401 Inspirational Basketball Quotes To Motivate Your Team

by | Oct 20, 2021 | Coaching

Are you looking for basketball quotes for you team to motivate them on and off the court?  I have done the work for you. I think that what makes these quote unique is that they are basketball quotes for girls and boys.

John Wooden Basketball Quotes

My philosophy of defense is to keep the pressure on an opponent until you get to his emotions – John Wooden

• 1. Be on time. 2. Never criticize a teammate. 3. Never use profanity.
• You’d like to see your team reasonably happy, but that’s not your job. Gain their respect and get them to accept their roles.
• I do not judge success based on championships; rather, I judge it on how close we came to realizing our potential.
• When the legs go, the heart soon follows.
• Young men need more models, not critics.
• You’d like to see your team reasonably happy, but that’s not your job. Gain their respect and get them to accept their roles.
• I do not judge success based on championships; rather, I judge it on how close we came to realizing our potential.
• My philosophy of defense is to keep the pressure on an opponent until you get to his emotions.

Winning Basketball Quotes

Instead of wanting to win, we expected to win. There’s a lifetime between wanting something and expecting something. When you expect something, it means you’ve prepared, done the work, and EXPECT TO WIN!! – Red McCombs, Minnesota Vikings Owner

• Don’t think about winning. Think about dominating! – Pierre Pryor
• The reason most people never reach their goals is that they don’t define them, or ever seriously consider them as believable or achievable. Winners can tell you where they are going, what they plan to do along the way, and who will be sharing the adventure with them. – Denis Watley

Winning isn’t everything, but wanting to win is. – Vince Lombardi

• The superior man blames himself. An inferior man blames others. – Don Shula, Former Miami Dolphins coach
• The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather in a lack of will. – Vince Lombardi
• It is better to be boldly decisive and risk being wrong than to agonize at length be be right too late. – Marilyn Moats Kennedy
• Men who try to do something and fail are infinitely better than those who try to do nothing and succeed. – L. Jones
• The true champion loses many battles before winning the war. – Unknown
• The greatest match a man can win is won within. – Unknown

Attitude

I can take anyone down at anytime; they can’t take me down; no one can ride or turn me; I can control anyone. – Dan Gable

• When we trust God, He can make the ordinary extraordinary! – John C. Maxwell
• The greatest revolution of our generation is the discovery that human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives. – William James
• Change your thoughts and you change your world. – Norman Vincent Peale
• Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it. – Lou Holtz
• Look at everything as though you were seeing it either for the first time or last time. Then your time on earth will be filled with glory. – Betty Smith

Winning is a habit, but unfortunately so is losing. – Vince Lombardi

• A great many people seem to end up over the hill without ever having actually climbed it!- Unknown
• Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm. – Ralph W. Emerson
• Our attitude is the primary force that will determine whether we succeed or fail. – John C. Maxwell
• “I can’t do it” never yet accomplished anything; “I will try” has performed wonders. – George P. Burnham
• Ability is important, dependability is critical! – Alexander Lockheart
• The wise does at once what the fool does at last. – Gracian Baltasar
• Some people who yearn for endless life don’t even know what to do with a rainy afternoon. – Harvey H. Potthoff
• To avoid criticism do nothing…say nothing…be nothing! – Elbert Hubbard
• Life is 10 percent what you make it and 90 percent how you take it. – Irving Berlin
• The roads we take are more important than the goals we announce. Decisions determine destiny. – Frederick Speakman

Yes, it’s true: We can’t control the wind or the rain or the other vagaries of weather. But we can tack our sails such that we can steer the course we desire. – Unknown

• He is rich or poor according to what he is, not according to what he has. – Henry Ward Beecher
• Common sense is the knack of seeing things as they are, and doing things as they ought to be done. – Josh Billings
• Four things come not back: the spoken word, the spent arrow, the past, the neglected opportunity. – Omar Idn Al-Halif
• Habit is habit, and not to be flung out of the window, but coaxed downstairs a step at a time. – Mark Twain
• The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.- Albert Einstein
• Maturity is the capacity to endure uncertainty. – John Huston Finley
• I’ve always felt it was not up to anyone else to make me give my best. – Akeem Olajuwon
• She didn’t know it couldn’t be done, so she went ahead and did it. – Mary’s Almanac
• The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible. – Arthur C. Clarke
• You’ve got to think about big things while you’re doing small things, so that all the small things go in the right direction. – Alvin Toffler
• Empty pockets never held anyone back. Only empty heads and empty hearts can do that. – Norman Vincent Peale
• A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent in doing nothing. – George Bernard Shaw
• Whenever you’re in conflict with someone, there is one factor that can make the difference between damaging your relationship and deepening it. That factor is attitude. – Timothy Bentley

