Better Sport Quotes & Sayings

It is of course true that many modern combat sports are extremely demanding in terms of physical force, skill, and endurance. Indeed many athletes are much fitter and better trained than the vast majority of soldiers. However, all those various kinds of sport are based on artificial rules as to what is and is not permitted. Furthermore, and with the exception of fencing, a highly ritualized form of combat to which we shall return, even the most violent ones do not permit the players to use weapons. In their absence, most of those skills are too specialized to be of much military relevance. — Martin Van Creveld

Karch inspired his partners, his opponents and the world of volleyball players to be better than they were, to be great ... In the end, who could do more for a sport than that? — Mike Dodd

If I had my life to live all over again, I really think I would have been a fit person. Looking around me, I realise that the men and women who walked and ran and swam and played sport look better and feel better than the rest of us. — Maeve Binchy

It has always seemed to me that any man is a better man for being a hunter. This sport confers a certain constant alertness, and develops a certain ruggedness of character ... Moreover, it allies us to the pioneer past. In a deep sense, this great land of ours was won for us by hunters. — Archibald Rutledge

I try to find more education in the sport while helping people who are trying to be better at whatever they are trying to achieve. That is probably the thing I love most about coaching. — Robin Farina

Unfortunately this is the legacy that has been handed to us by the people before us, people who have won the Tour only to disappoint fans a few years later, if this is part of the process we have to go through to get the sport to the better place, obviously I'm here, I'm doing it. — Chris Froome

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

I think the key is never being satisfied with your skills and you have to constantly learn. I say this all the time, I sound like a broken record, but if you are not getting better in this sport you are getting worse — Kenny Florian

It's tough to know who's better in cliff diving. Like, you see a guy diving off a cliff and you go, Oh, man, a guy diving off a cliff! And then another guy'd dive- Oh, there's another guy diving off a cliff there. But you can't tell who's better, y'know? Like, uh- if you survive at all, hey, you're a great- you're a great cliff diver there. There's only two classifications in cliffdiving. There's, uh- 'Grand Champion' and then, uh- 'Stuff On a Rock.' Very hard to make a comeback in that sport, I'll tell you that. — Norm MacDonald

Baseball is a red-blooded sport for red-blooded men. It's no pink tea, and mollycoddles had better stay out. — Ryan Cabrera

I don't think I've ever not gotten nervous. When you work so hard for one special day or routine, you want to perform it better than you ever have. We always say at our gym, If you lose the nerves, you lose the sport. — Shawn Johnson

When one player is better than you, at this moment, the only thing you can do is work, try to find solutions and try to wait a little bit for your time. I'm going to wait and I'm going to try a sixth time. And if the sixth doesn't happen, a seventh. It's going to be like this. That's the spirit of sport. — Rafael Nadal

The sport to which I owe so much has undergone profound changes, but it's still baseball. Kids still imitate their heroes on playgrounds. Fans still ruin expensive suits going after foul balls that cost five dollars. Hitting streaks still make the network news and hot dogs still taste better at the ballpark than at home. — Duke Snider

We play a sport. It's a game. At the end of the day, that's all it is, is a game. It doesn't make you any better or any worse than anybody else. So by winning a game, you're no better. By losing a game, you're no worse. I think by keeping that mentality, it really keeps things in perspective for me to treat everybody the same. — Tim Tebow

Waterpolo is my life. Our relationship is that of predetermination I'll never be better at anything than waterpolo and that is why it is my duty to pursue this sport as long as I can, and to the best of my abilities. — Tibor Benedek

Football is a team sport and not an individual sport. We win as a team, and every individual is better if we are part of the team. — Fernando Torres

You can't prove Rembrandt is better than Norman Rockwell - although if you actually do prefer Rockwell, I'd say you were shunning complexity, were secretly conservative, and hadn't really looked at either painter's work. Taste is a blood sport. — Jerry Saltz

I just wanted to play tennis. I started because I wanted to pick up another sport and then as I was slowly getting better I wanted to see how far I can go but I always wanted to be myself. I wanted to be original. I didn't want to copy anybody's style. — Jana Novotna

I think sport in general affects what people see in movies. I always try to explain to people in Hollywood that we have to make movies more like sport because, in sport, everything can happen and it's so much better than movies in some ways. — Roland Emmerich

The common denominator is that we want to make the world a better place, for women and for everybody, and we do it through sport. — Lyn St. James

Mornings were a sport. One that Blue liked to think she was getting better at. But — Maggie Stiefvater

The disabled people that do sport, they don't think about what they don't have but try to get better with what they do have. That is the same for me. — Johan Cruyff

