Motivational Athlete Quotes & Sayings

I never left the field saying I could have done more to get ready and that gives me piece of mind. — Peyton Manning

I realized I love motivating and I love empowering and I love inspiring people. I did that as an athlete for 18 years, and I am able to do that as a motivational speaker now as well as doing work on television. — Dominique Dawes

No one should ever be afraid of failing; it's being afraid to give it your all in trying that I urge against. If there is one thing I have learned, particularly in my life as an athlete, it is that our limits may not be where we think they are. And, even when we think we've finally reached them, the next time we go there exploring we often find that they've moved again. — Chrissie Wellington

I recommend, for many people, the study of computer science. Our natural resource in America is the mind. The mindset in computer science is very similar to the mindset in Zen. — Frederick Lenz

Athletics brings out a side of you that is wonderful. It brings out so many good attributes like competing, intensity and playing at the highest level. — Julie Foudy

But it's a curse, a condemnation, like an act of provocation, to have been aroused from not being, to have been conjured up from a clot of dirt and hay and lit on fire and sent stumbling among the rocks and bones of this ruthless earth to weep and worry and wreak havoc and ponder little more than the impending return to oblivion, to invent hopes that are as elaborate as they are fraudulent and poorly constructed, and that burn off the moment they are dedicated, if not before, and are at best only true as we invent them for ourselves or tell them to others, around a fire, in a hovel, while we all freeze or starve or plot or contemplate treachery or betrayal or murder or despair of love, or make daughters and elaborately rejoice in them so that when they are cut down even more despair can be wrung from our hearts, which prove only to have been made for the purpose of being broken. And worse still, because broken hearts continue beating. — Paul Harding

If you have a body, you are an athlete! — Bill Bowerman

Libertarians typically argue that particular obligations, at least under normal circumstances, must be created by consent; they cannot be unilaterally imposed by others. — Tom G. Palmer

No wrong in aiming or applauding the win but always agnize one's efforts. — Mohith Agadi

We have no rose without its thorn; it is the law of our existence; it is the condition annexed to all our pleasures. — Stephanie Dray

Awake! arise! the hour is late!
Angels are knocking at thy door!
They are in haste and cannot wait,
And once departed come no more.
Awake! arise! the athlete's arm
Loses its strength by too much rest;
The fallow land, the untilled farm
Produces only weeds at best. — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I'm trying to take a positive out the disappointment, but I'm also trying to do what's best for my career as well. — Dathan Ritzenhein

All you can do is put your story out there enough times and hope that a couple will understand that no matter what type of athlete you are - there were no athletes better than I was, there was no one who had more going for him than I did, there was no athlete stronger mentally than I was. — Lawrence Taylor

You have to train your mind like you train your body. — Bruce Jenner

Luck? Sure. But only after long practice and only with the ability to think under pressure. — Babe Didrikson Zaharias

The Athens Olympics will be meaningful even though I cannot participate as an athlete, since I can participate in the flame relay all over the world. — Cathy Freeman

It is said that courage isn't the absence of fear but the fortitude to confront fear. And as long as homophobia continues to be an accepted element of the locker room culture and homophobic language a coach's motivational tool, we can never dismiss the courage it takes for an athlete-on any level-to be openly gay. Bobby Blair may not be a household name, but his journey-from frightened collegiate athlete to empowered advocate-is one that has an important lesson for anyone who believes in the unifying power of sports. — LZ Granderson

Perhaps I don't give the impression that I'm hurting on the track. But that is because I am animated by an interior force which covers my suffering. — Noureddine Morceli

The Olympics have been with the world since 776 B.C., and have only been interrupted by war, especially in the modern era. — Bill Toomey

Some kids, for some reason, it just doesn't click in the classroom as they need it to. We have college coaches talk to them, former high school athletes, motivational speakers, teachers, principals. — John Williams

If you want something as bad as you want to breathe, then you can do it. — Tyler Seguin

Once an athlete feels his coach does not believe in him resentment develops and everyone loses at that point. — George M. Gilbert

Passion. As you can see, I've lived quite a long time, which is to say I've been working for quite a long time, which is the same thing. And you know what? In the whole silly business, the only thing that really matters is passion. It comes and it goes. At first it just comes to you free of charge, and you don't understand, and you waste it. And then it becomes a thing to nurture. — Tove Jansson

I believe in God. He is the secret of my success. He gives people talent. — Noureddine Morceli

I decided that I was going to go to the Olympics to see if I had made the right decision to retire because I knew that if I'd made the mistake of retiring I would know during and after those Games in Athens. — Cathy Freeman

I am still young. I have a lot of time. And if someone breaks my records in the future, I won't cry. That's sport. — Noureddine Morceli

I was told over and over again that I would never be successful, that I was not going to be competitive and the technique was simply not going to work. All I could do was shrug and say "We'll just have to see". — Dick Fosbury

So much of our future lies in preserving our past. — Peter Westbrook

It was more than just material prosperity. America in 1960 was a country where restraint and boundaries were the natural conditions in all arenas. People married younger and stayed married; even with those added twenty-eight million, there were fewer divorces in 1960 than there had been a decade earlier. People did not have children unless they were married - only 2.5 percent of children were born out of wedlock, though the number in black households was disturbingly high - some 20 percent. — Jeff Greenfield

I never think of the reader. I am curious about things; I need to find out, so off I go. — Jim Crace

If you only ever give 90% in training then you will only ever give 90% when it matters. — Michael Owen