

- Vince Lombardi

"The reward is not so great without the struggle…. The triumph can’t be had without the struggle."

- Wilma Rudolph

"The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a man’s determination."

- Tommy Lasorda

"Persistence can change failure into extraordinary achievement."

- Arnold Palmer

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

- Paul Bryant

"When you fall, get right back up. Just keep going, keep pushing it."

- Lindsey Vonn

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

- Mark Spitz

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

- Pele

"Champions keep playing until they get it right."

- Billie Jean King

"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

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

- Tommy Lasorda

"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

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

- Mike Ditka

"Difficulties in life are intended to make us better, not bitter."

- Dan Reeves

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

- Jim Valvano

"The best motivation always comes from within."

- Michael Johnson

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

- Tony Dorsett

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

- Vince Lombardi

"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

"A team is where a boy can prove his courage on his own. A gang is where a coward goes to hide."

- Mickey Mantle

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

- Jackie Joyner-Kersee

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

- Wayne Gretzky

"Know yourself and you will win all battles."

- Lao Tzu

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

- Eleanor Roosevelt

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

- Thomas Alva Edison

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

- Pete Rose

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

- Tim Duncan

"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

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

- Bruce Jenner

"To give anything less than your best, is to sacrifice the gift."

- Steve Prefontaine

"Quality without results is pointless. Results without quality is boring."

- Steve Prefontaine

"It doesn't matter where you come from, what you have or don't have, what you lack, or what you have too much of. But all you need to have is faith in God, an undying passion for what you do and what you choose to do in this life, and a relentless drive and the will to do whatever it takes to be successful in whatever you put your mind to."

- Stephen Curry

"Only the disciplined ones in life are free. If you are undisciplined, you are a slave to your moods and your passions."

- Michael Phelps

"I don’t think limits."

- Usain Bolt

"Kill them with success and bury them with a smile."

- Usain Bolt

"I know what I can do so it doesn’t bother me what other people think or their opinion on the situation."

- Usain Bolt

"Find the good. It's all around you. Find it, showcase it and you'll start believing it."

- Jesse Owens

"It all goes so fast, and character makes the difference when it's close."

- Jesse Owens

"Life can lure us into this fantasy. A fantasy of fear. We look around and begin to fear we aren’t good enough for the right here and right now, so we create illusions in our minds of what we still need to be — when all we need to be is present in this moment, at this time."

- Sanya Richards-Ross

"When you finally realize your gifts and talents, joy and satisfaction come as you walk in your purpose."

- Sanya Richards-Ross

"I am a big believer in visualization. I run through my races mentally so that I feel even more prepared."

- Allyson Felix

"I always want to give more than I gave yesterday."

- Allyson Felix

"Before a race, I block out what's going on in the stadium. It's different for everyone. But for me, I've always been able to block it out. For a sprint race, it's important not to get distracted."

- Allyson Felix

"The trials on the road to world harmony are no greater than the courage of those who accept the challenge."

- Carl Lewis

"People have a moral standard about what they will do and will not do. At the end of the day, someone who cheats has a lower moral standard than someone who does not. And they will cheat in other areas of life as well."

- Carl Lewis

"Life is often compared to a marathon, but I think it is more like being a sprinter: long stretches of hard work punctuated by brief moments in which we are given the opportunity to perform at our best."

- Michael Johnson

"One of the main techniques I used was focusing on the goal and visualizing myself competing in the race before the race started."

- Michael Johnson

"The mind is absolutely instrumental in achieving results, even for athletes. Sports psychology is a very small part, but it's extremely important when you're winning and losing races by hundredths and even thousandths of a second."

- Michael Johnson

"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

"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

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

- Greg LeMond

"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

"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

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

- Ted Walsh

"It’s not who’s put up the fastest time in the world that year, or who’s put up the fastest time in the previous four years, but who can get their hand on the wall first today."

- Nathan Adrian

"Pressure is a privilege"

- Virgil van Dijk

"One man can be a crucial ingredient on a team, but one man cannot make a team."

- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

"Competitive toughness is an acquired skill and not an inherited gift."

- Chris Evert

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

- Arthur Ashe

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

- Alex Karras

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

- Lynn Jennings

"You’ve got to love what you’re doing. If you love it, you can overcome any handicap or the soreness or all the aches and pains, and continue to play for a long, long time."

- Gordie Howe

"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

"Pressure is a privilege, it only comes to those who earn it"

- Billie Jean King

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

- Jimmy Demaret

"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

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

- Misty May-Treanor

"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

"Concentration is a fine antidote to anxiety."

- Jack Nicklaus

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

- Michael Jordan

"What you are thinking, what shape your mind is in, is what makes the biggest difference of all."

- Willie Mays

"As you walk down the fairway of life you must smell the roses, for you only get to play one round."

- Ben Hogan

"Baseball is ninety percent mental and the other half is physical."

- Yogi Berra

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

- Karrie Webb

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

- Emil Zatopek

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

- John Robinson

"Wisdom is always an overmatch for strength."

- Phil Jackson

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

- Mike Singletary

"You don't play against opponents, you play against the game of basketball."

- Bobby Knight

"The difference between the old ballplayer and the new ballplayer is the jersey. The old ballplayer cared about the name on the front. The new ballplayer cares about the name on the back."

- John Madden

"Even if you are on the right track, you will get run over if you just sit there."

- Will Rogers

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

- Knute Rockne

"Friendships are born on the field of athletic strife and the real gold of competition. Awards become corroded, friends gather no dust."

- Jesse Owens

"The road to Easy Street goes through the sewer."

- John Madden

"What other people may find in poetry or art museums, I find in the flight of a good drive."

- Arnold Palmer

"I was told over and over again that I would never be successful, that I was not going to be competitive and the technique was simply not going to work. All I could do was shrug and say "We'll just have to see.""