It’s not your blue blood, your pedigree or your college degree. It’s what you do with your life that counts. – Millard Fuller

• No one knows what he can do until he tries. – Unknown
• Joy is what happens to us when we allow ourselves to recognize how good things really are. – Marianne Williamson
• To help me stay positively charged I will practice maintaining a positive attitude each day. – Unknown
• There are two ways of spreading light – to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it. – Edith Wharton
• When you do not know what you are doing and what you are doing is the best – that is inspiration. – Robert Bresson
• He that will not sail till all dangers are over must never put to sea. – Thomas Fuller
• 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

Adversity

Adversity weakens the weak and strengthens the strong. – Unknown

• If it weren’t for the dark days, we wouldn’t know what it is to walk in the light. – Earl Campbell, former NFL fullback
• Life’s blows cannot break a person whose spirit is warmed at the fire of enthusiasm. – Norman Vincent Peale
• That which does not kill us, makes us stronger. – Unknown
• Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors. – African Proverb
• Tough times don’t last, but tough people do. – Unknown
• It is a rough road that leads to heights of greatness. – Seneca
• In order to discover new lands, one must be willing to lose sight of the shore for a very long time. – Anonymous
• We all face a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations. – Unknown
• Close scrutiny will show that most crisis situations are opportunities to either advance, or stay where you are. – Maxwell Maltz
• I know God will not give me anything I can’t handle. I just wish that He didn’t trust me so much. – Mother Teresa
• Over every mountain there is a path, although it may not be seen from the valley. – James Rogers
• The Difficult is that which can be done immediately; the Impossible that which takes a little longer. – George Santayana
• Much of the best work of the world has been done against seeming impossibilities. – Dale Carnegie
• The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain. – Unknown
• Triumphs without difficulties are empty. Indeed, it is difficulties that make the triumph. It is no feat to travel the smooth road. – Unknown
• Determination gives you the resolve to keep going in spite of the roadblocks that lay before you. – Denis Waitley

Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it. – Michael Jordan

• If I’d known how many problems I was going to run into before I finished, I can’t remember a single project I would have started. – Andy Rooney
• A desire can overcome all objections and obstacles. – Gunderson
• Undertake something that is difficult; it will do you good. Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow. – Ronald E. Osborn
• Life’s challenges are not supposed to paralyze you; they’re supposed to help you discover who you are. – Bernice Johnson Reason
• Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune; but great minds rise above it. – Washington Irving
• Real difficulties can be overcome; it is only the imaginary ones that are unconquerable. – Theodore N. Vail
• No matter how difficult the challenge, when we spread our wings of faith and allow the winds of God’s spirit to lift us, no obstacle is too great to overcome. – Roy Lessin
• Stand up to your obstacles and do something about them. You will find that they haven’t half the strength you think they have. – Norman Vincent Peale
• Every adversity carries with it the seeds of a greater benefit! – Napoleon Hill

Character

Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits, they become your character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny. – Unknown

• Be more concerned with your character than your reputation. – John Wooden
• The real measure of a man’s worth is how much he would be worth if he lost all his money. – Harold J. Smith
• It may be all right to be content with what you have; never with what you are. – C. Forbes
• A person’s true character is revealed by what he does when no one is watching.- Unknown
• Reputation is made in a moment; character is built in a lifetime. – Unknown
• Good intentions are not good enough… ultimately we are measured by our actions. – Unknown
• Language is the expression of thought. Every time you speak your mind is on parade. – Unknown
• Your words are windows to your heart. – Unknown

The true measure of a man is not how he behaves in moments of comfort and convenience but how he stands at times of controversy and challenges. – Martin Luther King Jr.

