The 115 Most Inspirational Sports Quotes of All Time

Every generation has its favorite athletes. Usually, these are pretty good professionals that are adored by the masses. And while there are hundreds if not thousands of skilled athletes, the number of those who truly excel in their given profession is astonishingly low. But every once in a while, there comes a young individual along who grows into the talent of the century. These are the remarkable athletes that stand apart from the rest. These are the true champions that define an entire century within their area. It’s not unusual that they manage to break a vast number of records and by doing so become immortal legends. Let’s have a look at some of the most inspirational sports quotes from the champions that made history. (Be sure not to miss our collections on baseball quotes, soccer quotes, and basketball quotes).

Sporting arenas are the places where modern heroes are born. Their accomplishments in these arenas are broadcast to millions of people all around the world. It is, therefore, no surprise that the heroic deeds of the sports stars have inspired and motivated entire generations.

“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

The true questions, however, are: What has motivated these exceptional champions throughout their active carriers? What has inspired them to peak performance routinely?

Enjoy these brilliantly motivational sports quotes.

One may also wonder where these athletes took the mental and physical strength to overcome severe injuries or setbacks.

115 Inspirational Sports Quotes

Learning from the best sportsmen in their field can help you tremendously. The benefits of reading to thoughts and ideas of true sports champions are manifold. For one, it will help you to quickly develop a better feeling of their habits and attitudes. The same time, reading a carefully selected collection of inspirational sports quotes helps you to quickly get motivated. No matter if you need a quick motivational boost or the necessary strength to overcome obstacles – the following quotes will help you to quickly turn things around.

Let’s have a look at these motivational sports quotes

1.

“Winners never quit and quitters never win.”
Vince Lombardi

2.

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

3.

“Persistence can change failure into extraordinary achievement.”
Matt Biondi

4.

“It’s not whether you get knocked down; it’s whether you get up.”
Vince Lombardi

5.

“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”
Wayne Gretzky

6.

“Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths.”
Arnold Schwarzenegger

7.

“If you come in second, you’re just the first loser!”
Tiger Woods

8.

“A champion is someone who gets up when he can’t.”
Jack Dempsey

9.

“Nobody who ever gave his best regretted it.”
George Halas

10.

“The harder the battle, the sweeter the victory.”
Les Brown

11.

“I’m playing; I’m here. I’m going to fight until they tell me they don’t want me anymore.”
Steve Nash

12.

“You’re never a loser until you quit trying.”
Mike Ditka

13.

“Winning is a habit. Unfortunately so is losing.”
Vince Lombardi

14.

“If you aren’t going all the way, why go at all?”
Joe Namath

15.

“Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.”
Tim Notke

16.

“If you can believe it, the mind can achieve it.”
Ronnie Lott

17.

“I’ve never lost a game I just ran out of time.”
Michael Jordan

18.

“If you don´t fall, how are you going to know what getting up feels like?”
Stephen Curry

19.

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

20.

“Somebody may beat me, but they are going to have to bleed to do it.”
Steve Prefontaine

21.

“Adversity causes some men to break; others to break records. ”
William Arthur Ward

22.

“Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.”
Babe Ruth

23.

“To give any less than your best is to sacrifice a gift.”
Steve Prefontaine

24.

“Running isn’t a sport for pretty boys… It’s about the sweat in your hair and the blisters on your feet. It’s about getting out the door and running when the rest of the world is only dreaming about having the passion that you need to live each and every day with. It’s about being on a lonely road and running like a champion even when there’s not a single soul in sight to cheer you on. Running is all about having the desire to train and persevere until every fiber in your legs, mind, and heart is turned to steel. And when you’ve finally forged hard enough, you will have become the best runner you can be.”
Paul Maurer

25.

“The finest of athletes have, along with skill, a few more essential qualities: to conduct their life with dignity, with integrity, with courage and modesty. All these, are totally compatible with pride, ambition, determination, and competitiveness”
Donald Bradman

26.

“I’ve learned that something constructive comes from every defeat.”
Tom Landry

27.

“Winning isn’t everything but wanting to win is.”
Vince Lombardi

28.

“Without self-discipline, success is impossible, period.”
Lou Holtz

29.

“In some sports, you can just get by on a lot of natural talent. In swimming, it helps to be long and lean, but you can’t be good at it without putting in the work. There is a direct connection between what you put into it and what you get out of it.”
Michael Phelps

30.

