Inspiring Wisdom: A Collection of Kobe Bryant Quotes

"Winning takes precedence over all. There's no gray area. No almosts."

- Kobe Bryant

"Everything negative - pressure, challenges - is all an opportunity for me to rise."

- Kobe Bryant

"I have self-doubt. I have insecurity. I have fear of failure. I have nights when I show up at the arena and I'm like, 'My back hurts, my feet hurt, my knees hurt. I don't have it. I just want to chill.' We all have self-doubt. You don't deny it, but you also don't capitulate to it. You embrace it."

- Kobe Bryant

"If you're afraid to fail, then you're probably going to fail."

- Kobe Bryant

"The topic of leadership is a touchy one. A lot of leaders fail because they don't have the bravery to touch that nerve or strike that chord. Throughout my years, I haven't had that fear."

- Kobe Bryant

"You are responsible for how people remember you — or don’t."

- Kobe Bryant

"Setting things up right from the beginning will avoid a ton of tears and heartache."

- Kobe Bryant

"I would go 0-30 before I would go 0-9. 0-9 means you beat yourself, you psyched yourself out of the game."

- Kobe Bryant

"Appreciate it now. Let it sit in now because revenge is sweet and it's quick."

- Kobe Bryant

"I'm extremely willful to win, and I respond to challenges. Scoring titles and stuff like that... it sounds, well, I don't care how it sounds - to me, scoring comes easy. It's not a challenge to me to win the scoring title, because I know I can."

- Kobe Bryant

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

- Kobe Bryant

"I have nothing in common with lazy people who blame others for their lack of success."

- Kobe Bryant

"I focus on one thing and one thing only - that's trying to win as many championships as I can."

- Kobe Bryant

"I see the beauty in getting up in the morning and being in pain because I know all the hard work that it took to get to this point."

- Kobe Bryant

"I want to learn how to become the best basketball player in the world. And if I'm going to learn that, I gotta learn from the best."

- Kobe Bryant

"If you want to be the greatest of all time at something, there’s going to be a negative side to that."

- Kobe Bryant

"Leadership is lonely."

- Kobe Bryant

"I realized that intimidation didn't really exist if you're in the right frame of mind."

- Kobe Bryant

"Be sad. Be mad. Be frustrated. Scream. Cry. Sulk."

- Kobe Bryant

"You don't want to jump into something if you're not passionate about it."

- Kobe Bryant

"No matter what, people are going to like you or not like you. So be authentic, and let them like you or not for who you actually are."

- Kobe Bryant

"In order to get to a certain level, you have to have a certain amount of selfishness."

- Kobe Bryant

"Get over yourself. 'Cause it's not about you, man."

- Kobe Bryant

"I'll do whatever it takes to win games, whether it's sitting on a bench waving a towel, handing a cup of water to a teammate, or hitting the game-winning shot."

- Kobe Bryant

"Have a good time. Enjoy life."

- Kobe Bryant

"It’s not the destination. It’s the journey."

- Kobe Bryant

"If you love what you do and it’s making you happy, all the hard work and perseverance will pay off."

- Kobe Bryant

"The most important thing is to try and inspire people so that they can be great in whatever they want to do."

- Kobe Bryant

"I'm chasing perfection."

- Kobe Bryant

"I don't want to be the next Michael Jordan, I only want to be Kobe Bryant."

- Kobe Bryant

"Failure doesn't exist."

- Kobe Bryant

"I'm here. I'm not going anywhere. No matter what the injury - unless it's completely debilitating - I'm going to be the same player I've always been. I'll figure it out. I'll make some tweaks, some changes, but I'm still coming."

- Kobe Bryant

"The message was that if you want to win championships, you have to let people focus on what they do best while you focus on what you do best. For him, that was rebounding, running the floor, and blocking shots."

- Kobe Bryant

"Pain doesn’t tell you when you ought to stop. Pain is the little voice in your head that tries to hold you back because it knows if you continue, you will change."

- Kobe Bryant

"Everything negative — pressure, challenges — are all an opportunity for me to rise."

- Kobe Bryant

"You have to dance beautifully in the box that you're comfortable dancing in. My box was to be extremely ambitious within the sport of basketball. Your box is different than mine. Everybody has their own. It's your job to try to perfect it and make it as beautiful of a canvas as you can make it. And if you have done that, then you have lived a successful life. You have lived with Mamba Mentality."

