100+ Inspirational Quotes for Athletes to Ignite Your Game Day Spirit

"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

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

- Wayne Gretzky

"Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships."

- Michael Jordan

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

- 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

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

- Vince Lombardi

"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

"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

"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

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

- Herb Brooks

"Life is ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you respond to it."

- Charles Swindoll

"A champion is simply someone who did not give up when they wanted to."

- Tom Landry

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

- Alex Morgan

"When you don't give up, you cannot fail."

- Adrian Peterson

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

- Vince Lombardi

"Trust that you can get back up and not give in. Ever."

- Patrick Willis

"If you do the bare minimum, expect bare minimum results. You want to be great, work to be great."

- J.J. Watt

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

- Paul Bryant

"There is only one way to succeed in anything…and that is to give it everything."

- Vince Lombardi

"Football is like life. It requires perseverance, self-denial, hard work, sacrifice, dedication, and respect for authority."

- Vince Lombardi

"Success isn't owned, it's leased. And rent is due every day."

- J.J. Watt

"Winners never quit and quitters never win."

- Vince Lombardi

"You can’t win together if you don’t work together."

- Joe Paterno

"No matter the circumstances you may be going through, just push through it."

- Ray Lewis

"Remember, once you set a goal, it's all about how hard you're willing to work, how much you're willing to sacrifice and how badly you truly want it."

- J.J. Watt

"Nobody who ever gave his best regretted it."

- George S. Halas

"Today I will do what others won't, so tomorrow I can accomplish what others can't."

- Jerry Rice

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

- Vince Lombardi

"It's not the will to win that matters. It's the will to prepare to win that matters."

- Paul "Bear" Bryant

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

- Vince Lombardi

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

- Vince Lombardi

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

- Lindsey Vonn

"When somebody tells me I cannot do something, that’s when I do it."

- Gertrude Ederle

"For me it’s the challenge — the challenge to try to beat myself and do better than I did in the past. I try to keep in mind not what I have accomplished but what I have to try to accomplish in the future."

- Jackie Joyner-Kersee

"Every champion was once a contender that didn’t give up."

- Gabby Douglas

"I have tried to keep on with my striving because this is the only hope I have of ever achieving anything worthwhile and lasting."

- Arthur Ashe

"Every day is an opportunity disguised as a challenge."

- Tiki Barber

"Leadership is a matter of having people look at you and gain confidence. If you're in control, they're in control."

- Tom Landry

"You have to perform at a consistently higher level than others. That's the mark of a true professional."

- Joe Paterno

"The man on top of the mountain didn't fall there."

- Vince Lombardi

"The most valuable player is the one who makes the most players valuable."

- Peyton Manning

"To the young: work, work, work, and then work some more."

- Ed Reed

"Good things come to those who work!"

- Greg Dortch

"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

"Champions keep playing until they get it right."

- Billie Jean King

"Don’t practise until you get it right. Practise until you can’t get it wrong."

- Harvey Mackay

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

- Tommy Lasorda

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

- Tim Notke

"Success is where preparation and opportunity meet."

- Bobby Unser

"Victory is in having done your best. If you’ve done your best, you’ve won."

- Bill Bowerman

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

- Jessica Ennis-Hill

"The only limit to our realisation of tomorrow is our doubts of today."

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

- Muhammad Ali

"To go out there and prove what I can do has taught me a lot about who I am. We can push ourselves further. We always have more to give."

- Simone Biles

"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."

- Babe Ruth

"I am grateful for all my victories, but I am especially grateful for my losses, because they only made me work harder."

- Muhammad Ali

"I love to compete. That’s the essence of who I am."

- Tiger Woods

"I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it’s been."

- Wayne Gretzky

"The battles that count aren’t the ones for gold medals. The struggles within yourself — the invisible, inevitable battles inside all of us — that’s where it’s at."

- Jesse Owens

"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

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

- Pele

"It doesn’t matter if you fall short; it is never a failure to go after your goals with everything you’ve got."

- Michael Phelps

"I’m a firm believer in that you play the way you practice."

- Larry Bird

"I really think a champion is defined not by their wins but by how they can recover when they fall."

- Serena Williams

"However great your dedication, you never win anything on your own."

- Rafael Nadal

"Losing is a learning experience. It teaches you humility. It teaches you to work harder. It’s also a powerful motivator."

