This collection of over 300 sports quotes will inspire you to greatness in every area of your life.
Inspirational Sports Quotes
Athletes and sports stars are some of the most inspirational people in the world. They dedicate their lives to mastering one sport, and through sheer force of will, they achieve greatness.
Their stories are filled with courage, determination, and perseverance in the face of obstacles.
In the world of sports, there are moments of heroism, courage, and perseverance that inspire us all. No wonder then, that people from the sports world are some of the most quoted in history.
These quotes capture the very essence of what it means to be a champion in life. Whether you’re an athlete or just a fan, these sports quotes will leave you feeling motivated and inspired.
Inspiring Quotes On Sports
Passion first and everything will fall into place.
– Holly Holm
I am a member of a team, and I rely on the team, I defer to it and sacrifice for it, because the team, not the individual, is the ultimate champion.
– Mia Hamm
Related: Teamwork Quotes
Victory is fleeting. Losing is forever.
– Billie Jean King
Don’t tell me how rocky the sea is, just bring the ship in.
– Lou Holtz
Kill them with success and bury them with a smile.
– Usain Bolt
You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.
– Wayne Gretzky
Motivational Sports Quotes
If you’re enjoying these quotes, make sure to read our collection of determination quotes to help you keep moving forward.
– Unknown
If you have everything under control, you’re not moving fast enough.
– Mario Andretti
Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterward.
– Vernon Law
I’m playing; I’m here. I’m going to fight until they tell me they don’t want me anymore.
– Steve Nash
Without self-discipline, success is impossible.
– Lou Holtz
Related: 175+ Discipline Quotes For Maximum Motivation
If you’re enjoying this collection of quotes, then you’ll love our collection of short inspirational quotes that will help you remain positive and optimistic.
– Unknown
I don’t have to wait for nobody, I move when I wanna move.
– Floyd Mayweather
Your biggest opponent isn’t the other guy. It’s human nature.
– Bobby Knight
If it doesn’t challenge you, it won’t change you.
– Fred Devito
The five S’s of sports training are: stamina, speed, strength, skill, and spirit; but the greatest of these is spirit.
– Ken Doherty
Quotes About Sport
Soccer forces life to move on. There’s always a new match. A new season. There’s always a dream that everything can get better. It’s a game of wonders.
– Fredrik Backman
I’ve had to learn to fight all my life got to learn to keep smiling. If you smile things will work out.
– Serena Williams
Some may have more talent than you, but there is no excuse for anyone working harder than you do.
– John Tavares
Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up.
– Jim Valvano
Do not let what you can not do interfere with what you can do.
– John Wooden
In sports, players need to be reminded of their competition to become motivated to practice. The same can be applied in business.
– Gavin McGinnis
When you go through a significant injury and have a major career change, you truly do go one year at a time, and you don’t look past what’s going on now, because you are not sure what’s going to happen. Tomorrow is not promised.
– Peyton Manning
Never let your head hang down. Never give up and sit down and grieve. Find another way.
– Satchel Paige
Related: Never Give Up Quotes
If you aren’t going all the way, why go at all?
– Joe Namath
Nobody who gave his best ever regretted it.
– George Halas
You can’t get much done in life if you only work on the days when you feel good.
– Jerry West
What do you do with a mistake: recognize it, admit it, learn from it, forget it.
– Dean Smith
Today, you have 100% of your life left.
– Tom Landry
Only he who can see the invisible can do the impossible.
– Frank L. Gaines
Watch your actions, they become your habits. Watch your habits, they become your character.
Most people give up just when they’re about to achieve success. They quit on the one yard line. They give up at the last minute of the game one foot from a winning touchdown.
– Ross Perot
Quotes In Sports
You don’t play against opponents, you play against the game of basketball.
– Bobby Knight
It ain’t over till it’s over.
– Yogi Berra
Number one is just to gain a passion for running. To love the morning, to love the trail, to love the pace on the track. And if some kid gets really good at it, that’s cool too.
– Pat Tyson
The more difficult the victory, the greater the happiness in winning.
– Pele
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
I’ve always made a total effort, even when the odds seemed entirely against me. I never quit trying; I never felt that I didn’t have a chance to win.
– Arnold Palmer
There is no getting around the fact that the moment you are at your very best is the moment you begin to become worse and worse. Others will come along who can run faster, jump higher, hit harder, and you will be forgotten. Your winning moment is dated to die.
– Charlie Higson
When you see a good move, look for a better one.
– Emanuel Lasker
You’ll score a lot of goals in your career but not one of them will happen without the help of a teammate.
– Abby Wambach
One man practicing sportsmanship is far better than 50 preaching it.
– Knute Rockne
Continuous effort not strength or intelligence is the key to unlocking our potential.