• Ignorance is always swift to speak. – Unknown
• Although the tongue weighs very little, few people are able to hold it. – Unknown
• Character isn’t inherited. One builds it daily by the way one thinks and acts, thought by thought, action by action. – Helen Gahagan Douglas
• Your temper is like a fire. It gets very destructive when it gets out of control. – Unknown
• How a man plays the game shows something of his character; how he loses shows all of it. – Frosty Westering
• Dollars have never been known to produced character, and character will never be produced by money. – W. K.Kellogg
• Sports do not build character; they reveal it. – Unknown
• A man of character does not expect to be liked by everyone, nor does he worry about being liked by anyone. – William A. Welker
• What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
• You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do. – Henry Ford

Coaching

What you tolerate you encourage. – Unknown

• Hire the best people and then delegate. – Carol A. Taber
• A coach’s job is to see the team not as it is, but as it can become. – Unknown
• The fullness or emptiness of life will be measured by the extent to which a man feels that he has an impact on the lives of others. – Kingman Brewster
• It’s not what you tell your players that counts. It’s what they hear. – Red Auerbach
• Success … has nothing to do with what you gain or accomplish for yourself. It’s what you do for others. – Danny Thomas
• Mama wanted me to be a preacher. I told her coachin’ and preachin’ were a lot alike. – Paul “Bear” Bryant
• The standard of excellence on any job site is defined by the sloppiest piece of work you will accept. -F. Jones

But it’s still a coach’s game. Make no mistake. You start at the top. If you don’t have a good one at the top, you don’t have a cut dog’s chance. If you do, the rest falls into place. You have to have good assistants, and a lot of things, but first you have to have the chairman of the board. – Paul “Bear” Bryant

• Always have a plan and believe in it. I tell my coaches not to compromise. Nothing good happens by accident. There must be a plan for everything and the plan will prevent you from overlooking little things. By having that plan, you’ll be secure and self-doubts will never become a factor. – Chuck Knox
• Effective coaches live in the present, but concentrate on the future. – Unknown
• I would rather be known for coaching great men then coaching great wrestlers – Howard Fergusson
• You have the greatest chance of winning when your first commitment is to a total and enthusiastic involvement in the game itself. Enthusiasm is what matters most. – John Brodie
• There are no little things. – Bruce Barton
• We make a living by what we get. But we make a life by what we give. – Winston Churchill
• Some coaches are so busy learning the tricks of the trade that they never learn the trade. – Pete Emelianchik
• You can accomplish anything in life provided you do not mind who gets the credit. – Harry S. Truman

As teachers and coaches, we must remember that when mere winning is our only goal, we are doomed to disappointment and failure. But when our goal is to try to win, when our focus is on preparation and sacrifice and effort instead of on numbers on a scoreboard then we will never lose. – Mike Krzyzewski, Duke University basketball coach

• To a group of wrestling coaches: Promote your sport or lose it! – Bobby Douglas, Iowa State University
• People matter more than winning and courage matters more than skill. – Michael J. Gray
• One of my goals is to have NO wrestler go undefeated. – Jeff Buxton, Blair Academy
• The most important statistic for a wrestling coach isn’t how many dual meets the team won nor the number of state champs they produced. It’s the number of wrestlers they had in the room on the last day of practice. – Greg DeMarco

Yelling doesn’t win ball games. It doesn’t put any points on the scoreboard. And I don’t think words win ball games all the time. Players do. Preparation does. – Jerry Tarkanian

• Little things make the difference. Everyone is well prepared in the big things, but only the winners perfect the little things. – Paul “Bear” Bryant
• If you want to coach you have three rules to follow to win. One, surround yourself with people who can’t live without football. I’ve had a lot of them. Two, be able to recognize winners. They come in all forms. And, three, have a plan for everything. A plan for practice, a plan for the game. A plan for being ahead and a plan for being behind 20-0 at half, with your quarterback hurt and the phones dead. With it raining cats and dogs and no rain gear because the equipment man left it at home. – Paul “Bear” Bryant

Don’t overwork your squad. If you’re going to make a mistake, under-work them. – Paul “Bear” Bryant

• If there is one thing that has helped me as a coach, it’s my ability to recognize winners, or good people who can become winners by paying the price. – Paul “Bear” Bryant
• Children have more need of models than critics. – Carolyn Coats
• Greatest gift you can give another is the purity of your attention. – Richard Moss, M.D.
• The happiest people are those who have harvested their time in others. The unhappiest people are those who wonder how the world is going to make them happy. – John C. Maxwell

