Sports are a lot like life, the only way to the top is through hard work and perseverance. Dogging it will get you no where. The top sports quotes are not only relevant to athletes but people in all walks of life looking to succeed. Here are the top 125 sports quotes of all time. Enjoy!
125. “Hard work and togetherness. They go hand in hand. You need the hard work because it’s such a tough atmosphere….to win week in and week out. You need togetherness because you don’t always win, and you gotta hang tough together.” – Tony Dungy
124. “With confidence, you have won even before you have started.” – Marcus Garvey
123. “Many people say I’m the best women’s soccer player in the world. I don’t think so. And because of that, someday I just might be.” – Mia Hamm
122. “I’ve never known anybody to achieve anything without overcoming adversity.” Lou Holtz
121. “If you don’t have confidence, you’ll always find a way not to win.” – Carl Lewis
120. “Nobody roots for Goliath” – Wilt Chamberlain
118. “I want to rip out his heart and feed it to him. I want to kill people. I want to rip their stomachs out and eat their children.” – Mike Tyson
117. “You have to remember something: Everybody pities the weak; jealousy you have to earn.” – Arnold Schwarzenegger
116. “The more you sweat in practice, the less you bleed in battle.” – Author Unknown
115. “I think it’s the mark of a great player to be confident in tough situations.” – John McEnroe
114. “Procrastination is one of the most common and deadliest of diseases and its toll on success and happiness is heavy.” – Wayne Gretzky
113. “If you play your heart out for what your jersey says on the front, everyone will remember what the jersey says on the back.” – Miracle
112. “If it doesn’t challenge you, it won’t change you.” – Fred Devito
111. “You can’t get much done in life if you only work on the days when you feel good.” – Jerry West
110. “If you only ever give 90% in training then you will only ever give 90% when it matters.” – Michael Owen
109. “What do you do with a mistake: recognize it, admit it, learn from it, forget it.” – Dean Smith
108. “Today I will do what others won’t, so tomorrow I can accomplish what others can’t.” – Jerry Rice
107. “If you are afraid of failure you don’t deserve to be successful!” – Charles Barkley
106. “Always turn a negative situation into a positive situation.” – Michael Jordan
105.
104. “The man who complains about the way the ball bounces is likely the one who dropped it.” – Lou Holtz
103. “Mental will is a muscle that needs exercise, just like muscles of the body.”- Lynn Jennings
102. “You owe it to yourself to be the best you can possibly be – in baseball and in life.” – Pete Rose
101. “Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterward.” – Vernon Law
100. “Difficulties in life are intended to make us better, not bitter.” – Dan Reeves
99. “The best motivation always comes from within.” – Michael Johnson
98. “I learned that if you want to make it bad enough, no matter how bad it is, you can make it.” – Gale Sayers
97. “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
96. “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
95. “To succeed…You need to find something to hold on to, something to motivate you, something to inspire you.” – Tony Dorsett
94. “Win or lose you will never regret working hard, making sacrifices, being disciplined or focusing too much. Success is measured by what we have done to prepare for competition.” – John Smith
93. “The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don’t play together, the club won’t be worth a dime.” – Babe Ruth
92. “Whoever said, ‘It’s not whether you win or lose that counts,’ probably lost.” – Martina Navratilova
91. “Treat a person as he is, and he will remain as he is. Treat him as he could be, and he will become what he should be.” – Jimmy Johnson
90. “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
89. “Sports creates a bond between contemporaries that lasts a lifetime. It also gives your life structure, discipline and a genuine, sincere, pure fulfillment that few other areas of endeavor provide.” –Bob Cousy
88. “Keep your dreams alive. Understand to achieve anything requires faith and belief in yourself, vision, hard work, determination, and dedication. Remember all things are possible for those who believe.” – Gail Devers
87.
86. “The more I practice, the luckier I get.” – Gary Player
85. “They are who we thought they were!” – Dennis Green
84. “To be the man, you have to beat the man.” – Ric Flair
83. “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
82. “One man practicing sportsmanship is far better than 50 preaching it.”– Knute Rockne
81. “You must expect great things of yourself before you can do them.” ― Michael Jordan
80. “They say that nobody is perfect. Then they tell you practice makes perfect. I wish they’d make up their minds.” – Wilt Chamberlain
79. “Football doesn’t build character, it reveals character.” – Marv Levy
78. “Football is like life – it requires perserverance, self-denial, hard work, sacrifice, dedication and respect for authority.” – Vince Lombardi
77. “It’s not bragging if you can back it up.” -Muhammad Ali
76. “Win or lose you will never regret working hard, making sacrifices, being disciplined or focusing too much”. – John Smith
75. “The best activities for your health are pumping and humping.” – Arnold Schwarzenegger
74. “You are never really playing an opponent. You are playing yourself, your own highest standards, and when you reach your limits, that is real joy.”– Arthur Ashe
73.