– Liane Cardes
The man who has no imagination has no wings.
– Muhammad Ali
A trophy carries dust. Memories last forever.
– Mary Lou Retton
Show me a guy who’s afraid to look bad, and I’ll show you a guy you can beat every time.
– Lou Brock
Adversity causes some men to break; others to break records.
– William Arthur Ward
Victory is in having done your best. If you’ve done your best, you’ve won.
– Billy Bowerman
Sports Motivation Quotes
If you think it’s hard to meet new people, try picking up the wrong golf ball.
– Jack Lemmon
I’ve failed over & over & over again in my life & that is why I succeed.
– Michael Jordan
I’m not 23 anymore. But the defensive ends and linebackers chasing me are. If I had to chose between youth and experience, I’d take experience every time.
– Peyton Manning
What makes something special is not just what you have to gain, but what you feel there is to lose.
– Andre Agassi
Do you know what my favorite part of the game is? The opportunity to play.
– Mike Singletary
I have to leave the games now if the announcer says something I don’t agree with. I’m thinking, ‘Peyton, it is not healthy to be all worked up before a game.’
– Peyton Manning
Once you learn to quit, it becomes a habit.
– Vince Lombardi
Today I will do what others won’t, so tomorrow I can accomplish what others can’t.
– Jerry Rice
Winning solves everything.
– Tiger Woods
Anyone who waits for someone else to make a change automatically becomes a follower.
– Peyton Manning
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
It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up. Heroes get remembered, but legends never die.
– Babe Ruth
I’ve never left the field saying, ‘I could’ve done more to get ready,’ and that gives me peace of mind.
– Peyton Manning
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.
– Lance Armstrong
If you are afraid of failure you don’t deserve to be successful!
– Charles Barkley
A champion is simply someone who did not give up when they wanted to.
– Tom Landry
Inspiring Sports Quotes
At a young age winning is not the most important thing… the important thing is to develop creative and skilled players with good confidence.
– Arsene Wenger
Losing feels worse than winning feels good.
– Vin Scully
You might not be able to outthink, out market or outspend your competition, but you can outwork them.
– Lou Holtz
You will never get the best out of anyone professionally unless you understand what motivates and makes them tick personally as a human being.
– Rasheed Ogunlaru
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
Never underestimate the heart of a champion!
– Doc Rivers
Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. 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
You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.
– Michael Jordan
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
Pressure is a word that is misused in our vocabulary. When you start thinking of pressure, it’s because you’ve started to think of failure.
– Tommy Lasorda
You have to do something in your life that is honorable and not cowardly if you are to live in peace with yourself.
– Larry Brown
It’s not wanting to win that makes you a winner; it’s refusing to fail.
– Peyton Manning
What keeps me going is not winning, but the quest for reaching potential in myself as a coach and my kids as divers. It’s the pursuit of excellence.
– Ron O’Brien
Set your goals high, and don’t stop till you get there.
– Bo Jackson
Moment of victory is much too short to live for that and nothing else.
– Martina Navratilova
Believe me, the reward is not so great without the struggle.
– Wilma Rudolph
Sports Quotations
Courage doesn’t mean you don’t get afraid. Courage means you don’t let fear stop you.
– Bethany Hamilton
Winners never quit and quitters never win. Sports do not build character. They reveal it.
– Heywood Broun
From what we get, we can make a living; what we give, however, makes a life.
– Arthur Ashe
Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.
– Lou Holtz
In the end, the game comes down to one thing: man against man. May the best man win.
– Sam Huff
If you can’t outplay them, outwork them.
– Ben Hogan
No one ever won a game by resigning.
– Ksawery Tartakower
You can’t win unless you learn how to lose.
– Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
For me, winning isn’t something that happens suddenly on the field when the whistle blows and the crowds roar. Winning is something that builds physically and mentally every day that you train and every night that you dream.
– Emmitt Smith
Winners never quit and quitters never win.
– Vince Lombardi
Persistence can change failure into extraordinary achievement.
– Marv Levy
To succeed…You need to find something to hold on to, something to motivate you, something to inspire you.
– Tony Dorsett
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
A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be.
– Wayne Gretzky
Push yourself again and again. Don’t give an inch until the final buzzer sounds.
– Larry Bird
Sports serve society by providing vivid examples of excellence.
– George F. Will
Best Quotes On Sports
Success isn’t owned, it’s leased. And rent is due every day.
– J.J. Watt
It’s not the will to win that matters b
– Paul Bryant
Somebody may beat me, but they are going to have to bleed to do it.
– Steve Prefontaine
It never gets easier. You just get better.
– Jordan Hoechlin
Losing teaches you how to win, winning teaches you how not to lose.
– Matshona Dhliwayo
If you can believe it, the mind can achieve it.
