Lance Armstrong Quotes & Sayings

During our lives ... we experience so many setbacks, and fight such a hand-to-hand battle with failure, head down in the rain, just trying to stay upright and to have a little hope. — Lance Armstrong

The truth is, if you asked me to choose between winning the Tour de France and cancer, I would choose cancer. Odd as it sounds, I would rather have the title of cancer survivor than winner of the Tour, because of what it has done for me as a human being, a man, a husband, a son, and a father. — Lance Armstrong

When you know your not going to die, you have to ask yourself ... What's the highest and best use for myself. — Lance Armstrong

It was great to fight in training, great to fight in the race, but you don't need to fight in a press conference, or an interview, or a personal interaction. — Lance Armstrong

It's a great feeling when someone like Bernard Hinault comes up to you on the podium to say 'Welcome to the club — Lance Armstrong

I know what happened to my foundation, from raising no money to raising $500m, serving three million people. Do we want to take that away? I don't think anybody says yes. — Lance Armstrong

Nobody wants to hear how I think I've been mistreated, or how I think my punishment should be lifted, or tweaked, or reduced. Nobody wants to hear me say that, nobody cares what I think about this. I get it. — Lance Armstrong

Nineteen hundred meters up there is completely different from1,900 any place else. There's no air, there's no oxygen. There's no vegetation, there's no life. There's no life. Rocks. Any other climb there's vegetation, grass and trees. Not there on the Ventoux. It's more like the moon than a mountain. — Lance Armstrong

Twenty-plus-year career, 500 drug controls worldwide, in and out of competition. Never a failed test. I rest my case. — Lance Armstrong

I have never had a single positive doping test, and I do not take performance-enhancing drugs. — Lance Armstrong

We have unrealized capacities that sometimes only emerge in crisis. — Lance Armstrong

It's simple. Success comes from training harder, living better and digging deeper than the others. — Lance Armstrong

No one automatically gives you respect just because you show up. You have to earn it — Lance Armstrong

I'm on JetBlue and United. So I spend a lot of time on airplanes with other people and in terminals or just traveling around and going to restaurants or whatever. The interaction I get on a daily basis is always positive. I've never had a negative interaction. — Lance Armstrong

I'm not a patient person. — Lance Armstrong

Regardless of one victory, two victories, four victories, there's never been a victory by a cancer survivor. That's a fact that hopefully I'll be remembered for. — Lance Armstrong

What athletes do may not be that healthy, the way we push our bodies completely over the edge to the degrees that are not human. I've said all along that I will not live as long as the average person. — Lance Armstrong

I guess if a person didn't quit when the going got tough, they wouldn't have anything to regret for the rest of their life. — Lance Armstrong

Some things you can't win, though I don't like to admit it. I'm not used to losing much of anything, whether its a race or a debate, but among the things that I nearly lost are my life, my neck, and my good name, and I've gained a realization: a life of unbroken success is not only impossible, it's probably not even good for you ... — Lance Armstrong

When I was sick, I didn't want to die.
When I race, I don't want to lose.
Dying and losing, it's the same thing. — Lance Armstrong

Everybody wants to know what I'm on. What am I on? I'm on my bike busting my ass six hours a day. What are you on? — Lance Armstrong

I challenged that assumption by returning to a full, productive life. I had behaved, Nichols said, "as if death was an option". — Lance Armstrong

I spent a long time trying to build up an organisation [the Lance Armstrong Foundation that changed its name to Livestrong after his confession] to help a lot of people. — Lance Armstrong

A boo is a lot louder than a cheer. If you have 10 people cheering and one person booing, all you hear is the booing. — Lance Armstrong

It's funny, because I have periods where I just kind of go dark. I don't tweet, I don't talk, I don't interview, and then I have times where I do. — Lance Armstrong

To all the cynics, I'm sorry for you, ... I'm sorry you can't believe in miracles. This is a great sporting event and hard work wins it. — Lance Armstrong

I realize that there are many variables outside my control in my quest, but focusing on the big goal down the road really motivates me. To help me stay focused, I set micro-goals such as races or training achievements that bring me one step closer to being at my best for major goals — Lance Armstrong

The body is telling the mind to stop. The mind is telling the body to shut up. — Lance Armstrong

Nothing goes to waste, you put it all to use, the old wounds and long-ago slights become the stuff of competitive energy. — Lance Armstrong

Your past forms you, whether you like it or not. — Lance Armstrong

Pain is only temporary. Quitting is forever! — Lance Armstrong

The ban doesn't have anything to do with Livestrong or my ability to work in [the cancer] community. Perhaps it speeds it up. I don't know the examples in Great Britain of athletes who have fallen. I know the examples in the United States - the Tiger Woods, the Michael Vicks, even the Bill Clintons - people who are still out there able to work. — Lance Armstrong

