famous sports motivational quotes

8/8/2019 Famous Sports Motivational Quotes

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I've always felt it was not up to anyone else to make me give my best. ± Akeem Olajuwon

It ain't about how hard ya hit. It's about how hard you can get it and keep moving forward.

How much you can take and keep moving forward. - Rocky

Adversity cause some men to break; others to break records ± William A. Ward

We have forty-four defenses for him, but he has forty-five ways to score ± Al Attles

There are three things in my life which I really love: God, my family, and baseball. The only problem -

once baseball season starts, I change the order around a bit. ± Al Gallagher

Our country is the only one in the world with a national anthem that the last two words are Play Ball!

Sports do not build character. They reveal it. - John Wooden

We didn't lose the game; we just ran out of time - Vince Lombardi

I promise to play for the team on the front of the jersey, not the name on the back.

Nobody said it would be easy but everybody said it was worth it. - Steve Prefontain

The difference between the old ballplayer and the new ballplayer is the jersey. The old ballplayer cared

about the name on the front. The new ballplayer cares about the name on the back. ± Steve Garvey

Good pitching will beat good hitting any time, and vice versa. ± Bob Veale

I see great things in baseball. It's our game - the American game. It will take our people out-of-doors, fill

them with oxygen, give them a larger physical stoicism. Tend to relieve us from being a nervous,

dyspeptic set. Repair these losses, and be a blessing to us. ± Walt Whitman

If you make every game a life-and-death thing, you're going to have problems. You'll be dead a lot. ±

Dean Smith

Baseball and football are very different games. In a way, both of them are easy. Football is easy if you're

crazy as hell. Baseball is easy if you've got patience. They'd both be easier for me if I were a little more

crazy - and a little more patient. ± Bo Jackson

winner is someone who sets their goals, commits themselves to those goals and then pursues their goals

with all the ability that God has given them. That requires someone who beleives in themselves, who will

make self sacrifices, work hard, and maintain the determination to perform at the best of their ability.

- C. Leeman Bennett

The athlete who says it can't be done should not get in the way of the one who is doing it. ± John Wooden

Success is about having, excellence is about being. Success is about having money and fame,

but excellence is being the best you can be. - Mike Ditka

The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender. ² Vince Lombardi



"The spirit, the will to win, and the will to excel are the things that endure. These

qualities are so much more important than the events that occur." -- Vince

Lombardi

The highest compliment that you can pay me is to say that I work hard every day,

that I never dog it. --Wayne Gretzky

³The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a man's

determination.´ -- Tommy Lasorda

"Don't let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do." -- John Wooden

"It's not whether you get knocked down; it's whether you get back up." -- Vince

Lombardi

"I learned that the only way you are going to get anywhere in life is to work hard at

it. Whether you're a musician, a writer, an athlete or a businessman, there is no

getting around it. If you do, you'll win--if you don't, you won't." -- Bruce Jenner,

Olympic Gold Medalist, Decathlon

"There are only two options regarding commitment; you're either in or you're out.

There's no such thing as life in-between." -- Pat Riley

"Be more concerned with your character than with your reputation. Your character

is what you really are while your reputation is merely what others think you are." --

John Wooden

"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

"The most important key to achieving great success is to decide upon your goal and

launch, get started, take action, move." -- John Wooden

"Nobody who ever gave his best regretted it." George Halas

"The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength,

not a lack of knowledge, but rather in a lack of will." -- Vincent T. Lombardi

"The man who has no imagination has no wings." -- Muhammad Ali

The real glory is being knocked to your knees and then coming back. That's real

glory. -- Vince Lombardi

"It's lack of faith that makes people afraid of meeting challenges, and I believed in

myself."- Muhammed Ali



"I've never known a man worth his salt who in the long run, deep down in his

heart, didn't appreciate the grind, the discipline... I firmly believe that any man's

finest hour - this greatest fulfillment to all he holds dear is that moment when he

has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle,

victorious." -- Vince Lombardi

"When you win, say nothing, when you lose, say less."- Paul Brown

"Sportsmanship for me is when a guy walks off the court and you really can't tell

whether he won or lost, when he carries himself with pride either way."-Jim Courier

"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take."- Wayne Gretzky

"The only one who can tell you 'you can't ' is you. And you don't have to listen."-

Nike

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

Shaquille O'Neal

"Teamwork is the fuel that allows common people to produce uncommon results.

"I can accept failure. Everyone fails at something. But I can't accept not trying."-

Michael Jordan

"I can't play being mad. I go out there and have fun. It's a game, and that's how I

am going to treat it."- Ken Griffey, Jr.

"One man practicing sportsmanship is far better than 50 preaching it."- Knute

Rockne

"Winning as a team is better than anything. It's great to share success."- Jim

Harbaugh

I firmly believe that any man's finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is

the moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field

of battle-victorious. ² Vince Lombardi

Leaders aren't born, they are made. And they are made just like anything else, through hard

work. And that's the price we'll have to pay to achieve that goal, or any goal. ² VinceLombardi

Having the capacity to lead is not enough. The leader must be willing to use it. ² Vince

Lombardi

The quality of a person's life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence,

regardless of their chosen field of endeavor. ² Vince Lombardi



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The achievements of an organization are the results of the combined effort of each

individual. ² Vince Lombardi

Some of us will do our jobs well and some will not, but we will all be judged by only one thing

-- the result. ² Vince Lombardi

Once you agree upon the price you and your family must pay for success, it enables you to

ignore the minor hurts, the opponent's pressure, and the temporary failures. ² Vince Lombardi

Winning isn't everything--but wanting to win is. ² Vince Lombardi

No matter how good you are, you're going to lose one-third of your games. No matter how bad

you are you're going to win one-third of your games. It's the other third that makes the

difference. -- Tommy Lasorda

You can't sit on a lead and run a few plays into the line and just kill the clock. You've got to

throw the ball over the goddamn plate and give the other man his chance. That's why baseball

is the greatest game of them all. -- Earl Weaver

During my 18 years I came to bat almost 10,000 times. I struck out about 1,700 times and

walked maybe 1,800 times. You figure a ballplayer will average about 500 at bats a season.