– Ronnie Lott
To uncover your true potential you must first find your own limits and then you have to have the courage to blow past them.
– Picabo Street
Related: 300+ Courage Quotes To Help You Face Fears And Overcome Adversity
Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths.
Never let the fear of striking out get in your way.
– Babe Ruth
Winning is not a sometime thing; it’s an all time thing. You don’t win once in a while, you don’t do things right once in a while, you do them right all the time. Winning is habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.
– Vince Lombardi
If you fail to prepare, you’re prepared to fail.
– Mark Spitz
The principle is competing against yourself. It’s about self-improvement, about being better than you were the day before.
– Steve Young
There are certain basic qualities and characteristics you’ve got to have. Number one: you’ve got to have a will to win.
– Bob Richards
When you win, say nothing. When you lose, say less.
– Paul Brown
To give any less than your best is to sacrifice a gift.
– Steve Prefontaine
Never say never because limits, like fears, are often just an illusion.
Inspirational Quotes About Sports
Procrastination is one of the most common and deadliest of diseases and its toll on success and happiness is heavy.
– Wayne Gretzky
Related: Procrastination Quotes
When you don’t give up, you cannot fail.
– Adrian Peterson
Nothing else will show your true character than how you lose.
– Ken Gleed
Difficulties in life are intended to make us better, not bitter.
– Dan Reeves
Wisdom is always an overmatch for strength.
– Phil Jackson
Good is not good when better is expected.
– Vin Scully
I would have thought that the knowledge that you are going to be leapt upon by half-a-dozen congratulatory, but sweaty team-mates would be inducement not to score a goal.
– Arthur Marshall
Success is where preparation and opportunity meet.
– Bobby Unser
The highest compliment that you can pay me is to say that I work hard every day, that I never dog it.
– Wayne Gretzky
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
The will to win is important, but the will to prepare is vital.
– Joe Paterno
Age is no barrier. It’s a limitation you put on your mind.
– Jackie Joyner-Kersee
Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they’ve got a second.
– William James
Gold medals aren’t really made of gold. They’re made of sweat, determination, and a hard-to-find alloy called guts.
– Dan Gable
The only way to prove that you’re a good sport is to lose.
– Ernie Banks
The rewards are going to come, but my happiness is just loving the sport and having fun performing.
– Jackie Joyner Kersee
Motivational Quotes For Athletes
Finding good players is easy. Getting them to play as a team is another story.
– Casey Stengel
We old athletes carry the disfigurements and markings of contests remembered only by us and no one else. Nothing is more lost than a forgotten game.
– Pat Conroy
An athlete cannot run with money in his pockets. He must run with hope in his heart and dreams in his head.
– Emil Zatopek
Competitive sports are played mainly on a five-and-a-half inch court, the space between your ears.
– Bobby Jones
Related: Space Quotes
You’re never a loser until you quit trying.
– Mike Ditka
Stay focused. Your start does not determine how you’re going to finish.
– Herm Edwards
Related: Finding Yourself Quotes
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
Every champion was once a contender that refused to give up.
– Rocky Balboa
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
The key is not the will to win. Everybody has that. It is the will to prepare to win that is important.
– Bobby Knight
Talent is God given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful.
– John Wooden
No matter how much you’ve won, no matter how many games, no matter how many championships, no matter how many Super Bowls, you’re not winning now, so you stink.
– Bill Parcells
To me the beauty of teamwork is the beauty of our sport, where you have five acting as one. You become selfless.
– Coach Mike Krzyzewski
I’ve never lost a game. I just ran out of time.
– Michael Jordan
A champion is afraid of losing. Everyone else is afraid of winning.
– Billie Jean King
Life is about choices. You ask the questions and you listen to the answers. Then you listen to your heart.
– Peyton Manning
Quotes From Sports
I would never do anything outside of the rules of play.
– Tom Brady
It’s not about perfect. It’s about effort.
– Jillian Michaels
The best motivation always comes from within.
– Michael Johnson
Most talented players don’t always succeed. Some don’t even make the team. It’s more what’s inside.
– Brett Favre
Everybody’s got plans… until they get hit.
– Mike Tyson
The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a man’s determination.
– Tommy Lasorda
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
I’ve learned that something constructive comes from every defeat.
– Tom Landry
I don’t plan on being disappointed. We plan on being really good, and obviously, we plan on winning.
– Gregg Troy
Everybody is going to be excited to play in a Super Bowl. When you still enjoy the preparation and the work part of it, I think you ought to be still doing that. I think as soon as I stop enjoying it, if I can’t produce, if I can’t help a team, that’s when I will stop playing.
– Peyton Manning
Don’t measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your ability.
– John Wooden
If you don’t have confidence, you’ll always find a way not to win.
