The Top 75 Motivational Sports Quotes You've Never Heard

motivational quotes Jan 09, 2024

Motivational Sports Quotes From The Top Athletes & Coaches In History:

Enjoy this collection of some of the best inspirational sports quotes that you may have never seen before.

Hear from some of the greatest athletes and coaches of all time on topics such as seeking greatness, work ethic, success, confidence, attitude, commitment, mental toughness and more.

Whether you're a dedicated athlete, a coach, or simply someone looking for a little extra inspiration, these sports quotes will inspire and motivate you to work hard, strive for excellence, and become the best version of yourself, both on and off the playing field.

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Best Sports Quotes To Inspire Greatness

1. "Greatness is repeatedly getting up and doing something because you know that that's going to get you where you want to go, even when you don't feel like it." - Candace Parker

2. "I expect to be great. I expect to do what hasn't been done. I expect to provoke change." - Deion Sanders

3. "Do you want to be safe and good, or do you want to take a chance and be great?" - Jimmy Johnson

4. "Everyone is born with a certain potential. You may never achieve your full potential, but how close you come depends on how much you want to pay the price." - Red Auerbach

5. "You are only limited to what you push yourself to, you know? You can always get better." - Lindsey Vonn

6. "If you do the bare minimum, expect bare minimum results. You want to be great, work to be great. Nothing just happens." - J.J. Watt

7. "Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence." - Vince Lombardi

8. "I feel like when there's more on the line and there's more risks, that means there's more reward." - Alex Morgan

More quotes: The 24 Best Kobe Bryant Mamba Mentality Quotes >>

Motivational Quotes About Success

9. "Champions do not become champions when they win an event, but in the hours, weeks, and months, and years they spend preparing for it. The victorious performance itself is merely a demonstration of their championship character." - Michael Jordan

10. "Failure is a part of success. There is no such thing as a bed of roses all your life. But failure will never stand in the way of success if you learn from it." - Hank Aaron

11. "Wins and losses come a dime a dozen. But effort? Nobody can judge that. Because effort is between you and you." - Ray Lewis

12. "Desire is the key to motivation, but it's determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal - a commitment to excellence - that will enable you to attain the success you seek." Mario Andretti

13. "I think goals should never be easy, they should force you to work, even if they are uncomfortable at the time." - Michael Phelps

14. "The road to success is always under construction." - Arnold Palmer

15. "Champions are champions not because they do anything extraordinary but because they do the ordinary things better than anyone else." - Chuck Noll

Guided Meditation: Pregame Meditation for Basketball (or any sport really) >>

Inspiring Sports Quotes About Work Ethic and Preparation

16. "Discipline is recognizing what has to be done, doing it as well as you can do it, and doing it that way all the time." - Coach Bobby Knight

17. "Like I said, repetition in practice and hard work." - Jerry Rice

18. "It is better to look ahead and prepare than to look back and regret." - Jackie Joyner-Kersee

19. "The highest compliment that you can pay me is to say that I work hard every day, that I never dog it." - Wayne Gretzky

20. "Other players may outplay me from time to time, but they'll never outwork me." - Tiger Woods

21. "I even love getting older, and knowing maybe I can't do one thing as well, but then trying to figure out how to do something else. That inner drive, I have it every day." - Diana Taurasi

22. "What happened yesterday is history. What happens tomorrow is a mystery. What we do today makes a difference." - Nick Saban

23. "I always thought, 'That's just the way you do it.' You work as hard as you can for as long as you can, and the small gains you make will eventually pay off." - Walter Payton

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Sports Quotes About Life, Adversity, & Overcoming Failure

24. "I never worry about the problem. I worry about the solution." - Shaquille O'Neal

25. "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

26. "Tonight is not a setback. It’s just a learning experience." - Aaron Rodgers

27. "Mistakes happen. But after a while you’ve got to stop making them happen twice." - Allen Iverson

28. "I've learned life is a lot like surfing. When you get caught in the impact zone, you need to get right back up because you never know what's over the next wave... and if you have faith, anything is possible, anything at all." - Bethany Hamilton

29. "I've been motivated by overcoming challenge and overcoming the hurdles and obstacles that face me. There still is plenty out there to get motivated by." - Andre Agassi

30. "When you're in a situation, you can complain about it, you can feel sorry for yourself, you can do a lot of things. But how are you gonna make the situation better?" - Tony Dungy

31. "I've learned that something constructive comes from every defeat." - Tom Landry

32. "Failure is not something to be ashamed of—nor is it proof of unworthiness. Failure is something to be powered by. When we live afraid to fail, we don’t take risks. We don’t bring our entire selves to the table—so we end up failing before we even begin. Let’s stop worrying: What if I fail? Instead, let’s promise ourselves: When I fail, I’ll stick around." - Abby Wambach

More quotes: Top 50 Michael Jordan Quotes About Basketball and Life >>

Quotes From Famous Athletes About Character and Attitude

33. "What I tell people is be the best version of yourself in anything that you do. You don’t have to live anybody else’s story." - Steph Curry

34. "Just try to be the best you can be; never cease trying to be the best you can be. That’s in your power." - Coach John Wooden

35. "If I don't get it right, I don't stop until I do." - Serena Williams

36. "To me, the most important part of winning is joy. You can win without joy, but winning that’s joyless is like eating in a four-star restaurant when you’re not hungry. Joy is a current of energy in your body, like chlorophyll or sunlight, that fills you up and makes you naturally want to do your best." - Bill Russell