“It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it’s the pebble in your shoe.”
Muhammad Ali

31.

“It ain’t over ’til it’s over.”
Yogi Berra

32.

“A lot of football success is in the mind. you must believe you are the best and then make sure that you are.”
Bill Shankly

33.

“Sports do not build character. They reveal it.”
Heywood Broun

34.

“There is about world-class athletes carving out exemptions from physical laws a transcendent beauty that makes manifest God in man.”
David Foster Wallace

35.

“Champions keep playing until they get it right.”
Billie Jean King

36.

“Make each day your masterpiece.”
John Wooden

37.

“Run when you can, walk if you have to, crawl if you must; just never give up.”
Dean Karnazes

38.

“Approach the game with no preset agendas and you’ll probably come away surprised at your overall efforts. „
Phil Jackson

39.

“If you are afraid of failure you don’t deserve to be successful!”
Charles Barkley

40.

“You can’t put a limit on anything. The more you dream, the farther you get.”
Michael Phelps

41.

“Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they’ve got a second.”
William James

42.

“Greatness, whether athletic or otherwise, doesn’t come from those content on just being but from those who seek to be the difference.”
Kirk Mango

43.

“Do not let what you can not do interfere with what you can do.”
John Wooden

44.

“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

45.

“If you can’t outplay them, outwork them.”
Ben Hogan

46.

“The more difficult the victory, the greater the happiness in winning.”
Pele

47.

“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

48.

“The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.”
Phil Jackson

49.

“Winning is not a sometime thing, it is an all the time thing. You don’t do things right once in a while. You do them right all the time. „
Vince Lombardi

50.

“God made me fast. And when I run, I feel His pleasure. „
Eric Liddell

51.

“Football is like life – it requires perserverance, self-denial, hard work, sacrifice, dedication and respect for authority.”
Vince Lombardi

52.

“People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can’t find them, make them.”
Kirk Mango

53.

“Always make a total effort, even when the odds are against you.”
Arnold Palmer

54.

“A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be.”
Wayne Gretzky

55.

“In the dust of defeat as well as the laurels of victory there is a glory to be found if one has done his best.”
Eric Liddell

56.

“Never underestimate the heart of a champion!”
Doc Rivers

57.

“There’s something about putting on a pair of skates, and getting out there and moving like nobody else can. Freedom is a word that comes to mind.”
Randy Gardner

58.

“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

59.

“Life isn’t about how comfortable I can be it is about learning how to get comfortable with being uncomfortable”
Heather Gillis

60.

“Do you know what my favorite part of the game is? The opportunity to play.”
Mike Singletary

61.

“Never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game”
Babe Ruth

62.

“It’s not the will to win that matters — everyone has that. It’s the will to prepare to win that matters.”
Paul Bryant

63.

“The strong one doesn’t win, the one that wins is strong.”
Franz beckenbauer

64.

“Everyone has the fire, but the champions know when to ignite the spark.”
Amit Ray

65.

“When you’ve got something to prove, there’s nothing greater than a challenge.”
Terry Bradshaw

66.

“You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.”
Michael Jordan

67.

“Never say never because limits, like fears, are often just an illusion.”
Michael Jordan

68.

“You have to give 100 percent in the first half of the game. If that isn’t enough, in the second half, you have to give what’s left.”
Yogi Berra

69.

“In baseball and in business, there are three types of people. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen, and those who wonder what happened.”
Tommy Lasorda

70.

“I haven’t celebrated coming in No. 2 too many times.”
Mark Messier

71.

“One man practicing sportsmanship is far better than a hundred teaching it.”
Knute Rockne

72.

“Who you are tomorrow begins with what you do today.”
Tim Fargo

73.

“I never worry about the problem. I worry about the solution.”
Shaquille O’Neal

74.

“You don’t just want to beat a team. You want to leave a lasting impression in their minds so they never want to see your face again.”
Mia Hamm

75.

“What we glean from watching or actively participating in sporting contests is the sense of commitment needed to succeed and the diverse paths that lead to failure.”
Kilroy J. Oldster

76.

“We can choose to accept the fact that a challenge may be quite impossible, or we can choose to challenge the impossible.”
Andre Bramble

77.

“He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.”
Muhammad Ali

78.

“A trophy carries dust. Memories last forever.”
Mary Lou Retton

79.

“Success is where preparation and opportunity meet.”
Bobby Unser

80.