- Dick Fosbury

"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."

- Tommy Lasorda

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

- Lou Holtz

"Sweat is the cologne of accomplishment."

- Heywood Hale Broun

"When we step into the grace of God, we step out of the confinements of time."

- Sanya Richards-Ross

"My mom is great and I make sure that we pray together before every race. She helps me put everything in perspective and remind me of the real reason I run."

- Allyson Felix

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

- Peter T. McIntyre

"Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterward."

- Vernon Sanders Law

"It's a round ball and a round bat, and you got to hit it square."

- Pete Rose

"Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement."

- Charles F. Kettering

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

- John McEnroe

"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 about reducing pressure it’s about building the capacity to embrace more."

- Jonah Oliver

"I was forced to learn a lot about psychology as a player, and as a captain to get the best out of others. There’s still a lot of scepticism about it in sport and the workplace, but dealing with fluctuations of form, and pressure, and being away from home is more important than your cover drive."

- Andrew Strauss

"Competition is an ordinary performance on a special day."

- Jonah Oliver

"We have this thing in our mind of I gotta feel perfect, calm and confident and THEN I’ll perform well. Mate, if that’s the case you’re going to perform well a very, very small portion of the time."

- Peter Clarke

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

- Tom Landry

"You win a few, you lose a few. Some get rained out. But you got to dress for all of them."

- Satchel Paige

"Relax? How can anybody relax and play golf? You have to grip the club, don’t you?"

- Ben Hogan

"You wouldn’t worry so much about what others think of you if you realised how seldom they do."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"It’s at the borders of pain and suffering that the men are separated from the boys."

- Emil Zatopek

"The way to develop self-confidence is to do the thing you fear and get a record of successful experiences behind you."

- William Jennings Bryan

"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

"Successful people have fear, successful people have doubts, and successful people have worries. They just don’t let these feelings stop them."

- T. Harv Eker

"It ain’t over till it’s over."

- Yogi Berra

"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

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

- Gertrude Ederle

"Confidence is a habit that can be developed by acting as if you already had the confidence you desire to have."

- Brian Tracy

"Sometimes, a defeat can be more beautiful and satisfying than certain victories. The English have a point in insisting that it matters not who won or lost, but how you played the game."

- Arthur Ashe

"The greatest pleasure is obtained by improving."

- Ben Hogan

"When you read about an athlete or team that wins over and over and over, remind yourself, ‘More than ability, they have character.’"

- Carol Dweck

"For a team to be motivated enough to win, each individual member must be motivated."

- Tom Landry

"The only way to prove that you’re a good sport is to lose."

- Ernie Banks

"You’re playing a game, whether it’s Little League or Game 7 of the World Series. It’s impossible to do well unless you’re having a good time. People talk about pressure. Yeah, there’s pressure. But I just look at it as fun."

- Derek Jeter

"You control your own wins and losses."

- Maria Sharapova

"It’s not about motivation, it’s about connecting to what matters."

- Jonah Oliver

"Optimism is a happiness magnet. If you stay positive, good things and good people will be drawn to you."

- Mary Lou Retton

"There is something about seeing myself improve that motivates and excites me."

- Jackie Joyner-Kersee

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

- Florence Griffith Joyner

"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

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

- William Arthur Ward

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

- Herschel Walker

"One of the biggest errors we have made in elite sport is we use the word confident when we actually mean competent. I can’t sing. I am not competent at singing. Put six beers in me in a karaoke bar and now I’m confident … but I am still terrible at singing."

- Jonah Oliver

"God gets you to the plate, but once you're there you're on your own."

- Ted Williams

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

- Yogi Berra

"They don’t hand out winner’s medals to those who were feeling the best on the day, nor to those who were thinking clearly and positively. The medals only go to those who did the best."

- Gareth J. Mole

"If we could have just screwed another head on his shoulders, he would have been the greatest golfer who ever lived."

- Ben Hogan

"Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

- Yogi Berra

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

- Laird Hamilton

"You know what we worry about, things we care about. I didn’t get nervous making breakfast this morning."

- Jonah Oliver

"I got more bruises, grass-burns and cuts in practice than in match play."

- Jonty Rhodes

"Our brain craves reducing uncertainty. Uncertainty is the hardest human emotion."

- Jonah Oliver

"When you come to a fork in the road, take it."

- Yogi Berra

"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

"A crust eaten in peace is better than a banquet partaken in anxiety."

- Aesop

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

- Yogi Berra

"True disputants are like true sportsmen: their whole delight is in the pursuit."

- Alexander Pope

"Listen to everyone because even an idiot will have a good idea once or twice in their life. Then evaluate and pick out what works for you and commit to it."

- James Kneller

"A life of frustration is inevitable for any coach whose main enjoyment is winning."

- Chuck Noll

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

- Ken Doherty

"Comfort the challenged, and challenge the comfortable"

- Ric Charlesworth

"Sports serve society by providing vivid examples of excellence."

- George F. Will

"To begin, begin."

- Peter Nivio Zarlenga

"Even while they teach, men learn."

- Seneca the Younger

"Multitasking is seriously overrated. Try to do one task at a time and learn to do it with more purpose."

- Gareth J. Mole

"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

"I’m about five inches from being an outstanding golfer. That’s the distance my left ear is from my right."

- Ben Crenshaw

"Ambition beyond ability is almost as bad as having no ambition at all."

- Former TV Sports Broadcaster

"Leave while they still want you."

- Former TV Sports Broadcaster

"Champions have their triumphs before millions and their failures, the later is the real test of character."

- Former TV Sports Broadcaster

"Pressure is something you feel when you don’t know what the hell you’re doing."

"If you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint,’ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced."

"You are NOT your thoughts."