Winning is the science of being totally prepared.- George Allen

• Find your own picture, your own self in anything that goes bad. It’s awfully easy to mouth off at your staff or chew out players, but if it’s bad, and your the head coach, you’re responsible. If we have an intercepted pass, I threw it. I’m the head coach. If we get a punt blocked, I caused it. A bad practice, a bad game, it’s up to the head coach to assume his responsibility. – Paul “Bear” Bryant
• The old lessons (work, self-discipline, sacrifice, teamwork, fighting to achieve) aren’t being taught by many people other than football coaches these days. A football coach has a captive audience and can teach these lessons because the communication lines between himself and his players are more wide open than between kids and parents. We better teach these lessons or else the country’s future population will be made up of a majority of crooks, drug addicts, or people on relief. – Paul “Bear” Bryant

If anything goes bad, I did it. Anything goes semi-good, we did it. If anything goes really good, then you did it. That’s all it takes to get people to win football games for you. – Paul “Bear” Bryan

• You have to learn what makes this or that Sammy run. For one it’s a pat on the back, for another it’s eating him out, for still another it’s a fatherly talk, or something else. You’re a fool if you think as I did as a young coach, that you can treat them all alike. – Paul “Bear” Bryant
• I’m no innovator. If anything I’m a stealer, or borrower. I’ve stolen or borrowed from more people than you can shake a stick at. – Paul “Bear” Bryant
• If you whoop and holler all the time, the players just get used to it. – Paul “Bear” Bryant
• Praise in public, criticize in private. – Unknown

Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs. – Henry Ford

• Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day. -Unknown
• After eating an entire bull, a mountain lion felt so good he started roaring. He kept it up until a hunter came along and shot him. The moral? When you’re full of bull, keep your mouth shut. – Will Rogers
• Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment. – Will Rogers
• It is a fine thing to have ability, but the ability to discover ability in others is the true test. – Elbert Hubbard
• There are three kinds of men: The ones that learn by reading, the few who learn by observation and the rest of them who have to pee on the electric fence for themselves. – Will Rogers
• What you tolerate you encourage – Unknown
• Some days you’re the bug; some days you’re the windshield. – Unknown

Discipline

Concentrate on each task, whether trivial or crucial, as if it’s the only thing that matters. – Mark H. McCormack

• Show me a man who cannot bother to do little things and I’ll show you a man who cannot be trusted to do big things. – Lawrence D. Bell
• Nothing is more harmful to the service than the neglect of discipline; for discipline, more than numbers, gives one army superiority over another. – George Washington
• When I’d get tired and want to stop, I’d wonder what my next opponent was doing. I’d wonder if he was still working out. Then I tried to visualize him. When I could see him still working, I’d start pushing myself. When I could see him in the shower, I’d push myself harder. – Dan Gable
• Bad habits are like a good bed; easy to get into but difficult to get out of. – Unknown
• If you doubt you can accomplish something, then you can’t accomplish it. You have to have confidence in your ability, and then be tough enough to follow through. – Rosalyn Carter
• Without self-discipline, success is impossible, period. – Lou Holtz
• A closed mouth gathers no foot. – Unknown

Competition

Nobody who ever gave their best effort regretted it. – George Halas

• Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat. – Theodore Roosevelt
• It’s not important whom you wrestle; your biggest opponent wears your uniform. You must overcome your own short comings. – Mitch Clark
• When I go out there, I like to mark out that area of the mat and own it. I want to dominate and I want to humiliate. I want to show that guy and everyone in the gym that I am the best. “Abuse” doesn’t sound right, but that’s it. – Peter Yozzo, Lehigh University
• Anybody can win the matches you can dominate, but it’s the tough matches that are going to make the difference. -Jim Zalesky

Drill

Repeated actions are stored as habits. If the repeated actions aren’t fundamentally sound, then what comes out in a game can’t be sound. What comes out will be bad habits. – Chuck Knox

• If you haven’t got the time to do it right, when will you have the time to do it over? – Jeffrey J. Mayer
• Thoughts, positive or negative, grow stronger when fertilized with constant repetition. – Unknown
• You can drill and waste your time or you can drill and get better. Either way we will drill! – Unknown
• It’s the repetition of affirmations that leads to belief. And once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen. – Claude M. Bristol

