Sayings about Sports
Keep your eye on the ball and your head in the game. ~ Traditional Proverb
It is a bad game where nobody wins. ~ Italian Proverbs
The poor man and the rich man do not play together. ~ Ghanaian Proverb
He who leaves the game, loses. ~ French Proverb
The ball always looks for the best player. ~ French Proverb
In the game no one is brother to others. ~ Norwegian Proverbs
Play alone and you’re bound to win. ~ Arabian Proverb
The one who wins plays best. ~ German Proverbs
If you must play, decide upon three things at the start: the rules of the game, the stakes, and the quitting time. ~Chinese Proverb
People will ignore their misfortunes and their interests when they are in competition with their pleasures. ~ French Proverb
What is sport to the cat is death to the mouse. ~ German Proverb
By the time the fool has learned the game, the players have dispersed. ~ Ghanaian Proverb
In a game it’s difficult to know when to stop. ~ Polish Proverbs
Competition is the whetstone of talent. ~ Traditional Proverb
What is sport to the boy is the death of the bird. ~ Indian Proverbs
Those who play the game do not see as clearly as those who watch. ~ Chinese Proverb
Quotations about Sports
If you can’t win, make the fellow ahead of you break the record. ~ Evan Esar
You never win a game unless you beat the guy in front of you. ~ Vince Lombardi
Approach the game with no preset agendas and you’ll probably come away surprised at your overall efforts. ~ Phil Jackson
One of your most powerful inner resources is your own creativity. Be willing to try on something new and play the game full-out. ~ Marcia Wieder
And then learn to play the game of life, as well as the game of athletics, according to the rules of society. If you can take that and put it into practice in the community in which you live, then, to me you have won the greatest championship. ~ Jesse Owens
I never see failure as failure, but only as the game I must play and win. ~ Tom Hopkins
Losing is part of the game. If you never lose, you are never truly tested, and never forced to grow. ~ David Sirlin
In sports… you play from the time you’re eight years old, and then you’re done forever. ~ Joe Montana
All you have to do is play better than the other guy and things go well. If you don’t play better than the other players then somebody takes your place. Now a lot of guys, in this day and time with the transient nature of the sport, as soon as the competition gets too good, they want out. ~ Bill Parcells
Aggressive fighting for the right is the greatest sport in the world. ~ Theodore Roosevelt Quotes
Competitions are for horse, not artist. ~ Bela Bartok
Do you know what my favorite part of the game is? The opportunity to play. ~ Mike Singletary
As a youngster, I enjoyed sport and my ambition was to be a great sportsman. ~ Lynn Davies
When the game is over it is really just beginning. ~ Jerry Kramer
Don’t do anything in practice that you wouldn’t do in the game. ~ George Halas
An athlete cannot run with money in his pockets. He must run with hope in his heart and dreams in his head. ~ Emil Zatopek
Sport and life is about losing. It’s about understanding how to lose. ~ Lynn Davies
Sports do not build character. They reveal it. ~ John Wooden
If life doesn’t offer a game worth playing, then invent a new one. ~ Anthony J. D’Angelo
If you’ve had a good time playing the game, you’re a winner even if you lose. ~ Malcolm S. Forbes
It is the first that ever I heard breaking of ribs was sport for ladies. ~ William Shakespeare Quotes
All games are basically hostile. Winners and losers. We see them all around us: the winners and the losers. The losers can oftentimes become winners, and the winners can very easily become losers. ~ William S. Burroughs
Sports should always be fun. ~ Charles Mann
Keep your sense of humor. There’s enough stress in the rest of your life to let bad shots ruin a game you’re supposed to enjoy. ~ Louisa May Alcott
When a man wants to murder a tiger he calls it sport; when a tiger wants to murder him he calls it ferocity. ~ George Bernard Shaw Quotes
It isn’t hard to be good from time to time in sports. What’s tough is being good every day. ~ Willie Mays
In France, cooking is a serious art form and a national sport. ~ Julia Child
Sport is a preserver of health. ~ Hippocrates
Sport is an international phenomenon, like science or music. ~ Avery Brundage
The man loves danger and sport. That is why he loves woman, the most dangerous of all sports. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche
Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence: in other words, it is war minus the shooting. ~ George Orwell
