Inspiring Sports Quotes Every Student Should Know

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

- Vince Lombardi

"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

"Nothing will work unless you do."

- Maya Angelou

"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

"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

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

- Vince Lombardi

"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

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

- Javier Báez

"The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand."

- Vince Lombardi

"Never say never because limits, like fears, are often just an illusion."

- Michael Jordan

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

- Vince Lombardi

"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

"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

"Sport has literally changed my life. I’m here because of sport. It has given me a lot of confidence, a lot of courage, and a lot of discipline. It’s helped me to be the person that I’ve grown to be today."

- Serena Williams

"A successful competition for me is always going out there and putting 100 percent into whatever I’m doing. It’s not always winning ... People, I think, mistake that it’s just winning. Sometimes it could be, but for me, it’s hitting the best sets I can, gaining confidence and having a good time and having fun."

- Simone Biles

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

- Tiger Woods

"Dedication, hard work all the time, and belief."

- Cristiano Ronaldo

"I know what to do and I go and execute"

- Usain Bolt

"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

"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

"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

"Every year I try to grow as a player and not get stuck in a rut. I try to improve my game in every way possible."

- Lionel Messi

"There's no talent here, this is hard work. This is an obsession. Talent does not exist, we are all equals as human beings. You could be anyone if you put in the time. You will reach the top, and that's that. I am not talented. I am obsessed."

- Conor McGregor

"Don’t dream of winning, train for it"

- Mo Farah

"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

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

- Magic Johnson

"Champions keep playing until they get it right."

- Billie Jean King

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

- Wayne Gretzky

"Pain is temporary. Quitting lasts forever."

- Lance Armstrong

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

- Les Brown

"Sweat plus sacrifice equals success."

- Charles Finley

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

- Michael Jordan

"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

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

- John Robinson

"Know yourself and you will win all battles."

- Lao Tzu

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

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"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

"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."

- Hank Aaron

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

- Kobe Bryant

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

- Mike Singletary

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

- John Wooden

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

- Arthur Ashe

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

- Vince Lombardi

"It always seems impossible until it’s done."

- Nelson Mandela

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

- Tommy Lasorda

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

- Michael Phelps

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

- Derek Jeter

"Hard work opens doors and shows the world that you are serious about being one of those rare—and special—human beings who uses the fullness of their talents to do their very best."

- Robin Sharma

"Champions are made from something they have deep inside them—a desire, a dream, a vision."

- Muhammad Ali

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

- Vidal Sassoon

"Hard work has made it easy. That is my secret. That is why I win."

- Nadia Comaneci

"I don’t count my sit-ups; I only start counting when it starts hurting because they’re the only ones that count."

- Muhammad Ali

"Success is born out of faith, an undying passion, and a relentless drive."

- Stephen Curry

"You get what you work for, not what you wish for."

- Howard A. Tullman

"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 had to put in the work. I had to go the extra mile."

- Serena Williams

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

- Babe Ruth

"Confidence is everything. If you start second-guessing yourself, you’re in trouble."

- Jason Day

"The most important thing is to believe in yourself and not be swayed by what other people think."

- Carli Lloyd

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

- Herschel Walker

"Once you have confidence, you can do anything."

- Sloane Stephens

"My confidence comes from the daily grind—training my butt off day in and day out."

- Hope Solo

"Confidence isn’t given. It’s earned."

- Lindsey Vonn

"I am confident because I put in the work."

- Simone Biles

"A champion is someone who gets up when they can’t."

- Jack Dempsey

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

- John Wooden

"No one can define you but you. No one can stop you from reaching your dreams but you."

- Mia Hamm

"Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right."

- Henry Ford

"Courage isn’t having the strength to go on—it is going on when you don’t have strength."

- Napoleon Bonaparte

"Sports 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

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

- Paul “Bear” Bryant

"The greatest accomplishment is not in never falling, but in rising again after you fall."

- Vince Lombardi

"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

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

- Bethany Hamilton

"Wisdom is always an overmatch for strength."

- Phil Jackson

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

- Muhammad Ali

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

- Dan Reeves

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

- Charles F. Kettering

"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

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

- Babe Ruth

"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

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

- William Arthur Ward

"There’s no magic formula. I lift heavy, work hard, and aim to be the best."

- Ronnie Coleman

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

- Mark Spitz

"You can’t always win, but you can always give your best effort."

- Derek Jeter

"A good coach can change a game. A great coach can change a life."

- John Wooden

"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

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

- Charles Swindoll

"Champions behave like champions before they’re champions."

- Bill Walsh

"The road to success runs uphill."

- Willie Davis

"Fail to prepare, prepare to fail"

- Roy Keane

"If it doesn’t challenge you, it won’t change you."

- Fred Devito

"Do what you have to do until you can do what you want to do."

- Oprah Winfrey

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

- Herb Brooks

"Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings."

- Samuel Johnson

"The most rewarding things you do in life are often the ones that look like they cannot be done."

- Arnold Palmer

"Confidence comes from discipline and training."

- Robert Kiyosaki

"A champion is afraid of losing. Everyone else is afraid of winning."

- Billie Jean King

"When you have confidence, you can have a lot of fun. And when you have fun, you can do amazing things."

- Joe Namath

"It takes a lot of unspectacular preparation to have spectacular results in both business and football."

- Roger Staubach

"Opportunities are usually disguised as hard work, so most people don’t recognize them."

- Ann Landers

"Winning is not everything, but making the effort to win is."

- Zig Ziglar

"What you do today can improve all your tomorrows."

- Ralph Marston

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

- Mike Ditka

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

- Archie Griffen

"Winning breeds confidence and confidence breeds winning."

- Hubert Green

"The lessons of the sports field prepare you for the game of life."

- John Wooden

"The man who has confidence in himself gains the confidence of others."

- Hasidic Proverb

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

- Ernie Banks

"I think, team first. It allows me to succeed, it allows my team to succeed."

- LeBron James

"Scientists have proven that it’s impossible to long-jump 30 feet, but I don’t listen to that kind of talk. Thoughts like that have a way of sinking into your feet."

- Carl Lewis

"Sports do not build character. They reveal it."

- Heywood Broun

"What makes something special is not just what you have to gain, but what you feel there is to lose."

- Andre Agassi

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

- Wayne Gretzky

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

- Jackie Joyner Kersee

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

- Lou Holtz

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

- Mickey Mantle

"Above all else, it’s about the team, it’s about winning, and it’s about making the fans smile.  Regardless of whether I’m on the wing, left back, or even for some bizarre reason in goal, I’ll do absolutely anything for this team."

- Katie McCabe

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

- Alexander Pope

"There is no one who can match me. My style is impetuous, my defence is impregnable, and I’m just ferocious."

- Mike Tyson

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

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

"Life is like sports: Sometimes you lose, sometimes you win, but the key is to never stop playing."

- Unknown

"Life is like a game of soccer. You need goals. If there are no goals in your life, you can’t win."

- Unknown

"It’s not always the fastest or the strongest who win, but those who refuse to lose."

- Unknown