My favourite spectator sport is watching people who should know better searching for something (and often claiming to find it) where it never could be. Women claiming to find feminism in Islam is a good one. — Julie Burchill

Is climbing, as a passion and as a sport, better off now than it was in the past? We can do harder climbs now in faster times - techniques are more refined and equipement more sophisticated - but are we really any better off? — Yvon Chouinard

Playing other sports - and believe me, I played every sport I could - made me a better hockey player. — Tie Domi

I'm just tired of being disappointed by guys. I don't understand it. A breakup via text??!!" "I know. He's not playing the game of life on the same level as you. He's not even in the same sport. And it's better to know it now. — Sheri Fink

If you have team spirit you can even beat better teams. As far as team sport is concerned China might need a change in attitude in comparison to the one in table tennis. — Berti Vogts

The sunrise was the most amazing part of the day. The quiet of the block seemed even more silent when I watched the light make its way effortlessly into the world. Its serenity bathed itself in the rose colored light above bleeding into the sky. The road was vulnerable. The pink and the orange seeped onto the street and lit up my path, just for me. I saw it in front of my feet and it pulled me forward, my footsteps hitting the gravel. I wanted to run into it, to dive feet first and plunge into the harmony of my safe haven. It serenaded me into a calm sense of security. A calm idea that everything was just the way it was supposed to, and everything else, would always get better. Siempre mejorando. — Adriana Rodrigues

To me business is a sport. I love knowing that 24x7x365xforever I'm competing with people I don't know. To build my businesses. To come up with new ideas. To come up with better ideas. That motivates me. — Mark Cuban

The trick with hip-hop-hip-hop is a sport. The only music that's really, really close to a sport. It starts off, "My DJ's better than yours. I can out-rap you, I can out-dance you, my graffiti piece is better than you." It's very competitive. — Ice-T

Everybody who plays top-level sport, whether it's golf or football, or whatever, needs to get into 'The Zone' ... For me personally, on the morning of a round, preparation is always about getting into the zone. The less I communicate with other people, the better. I'm trying to rehearse in my mind what I am working on in my game: going through my swing keys, going through my putting keys. When I get to the course I get the pin positions for the day and I'll analyze those. I'll make a strategy for the golf course and look how I'm going to play it — Paul McGinley

There are viable (and usually better) alternatives to the use of animals for food, sport, clothing, & experimentation. I beg you to discontinue any actions that might cause or condone animal torture, abuse, or destruction. — Moby

Golf can be tougher than tennis when things go wrong, because you can't explain things by saying that your opponent played better than you. It's a cruel sport in that way. — Caroline Wozniacki

I was a better basketball player growing up in high school than I was a swimmer. Basketball to this day is my favorite sport. — Ryan Lochte

I believe in work, in connections between the players, I think what makes football great is that it is a team sport. You can win in different ways, by being more of a team, or by having better individual players. It is the team ethic that interests me, always. — Arsene Wenger

In a nation committed to better living through chemistry - where Viagra-enabled men pursue silicone-contoured women - the national pastime has a problem of illicit chemical enhancement. Steroids threaten the health of the 5 percent to 7 percent of players proved, by a mild regime of scheduled tests, to be using them. Steroids also endanger emulative young people. Further, steroids subvert what baseball is selling - fair competition. And they strike at the pleasure of engagement with America's team sport with the longest history. — George Will

I want to be better than five guys. I was that way when I used to box, I was that way in any sport. I want to compete with five other guys. If I beat five other guys, I'd like to see if I can beat six. — Jack Kirby

Everything's better under the stars, I suppose. If we get another life after we die, I'll meet you there, old sport... — Alice Oseman

Basketball was always my sport. It just took me until my second year of college for me to realize that I was a better baseball player than a basketball player. But basketball was always my number one love. Finally found out I was better at baseball and chose to pursue that route. — Curtis Granderson

The primary purpose of coaching young athletes is to use sport to teach them to become better people. — Bruce Brown

Animation, by necessity, is a team sport, and the fewer people with input into my work, the better I like it. — Bill Watterson

I'm not a huge soccer fan, but I follow the sport. I played in high school, a little bit in college, played on various club teams most of my life, and all three of my sons are competitive soccer players and far better than I ever was. — Hampton Sides

Why do we place such a disproportionate emphasis on sporting achievement? Why doesn't success in other fields receive similar attention ... Maybe it's because in a country that prides itself on being egalitarian, sport is intellectually and socio-economically an equal playing field. In fact, the more humble your background, the better, the underdog-turned champion is a narrative that resonates powerfully. We're far less interested in the stories of our best doctors, writers, lawyers, engineers, teachers or social workers. Their triumphs do not capture our collective imaginations. — Mia Freedman