When you are through improving yourself, you are out of the game. You learn until your last breath. ~ Richard A. Nelson
As soon as you take money for playing sport, it isn’t sport, it’s work. ~ Avery Brundage
As I understand it, sport is hard work for which you do not get paid. ~ Irvin S. Cobb
The key to any game is to use your strengths and hide your weaknesses. ~ Paul Westphal
Sport is part of every man and woman’s heritage and its absence can never be compensated for. ~ Pierre de Coubertin
The first thing is to love your sport. Never do it to please someone else. It has to be yours. ~ Peggy Fleming
Olympism is the marriage of sport and culture. ~ Juan Antonio Samaranch
Ever notice that people never say “It’s only a game” when they’re winning? ~ Ivern Ball
After a certain point, money is meaningless. It ceases to be the goal. The game is what counts. ~ Aristotle Onassis
I love sport because I love life, and sport is one of the basic joys of life. ~ Yevgeny Yevtushenko
All sports for all people. ~ Pierre de Coubertin
Life is more fun if you play games. ~ Roald Dahl
The game isn’t over until it’s over. ~ Yogi Berra
Most games are lost, not won. ~ Casey Stengel
If you plan to win as I do, the game never ends. ~ Stan Mikita
You have to be able to center yourself, to let all of your emotions go. Don’t ever forget that you play with your soul as well as your body. ~ Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Competition is the spice of sports; but if you make spice the whole meal you’ll be sick. ~ George Leonard
It has meant a lot to me to challenge the best players in the world and to beat them. And it means a lot to me to be out here and fighting for the title and, you know, it hurts not to win it. ~ Andre Agassi
There are only three sports: mountain climbing, bull fighting, and motor racing. All the rest are merely games. ~ Ernest Hemingway Quotes
When money comes in at the gate, sport flies out at the window. ~ Theodore Roosevelt Quotes
You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else. ~ Dianne Feinstein
The thing about sport, any sport, is that swearing is very much part of it. ~ Jimmy Greaves
Sport is the habitual and voluntary cultivation of intensive physical effort. ~ Pierre de Coubertin
It is not how big you are, it’s how big you play. ~ Author Unknown
Sport strips away personality, letting the white bone of character shine through. Sport gives players an opportunity to know and test themselves. ~ Rita Mae Brown
Set short term goals and you’ll win games. Set long term goals and you’ll win championships! ~ ِAuthor Unknown
We didn’t lose the game; we just ran out of time. ~ Vince Lombardi
Just play. Have fun. Enjoy the game. ~ Michael Jordan
Business is a combination of war and sport. ~ Andre Maurois
Concentrate, play your game, and don’t be afraid to win. ~ Louisa May Alcott
Anybody can be a runner… We were meant to move. We were meant to run. It’s the easiest sport. ~ Bill Rodgers
Never change a winning game; always change a losing one. ~ Bill Tilden
All of the sports have a safety net, but boxing is the only sport that has none. ~ Gerry Cooney
Politics is a blood sport. ~ Aneurin Bevan
Whatever games are played with us, we must play no games with ourselves. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes
The best and fastest way to learn a sport is to watch and imitate a champion. ~ Jean Claude Killy
One man practicing sportsmanship is better than a hundred teaching it. ~ Knute Rockne
Games lubricate the body and the mind. ~ Benjamin Franklin Quotes
Tactics, fitness, stroke ability, adaptability, experience, and sportsmanship are all necessary for winning. ~ Fred Perry
Life-It’s not so important who starts the game but who finishes it. ~ John Wooden
To win you’ve got to stay in the game. ~ Claude M. Bristol
Hunting is not a sport. In a sport, both sides should know they’re in the game. ~ Paul Rodriguez
Life is a team sport. Sometimes you give and sometimes you get. ~ Ann Pearson
Competition brings out the best in products and the worst in people. ~ David Sarnoff
I worked very hard. I felt I could play the game. The only thing that could stop me was myself. ~ Jim Abbott
In love as in sport, the amateur status must be strictly maintained. ~ Robert Graves
Sport fosters many things that are good; teamwork and leadership. ~ Daley Thompson
The only way to prove that you’re a good sport is to lose. ~ Ernie Banks
All sports are games of inches. ~ Dick Ritger
The essence of sports is that while you’re doing it, nothing else matters, but after you stop, there is a place, generally not very important, where you would put it. ~ Roger Bannister
43 Sports Quotes more
- Champions keep playing until they get it right. ~ Billie Jean King, tennis player.