- Yogi Berra

"In the end, it’s the effort that matters. The rest is beyond your control."

- Maria Sharapova

"Don’t lose faith in your dreams, keep fighting for what you love, and if you always give everything you have, you’ll be happy no matter what the outcome."

- Lindsey Vonn

"Each day I work on getting better, and even the bad days have something good that comes out of them."

- Katie Ledecky

"I knew what I wanted to accomplish, and I knew how much work it took to achieve those goals. I then put in the work and trusted in it."

- Kobe Bryant

"You don’t win by being good. You win with hard work and sacrifice. Without that, skill is just potential."

- Bobby Orr

"You have to keep your goal in mind and never lose sight of it."

- George Foreman

"Don’t make excuses. When you have decided to do something, do it. No excuses. Then you are self-disciplined."

- Eliud Kipchoge

"Stay hungry, remain humble, and get better today."

- Pete Carroll

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

- Emmitt Smith

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

- Gale Sayers

"To do things you've never done before, you have to do things you've never done before."

- Sean Payton

"I am going to outwork everybody because no one was going to give me anything."

- Dawson Knox

"It doesn’t matter what people say about me. I weather the storm."

- Terrell Owens

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

- Jessica Ennis-Hill

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

- Ken Doherty

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

- Emil Zatopek

"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

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

- Laird Hamilton

"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

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

- Satchel Paige

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

- Florence Griffith Joyner

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

- Jackie Joyner-Kersee

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

- Mary Lou Retton

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

- Pele

"You control your own wins and losses."

- Maria Sharapova

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

- Venus Williams

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

- Bruce Jenner

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

- Michael Phelps

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

- Wilma Rudolph

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

- Tommy Lasorda

"Persistence can change failure into extraordinary achievement."

- Arnold Palmer

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

- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

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

- Mark Spitz

"I have yet to be in a game where luck was involved."

- Urban Meyer

"You cannot make progress with excuses."

- Cam Newton

"Football is a game of controlled anger. It is a game of retribution. It’s about will."

- Brian Dawkins

"No one ever drowned in sweat."

- Lou Holtz

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

- Archie Griffin

"When you've got something to prove, there's nothing greater than a challenge."

- Terry Bradshaw

"If what you did yesterday seems big, you haven't done anything today."

- Lou Holtz

"When people told me I wasn’t going to make it, I listened to the one person who told me I was: me."

- Shannon Sharpe

"Effort will never be questioned."

- Jalen Hurts

"If you work hard and you play well, all those critics quiet themselves pretty quickly."

- Peyton Manning

"Winners, I am convinced, imagine their dreams first. They want it with all their heart and expect it to come true. There is, I believe, no other way to live."

- Joe Montana

"Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it."

- Lou Holtz

"You can learn a line from a win and a book from defeat."

- Paul Brown

"When you're good at something, you'll tell everyone. When you're great at something, they'll tell you."

- Walter Payton

"Winning isn’t getting ahead of others. It’s getting ahead of yourself."

- Roger Staubach

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

- Mike Singletary

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

- Ernie Banks

"Embrace the new, no matter how uncomfortable, and make it work for you."

- Alex Smith

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

- George F. Will

"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

"When you lose, talk little. When you win, talk less."

- Tom Brady

"Even while they teach, men learn."

- Seneca the Younger

"Self-praise is for losers. Be a winner. Stand for something. Always have class, and be humble."

- John Madden

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

- Gertrude Ederle

"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

"Success isn't measured by money or power or social rank. Success is measured by your discipline and inner peace."

- Mike Ditka

"Just believe in yourself. Even if you don’t, pretend that you do and, at some point, you will."

"Leave everything on the field; no regrets."

"Every champion was once a contender who refused to give up."

"Your greatest opponent is yourself; challenge your limits."

"The strength within you is greater than any challenge ahead."

"Great things come from hard work and perseverance."

"The game is won in the mind before it’s won on the field."

"Pain is temporary, but pride is forever."

"Believe in the power of your dreams and fight to achieve them."

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

"Winning is a habit; success is a choice."

"Commit to the process and the results will follow."

"Every play is a chance to prove yourself."

"Rise above the challenge and shine."

"Success is earned one practise at a time."

"Play with passion and purpose."

"The game isn't over until you've given it your all."

"Effort and courage are not enough without purpose and direction."

"Your dedication defines your success."

"Focus on your goals, not the obstacles."