- Kobe Bryant

"What separates great players from all-time great players is their ability to self-assess, diagnose weaknesses, and turn those flaws into strengths."

- Kobe Bryant

"The key, though, is being aware of how you’re feeling and how you need to be feeling. It all starts with awareness."

- Kobe Bryant

"The only way I was able to pick up details on the court, to be aware of the minutiae on the hardwood, was by training my mind to do that off the court and focusing on every detail in my daily life. By reading, by paying attention in class and in practice, by working, I strengthened my focus. By doing all of that, I strengthened my ability to be present and not have a wandering mind."

- Kobe Bryant

"I never felt outside pressure. 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. Besides, the expectations I placed on myself were higher than what anyone expected from me."

- Kobe Bryant

"Good coaches, however, teach you how to think and arm you with the fundamental tools necessary to execute properly."

- Kobe Bryant

"I don't negotiate with myself."

- Kobe Bryant

"The mindset isn’t about seeking a result—it’s more about the process of getting to that result. It’s about the journey and the approach. It’s a way of life. I do think that it’s important, in all endeavors, to have that mentality."

- Kobe Bryant

"A lot of people say they want to be great, but they’re not willing to make the sacrifices necessary to achieve greatness. They have other concerns, whether important or not, and they spread themselves out. That’s totally fine. After all, greatness is not for everybody."

- Kobe Bryant

"Those times when you get up early and you work hard; those times when you stay up late and you work hard; those times when you don’t feel like working, you’re too tired, you don’t want to push yourself, but you do it anyway; that is actually the dream. That’s the dream. It’s not the destination, it’s the journey."

- Kobe Bryant

"If you really want to be great at something you have to truly care about it. If you want to be great in a particular area, you have to obsess over it."

- Kobe Bryant

"I wasn’t willing to sacrifice my game, but I also wasn’t willing to sacrifice my family time. So I decided to sacrifice sleep, and that was that."

- Kobe Bryant

"What I mean by that is: if I wanted to implement something new into my game, I’d see it and try incorporating it immediately. I wasn’t scared of missing, looking bad, or being embarrassed. That’s because I always kept the end result, the long game, in my mind. I always focused on the fact that I had to try something to get it, and once I got it, I’d have another tool in my arsenal. If the price was a lot of work and a few missed shots, I was OK with that."

- Kobe Bryant

"Heroes come and go, but legends are forever."

- Kobe Bryant

"Rest at the end, not in the middle."

- Kobe Bryant

"When everyone else was thinking it was time for bed, his mind was telling him it’s time to get ahead of the competition."

- Kobe Bryant

"One of the main takeaways was that you have to work hard in the dark to shine in the light. Meaning: It takes a lot of work to be successful, and people will celebrate that success, will celebrate that flash and..."

- Kobe Bryant

"From the beginning, I wanted to be the best. I had a constant craving, a yearning, to improve and be the best. I never needed any external forces to motivate me."

- Kobe Bryant

"The important thing is that your teammates have to know you're pulling for them and you really want them to be successful."

- Kobe Bryant

"These young guys are playing checkers. I'm out there playing chess."

- Kobe Bryant

"People just don't understand how obsessed I am with winning."

- Kobe Bryant

"Can I jump over two or three guys like I used to? No. Am I as fast as I used to be? No, but I still have the fundamentals and smarts. That's what enables me to still be a dominant player. As a kid growing up, I never skipped steps. I always worked on fundamentals because I know athleticism is fleeting."

- Kobe Bryant

"I can't relate to lazy people. We don't speak the same language. I don't understand you. I don't want to understand you."

- Kobe Bryant

"My parents are my backbone. Still are. They're the only group that will support you if you score zero or you score 40."

- Kobe Bryant

"I've played with IVs before, during and after games. I've played with a broken hand, a sprained ankle, a torn shoulder, a fractured tooth, a severed lip, and a knee the size of a softball. I don't miss 15 games because of a toe injury that everybody knows wasn't that serious in the first place."

- Kobe Bryant

"I love going one-on-one with someone. That's what I do. I've never lost. It's a whole different game, just to have them right in front of you and be able to do whatever you want."

- Kobe Bryant

"There's been a lot of talk of me being a one-man show but that's simply not the case. We win games when I score 40 points and we've won when I score 10."

