The Ultimate Collection of Kobe Bryant Inspirational Quotes to Motivate Your Journey

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

"I have self-doubt. I have insecurity. I have [a] 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. You rise above it."

- 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

"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. And if you guys can understand that, then what you'll see happen is you won't accomplish your dreams; your dreams won't come true; something greater will."

- Kobe Bryant

"There’s nothing truly to be afraid of, when you think about it, because I’ve failed before, and I woke up the next morning, and I’m OK."

- Kobe Bryant

"After all, greatness is not for everybody"

- Kobe Bryant

"From the beginning, I wanted to be the best. I had a constant craving, a yearning, to improve and be the best."

- Kobe Bryant

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

- Kobe Bryant

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

- 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

"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. Kids go to school to be doctors or lawyers, [and] so forth and so on, and that's where they study. My place to study is from the best."

- 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."

- Jason Kidd

"Leadership is lonely. I’m not going to be afraid of confrontation to get us to where we need to go."

- Kobe Bryant

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

- 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

"You are responsible for how people remember you, or don’t - so don’t take it lightly."

- Kobe Bryant

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

- 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

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

- 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

"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

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

- Kobe Bryant

"You guys know how I am. I don’t forget anything"

- Kobe Bryant

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

- Kobe Bryant

"I never needed any external forces to motivate me."

- Kobe Bryant

"We psych ourselves up too much. Like if you try to talk yourself into, ‘Oh, this is a big moment, this is a big shot,’ you’re putting a lot of pressure on yourself. You shot that shot hundreds and thousands of times. Just shoot another one."

- 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

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

- Kobe Bryant

"I'm chasing perfection."

- Kobe Bryant

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

- 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'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

"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

"Life is too short to get bogged down and be discouraged. You have to keep moving. You have to keep going. Put one foot in front of the other, smile and just keep on rolling."

- Kobe Bryant

"I've practiced and practiced and played so many times. There's nothing truly to be afraid of when you think about it. … I've failed before, and I woke up the next morning, and I'm OK."

- Kobe Bryant

"Leadership is lonely ... I'm not going to be afraid of confrontation to get us to where we need to go. There's a big misconception where people thinking winning or success comes from everybody putting their arms around each other and singing kumbaya and patting them on the back when they mess up, and that's just not reality. If you are going to be a leader, you are not going to please everybody. You have to hold people accountable. Even if you have that moment of being uncomfortable."

- Kobe Bryant

"The last time I was intimidated was when I was 6 years old in karate class. I was an orange belt, and the instructor ordered me to fight a black belt who was a couple years older and a lot bigger. I was scared s---less. I mean, I was terrified, and he kicked my ass. But then I realized he didn't kick my ass as bad as I thought he was going to and that there was nothing really to be afraid of. That was around the time I realized that intimidation didn't really exist if you're in the right frame of mind."

- Kobe Bryant

"I don't negotiate with myself."

- 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. We can all be masters at our craft, but you have to make a choice. What I mean by that is there are inherent sacrifices that come along with that — family time, hanging out with your friends, being a great friend, being a great son, nephew, whatever the case may be. There are sacrifices that come along with that."

- Kobe Bryant

"I never looked at [basketball] as work. I didn't realize it was work until my first year in the NBA. When I came around, I was surrounded by other professionals, and I thought basketball was going to be everything to them, and it wasn't. And I was like, 'This is different.' I thought everybody was so obsessive about the game like me. It was like, 'No? Oh, that's hard work. I get it now.' "

- Kobe Bryant

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

- Kobe Bryant

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

- 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'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 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

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

- 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

"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

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

- 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 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

"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

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

- Kobe Bryant

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

- 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

"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

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

- 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

"I’ve shot too much from the time I was eight years old. But ’too much’ is a matter of perspective. Some people thought Mozart had too many notes in his compositions. Let me put it this way: I entertain people who say I shoot too much. I find it very interesting. Going back to Mozart, he responded to critics by saying there were neither too many notes or too few. There were as many as necessary."

- Kobe Bryant

"We psyche ourselves up too much. Like, if you try to talk yourself into, 'Oh, this is a big moment, this is a big shot,' you're putting a lot of pressure on yourself. You shot that shot hundreds and thousands of times. Just shoot another one."

- 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. When you wake up, you will think it was just a nightmare, only to realize it's all too real. You will be angry and wish for the day back, the game back, THAT play back. But reality gives nothing back, and nor should you."

- Kobe Bryant

"If I panic, everyone else panics."

- Kobe Bryant

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

- Kobe Bryant

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

- 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 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

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

- Kobe Bryant

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

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

- Kobe Bryant

"Friends can come and go, but banners hang forever."

- Kobe Bryant

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

- Kobe Bryant

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

- 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

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

- 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

"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

"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

"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

"I draw from the crowd a lot."

- Kobe Bryant

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

- 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

"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

"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

"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

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

"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."

"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."

"Dedication makes dreams come true."