That means I played seven years without ever hitting the ball. -- Mickey Mantle

What does a mama bear on the pill have in common with the World Series? No cubs.

-- Harry Caray

You owe it to yourself to be the best you can possible be - in baseball and in life.

-- Pete Rose

Even when I'm old and grey, I won't be able to play it, but I'll still love the game.

- Michael Jordan

I play to win, whether during practice or a real game. And I will not let anything get in the

way of me and my competitive enthusiasm to win. Michael Jordan

I'm not out there sweating for three hours every day just to find out what it feelslike to sweat. ± Michael Jordan

I've failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed. Michael

Jordan



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

If you're trying to achieve, there will be roadblocks. I've had them; everybody has had

them. But obstacles don't have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don't turn around andgive up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it. Michael Jordan

My attitude is that if you push me towards something that you think is a weakness, then I

will turn that perceived weakness into a strength. Michael Jordan

My heroes are and where my parents. I can't see having anyone else as my heroes.

Michael Jordan

The game is my wife. It demands loyalty and responsibility, and it gives me back fulfillment

and peace. Michael Jordan

A ball player's got to be kept hungry to become a big-leaguer. That's why no boy from a rich

family ever made the big leagues. - Joe DiMaggio

"If my uniform doesn't get dirty, I haven't done anything in the baseball game." ±

Rickey Henderson

"I went through baseball as "a player to be named later." - Joe Garagiola:

"Baseball is a red-blooded sport for red-blooded men. It's no pink tea, and

mollycoddles had better stay out. It's a struggle for supremacy, a survival of the

fittest." ± Ty Cobb

"Baseball is ninety percent mental. The other half is physical." ± Yogi Berra

"I can see how he (Sandy Koufax) won twenty-five games. What I don't understandis how he lost five." ± Yogi Berra

"I'd walk through hell in a gasoline suit to play baseball." ± Pete Rose

"A man has to have goals - for a day, for a lifetime - and that was mine, to havepeople say, 'There goes Ted Williams, the greatest hitter who ever lived." ± Ted

Williams

People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare outthe window and wait for spring. ~Rogers Hornsby

Baseball is the only field of endeavor where a man can succeed three times out of ten and beconsidered a good performer. ~Ted Williams



Back then, my idol was Bugs Bunny, because I saw a cartoon of him playing ball - you know, theone where he plays every position himself with nobody else on the field but him? Now that Ithink of it, Bugs is still my idol. You have to love a ballplayer like that. ~Nomar Garciaparra

Baseball is a game where a curve is an optical illusion, a screwball can be a pitch or a person,

stealing is legal and you can spit anywhere you like except in the umpire's eye or on the ball.~Jim Murray

Baseball players are smarter than football players. How often do you see a baseball teampenalized for too many men on the field? ~Jim Bouton, 1988

If I seem to give a damn, please tell me. I would hate to be giving the wrong impression.

Due to circumstances within my control, tomorrow will be cancelled.

Due to recent cutbacks and until further notice, the light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off.

I say what I want to say and do what I want to do. There's no in between. People will eitherlove you for it or hate you for it.-Eminem

When you feel like giving up, remember why you held on for so long in the first place.

Don't you worry, baby please

'Cause honestly

If I could rewind

Both the hands of time

Is not profound enough to show my urge

For her smile I'd shout on a curb

With a loudspeaker

Til the entire town heard

Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one moretime.

We look at each other wondering what the other is thinking but we never say a thing.

³A sad thing in life is that sometimes you meet someone who means a lot to you only to find out in the endthat it was never bound to be and you just have to let go.´

It's weird...you know the end of something great is coming, but you want to hold on, just for one moresecond...just so it can hurt a little more.´



³I don't wish to be everything to everyone, but I would like to be something to someone.´

Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn't it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opensup your heart and it means that someone can get inside you and mess you up. You build up all thesedefenses, you build up a whole suit of armor, so that nothing can hurt you, then one stupid person, nodifferent from any other stupid person, wanders into your stupid life...You give them a piece of you. They

didn't ask for it. They did something dumb one day, like kiss you or smile at you, and then your life isn'tyour own anymore. Love takes hostages. It gets inside you. It eats you out and leaves you crying in thedarkness, so simple a phrase like 'maybe we should be just friends' turns into a glass splinter working itsway into your heart. It hurts. Not just in the imagination. Not just in the mind. It's a soul-hurt, a real gets-inside-you-and-rips-you-apart pain. I hate love.´

³Sometimes you put walls up not to keep people out, but to see who cares enough to break them down.´

I'm not supposed to love you, I'm not supposed to care, I'm not supposed to live my life wishing you werethere. I'm not supposed to wonder where you are or what you do...I'm sorry I can't help myself, I'm in lovewith you.´

Anyone can give up, it's the easiest thing in the world to do. But to hold it together when everyone elsewould understand if you fell apart, that's true strength.´

³Sometimes I lie awake at night, and ask, 'Where have I gone wrong?' Then a voice says to me, 'This isgoing to take more than one night.'´

I love sleep. My life has the tendency to fall apart when I'm awake, you know?´

My knees start to shake, when you're in sight, my mind's filled with wonder, my heart with fright. When willthis feeling stop? When did it start? How can I listen to my mind, without breaking my heart? I'mso confused, what can I do? I can't think o´

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