Education

The biggest thing that I felt basketball could do for me was help me get a good education. – Julius Erving

• If I went back to college again, I’d concentrate on learning to write and to speak before an audience. Nothing is more important than the ability to communicate effectively. – Gerald R. Ford
• Even in the dictionary, academics come before athletics. – William A. Welker
• I will study and prepare myself . . . and someday my chance will come. – Abraham Lincoln
• Apply yourself. Get all the education you can, but then, by God, do something. Don’t just stand there, make something happen. – Lee Iacocca
• Generally speaking, you aren’t learning much when your lips are moving. – Unknown

Goals

If you don’t know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else. – David Campbell

• More men fail through lack of purpose than lack of talent. – Billy Sunday
• Set goals – high goals for you and your organization. When your organization has a goal to shoot for, you create teamwork, people working for a common good. – Paul “Bear” Bryant
• The poorest man is not without a cent, but without a dream. – Unknown
• Remember a goal isn’t a goal until it is in writing, until then it’s a dream and everyone has dreams. – Unknown
• Setting goals for your game is an art. The trick is in setting them at the right level neither too low nor too high. -Gleg Norman
• The achievement of your goal is assured the moment you commit yourself to it. – Mack R. Douglas

All our dreams can come true – if we have the courage to pursue them. – Walt Disney

• You cannot discover new oceans unless you have the courage to lose sight of the other shore. – Unknown
• The secret of unleashing your true power is setting goals that are exciting enough to inspire your creativity and ignite your passion. – Anthony Robbins
• High achievement always takes place in the framework of high expectation. – Jack Kinder
• An obstacle is what you see when you take your eyes off the goal. – Unknown

Hard Work

Most men stop when they begin to tire. Good men go until they think they are going to collapse. But the very best know the mind tires before the body, and push themselves further and further, beyond all limits. Only when their limits are shattered can the attainable be reached. – Mark Mysnyk

• I don’t choose to be a common man. I want to be better tomorrow than today. And through a commitment to work and discipline, but mostly hard work. I’ll be a little more content, and a little different from the average guy. – J. Robinson
• Vision without action is a daydream; action without vision is a nightmare. – Japanese proverb
• If you don’t invest much of yourself, then defeat doesn’t hurt very much and winning isn’t very exciting. – Dick Vermeil
• Hard work is the best remedy for all of life’s trials. – Unknown
• The harder you work, the harder it is to lose. – Unknown
• Time will come when winter will ask what you were doing all summer. – Henry Clay, American Statesman
• Think like a man of action, act like a man of thought. – Henri Louis Bergson

Before I’d get in the ring, I’d have already won or lost it on the road. The real part is won or lost somewhere far away from witnesses – behind the lines, in the gym and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights. – Muhammad Ali

• 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
• I am a great believer in luck, The harder I work, the more of it I seem to have. – Coleman Cox
• What you do speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus. – Alexander Graham Bell
• There is no great achievement that is not the result of patient working and – J. G. Holland
• Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do. – Goethe
• Ideas without action are worthless. – Harvey Mackay

Leadership

Leadership, like coaching, is fighting for the hearts and souls of men and getting them to believe in you. – Eddie Robinson

• Leaders are like eagles… they don’t flock. You’ll find them one at a time. – Knute Rockne
• A prime function of a leader is to keep hope alive. – John W. Gardner
• The leader demonstrates confidence that the challenge can be met, the need resolved, crisis overcome. – John Haggai
• The capacity to develop and improve their skills distinguishes leaders from their followers. – Warren Bennis
• It is more than willingness to change that sets the true leaders apart. Seeking out change and wringing every bit of potential out of it that takes you to the next horizon. – Ty Boyd
• Leadership is the ability to get men to do what they don’t want to do and like doing it. – Harry Truman
• The most valuable gift you can give another is a good example. – Unknown
• A big man is one who makes us feel bigger when we are with him. – John C. Maxwell

The higher you want to climb, the more you need leadership. The greater the impact you want to make, the greater your influence needs to be. Whatever you will accomplish is restricted by your ability to lead others. – John C. Maxwell

