Whenever you need a boost of motivation, read through these powerful motivational quotes from elite athletes and champions. Use them as daily affirmations, pre-game focus tools, or reminders to push through challenges. Let their words fuel your mindset and drive your performance to the next level. For further help building your own motivation start HERE.
“It is a shame for a man to grow old without seeing the strength and beauty of which his body is capable of.”
–Socrates
“Excellence is not a singular act but a habit. You are what you repeatedly do.”
Shaquille O’Neal
“There’s no substitute for hard work. If you work hard and prepare yourself, you might get beat but you’ll never lose.”
Nancy Lieberman
“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
“If you train hard, You’ll not only be hard, you’ll be hard to beat!”
Herschel Walker
“Persistence can change any failure into extraordinary achievement.”
Matt Biondi
“A champion is someone who get’s up when he can’t.”
Jack Dempsey
“Nothing will work unless you do.”
John Wooden
“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
“A man who has no imagination has no wings.”
Muhammad Ali
“The most rewarding things you do in life are often the ones that look like they can’t be done.”
Arnold Palmer
“The time when there is no one there to feel sorry for you or to cheer for you is when a player is made.”
Tim Duncan
“Competitive sports are played mainly on a five-and-a-half inch court — the space between your ears.”
Bobby Jones
“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”
Wayne Gretzky
“Passion first and everything will fall into place.”
Holly Holm
“If you fail to prepare – you prepare to fail.”
Mark Spitz
“Find the Good. It’s all around you. Find it, showcase it, and you’ll start believing it.”
Jesse Owens
“If you don’t have confidence, you’ll always find a way not to win.”
Carl Lewis
“Never let your head hang down. Never give up and sit down and grieve. Find another way.”
Satchel Paige
“Today I will do what others won’t, so tomorrow I can accomplish what others can’t.”
Jerry Rice
“The more difficult the victory, the greater the happiness in winning.”
Pele
“The more I practice the luckier I get.”
Gary Player
“The best motivation always comes from within.”
Michael Jordan
“You were born to be a player. You were meant to be here. This moment is yours.”
Herb Brooks
“A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.”
Jackie Robinson
“It’s just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people.”
Muhammad Ali
“I believe in the impossible because no one else does.”
Florence Griffith Joyner
“If you don’t fall how are you going to know what getting up is like?”
Steph Curry
“Don’t have 100 dollar shoes and a 10 cent squat.”
Louie Simmons
“Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they’ve got a second.”
William James
“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.”
Arthur Ashe
“You can have results or excuses but not both.”
Arnold Schwarzenegger
“It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out. It’s the pebble in your shoe.”
Muhammad Ali
“If you aren’t going all the way, why go at all?”
Joe Namath
“Run when you can. Walk if you have to. Crawl if you must. Just never give up.”
Dean Karnazes
“As you walk down the fairway of life you must smell the roses, for you only get to play one round.”
Ben Hogan
“It’s not the will to win that matters – everyone has that. It’s the will to prepare that matters.”
Steve Prefontaine
“Basketball is just like life, it’s not how big you are – it’s how big you play.”
John Wooden
“The game is 90% Mental, the other half is physical.”
Yogi Berra
“Dreams are free. Goals have a cost. While you can daydream for free, goals don’t come without a price. Time, effort, sacrifice, and sweat. How will you pay for your goals?
Usain Bolt
“Hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard.”
Kevin Durant
“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
Difficulties in life are meant to make us BETTER not bitter.”
Dan Reeves
“It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up.”
Babe Ruth
“When you come to a fork in the road, take it.”
Yogi Berra
“It is said that good things come to those who wait. I believe that good things come to those who WORK.”
Wilt Chamberlain
“The only one who can tell you ‘you can’t win’ is you, and you don’t have to listen.”
Jessica Ennis-Hill
“Hard days are the best because that’s when champions are made.”
Gabby Douglas
“It’s about doing it in a way that can’t be done any better. That is the goal everyday.”
Geno Auriemma
“Somebody gives you an opportunity, say Yes to it. So what if you fail you won’t know if you fail or succeed unless you try.”{
Ann Meyers
“Do not let what you can’t do interfere with what you can do.”
John Wooden
“You don’t play against opponents, you lay against the game of basketball.”
Bobby Knight
“What other people may find in poetry, I find in the flight of a good drive”
Arnold Palmer
“Mental will is a muscle that needs exercise, just like the muscles of the body”
Lynn Jennings
“Show me a guy who’s afraid to look bad, and I’ll show you a guy you can beat every time.”
Lou Brock
“Words are the best kind of doping.”
Yuri Vlasov
“It is not the size of a man but the size of his heart that matters.”
Evander Holyfield
“It is action that creates motivation.”
Steve Backley
“The important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win, but to take part; the important thing in life is not triumph but struggle; the essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.”
Pierre de Coubertin
“He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.”
Muhammad Ali
“Nobody who ever gave his best regretted it.”
George Halas
“What to do with a mistake: recognize it, admit it, learn from it, forget it.”
Dean Smith
“But effort? Nobody can judge that because effort is between you and you.”
Ray Lewis
“The ideal attitude is to be physically loose but mentally tight.”
Arthur Ashe
“The past doesn’t matter. Take today.”
Becky Sauerbrunn
“It’s not whether you get knocked down; It’s whether you get back up.”
Vince Lombardi
“If you have everything under control, you’re not moving fast enough.”
Mario Andretti
“To succeed you first need to find something to hold on to. Something to motivate you, something to inspire you.”
Tony Dorsett
“Watch your actions they become your habits. Watch your habits they become your character.”
Vince Lombardi
“You win a few, you lose a few. Some get rained out. But you got to dress for all of them.”
Satchel Paige
“I can’t play mad. I go out there and have fun. It’s a game and that’s how I’m going to treat it.”
Ken Griffey Jr.
“What makes something special is not just what you have to gain, but what you feel there is to lose.”
Andre Agassi
“I’m a firm believer in that you play the way you practice.”
Larry Bird
“Winning isn’t everything, but wanting to is.”
Vince Lombardi
“Pressure is something you feel when you don’t know what the hell you’re doing.”
Payton Manning
“Don’t measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your ability.”
John Wooden
“It ain’t over ’till it’s over.”
Yogi Berra
“The greatest pleasure is obtained by improving.”
Ben Hogan
“The men who try to do something and fail are infinitely better than those who try nothing and succeed.”
Lloyd Jones
“Continuous effort – not strength or intelligence – is the key to unlocking our own potential.”
Liane Cordes
“It’s OK to struggle. It’s NOT OK to give up.”
Gabe Grunewald
“What you feel doesn’t matter in the end; It’s what you do that makes you brave.”
Andre Agassi
“A crust eaten in peace is better than a banquet partaken in anxiety.”
Aesop
“Never give up! Failure and rejection are only the first step in succeeding.”
Jim Valvano
“Adversity causes some men to break others to break records.”
William Arthur Ward
“Make sure your worst enemy doesn’t live between your own ears.”
Laird Hamilton
“Always make a total effort, even when the odds are against you.”
Arnold Palmer
“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
“Everything negative – pressures, challenges – is all an opportunity for me to RISE.”
Kobe Bryant
“It’s at the borders of pain and suffering that men are separated from boys.”
Emil Zátopek