Inspiring Quotes from Kobe Bryant: Wisdom for Greatness

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

- Kobe Bryant

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

- Kobe Bryant

"Once you know what failure feels like, determination chases success."

- Kobe Bryant

"I’m extremely willful to win, and I respond to challenges. It’s not a challenge to me to win the scoring title, because I know I can."

- Kobe Bryant

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

- 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

"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

"Trust me, setting things up right from the beginning will avoid a ton of tears and heartache."

- Kobe Bryant

"The most important thing is you must put everybody on notice that you’re here and you are for real."

- Kobe Bryant

"A lot of leaders fail because they don’t have the bravery to touch that nerve or strike that chord."

- Kobe Bryant

"When I look up in the crowd, and I see all the USA flags waving and people chanting USA, it gives you goosebumps."

- Kobe Bryant

"I create my own path. It was straight and narrow. I looked at it this way: you were either in my way, or out of it."

- Kobe Bryant

"Be authentic, and let them like you or not for who you actually are."

- Kobe Bryant

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

- Kobe Bryant

"My brain . . . it cannot process failure. It will not process failure. Because if I sit there and have to face myself and tell myself, ‘You’re a failure’ . . . I think that’s almost worse than death."

- Kobe Bryant

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

- Kobe Bryant

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

- Kobe Bryant

"Haters are a good problem to have. Nobody hates the good ones. They hate the great ones."

- Kobe Bryant

"We all have self-doubt. You don’t deny it, but you also don’t capitulate to it. You embrace it."

- Kobe Bryant

"Mamba out"

- Kobe Bryant

"Dear Basketball..."

- Kobe Bryant

"Use your success, wealth and influence to put them in the best position to realize their own dreams and find their true purpose."

- Kobe Bryant

"It’s the one thing you can control. You are responsible for how people remember you—or don’t. So don’t take it lightly."

- Kobe Bryant

"Failure doesn't exist."

- 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

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

- Kobe Bryant

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

- Kobe Bryant

"Have a good time. Enjoy life."

- Kobe Bryant

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

- Kobe Bryant

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

- 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

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

- Kobe Bryant

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

- Kobe Bryant

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

- Kobe Bryant

"Leadership is lonely."

- 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

"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

"There's a choice that we have to make as people, as individuals. If you want to be great at something, there is a choice you have to make."

- Kobe Bryant

"I never looked at [basketball] as work."

- 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

"When we are saying this cannot be accomplished, this cannot be done, then we are short-changing ourselves."

- 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

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

- Kobe Bryant

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

- 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

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

- Kobe Bryant

"I don't negotiate with myself."

- Kobe Bryant

"When you make a choice and say, ‘Come hell or high water, I am going to be this,’ then you should not be surprised when you are that. It should not be something that is intoxicating or out of character because you have seen this moment for so long that … when that moment comes, of course it is here because it has been here the whole time, because it has been [in your mind] the whole time."

- 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

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

- 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

"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

"Great things come from hard work and perseverance. No excuses."

- Kobe Bryant

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

- Kobe Bryant

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

- Kobe Bryant

"I don't care how you get there. I don't care what you do to get there. The goal is to win."

- Kobe Bryant

"The beauty in being blessed with talent is rising above doubters to create a beautiful moment."

- 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

"My brain, it cannot process failure. It will not process failure. Because if I have to sit there and face myself and tell myself, ‘You are a failure,’ I think that is almost worse than dying."

- Kobe Bryant

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

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

"Dedication makes dreams come true."

"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."

"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."