• Personnel determines the potential of the team. Vision determines the direction of the team. Work ethic determines the preparation of the team. Leadership determines the success of the team. – John C. Maxwell
• A man who wants to lead an orchestra must turn his back to the crowd. – Max Lucado
• There are no office hours for leaders. – Cardinal J. Gibbons
• It is truly said: It does not take much strength to do things, but it requires great strength to decide what to do. – Chow Ching
• It is the men behind who make the man ahead. – Merle Crowell
• Leadership is practiced not so much in words as in attitude and in actions. – Harold S. Geneen
• If you’re riding ahead of the herd, take a look back every now and then to make sure it’s still there – Will Rogers

Losing

The things which hurt, instruct. – Ben Franklin

• How a man plays the game shows something of his character; how he loses shows all of it. – Frosty Westering
• There is always another chance… This thing called ‘failure’ is not falling down, but staying down. – Mary Pickford
• It’s not whether you get knocked down. It’s whether you get up again. – Vince Lombardi
• If you can’t make a mistake, you can’t make anything. – Marva Collins
• Failure is a far better teacher than success. – Unknown
• Nobody makes a greater mistake than he who does nothing because he could only do a little. – Edmund Burke

If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something. – Franklin D. Roosevelt

• I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed it. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeeded. – Michael Jordan
• If I could have one hope for our young people as they go out into the world, it would be this: I hope they fail. I hope they fail at something that is important to them, for failure, like nothing else, is able to stimulate the right kind of person to that extra action that always makes all the difference. – Lyman Fertig

When things go wrong, don’t go wrong with them. – Unknown

• Losing doesn’t make me want to quit. It makes me want to fight that much harder. – Paul “Bear” Bryant
• In great attempts it is glorious even to fail. – Vince Lombardi
• Sometimes you have to lose major championships before you can win them. It’s the price you pay for maturing. The more times you can put yourself in pressure situations, the more times you compete, the better off you are. – Tom Watson
• Being defeated is often a temporary condition. Giving up is what makes it permanent. – Marliyn vos Savant
• If you blame others for your failures, do you also credit them for your successes? – Unknown
• In great attempts, it is glorious even to fail. – Cassius

Failure isn’t fatal, and success isn’t final. – Don Shula

• Winning is a habit, but unfortunately so is losing. – Vince Lombardi
• It’s not whether you get knocked down. It’s whether you get up again. – Vince Lombardi
• There are some defeats more triumphant than victories. – Montaigne
• The man who never makes mistakes loses a great many chances to learn something. – Unknown
• It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed. – Unknown
• Defeat isn’t bitter if you don’t swallow it. – Unknown
• Nobody is a failure until he stops trying. – Unknown

Failure is the opportunity to begin again, more intelligently. – Henry Ford

• The things which hurt, instruct. – Ben Franklin
• Success requires no explanations. Failure permits no alibis. – Napoleon Hill
• A failure is like fertilizer; it stinks to be sure, but it makes things grow faster in the future. – Dennis Waitley
• The successful man will profit from his mistakes and try again in a different way. – Dale Carnegie
• You have within you right now, everything you need to deal with whatever the world can throw at you. – Brian Tracy
• The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one. – Elbert Hubbard
• You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don’t try. – Beverly Sills

I have always grown from my problems and challenges. It’s from the things that didn’t work out, that taught me the most. – Carol Burnett

• The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and over and over again, but expecting a different result. – Albert Einstein
• Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment. – Will Rogers
• Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom. – General George Patton

Opportunity

Opportunities are usually disguised as hard work, so most people don’t recognize them. – Ann Landers

• Luck sometimes visits a fool, but it never sits down with him. – German Proverb
• We all face a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations. – Unknown
• Opportunity may knock, but you must open the door. – Unknown
• All good things are difficult to achieve; and bad things are very easy to get. – Morarji Desai
• Desire is the key that opens the door when opportunity knocks. – Unknown
• The individual who knows the score about life sees difficulties as opportunities. – Norman Vincent Peale
• Do what you can, with what you have, where you are. – Theodore Roosevelt
• Great opportunities come to those who make the most of small ones. – Unknown

If not us, who? If not now, when? – John F. Kennedy

• Challenges should not be seen as obstacles but rather as opportunities for acquiring new experiences in life. – Unknown
• Destiny is no matter of chance; it is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for. But it is a thing to be achieved. – William Jennings Bryan
• In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity. – Albert Einstein
• Never miss a good chance to shut up. – Will Rogers
• There are costs and risks to a program of action, but they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction. – John F. Kennedy