Make every obstacle an opportunity." And that's what we did. — Lance Armstrong

Anything is possible. You can be told that you have a 90-percent chance or a 50-percent chance or a 1-percent chance, but you have to believe, and you have to fight. — Lance Armstrong

Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever. That surrender, even the smallest act of giving up, stays with me. So when I feel like quitting, I ask myself, which would I rather live with? — Lance Armstrong

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

Life to me is a series of false limits and my challenge as an athlete is to explore those limits — Lance Armstrong

My house is burned, but I can see the sky. — Lance Armstrong

What losing does is, it restores the perspective. — Lance Armstrong

It works better for me to be nervous and hungry. — Lance Armstrong

There was more happiness in the process, in the build, in the preparation. The winning was almost phoned in. — Lance Armstrong

I am just coming into my best years. This year I did new things; stretching and abdominal work. — Lance Armstrong

I think I bit off more than I could chew, I thought the marathon would be easier. For the level of condition that I have now, that was without a doubt the hardest physical thing I have ever done. — Lance Armstrong

I believed in belief, for its own shining sake. To believe in the face of utter hopelessness, every article of evidence to the contrary, to ignore apparent catastrophe - what other choice was there? We are so much stronger than we imagine, and belief is one of the most valiant and long-lived human characteristics. To believe, when all along we humans know that nothing can cure the briefness of this life, that there is no remedy for our basic mortality, that is a form of bravery. To continue believing in yourself ... believing in whatever I chose to believe in, that was the most important thing. — Lance Armstrong

The idea that anybody was forced, or pressured, or encouraged, is not true. — Lance Armstrong

If life gives you lemons, drink the juice in order to mask the presence of performing-enhancing drugs. — Lance Armstrong

Portland, Oregon won't build a mile of road without a mile of bike path. You can commute there, even with that weather, all the time. — Lance Armstrong

What will you do with your wild & precious self? — Lance Armstrong

The last thing I'll say for the people that don't believe in cycling, the cynics and the sceptics, I'm sorry for you. I'm sorry you can't dream big and I'm sorry you don't believe in miracles ... — Lance Armstrong

Well, you better ride like you stole something 'cause you are about to win a stage in the Tour de Fance. — Lance Armstrong

If a script writer had come up with a story resembling what you have just achieved, even the Hollywood studios would have refused. — Lance Armstrong

Pain is temporary. Eventually it will subside. If I quit, however, the surrender stays with me. — Lance Armstrong

If you go to Wikipedia and you look at the Tour de France, there's this huge block in World War One with no winners, and there's another block in World War Two. And then it seems like there's another world war. — Lance Armstrong

There's no rule, no law, no regulation that says you can't come back. So I have every right to come back. — Lance Armstrong

I rode, and I rode, and I rode. I rode like I had never ridden, punishing my body up and down every hill I could find. I rode when no one else would ride. — Lance Armstrong

How do you fight an invisible opponent like suspicion? — Lance Armstrong

Hope that is the only antidote to fear. — Lance Armstrong

I don't think history is stupid.History ultimately rectifies a lot of these things. If you had to ask me what I think happens in 50 years, I don't think it sits empty in 50 years. Maybe somebody else's name is there. But you can't leave it empty. — Lance Armstrong

It's something I find enjoyable. Whether it is a road bike or mountain bike or tandem bike. I enjoy riding a bike. — Lance Armstrong

One of the redeeming things about being an athlete is redefining what is humanly possible. — Lance Armstrong

The answer is hard work. What are you doing on Christmas Eve? Are you riding your bike? January 1st - are you riding your bike? — Lance Armstrong

I want to finish by saying that I intend to be an avid spokesperson for testicular cancer once I have beaten the disease ... I want this to be a positive experience and I want to take this opportunity to help others who might someday suffer from the same circumstance I face today. — Lance Armstrong

I wanted to live, but whether I would or not was mystery, and in the midst of confronting that fact, even at that moment, I was beginning to sense that to stare into the heart of such a fearful mystery wasn't a bad thing. To be afraid is a priceless education. P 99 — Lance Armstrong

Yellow wakes me up in the morning. Yellow gets me on the bike every day. Yellow has taught me the true meaning of sacrifice. Yellow makes me suffer. Yellow is the reason I'm here. — Lance Armstrong

You can teach someone how to control their strength, but you can't teach them to be strong. — Lance Armstrong

What is stronger, fear or hope? — Lance Armstrong

The unwillingness to accept anything short of victory, that underlying fury, is the fundamental building block of my bottomless motivation to succeed. It is my credo in all that I do in life from battling cancer to bicycle racing. — Lance Armstrong

