80+ Motivational Sports Quotes

Are you a sportsperson? Get motivated by our sports quotes

27/10/2020 13:00:00h

80+ Motivational Sports Quotes | iSTOCK

Motivational Sports Quotes

Sportspeople take their hobby or even profession seriously. There are all kinds of sports, individual and team sports, and each of them needs hard work and dedication if they want to succeed.

If you need motivation, read these motivational sports quotes from different sportspeople that can help and encourage you to keep going. Use some of these quotes as mantras for yourself. Find your inner athlete and believe in yourself. You can do it!

1"Winning means you're willing to go longer, work harder, and give more than anyone else."

Vince Lombardior

2"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

3"I don’t count my situps. I only start counting once it starts hurting."

Muhammad Ali

4"Winners never quit and quitters never win. Sports do not build character. They reveal it."

Heywood Broun

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

Tim Notke

6"You can motivate by fear, and you can motivate by reward. But both those methods are only temporary. The only lasting thing is self motivation."

Homer Rice

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

Derek Jeter

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

Mark Spitz

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

Michael Jordan

10"Persistence can change failure into extraordinary achievement."

Matt Biondi

11"Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever. That surrender, even the smallest act of giving up, stays with me. So when I feel like quitting, I ask myself, which would I rather live with?"

Lance Armstrong

12"When you’re riding, only the race in which you’re riding is important."

Bill Shoemaker

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

Michael Jordan

14"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

15"Worrying gets you nowhere. if you turn up worrying about how you're going to perform, yo've already lost. Train hard, turn up, run your best and the rest will take care of itself."

Usain Bolt

16"I hated every minute of training, but I said, 'Don't quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion'."

Muhammed Ali

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

Vince Lombardi

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

Terry Bradshaw

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

Vince Lombardi

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

Tommy Lasorda

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

Pele

22"What you lack in talent can be made up with desire, hustle, and giving 110 percent all the time."

Don Zimmer

23"If you can believe it, the mind can achieve it."

Ronnie Lott

24"Never give up, never give in, and when the upper hand is ours, may we have the ability to handle the win with the dignity that we absorbed the loss."

Doug Williams

25"Without self-discipline, success is impossible, period."

Lou Holtz

26"Never let your head hang down. Never give up and sit down and grieve. Find another way."

Satchel Paige

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

Michael Phelps

28"You miss 100 percent of the shots you don't take."

Wayne Gretzky

29"I've learned that something constructive comes from every defeat."

Tom Landry

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

Laird Hamilton

31"If you can’t outplay them, outwork them."

Ben Hogan

32"Good is not good when better is expected."

Vin Scully

33"Run when you can, walk if you have to, crawl if you must; just never give up."

Dean Karnazes

34"Excellence is not a singular act but a habit. You are what you do repeatedly."

Shaquille O’Neal

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

Andre Agassi

36"I get nervous about performing 90% of the time. There’s always that little self-doubt, but I don’t let it get to me."

Torrie Wilson

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

Satchel Paige

38"Never give up! Failure and rejection are only the first step to succeeding."

Jim Valvano

39"The principle is competing against yourself. It’s about self-improvement, about being better than you were the day before."

Steve Young

40"Believe me, the reward is not so great without the struggle."

Wilma Rudolph

41"You’ve got to take the initiative and play your game. In a decisive set, confidence is the difference."

Chris Evert

42"The mind is the limit. As long as the mind can envision the fact that you can do something, you can do it, as long as you really believe 100 percent."

Arnold Schwarzenegger

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

John Wooden

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

Jack Dempsey

45"One man practicing sportsmanship is far better than a hundred teaching it."

Knute Rockne

46"The hardest skill to acquire in this sport is the one where you compete all out, give it all you have, and you are still getting beat no matter what you do. When you have the killer instinct to fight through that, it is very special."

Eddie Reese

47"Success is where preparation and opportunity meet."

Bobby Unser

48"Always make a total effort, even when the odds are against you."

Arnold Palmer

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

Herschel Walker

50"Champions keep playing until they get it right."

Billie Jean King

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

Muhammad Ali

52"The most we can hope for is to create the best possible conditions for success, then let go of the outcome. The ride is a lot more fun that way."

Phil Jackson

53"Luck? Sure. But only after long practice and only with the ability to think under pressure."

Babe Zaharias

54"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

55"Just keep going. Everybody gets better if they keep at it."

Ted Williams

56"I think the hard part is over. Now it’s time for us to play."

Kerri Walsh

57"If you aren’t going all the way, why go at all?"

Joe Namath

58"There are only two options regarding commitment. You’re either IN or you’re OUT. There is no such thing as life in-between."

Pat Riley

59"You're never a loser until you quit trying."

Mike Ditka

60"Take your victories, whatever the may be, cherish them, use them, but don’t settle for them."

Mia Hamm

61"It is more difficult to stay on top than to get there."

Mia Hamm

62"You take a crash, you get back up and next time you succeed and that's a great feeling."

Shaun White

63"Gold medals aren’t really made of gold. They’re made of sweat, determination, and a hard-to-find alloy called guts."

Dan Gable

64"He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life."

Muhammad Ali

65"To give any less than your best is to sacrifice a gift."

Steve Prefontaine

66“The only way to prove you are a good sport is to lose.”

Ernie Banks

67“Show me a gracious loser and I’ll show you a failure.”

Knute Rockne

68"Sports build good habits, confidence, and discipline. They make players into community leaders and teach them how to strive for a goal, handle mistakes, and cherish growth oppotunities."

Julie Foudy

69“Losing feels worse than winning feels good.”

Vin Scully

70"It doesn't matter whether you are pursuing success in business, sports, the arts, or life in general: The bridge between wishing and accomplishing is discipline."

Harvey Mackay

71“A trophy carries dust. Memories last forever.”

Mary Lou Retton

72“It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up.”

Babe Ruth

73“The road to Easy Street goes through the sewer.”

John Madden

74“Stubbornness usually is considered a negative; but I think that trait has been a positive for me.”

Cal Ripken, Jr.

75“You learn more from losing than winning. You learn how to keep going.”

Morgan Wootten

76"A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A grat hockey player plays where the puck is going to be."

Wayne Gretzky

77“Some people say I have attitude – maybe I do…but I think you have to. You have to believe in yourself when no one else does – that makes you a winner right there. ”

Venus Williams

78“The will to win is important, but the will to prepare is vital.”

Joe Paterno

79“What do do with a mistake: recognize it, admit it, learn from it, forget it.”

Dean Smith

80“Make each day your masterpiece.”

John Wooden

81“Your biggest opponent isn’t the other guy. It’s human nature."

Bobby Knight

82“I never left the field saying I could have done more to get ready and that gives me piece of mind.”

Peyton Manning

➡️ Motivational