Quotes

Commitment/ Discipline

“Discipline is: Knowing what to do, Knowing when to do it, Doing it to the best of your abilities, Doing it that way every single time” – Bob Knight

“Each of us has been put on earth with the ability to do something well.  We cheat ourselves and the world if we don’t use that ability as best as we can.” – George Allen

“You never know how a horse will pull until you hook him to a heavy load.”  - Bear Bryant

Sportsmanship

“There was never a champion who to himself was a good loser.  There is a vast difference between a good sport and a good loser.” – Red Blaik

“Sportsmanship is not a passive activity of acceptance.  Rather, it is a positive reaffirmation of the fact that an athlete is disciplined enough to have perspective, maintain poise and do what is best for their teammates.” – Bruce Eamon Brown

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

“A man's character is the reality of himself; his reputation, the opinion others have formed about him; character resides in him, reputation in other people; that is the substance, this is the shadow.” - Henry Ward Beecher

“It is my thought that clean living and a strict observance of the golden rule of true sportsmanship are foundation stones without which a championship structure cannot be built.”  – Major Taylor

"Lose and win in the same spirit" – Danish Proverb

“What I admire most in any man is a serene spirit, a steady freedom from moral indignation, and all-embracing tolerance—in brief, what is commonly called sportsmanship.” – H.L. Mencken

Performance

“If you can imagine it, you can achieve it. If you can dream it, you can become it.” – William Aurthur Ward

“But I firmly believe that any man's finest hour, his greatest fulfillment of all he holds dear, is the moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle - victorious.” – Vince Lombardi

“Believe deep down in your heart that you're destined to do great things.” – Joe Paterno

“Don't measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your ability.” – John Wooden

Courage

“Courage is not the absence of fear, but simply moving on with dignity despite that fear.”  - Pat Riley“

"Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.” – Andre Gide

“Courage means being afraid to do something, but still doing it.” - Knute Rockne

“ Take pride in yourself.  Be your own person.  Don’t do things because everyone else does them.  Don’t be a part of the crowd.  Dare to be different.  Never be afraid to stand up for what you believe to be right, even when it means standing alone” – Jack Lambert

Confidence

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

“Confidence is contagious. So is lack of confidence.” – Vince Lombardi

“The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say that you cannot do.” – Walter Bagehot

“The biggest mistake an athlete can make is to be afraid to make one.” – L. Ron Hubbard

Hard Work

“No one has ever drowned in his own sweat.” – Lou Holtz

“We should not have to push you to work hard, you should work hard because you want to be a great player.” – Bobby Knight

“The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender.” – Vince Lombardi\

“The six W’s: work will win when wishing won’t” – Todd Blackledge

Perseverance

“You can't get much done in life if you only work when you feel good.” – Jerry West

“It's not whether you get knocked down, it's whether you get up.” – Vince Lombardi

“Perseverance isn’t just the willingness to work hard.  It is that, plus the willingness to be stubborn about your belief in yourself.” – Merlin Olsen

“Man’s greatest moment of happiness is to be tested beyond what he thought might be his breaking point and not fail.” – Joseph Murphy

Failure

“Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.” – Thomas Alva Edison

“My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure.” – Abraham Lincoln

“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

Attitude

“ There are 86,400 seconds in a day. It's up to you to decide what to do with them.” – Jim Valvano

“Life's battles don't always go to the stronger or faster man. But sooner or later the man who wins, is the man who thinks he can.” – Vince Lombardi

“Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out.” – John Wooden

Integrity/Character

“When you make a mistake, there are only three things you should ever do about it: 1.  Admit it.   2. Learn from it, and  3. Don't repeat it.” – Bear Bryant

“The true test of character is not how much we know how to do, but how we behave when we don’t know what to do.” – John Holt

“There is a choice you have to make, in everything you do.  And you must always keep in mind the choice you make, makes you.” - Anonymous

“I care not what others think of what I do, but I care very much about what I think I do.  That is character.” – Theodore Roosevelt

Enthusiasm

“Enthusiasm is the fire in our furnace, it is the spark that keeps us going in high gear.  It makes going great.

Enthusiasm brings on excitement

Excitement then produces energy

Energy generates extra effort

Extra Effort develops Excellence.” – Frosty Westering

“Success is not the result of spontaneous combustion.  You must set yourself on fire.” – Reggie Leach

“If it is to be, it is up to me.” – Frosty Westering

Success

The more successful you become, the longer the yardstick people use to measure you by.” – Joe Paterno

“Don’t let winning make you soft.  Don’t let losing make you quit.  Don’t let your teammates down in any situation.” – Larry Bird

“Life is often compared to a marathon, but I think it is more like being a sprinter; long stretches of hard work punctuated by brief moments in which we are given the opportunity to perform at our best.” – Michael Johnson

“Shallow men believe in luck… strong men believe in cause and effect.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Peaking

“The quality of a person's life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor.” – Vince Lombardi

“You don’t aim at the bullseye.  You aim at the center of the bullseye.”  Raymond Berry

“The masters all have the ability to discipline themselves to eliminate everything except what they are trying to accomplish.” – Dale Brown

“Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen.” – Michael Jordan

“The only one who can beat me is me.” – Michael Johnson

Purpose

“Above all be of single aim; have a legitimate and useful purpose, and devote yourself unreservedly to it.” – James Allen

