Quotes to Practice, Play and Live By
Attitude
They can because they think they can.
- Virgil
They will rise highest who strive for the highest place.
- Latin Proverb
You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.
- Michael Jordan
If you can believe it, the mind can achieve it.
- Ronnie Lott
As strong as my legs are, it is my mind that has made me a champion.
- Michael Johnson
It's what you learn after you know it all that counts.
- John Wooden
Every time we open our mouths, men look into our minds.
- Anonymous
My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure.
- Abraham Lincoln
If you really want to do something, you'll find a way. If you don't, you'll find an excuse.
- Jim Rohn
He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.
- Benjamin Franklin
There's no substitute for guts.
- Paul Bear Bryant
Don't ask for a light load, but rather ask for a strong back.
- Anonymous
What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight - it's the size of the fight in the dog.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
We may have all come from different ships, but we’re on the same boat now.
- Martin Luther King, Jr
Character
You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one.
- Henry David Thoreau
Sow an act, and you reap a habit; sow a habit, and you reap a character; sow a character, and you reap a destiny.
- George Dana Boardman
Well done is better than well said.
- Benjamin Franklin
Hell is the knowledge of opportunity lost; the place where the man I am comes face to face with the man I might have been.
- Anonymous
Champions do not become champions when they win the event, but in the hours, weeks, months and years they spend preparing for it. The victorious performance itself is merely the demonstration of their championship character.
- T. Alan Armstrong
Perseverance
Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising every time we fall.
- Confucius
Victory belongs to the most persevering.
- Napoleon Bonaparte
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.
- Aristotle
A champion is someone who gets up when he can’t.
- Jack Dempsey
The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a man’s determination.
- Tommy Lasorda
You are never a loser until you quit trying.
- Mike Ditka
Press on: nothing in the world can take the place of perseverance. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.
- Calvin Coolidge
Preparation
The will to win is important, but the will to prepare is vital.
- Joe Paterno
Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.
- Darrell Royal
The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.
-Vidal Sassoon
Opportunities are usually disguised as hard work, so most people don't recognize them.
- Ann Landers
Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.
- Jim Rohn
The talent of success is nothing more than doing what you can do, well.
- Henry W. Longfellow
Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.
- John Wooden
Winning
Winning isn't everything, but wanting to win is.
- Vince Lombardi
Before you can win a game, you have to not lose it.
- Chuck Noll
Most ball games are lost, not won.
- Casey Stengel
The minute you start talking about what you're going to do if you lose, you have lost.
- George Shultz