P 264: Elizabeth talking to Rosie re Sharon leaving
Try to be a good sport, baby. Sharon feels as bad as you do. It's all right for you to be mad, but ... try to be as good a sport as you can. I'll tell you. It's a run-of-the-mill shitty thing. Life is full of them. And it is ALWAYS feels better to be kind. — Anne Lamott

Have a good physical outlet of some sport or exercise. Overcome evil with good. You can overcome many evil inclinations through good physical exertion and healthful activities. A healthy soul ... is in better condition to overthrow the devil. — Ezra Taft Benson

I train Jiu Jitsu because I recognize that I am a piece of the whole, and as I grow so does that which contains me. The whole of man advances with the growth of a single individual. Every life I influence is benefited from the fact that I have devoted such a large portion of my life to this pursuit. I will be a better husband, father, and whatever other future roles I may hold because of my time in this sport. In making me a better man, I know that society as a whole is improved. — Chris Matakas

A spoiled saint, a Pharisee, an inquisitor, or a magician, makes better sport to Hell than a mere common tyrant or debauchee. — C.S. Lewis

What I say about actors is you always want to find an actor you can play ball with. You throw the ball at them and you want them to throw it back. Your ball playing is a lot better when you play with good ballplayers, like any sport. Every actor I know feels the same way. — Robert Knepper

Skiing is my favorite sport, because, that's the only sport that is actually better to watch the worst the person is at it. "That guy won a gold medal in the Olympics" "Oh yeah, that's cool, i wanna watch the fat guy" "Come on dude, you can take that hill" — Demetri Martin

I think we want to make the sport bigger and better and leave a good legacy for the next generation that comes through. — Joel Parkinson

It is the most powerful submission in the sport. It is a beautiful thing. You're holding them into you, their back is on you, and you are basically choking them gradually like a boa constrictor and once you've got them, the pressure goes on and they have to submit or they are going to stop breathing. It happened to me early in my career, and I panicked, and gave in, I tapped out too early. I learned a lot from that. I learned from it, learned how to do the move better, learned how to avoid it being done to me. — Conor McGregor

Would that cricketers had better lines, or at least that their most famous were not also their tritest or most banal. 'This thing can be done,' said Fred Spofforth in 1882. 'We'll get 'em in singles,' George Hirst did not say twenty years later. 'You guys are history,' growled Devon Malcolm in 1994. 'You've just dropped the World Cup,' Steve Waugh may have crowed in 1999. At least two of these could have been put into the mouth of Arnold Schwarzenegger. — Rodney Ulyate

Anytime you play a team sport, the success of the team really makes everything better. It's nice. — Ricky Williams

[T]he pleasure of putting other people in the wrong, of bossing and patronizing and spoiling sport, and back-biting, the pleasures of power, of hatred. For there are two things inside me, competing with the human self which I must try to become. They are the Animal self and the Diabolical self. The Diabolical self is the worse of the two. This is why a cold, self-righteous prig who goes regularly to church may be far nearer to hell than a prostitute. But of course, it is better to be neither. — C.S. Lewis

It will be difficult to return to racing this weekend after Marco's terrible accident in Sepang but I think it is the best thing we can do to honour him, says World Champ Casey Stoner. We know we all play a risky game and, even if compared to the past the safety of our sport is much better, unfortunately these kind of events still occur. We will go out there this weekend and try to put on a good show for all the fans and especially in memory of Marco. — Casey Stoner

Why did God make tigers so good at catching prey, and at the same time make prey so good at getting away from tigers? You'd think that if God wanted one thing or the other to happen he'd have engineered it rather better. Maybe he enjoyed the spectator sport? — Richard Dawkins

The competition is a big part of it [racing] - the passion you have for the sport and the knowledge you have. You're not just going to wake up one day and say, " think I'll do something different." This is what I've done my whole life. My competitive nature and my passion for the sport, those are the things that keep you wanting to do better. — Bobby Labonte

The more baseball the better. It is a healthful sport and develops team play and initiative, plus an independent attitude. — Dwight D. Eisenhower

In high school, in sport, I had a coach who told me I was much better than I thought I was, and would make me do more in a positive sense. He was the first person who taught me not to be afraid of failure. — Mike Krzyzewski

It's a game of failure [softball]. Everybody would play, that was easy and everyone's not playing because it is so tough. But it's a matter of keep plugging away, keep working hard, believing in yourself and it is a team sport and there is nothing better than being out there, having a ball in your hand, playing the game that you love and ultimately that's what it comes down is having fun and enjoying it. — Jennie Finch