37. "I've become really strict in a lot of ways, but I'm also very lenient. I'm kind to myself." - Sue Bird

38. "It’s all about the attitude, gut, heart and determination to go out and give 120% every time to try and help the team win." - Bo Jackson

39. "The day you think there is no improvements to be made is a sad one for any player." - Lionel Messi

40. "If you worried about falling off the bike, you'd never get on." - Lance Armstrong

41. "Don’t focus on what you can’t do. Focus on what you can." - Ronda Rousey

Motivational Quotes For Athletes About Confidence

42. "I love it when people doubt me. It makes me work harder to prove them wrong." - Derek Jeter

43. "I know where I'm going and I know the truth, and I don't have to be what you want me to be. I'm free to be what I want." - Muhammad Ali

44. "When you have confidence, you can have a lot of fun. And when you have fun, you can do amazing things." - Joe Namath

45. "I don't need to prove to someone that I'm as good as I am." - Alexander Ovechkin

46. "I'm not a person who defends myself very often. I kind of let my actions speak for me." - Tom Brady

47. "I don't mind people hating me, because it pushes me." - Cristiano Ronaldo

48. "My success isn't a result of arrogance - it's a result of belief." - Conor McGregor

49. "Sometimes the biggest problem is in your head. You've got to believe you can play a shot instead of wondering where your next bad shot is coming from." - Jack Nicklaus

You might like: How To Boost Your Confidence In Basketball | 10 Tips >>

Sports Quotes On Following Your Dreams

50. "If there is something that's your passion when you're young, do it. Let everything else take care of itself." - Bill Belichick

51. "Nothing can happen if it's not first a dream. If you have someone with a dream, if you have a motivated person with a goal and a vision, if you have someone that never gives up, who has great hope, Anything can happen." - Coach Jimmy Valvano

52. "Each moment of my life I was dreaming of how great I could be, and continued working hard. Each time I closed my eyes I could see me shining bright like a sun." - Kobe Bryant

53. "I motivate others by making sure that they understand to go after their dreams and don't let anyone tell you you can't. If you are motivated enough and put the work in that you can achieve anything in life that you set your mind to." - Magic Johnson

54. "Let me start with issuing you a challenge: Be better than you are. Set a goal that seems unattainable, and when you reach that goal, set another one even higher." - Herb Brooks

Read also: What Is The Mamba Mentality? >>

Commitment and Discipline Quotes For Athletes

55. "Quit? Quit? We keep score in life because it matters. It counts. It matters. Too many people opt out and never discover their own abilities because they fear failure. They don't understand commitment." - Coach Pat Summitt

56. "Never quit. It is the easiest cop-out in the world. Set a goal and don't quit until you attain it. When you do attain it, set another goal, and don't quit until you reach it. Never quit." - Paul "Bear" Bryant

57. "You’re always getting feedback from whatever experience you have in life, whether it’s good or sad or difficult, you keep learning. You’ve got to keep learning." - Billie Jean King

58. "Commitment is a big part of what I am and what I believe. How committed are you to winning? How committed are you to being a good friend? To being trustworthy? To being successful? How committed are you to being a good father, a good teammate, a good role model? There’s that moment every morning when you look in the mirror: Are you committed, or are you not?" - LeBron James

You might like: Top Coach Bob Knight Quotes On Coaching, Discipline, and Preparation >>

Teamwork Quotes

59. "You develop a team to achieve what one person cannot accomplish alone. All of us alone are weaker, by far, than if all of us are together." - Coach Mike Krzyzewski

60. "I think that the good and the great are only separated by the willingness to sacrifice." - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

61. "It's not so much what one person does. It's what we do as a team.' - Ken Griffey, Jr.

62. "I promise to play for the logo on the front, not the name on the back." - Sidney Crosby

63. "The secret to teamwork is an outward mindset." - Steve Young

64. "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

More teamwork quotes: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Quotes On Teamwork, Success, Life, and Basketball >>

Other Inspirational Sports Quotes

65. "With the absence of pressure, it’s hard to do great things." - Geno Auriemma

66. "I learned a long time ago that there is something worse than missing the goal, and that's not pulling the trigger." - Mia Hamm

67. "Pressure is something you feel when you don't know what the hell you're doing." - Peyton Manning

68. "Well, the first quality of being a good leader is you have to be able to follow. See, a good leader can't just be the leader all the time, I have to be able to follow." - Lisa Leslie

69. "I don't focus on what I'm up against. I focus on my goals and I try to ignore the rest." - Venus Williams

70. "I learned what my weaknesses were and I went out the next day to turn those weaknesses intro strengths." - Larry Bird

71. "I surround myself with a group of people that I feel have the same sense of values and come from the same culture." - Tony Hawk

72. "In this journey, the fear creeps in from time to time. The hint of that is there because there's an unknown factor to everything. That's true in everyone's life. I don't choose to live there; I let it spark me." - Kerri Walsh-Jennings

73. "I always say my biggest competitor is myself because, whenever I step out there on the mat, I'm competing against myself to prove that I can do this and that I am very well trained, prepared for it." - Simone Biles

74. "Everything is habit-forming, so make sure what you do is what you want to be doing." - Wilt Chamberlain

75. "I never cared about acceptance as much as I cared about respect." - Jackie Robinson

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