– Carl Lewis
You’ve got to be very careful if you don’t know where you are going, because you might not get there.
– Yogi Berra
If you don’t fall, how are you going to know what getting up feels like?
– Stephen Curry
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
Excellence is the gradual result of always striving to do better.
– Pat Riley
Famous Sports Quotes
Winning is the most important thing in my life, after breathing. Breathing first, winning next.
– George Steinbrenner
Every kid around the world who plays soccer wants to be Pele. I have a great responsibility to show them not just how to be like a soccer player, but how to be like a man.
– Pele
I’ve been a Colt for almost all of my adult life, but I guess in life, and in sports, we all know nothing lasts forever. Times change, circumstances change, and that’s the reality of playing in the NFL.
– Peyton Manning
Winning means you’re willing to go longer, work harder, and give more than anyone else.
– Vince Lombardo
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
At one point in your life you either have the thing you want or the reasons why you don’t.
– Andy Roddick
You were born to be a player. You were meant to be here. This moment is yours.
– Herb Brooks
Just keep going. Everybody gets better if they keep at it.
– Ted Williams
It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog.
– Archie Griffin
If you come in second, you’re just the first loser!
– Tiger Woods
Remember, once you set a goal, it’s all about how hard you’re willing to work, how much you’re willing to sacrifice and how badly you truly want it.
– J.J. Watt
So many people along the way, whatever it is you aspire to do, will tell you it can’t be done. But all it takes is imagination. You dream. You plan. You reach.
– Michael Phelps
The most rewarding things you do in life are often the ones that look like they cannot be done.
– Arnold Palmer
I wouldn’t let the boys down, no way. If my arm came off I’d still play.
– Jack Bird
It’s not whether you get knocked down; it’s whether you get up.
– Vince Lombardi
I tell the kids, somebody’s gotta win, somebody’s gotta lose. Just don’t fight about it. Just try to get better.
– Yogi Berra
Best Quotes For Sports
Show me a gracious loser and I’ll show you a failure.
– Knute Rockne
I am no genius; I just worked hard like my other teammates, and I believe all my teammates can win the title as they work hard, too.
– Lin Dan
Always make a total effort, even when the odds are against you.
– Arnold Palmer
Ability may get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there.
– John Wooden
It’s just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up.
– Muhammad Ali
Nothing is black-and-white, except for winning and losing, and maybe that’s why people gravitate to that so much.
– Steve Nash
The road to Easy Street goes through the sewer.
– John Madden
You can’t put a limit on anything. The more you dream, the farther you get.
– Michael Phelps
Make sure your worst enemy doesn’t live between your own two ears.
– Laird Hamilton
Winning isn’t everything, but it beats anything that comes in second.
– Paul Bryant
A champion needs a motivation above and beyond winning.
– Pat Riley
I mean, it’s not important what kind of pants you were; it’s how you wear them.
– Ronnie Lott
How you respond to the challenge in the second half will determine what you become after the game, whether you are a winner or a loser.
– Lou Holtz
Winning is a habit leadership is calmly maintaining that habit against all odds.
– Amit Ray
Life is gonna throw you curve balls and it’s how you deal with them and your attitude and your work ethic.
– Kerri Strug
I think sports gave me the first place where this awkward girl could feel comfortable in my own skin. I think that’s true for a lot of women sports gives you a part of your life where you can work at something and you look in the mirror and you like that person.
– Teri McKeever
Quotes To Motivate Athletes
The harder the battle, the sweeter the victory.
– Les Brown
When you’re riding, only the race in which you’re riding is important.
– Bill Shoemaker
Champions keep playing until they get it right.
– Billie Jean King
Just be patient. Let the game come to you. Don’t rush. Be quick, but don’t hurry.
– Earl Monroe
I’ve got a theory that if you give 100% all of the time, somehow things will work out in the end.
– Larry Bird
A champion is someone who does not settle for that day’s practice, that day’s competition, that day’s performance. They are always striving to be better. They don’t live in the past.
– Briana Scurry
You’ve got to remember what your priorities are. When you’re playing, what you do on the field is the most important thing.
– Peyton Manning
I always felt that my greatest asset was not my physical ability, it was my mental ability.
– Bruce Jenner
For every pass I caught in a game, I caught a thousand in practice.
– Dom Hutson
It is not the size of a man but the size of his heart that matters.
– Evander Holyfield
I became a good pitcher when I stopped trying to make them miss the ball and started trying to make them hit it.
– Sandy Koufax
Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.
– Tim Notke
If you train hard, you’ll not only be hard, you’ll be hard to beat.
– Herschel Walker
Most Quoted is the home of sayings, words of wisdom and quotes from the most quoted philosophers, writers, artists and thinkers. In addition to this collection of Sports Quotes, you will find hundreds of other quotes lists and collections on this site.