72. “Don’t be afraid of failure. This is the way to succeed.” ― LeBron James
71. “One man can be a crucial ingredient on a team, but one man cannot make a team.” – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
70. “Everything negative – pressure, challenges – is all an opportunity for me to rise.”- Kobe Bryant
69. “Winning is not everything – but making the effort to win is.” – Vince Lombardi
68. “The more difficult the victory, the greater the happiness in winning.”– Pele
67. “Just keep going. Everybody gets better if they keep at it.” – Ted Williams
66. “You play to win the game…Hello. You play to win the game.” – Herman Edwards
65. “You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.”– Michael Jordan
64. “You find that you have peace of mind and can enjoy yourself, get more sleep, and rest when you know that it was a one hundred percent effort that you gave–win or lose.” – Gordie Howe
63. “You are never really playing an opponent. You are playing yourself, your own highest standards, and when you reach your limits, that is real joy.” – Arthur Ashe
62.
61. “What makes something special is not just what you have to gain, but what you feel there is to lose.” – Andre Agassi
60. “If you can believe it, the mind can achieve it.”– Ronnie Lott
59. “Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.” – Babe Ruth
58. “You’re never a loser until you quit trying – Mike Ditka
57. “A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be.” – Wayne Gretzky
56. “A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at.” – Bruce Lee
55. “I never left the field saying I could have done more to get ready and that gives me piece of mind.”– Peyton Manning
54. “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.” – Vince Lombardi
53. “In the end, it’s extra effort that separates a winner from second place. But winning takes a lot more that, too. It starts with complete command of the fundamentals. Then it takes desire, determination, discipline, and self-sacrifice. And finally, it takes a great deal of love, fairness and respect for your fellow man. Put all these together, and even if you don’t win, how can you lose?” – Jesse Owens
52.
51. “If you aren’t going all the way, why go at all?” – Joe Nameth
50. “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
49. “Make sure your worst enemy doesn’t live between your own two ears. “- Laird Hamilton
48. “There may be people that have more talent than you, but theres no excuse for anyone to work harder than you do.”– DerekJeter
47. “Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up.” – Jim Valvano
46.
45. “You have to believe in yourself when no one else does- that makes you a winner right there.” –Venus Williams
44. “Going in one more round when you don’t think you can – that’s what makes all the difference in your life.” – Rocky Balboa
43. “Without self-discipline, success is impossible, period.”– Lou Holtz
42. “Your biggest opponent isn’t the other guy. It’s human nature.”– Bobby Knight
41. “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
40. “Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.” – Lou Holtz
39. “Do not let what you can not do interfere with what you can do.” – John Wooden
38. “It is not the size of a man but the size of his heart that matters.”– Evander Holyfield
37. “If you fail to prepare, you’re prepared to fail.” – Mark Spitz
36. “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
35. “Sometimes the biggest problem is in your head. You’ve got to believe.” – Jack Nicklaus
34. “Training gives us an outlet for suppressed energies created by stress and thus tones the spirit just as exercise conditions the body.” – Arnold Schwarzenegger
33. “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
32.
31. “If you’re bored with life — you don’t get up every morning with a burning desire to do things — you don’t have enough goals.” Lou Holtz
30. “I’ve got a theory that if you give 100% all of the time, somehow things will work out in the end.” –Larry Bird
29. “Age is no barrier. It’s a limitation you put on your mind.”– Jackie Joyner-Kersee
28. “A good coach will make his players see what they can be rather than what they are” – Ara Paraeghian
27. “It’s not the will to win that matters—everyone has that. It’s the will to prepare to win that matters.”– Paul “Bear” Bryant
26. “If you can’t outplay them, outwork them.”– Ben Hogan
25. “I’ve learned that something constructive comes from every defeat.”– Tom Landry
24. “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. That’s how winning is done!” Rocky Balboa
23. “A champion is someone who gets up when he can’t.” – Jack Dempsey
22. “Only a man who knows what it is like to be defeated can reach down to the bottom of his soul and come up with the extra ounce of power it takes to win when the match is even.” -Muhammad Ali
21. “It ain’t over till it’s over.”– Yogi Berra
20. “I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.” – Bruce Lee
19. “It’s not the load that breaks you down – it’s the way you carry it” – Lou Holtz
18. “Most talented players don’t always succeed. Some don’t even make the team. It’s more what’s inside.”– Brett Favre
17. ” When I’d get tired and want to stop, I’d wonder what my next opponent was doing. I’d wonder if he was still working out. I tried to visualize him. When I could see him still working, I’d start pushing myself. When I could see him in the shower, I’d push myself harder.” – Dan Gable
16. “You’re never a loser until you quit trying.”– Mike Ditka
15. “A trophy carries dust. Memories last forever.”– Mary Lou Retton
14. “The highest compliment that you can pay me is to say that I work hard every day, that I never dog it.”– Wayne Gretzky
13.
12. “Doctors and scientists said breaking the four-minute mile was impossible, that one would die in the attempt. Thus, when I got up from the track after collapsing at the finish line, I figured I was dead” – Roger Bannister
11. The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a person’s determination. – Tommy Lasorda
10. The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses – behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights. -Muhammad Ali
9. “If you train hard, you’ll not only be hard, you’ll be hard to beat.”– Herschel Walker
8. “Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.” – Arnold Schwarzenegger
7. ” 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
6. “It’s not whether you get knocked down; it’s whether you get up.”– Vince Lombardi
5. “You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.”– Wayne Gretzky
4.
3. “I’ve missed more than 9,000 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.” – Micheal Jordan
2. “Never give up! Failure and rejection are only the first step to succeeding.” – Jim Valvano