“The secret of success is constancy to purpose.”- Benjamin Disraeli

“Lack of something to feel important about is almost the greatest tragedy a man may have.” – Aurthur E. Morgan

“To put away aimlessness and weakness, and to begin to think with purpose, is to enter the ranks of those strong ones who only recognize failure as one of the pathways to attainment; who make all conditions serve them, and who think strongly, attempt fearlessly, and accomplish masterfully.” – James Allen

Encouragement

“There are high spots in all of our lives and most of them have come about through encouragement from someone else. I don't care how great, how famous or successful a man or woman may be, each hungers for applause.” – George M. Adams

“The finest gift you can give anyone is encouragement. Yet, almost no one gets the encouragement they need to grow to their full potential. If everyone received the encouragement they need to grow, the genius in most everyone would blossom and the world would produce abundance beyond the wildest dreams. We would have more than one Einstein, Edison, Schweitzer, Mother Theresa, Dr. Salk and other great minds in a century.”  - Sidney Madwed

“A word of encouragement during a failure is worth more than an hour of praise after success.”  - Unknown

“Flatter me, and I may not believe you. Criticize me, and I may not like you. Ignore me, and I may not forgive you. Encourage me, and I may not forget you.”  - William Arthur

“There is no such thing as a 'self-made' man. We are made up of thousands of others. Everyone who has ever done a kind deed for us, or spoken one word of encouragement to us, has entered into the make-up of our character and of our thoughts, as well as our success.”  – George Matthew Adams

Mental Toughness

“Mental toughness is many things. It is humility because it behooves all of us to remember that simplicity is the sign of greatness and meekness is the sign of true strength. Mental toughness is spartanism with qualities of sacrifice, self-denial, dedication. It is fearlessness, and it is love.” – Vince Lombardi

“All things are difficult before they are easy” – Thomas Fuller

 “Mental toughness is to physical as four is to one” – Bobby Knight  

"Concentration and mental toughness are the margins of victory."  - Bill Russell

Preparation

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

“You can't push anyone up the ladder unless he is ready to climb himself.” – Andrew Carnegie

“The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today.” – H. Jackson Brown

“I will prepare and some day my chance will come.” – Abraham Lincoln

Goals

“The tragedy of life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach.” - Benjamin Mays

"If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal. Not to people or things." – Albert Einstein

“A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at."- Bruce Lee

"First, have a definite, clear practical ideal; a goal, an objective. Second, have the necessary means to achieve your ends; wisdom, money, materials, and methods. Third, adjust all your means to that end.”- Aristotle

Adversity

“If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn't lead anywhere.”  -  Frank A. Clark

"The leaders I met, whatever walk of life they were from, whatever institutions they were presiding over, always referred back to the same failure something that happened to them that was personally difficult, even traumatic, something that made them feel that desperate sense of hitting bottom--as something they thought was almost a necessity. It's as if at that moment the iron entered their soul; that moment created the resilience that leaders need." - Warren G. Bennis

“If you know someone who tries to drown their sorrows, you might tell them sorrows know how to swim.”  - H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

“Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes; adversity not without many comforts and hopes.” - Francis Bacon

Track Quotes

“If I am still standing at the end of the race, hit me with a board and knock me down, because that means I didn't run hard enough” - Steve Jones

“Running is a big question mark that’s there each and every day. It asks you, ‘Are you going to be a wimp or are you going to be strong today?'”  - Peter Maher, Irish-Canadian Olympian

“If you can't win, make the fellow ahead of you break the record.” – Author Unknown

“This is the truth. The clock doesn't stop until you force it to.  That is the elegant beauty of track.  It is the simplest, and hardest, of sports.  Hear a gun go off, and run fast.  That's the simple part.  The hard part is, run faster than anybody else out there.  This is the truth.  The clock will run until somebody makes it stop.  It might as well be you, don't you think?” -AISICS ad

Self-Talk

“Self-disciplined begins with the mastery of your thoughts. If you don't control what you think, you can't control what you do. Simply, self-discipline enables you to think first and act afterward.” – Napoleon Hill

“Relentless, repetitive self talk is what changes our self-image. ” – Denis Waitely

 “We all have voices in our heads which talks to us on an almost constant basis. Our voices give us messages continually, and what they say to us affects us.”  – Juliene Berk

“The inner speech, your thoughts, can cause you to be rich or poor, loved or unloved, happy or unhappy, attractive or unattractive, powerful or weak.” – Ralph Charell

Focus

“My thoughts before a big race are usually pretty simple. I tell myself: Get out of the blocks, run your race, stay relaxed. If you run your race, you'll win... Channel your energy. Focus.” – Carl Lewis

"Concentration is the ability to think about absolutely nothing when it is absolutely necessary."- Ray Knight

Class

“Self-praise is for losers. Be a winner. Stand for something. Always have class, and be humble.”- John Madden

“We only live once, but once is enough if we do it right. Live your life with class, dignity, and style so that an exclamation, rather than a question mark signifies it!” Gary Blair  

Being a Champion

“No matter how tough, no matter what kind of outside pressure, no matter how many bad breaks along the way, I must keep my sights on the final goal, to win, win, win -- and with more love and passion than the world has ever witnessed in any performance.”- Billie Jean King