- Kobe Bryant

"Christmas morning, I'm going to open presents with my kids. I'm going to take pictures of them opening the presents. Then I'm going to come to the Staples Center and get ready to work."

- Kobe Bryant

"It's hard for me to grasp the concept of somebody being nervous when I'm talking to them."

- Kobe Bryant

"At the end of 2003, my game was complete. Shooting, defense, using the dribble, transition, midrange stuff was all there. Then it was about fine-tuning and trying to improve in each area."

- Kobe Bryant

"I like playing for the purple and gold. This is where I want to finish up."

- Kobe Bryant

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

- Kobe Bryant

"I'm more than comfortable just sitting back and scoring 21, 22 points or whatever and getting 10, 11 assists whatever the case might be. More than comfortable with that. It's just a matter of the pieces that you have around you and what you can do to elevate everybody else."

- Kobe Bryant

"Magic has five championships. I have five championships. I'm pretty sure we both know what we're doing."

- Kobe Bryant

"Sports are such a great teacher. I think of everything they've taught me: camaraderie, humility, how to resolve differences."

- Kobe Bryant

"If I panic, everyone else panics."

- Kobe Bryant

"In an individual sport, yes, you have to win titles. Baseball's different. But basketball, hockey? One person can control the tempo of a game, can completely alter the momentum of a series. There's a lot of great individual talent."

- Kobe Bryant

"Everyone looks at your watch and it represents who you are, your values and your personal style."

- Kobe Bryant

"I don't think a coach becomes the right coach until he wins a championship."

- Kobe Bryant

"I don't talk trash often, but when I do, I go for the jugular."

- Kobe Bryant

"One thing you gotta know about me is I have absolutely no filter. I have no problem saying what the hell I think of someone."

- Kobe Bryant

"You want me to own a team and deal with these rich, spoiled stubborn athletes, and try to get them to perform? No thank you."

- Kobe Bryant

"The Black Mamba collection of watches is me: It is my alter ego, so to speak. As I mentioned before, it is sharp, cutting edge and sleek which are characteristics I try to apply when I'm out there on the basketball court."

- Kobe Bryant

"It never bothered me when people would say, 'You only win championships because you're playing with Shaq.' It bothered me when he said it."

- Kobe Bryant

"It's different from being 21 and you think there's endless amount of opportunities. At 33, the ending is much, much closer."

- Kobe Bryant

"I draw from the crowd a lot."

- Kobe Bryant

"We all know what flopping is when we see it. The stuff that you see is where guys aren't really getting hit at all and are just flailing around like a fish out of water."

- Kobe Bryant

"If there were camera phones back in the day, the biggest athletes in the world would have had a lot of explaining to do."

- Kobe Bryant

"Twitter is great to connect with fans and be transparent. I enjoy that aspect about it. But really, I'm still trying to figure it out."

- Kobe Bryant

"The people who truly know me know what I'm like. There have been people who try to say things that aren't fair, and I check them. And then they don't like me because I checked them."

- Kobe Bryant

"What people see on court is another side of me; it's not me."

- Kobe Bryant

"It's disgusting, but my father taught me when your mouth gets dry, just suck the sweat out of your own jersey. There's no bravado to any of it; it's just a disgusting little trick."

- Kobe Bryant

"I'm not the most patient of people."

- Kobe Bryant

"Eeew, I'd be a little uncomfortable Googling myself. People sit there - and Google themselves? That's kind of weird."

- Kobe Bryant

"Pooper scooper? Yeah, I've done it a few times. Every once in a while, you have to."

- Kobe Bryant

"I've got four dogs, and I just don't do dog doo. I'm a diva when it comes to that."

- Kobe Bryant

"Dedication makes dreams come true."

"My advice is just to focus on each day and have a plan in place of how you want to improve and how you want to get better and you stick to that plan and trust the fact that every day that you stick to the plan it will get you to your end result."

"I saw you come in and I wanted you to know that it doesn’t matter how hard you work, that I’m willing to work harder than you."

"The moment you give up, is the moment you let someone else win."

"Torches never get passed. You've got to earn that."

"We can always kind of be average and do what's normal. I'm not in this to do what's normal."

"You are responsible for how people remember you—or don’t. So don’t take it lightly."