- You can’t put a limit on anything. The more you dream, the farther you get. ~ Michael Phelps, swimmer.
- If you don’t have confidence, you’ll always find a way not to win. ~ Carl Lewis, track and field athlete.
- Winning isn’t everything, but wanting to win is. ~ Vince Lombardi, American football coach.
- You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. ~ Wayne Gretzky, ice hockey player.
- The only way to prove you’re a good sport is to lose. ~ Ernie Banks, baseball player.
- 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, American football player.
- Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard. ~ Tim Notke, basketball coach.
- The harder the battle, the sweeter the victory. ~ Les Brown, motivational speaker.
- The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a person’s determination. ~ Tommy Lasorda, baseball coach.
- A trophy carries dust. Memories last forever. ~ Mary Lou Retton, gymnast.
- You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them. ~ Michael Jordan, basketball player.
- I’ve failed over and over again in my life, and that’s why I’ve been successful. ~ Michael Jordan, basketball player.
- 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, American football coach.
- You can’t win unless you learn how to lose. ~ Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, basketball player.
- 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, boxer.
- A champion is someone who gets up when they can’t. ~ Jack Dempsey, boxer.
- You can’t just beat a team, you have to leave a lasting impression in their minds so they never want to see you again. ~ Mia Hamm, soccer player.
- It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog. ~ Mark Twain, author.
- A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be. ~ Wayne Gretzky, ice hockey player.
- The more difficult the victory, the greater the happiness in winning. ~ Pele, soccer player.
- Persistence can change failure into extraordinary achievement. ~ Marv Levy, American football coach.
- When you’ve got something to prove, there’s nothing greater than a challenge. ~ Terry Bradshaw, American football player.
- The will to win is important, but the will to prepare is vital. ~ Joe Paterno, American football coach.
- You can’t let successes get to your head or failures get to your heart. ~ Pat Summit, basketball coach.
- It’s not about the shoes. It’s about what you do in them. ~ Michael Jordan, basketball player.
- The more I practice, the luckier I get. ~ Gary Player, golfer.
- We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. ~ Aristotle, Greek philosopher.
- Success is not the goal, it’s the byproduct. ~ Coach John Wooden, American basketball player and coach.
- It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get up. ~ Vince Lombardi, American football coach.
- I never dreamt of success. I worked for it. ~ Estée Lauder, American businesswoman.
- 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, American basketball player.
- Winning means you’re willing to go longer, work harder, and give more than anyone else. ~ Vince Lombardi, American football coach.
- Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do. ~ John Wooden, American basketball player and coach.
- Don’t give up, don’t take anything personally, and don’t take no for an answer. ~ Sophia Amoruso, American businesswoman.
- I am a member of a team, and I rely on the team, I defer to it and sacrifice for it, because the team, not the individual, is the ultimate champion. ~ Mia Hamm, American soccer player.
- The pain you feel today will be the strength you feel tomorrow. ~ Arnold Schwarzenegger, Austrian-American actor and bodybuilder.
- Success is where preparation and opportunity meet. ~ Bobby Unser, American racing driver.
- The most important thing is to try and inspire people so that they can be great in whatever they want to do. ~ Kobe Bryant, American basketball player.
- I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been. ~ Wayne Gretzky, Canadian ice hockey player.
- Good is not good enough if better is possible. ~ Vin Scully, American sportscaster.
- I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying. ~ Michael Jordan, American basketball player.
- I think sportsmanship is knowing that it is a game, that we are only as a good as our opponents, and whether you win or lose, to always give 100 percent. ~ Sue Wicks, American basketball player.