Giving up was never an option — Lance Armstrong

A boo is a lot louder than a cheer. — Lance Armstrong

I'm not willing to put a percentage on the chances but I will no longer rule it out. — Lance Armstrong

Knowledge is power, community is strength and positive attitude is everything — Lance Armstrong

You know, once I was thinking of quitting when I was diagnosed with brain, lung and testicular cancer all at the same time. But with the love and support of my friends and family, I got back on the bike and won the Tour de France five times in a row. But I'm sure you have a good reason to quit. — Lance Armstrong

We've all made mistakes, they are not toxic and evil. — Lance Armstrong

I've learned how to take out my own stitches: all you need is a pair of fingernail clippers & a strong stomach. — Lance Armstrong

I know what happened to cycling from 1999 to 2005. I saw its growth, I saw its expansion. — Lance Armstrong

But, listen, Eddie Merkyx would have won six Tours if he hadn't been punched. — Lance Armstrong

If you're trying to hide something, you wouldn't keep getting away with it for 10 years. Nobody is that clever. — Lance Armstrong

Truth is, a triathlete won the Tour de France seven times. — Lance Armstrong

[The] pain is temporary. It may last a minute, an hour, a day, or a year, but eventually it subsides. And when it does, something else takes its place, and that thing might be called a greater space for happiness ... Each time we overcome pain, I believe that we grow. — Lance Armstrong

I asked myself what I believed. I had never prayed a lot. I hoped hard, wished hard, but I didn't pray. I had developed a certain distrust of organised religion growing up, but I felt I had the capacity to be a spiritual person, and to hold some fervent beliefs. Quite simply, I believed I had a responsibility to be a good person, and that meant fair, honest, hardworking and honorable. If I did that, if I was good to my family, true to my friends, if I gave back to my community or to some cause, if I wasn't a liar, a cheat, or a thief, then I believed that should be enough. At the end of the day, if there was indeed some Body or presence standing there to judge me, I hoped I would be judged on whether I had lived a true life, not on whether I believed in a certain book, or whether I'd been baptised. — Lance Armstrong

I thought I knew what fear was, until I heard the words 'You have cancer'. — Lance Armstrong

I don't think anybody else from my generation had federal agents standing at their door with a badge and a gun, saying: 'You are going to answer my questions'. — Lance Armstrong

If people are saying you shouldn't attack, they aren't thinking what's best for you. — Lance Armstrong

Before my diagnosis [cancer] I was a competitor but not a fierce competitor. When I was diagnosed, that turned me into a fighter. — Lance Armstrong

My career is going to be played out year by year. Will I be here in 2004? I don't know. The record won't keep me here. Happiness will. — Lance Armstrong

At least I didn't invent a dead girlfriend — Lance Armstrong

I look forward to a time when lawyers aren't in the top three calls every day, and all you care about is how your kids are doing in school or what the weather's like and the great day you had with your family. — Lance Armstrong

When you win, you don't examine it very much, except to congratulate yourself. You easily, and wrongly, assume it has something to do with your rare qualities as a person. But winning only measures how hard you've worked and how physically talented you are; it doesn't particularly define you beyond those characteristics.
Losing on the other hand, really does say something about who you are. Among other things it measures are: do you blame others, or do you own the loss? Do you analyze your failure, or just complain about bad luck?
If you're willing to examine failure, and to look not just at your outward physical performance, but your internal workings, too, losing can be valuable. How you behave in those moments can perhaps be more self-defining than winning could ever be. Sometimes losing shows you for who you really are. — Lance Armstrong

It's tough to be a 15- or 16-year-old athlete competing around the country. There's tension, there's media. I had no idea what I was getting into. — Lance Armstrong

We are much better than we know. — Lance Armstrong

I didn't live a lot of lies, but I lived one big one. — Lance Armstrong

We sped on, across the plains, toward Metz. I hung back, saving myself. It is called the Race of Truth. The early stages separate the strong riders from the weak. Now the weak would be eliminated altogether. — Lance Armstrong

The way you live your life, the perspective you select, is a choice you make every single day when you wake up. It's yours to decide. — Lance Armstrong

I didn't invent the culture, but I didn't try to stop the culture, — Lance Armstrong

I've given gifts in the Tour de France and it's come back to bit me. So no gifts. — Lance Armstrong

A bicycle is the long-sought means of transportation for all of us who have runaway hearts. — Lance Armstrong

I'm cycling to take cancer message worldwide. — Lance Armstrong

I still don't get golf. — Lance Armstrong

How many times do I have to say it? ... Well, it can't be any clearer than 'I've never taken drugs.' — Lance Armstrong

It's nice to win. I'll never win again. I may have to take up golf - take on Tiger. — Lance Armstrong