Persistence

He who endures conquers. – Italian Proverb

• Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘Press On’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race. – Calvin Coolidge
• Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. – Thomas A. Edison
• Rome wasn’t built in a day. – Unknown
• Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go. – William Feather
• The secret of our success is found in our daily agenda. – John C. Maxwell
• 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
• Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all. – Dale Carnegie

We will either find a way, or make one! – Hannibal

• Within each of us is a hidden store of determination. Determination to keep us in the race when all seems lost. – Roge Dawson
• Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced. – James Baldwin
• An invincible determination can accomplish almost anything and in this lies the great distinction between great men and little men. – Dr. Thomas Fuller
• What this power is I cannot say; all I know is that it exists and it becomes available only when a man is in that state of mind in which he knows exactly what he wants and is fully determined not to quit until he finds it. – Alexander Gulialll Bell
• Progress is a tide. If we stand still we will surely be drowned. To stay on the crest, we have to keep moving. – Harold Mayfield

Failure is the path of least persistence. – Michael Larsen

• If at first you don’t succeed, skydiving is not for you. – Unknown
• Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough. – Og Mandino
• So long as there is breath in me, that long I will persist. For now I know one of the greatest principles on success; if I persist long enough I will win. – Og Mandino

Positive Thinking

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

• Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier. – Colin Powell
• It isn’t the load that breaks us down; it’s the way we carry it. – Unknown
• Your mind can hold only one thought at a time. Make it a positive one. – Unknown
• A cloudy day is no match for a sunny disposition. – William A. Ward
• Never think of the consequences of failing for you will always think of a negative result. Think only positive thoughts and your mind will gravitate towards those thoughts! – Michael Jordan
• Although elementary, turning negatives into positives is the best foundation to having a happy life. – Unknown
• If you think you can, or you think you can’t, your right! – Henry Ford
• Don’t limit yourself. Many people limit themselves to what they think they can You can go as far as you mind lets you. What you believe, you can achieve. – Mary Kay Ash

A positive mind has extra solving power. – Alexander Lockhart

• There are three types of people in this world: those who make things happen, those who watch things happen and those who wonder what happened. We all have a choice. You can decide which type of person you want to be. I have always chosen to be in the first group. – Mary Kay Ash
• When fate hands you a lemon, make lemonade. – Dale Carnegie
• To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream, not only plan, but also believe. – Anatole France
• Always remember that you are unique. Just like everyone else. – Unknown
• A positive attitude is like a fire – Unless you continue to add fuel, it goes out. – Alexander Lockhart

Practice

When I played with Michael Jordan on the Olympic team, there was a huge gap between his ability and the ability of the other great players on that team. But what impressed me was that he was always the first one on the floor and the last one to leave. – Steve Alford

• But it’s the wrestler who can put the fatigue out of his mind and break through the “wall,” like a marathon runner after 18 or 20 miles, who will survive. The key to that survival is in hard workouts that develop mental confidence to the point where you won’t submit to fatigue and pain descending upon you. – Lou Banach
• If I had stood at the free-throw line and thought about 10 million people watching me on the other side of the camera lens, I couldn’t have made anything. So I mentally tried to put myself in a familiar place. I thought about all those times I shot free throws in practice and went through the same motion, the same technique that I had used thousands of times. You forget about the outcome. You know you are doing the right things. So you relax and perform. – Michael Jordan
• Practice without improvement is meaningless. – Chuck Knox

There’s a lot of blood, sweat, and guts between dreams and success. – Paul “Bear” Bryant

• It takes less time to do something right the first time, than it does to explain why you did it wrong. – Unknown
• It isn’t the hours you put in, but what you put in the hours. – Unknown
• Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together. – Vincent Van Gogh
• The wise does at once what the fool does at last. – Gracian Baltasar