A barber is by nature and inclination a sport. He can tell you at what exact hour the ball game is to begin, can foretell its issue without losing a stroke of the razor, and can explain the points of inferiority of all the players, as compared with the better men that he has personally seen elsewhere, with the nicety of a professional. — Stephen Leacock

Soccer was the first sport that my parents put me in, and ultimately, all the parents kind of came over to my mom and were, 'We think Channing would be better at football ... We love him, he's really great, but he's kind of hurting our children.' I was just a little wild. — Channing Tatum

The resilience of these people is amazing. I am a great believer that the sooner we get things up and running in terms of sport in this area, the better. — Ian Botham

I think I'm probably a better sport. You tend to really just freak when you lose. You have a real hard time with it. — Woody Harrelson

First of all, in any sport where you can measure distance, height speed and all of that, you see how athletes have changed their sport and made it better. I believe, with every generation, the sport has improved. Certainly, in the men's game, that has been the case. I think that I played Pete [Sampras] at his best, I played Roger [Federer] at his best.. I believe wholeheartedly that Roger and [Rafael] Nadal have pushed the game much further than myself or Pete ever did. Their options on the tennis court are considerably more than ours. — Andre Agassi

Boxing has been great for me because it's, like, my new sport, so it's something that I can get better at. — Gigi Hadid

Writing is like a sport - you only get better if you practice — Rick Riordan

Whether hunting is right or wrong, a spiritual experience, or an outlet for the killer instinct, one thing it is not is a sport. Sport is when individuals or teams compete against each other under equal circumstances to determine who is better at a given game or endeavor. Hunting will be a sport when deer, elk, bears, and ducks are ... given 12-gauge shotguns. Bet we'd see a lot fewer drunk yahoos (live ones, anyway) in the woods if that happened. — Richard Lerner

If I'm in Maui, I play soccer and tennis and go kite-surfing. I prefer doing a sport as opposed to going to a gym. I'm not big on gyms. When I did 'Rampart,' I lost 30 pounds because I felt it was better for the character. I worked out constantly, maybe twice a day, and minimized caloric intake. — Woody Harrelson

My theory is, the more pictures you take, the better you get. It's like a sport. I never wait to get a particular shot because wonderful accidents can happen when you shoot a lot. — Tina Barney

I'm a UFC fighter, a macho-type sport. I am a heterosexual guy in a tough macho sport, which is exactly the reason I feel a duty to say I support gay marriage and gay rights. I have nothing to gain personally from supporting this issue, and that's the point. Society as a whole is better when there is equality, and I want to live in a country where everyone has the same rights because we all benefit from that — Rashad Evans

Bodily vigor is good, and vigor of intellect is even better, but far above both is character. It is true, of course, that a genius may, on certain lines, do more than a brave and manly fellow who is not a genius; and so, in sports, vast physical strength may overcome weakness, even though the puny body may have in it the heart of a lion. But, in the long run, in the great battle of life, no brilliancy of intellect, no perfection of bodily development, will count when weighed in the balance against that assemblage of virtues, active and passive, of moral qualities, which we group together under the name of character; and if between any two contestants, even in college sport or in college work, the difference in character on the right side is as great as the difference of intellect or strength the other way, it is the character side that will win. — Theodore Roosevelt

(About importance of focusing on one sport at a time) I've never tried to do that, we have more of a holistic approach. We want to become better decathletes and better competitors. I think for us that means just toeing the line at whatever it is we're doing that day and being confident in preparing as best as we can. Later in the year, late in the season when we have all of the thousands of reps under our belt, we can try to maybe focus on one or two things and leave some stuff off one week. Really, we like to keep everything inside the routine and part of the process. — Trey Hardee

Can you be a nicer gentleman, or a better man for your sport or your kids than Joe Paterno? — Pete Rose

The smaller the ball used in the sport, the better the book. — George Plimpton

I have the opportunity to be part of swimming history. To take the sport to a new level would be an honor for me. There's no better time to try this than now. — Michael Phelps

It's always good to be recognized, you know, for sport. I think being up there with Venus and Serena, I think, that's awesome. I'm excited. I'm happy that I am improving and getting better, and that I can be here. — Sloane Stephens

I feel like a lot of people look at pop music with a very formulaic perspective in numbers and patterns, but an outsider would think that the process is very natural. It is, but there are a lot of times where people treat it like a sport - there are tricks you can pull, different combinations that make something better. I don't really think I approach it that way, but I definitely have a love for the science that is pop song writing. — Halsey