“Most people who do a lot of exercise, particularly in the form of competitive athletics, have unneurotic, extraverted, optimistic personalities to begin with.”
Robert M. Sapolsky

81.

“The idea here is simple, if you can dream it, it is possible.”
Ernest Riveras Tobia

82.

“Baseball is the only field of endeavor where a man can succeed three times out of ten and be considered a good performer. „
Ted Williams

83.

“They say that nobody is perfect. Then they tell you practice makes perfect. I wish they’d make up their minds.”
Wilt Chamberlain

84.

“If a team wants to intimidate you physically and you let them, they’ve won.”
Mia Hamm

85.

“It is in experiencing and accepting the pain of defeat, that we may truly acknowledge the joy of victory.”
Andre Bramble

86.

“The miracle isn’t that I finished. The miracle is that I had the courage to start.”
John Bingham

87.

“If a tie is like kissing your sister, losing is like kissing your grandmother with her teeth out.”
George Brett

88.

“Sports are only sports until someone who doesn’t give a damn about sports has something to gain from them, then sports suddenly become economics.”
Fredrik Backman

89.

“I love the suffering that goes into the sport, to become the best.”
Tj Eisenhart

90.

“Every name looks fashionable when it’s etched in silver. (Stanley Cup)”
Bruce Boudreau

91.

“I’ll play baseball for the Army or fight for it, whatever they want me to do.”
Mickey Mantle

92.

“Sports benefit the spectators the least.”
Mokokoma Mokhonoana

93.

“Fans don’t boo nobodies. „
Reggie Jackson

94.

“The greatest skill the best athletes in the world possess is their ability to listen.”
Emma Chase

95.

“Baseball is drama with an endless run and an ever-changing cast.”
Joe Garagiola

96.

“Sqauash is the only gane where you call your ‘opponent’ a ‘partner’, and both of you play on the same side!”
Sandeep Sahajpal

97.

“Sports creates complicated men, proud enough to refuse to admit their mistakes, but humble enough always to put their team first.”
Fredrik Backman

98.

“In sports, it is not the strongest, who wins, but the most practical and skillful”
Sunday Adelaja

99.

“Baseball is almost the only orderly thing in a very unorderly world. If you get three strikes, even the best lawyer in the world can’t get you off. „
Bill Veeck

100.

“I never smile when I have a bat in my hands. That’s when you’ve got to be serious. When I get out on the field, nothing’s a joke to me. I don’t feel like I should walk around with a smile on my face.”
Hank Aaron

101.

“Baseball is a public trust. Players turn over, owners turn over and certain commissioners turn over. But baseball goes on. „
Peter Ueberroth

102.

“He’s probably the only player who doesn’t play for 10 months and, if he scores a hat trick in his first game back, no one would be surprised.”
Ryan Whitney

103.

“Tennis taught me to take chances, to take life as it comes. To hit every ball that comes to me no matter how hard it looks, to give it my best shot.”
Thisuri Wanniarachchi

104.

“In sport the mind serves as the acolyte and apprentice of the body. Nothing interferes with the flow of the game more than the athlete who obsesses about his every move on the court. You move, you react, you recover, you drive, and the thinking is seamless and invisible in the secret codes of your game.”
Pat Conroy

105.

“Scores give better decision than judges.”
Amit Kalantri

106.

“Somewhere behind the athlete you’ve become and the hours of practice and the coaches who have pushed you is a little girl who fell in love with the game and never looked back… play for her.”
Mia Hamm

107.

“Sports teach us the value of facing yourself and others honestly. You can only grow if you let go of denial and embrace what is real and true.”
Corey Irwin

108.

“Many think that the mark of a great champion is the nature and margin of their victories and the peaks they scale and reach. That’s only part of it. The mark of the greatest of champions is how they react and respond to defeat. That is when they become enshrined in our hearts and minds
as they rise again and into the immortal pages of history.”
Rasheed Ogunlaru

109.

“To the athlete, all things are forgiven”
Alec Waugh

110.

“Tomorrow I will run more courageously,
more outrageously.”
Talismanist Giebra

111.

“I love Boxing; Rocky was created as a tribute to all boxing legends and for all athletes who are trying to get on track once again after getting knocked down in life and for me too …I love it more than any one will ever do ….love and respect”
Sami Abouzid

112.

“Defeated misery is what all sport is about, eventually, if you follow the story for long enough; all sportsmen know this.”
Nick Hornby

113.

“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