In so-called communist Romania, chess was held in high esteem, even if our champions were weaker than the Soviets. This game, this "sport of the mind," was at the time a better way to establish your reputation than literature. — Dumitru Tepeneag

I did my first triathlon when I was 11-years-old and it was just another new sport to try. I got better at it and decided to take it a bit more seriously. — Alistair Brownlee

You've got this world, these pathologists that are, day in and day out, taking apart bodies, coming up with theories about how they died and how to better serve the community. At the same time these people have lives outside and families and my character in particular, he has a fiance and things are going well for him, so you've got to show that nice warm compassionate side at the same time you've got to show the steely, icy cool of a doctor. Not only that, but a doctor who gets a bit of a God complex and starts killing people for sport. — Milo Ventimiglia

I do sport at the gym a few times a week, but I hate it. Work is my only remedy. I feel so twisted and horrible in the morning, but then I go to the office and I start feeling better. Work is my Tylenol. Extra-strength. — Alber Elbaz

Avoiding any of the tenets of amateurism, after all, certainly does not make you a good professional. Perhaps it is better to see fearless flair and professional steeliness as two ideas which must always coexist. One half of sport may be about harnessing human talent, but the other half depends on setting it free. — Edward Smith

Play more than one sport in high school. If you play, say, football and basketball, you can learn to be physical and you can take those physical aspects of both sports and become better in both sports. Basketball players use some of the same skills football players do and vice versa. — Antonio Gates

I grew up on the beach and played side-out scoring all my life, but rally scoring is better for our sport. There is pressure on every play. You can't make a mistake, but that also means your opponent can't make a mistake. It makes the matches more exciting to watch. — Holly McPeak

It is better to go skiing and think of God, than go to church and think of sport. — Fridtjof Nansen

Michael Lewis, the author of Moneyball, wrote in the New York Times in February 2009, The virus that infected professional baseball in the 1990s, the use of statistics to find new and better ways to value players and strategies, has found its way into every major sport. Not just basketball and football, but also soccer and cricket and rugby and, for all I know, snooker and darts - — Anonymous

Alas! What boots it with uncessant care To tend the homely slighted Shepherd's trade, And strictly meditate the thankless muse; Were it not better done as others use, To sport with Amaryllis in the shade, Or with the tangles of Neaera's hair? Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise (That last infirmity of noble mind) To scorn delights, and live laborious days; But the fair guerdon when we hope to find, And think to burst out into sudden blaze, Comes the blind Fury with th'abhorred shears, And slits the thin-spun life. — John Milton

Writing is like a sport. If you don't practice, you don't get any better. — Rick Riordan

Apparently the Dutch now prided themselves on being better at queues than the English, which was absurd, because standing cheerfully in line was the English national sport. — Orson Scott Card

In sport, there is always room for improvement. Whenever I see my innings against the West Indies or Australia, I think, 'Maybe, I could have done this better or should have changed that.' See, cricket is a skill game, and one can always improve upon the impact one has on an innings. — Yuvraj Singh

Victory with honor and integrity is the real goal of sport. Sometimes it happens that others are better than you. I could never beat Carl Lewis in a hundred-yard dash, but my victory might be in running faster today than I did yesterday. — Don Sparks

I think I'm better than Jake (Shields), I think I should be fighting for the title, but I've been given a huge opportunity here to fight B.J. Penn and that's a big fight, belt or no belt. We're in a sport of selling fights right now, and the sport's growing, we're trying to get international, trying to get into every country, every household, and part of that is ticket sales is the idea that Jake Shields is coming over from Strikeforce with two belts. I understand that, it's a business decision. — Jon Fitch

Hunted for sport by the rich, then driven from large tracts of its natural habitat by agricultural and housing development, the giant panda deserves better than to be scrubbed from conservation's ledger books through false accounting. — John Burnside

In Bruce's opinion, the only fun in dating was the sport of it. The more it was like a tennis match, where he had to wear down his opponent through expertise and sheer force of will, the better he liked it. — Francine Pascal

Basketball has always been a sport I loved and grew up playing. For me, it was one of those things that ... I guess baseball was just in my genes a little bit. I have a lot of cousins that played baseball. Basketball is not an easy sport - you definitely got to be gifted to play that game. I felt like I was pretty good at it, but my ability was better in baseball. — Dellin Betances

In the middle of a long, quiet night I might give my mother a sharp kick. She'll wake, become insomniac, reach for the radio. Cruel sport, I know, but we are both better informed by the morning. — Ian McEwan

I find that I've tried to become a better hockey player every year and not just hold on. At the same time, I've also made it a point to increase or grow in some other area of my life. If I were just playing hockey, I would probably be done with the sport. — Angela Ruggiero