Preparation

I’ve found that when you go the extra mile, it’s never crowded. – Unknown

• Most battles are won before they are fought. – Sun Tzu
• Spectacular achievements come from unspectacular preparation. – Roger Staubach
• Before I’d get in the ring, I’d have already won or lost it on the road. The real part is won or lost somewhere far away from witnesses – behind the lines, in the gym and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights. – Muhammad All
• The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war. – Chinese proverb
• Winning is the science of being totally prepared. – George Allen
• There will come a time when winter will ask what you were doing all summer – Henry Clay
• The secret of our success is found in our daily agenda. – John C. Maxwell
• Yelling doesn’t win ball games. It doesn’t put any points on the scoreboard. And I don’t think words win ball games all the time. Players do. Preparation does. – Jerry Tarkanian

Spectacular achievement is always preceded by spectacular preparation. – Robert Schuller

• The only preparation for tomorrow is the right use of today. – Unknown
• Confidence comes from being prepared. – John Wooden
• If you plan to go the distance, you have to do the roadwork. – Chuck Parker
• If you fail to plan, plan to fail. – Unknown
• Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire and begin at once, whether you are ready or not, to put this plan into action. – Napoleon Hill
• Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. – Unknown
• Chance favors those who are prepared. – Louis Pasteur

Success

Failure isn’t so bad if it doesn’t attack the heart. Success is all right if it doesn’t go to the head. – Grantland Rice

• Everybody is looking for instant success, but it doesn’t work that way. You build a successful life one day at a time. – Lou Holtz
• The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand. – Vince Lombardi
• The secret of successful people lies in their ability to discover their strengths and organize their life so that these strengths can be applied. – John C. Maxwell
• Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it. – Henry David Thoreau
• The dictionary is the only place where success comes before work. – Mark Twain
• Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. – Albert Schweitzer

The greatest possession you have is the 24 hours directly in front of you. – Unknown

• The reward of a thing well done is to have done it. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Our days are identical suitcases – all the same size – but some people can pack more into them than others. – Unknown
• Success comes in cans; failure comes in cant’s. – Unknown
• Start by doing what’s necessary, then what’s possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible. – Francis of Assisi
• Luck: a loser’s excuse for a winner’s success. – Unknown
• You will never plough a field if you only turn it over in your mind. – Irish Proverb
• The first step to wisdom is silence; the second is listening. – Unknown

To be successful you must accept all challenges that come your way. You can’t just accept the ones you like. – Mike Galka

• Your companions are like the buttons on an elevator. They will either take you up or they will take you down. – Unknown
• My father always told me, “Find a job you love and you’ll never have to work a day in your life.” – Jim Fox
• There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure. – Gen. Colin L. Powell
• To demand more of yourself than you do of others is the first step on any ladder of success. – Unknown
• A man can be as great as he wants to be. If you believe in yourself and have the courage, the determination, the dedication, the competitive drive and if you are willing to sacrifice the little things in life and pay the price for the things that are worthwhile, it can be done. – Vince Lombardi

Success seems to be connected to action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit. – Conrad Hilton

• Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom. – General George Patton
• The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a person’s determination. – Tommy Lasorda
• Some of the world’s greatest feats were accomplished by people not smart enough to know they were impossible. – Doug Laison
• You can’t fly a kite unless you go against the wind and have a weight to keep it from turning a somersault. The same with man. No man will succeed unless he is ready to face and overcome difficulties and is prepared to assume responsibilities. – William J.H. Boetcker
• Success is getting what you want. Happiness is liking what you get. – H. Jackson Brown

Teams ( Basketball Team Quotes)

Great teamwork is the only way to reach our ultimate moments, and create breakthroughs that define our careers and fulfill our lives. – Pat Riley

• An effective organization holds a purpose that is shared by all its members and to which they will willingly commit their efforts. People working together can do almost anything. – James L. Hayes
• People acting together as a group can accomplish things which no individual acting alone could ever hope to bring about. – Franklin D. Roosevelt
• Coming together is the beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success. – Henry Ford
• Commitment to the team – there is no such thing as in-between; you are either in or out. – Pat Riley
• We must all hang together; else we shall all hang separately. – Ben Franklin
• All men like to think that they can do it alone, but a real man knows that there no substitute for support, encouragement or a pit crew. – Tim Allen

The will to win, desire to succeed, urge to reach your full potential – these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence. – Eddie Robinson

• There is one quality which one must possess to win, and that is definiteness of purpose, the knowledge of what one wants, and a burning desire to possess it. – Napoleon Hill
• I’ve got a theory that if you give 100 percent all of the time, somehow things will work out in the end. – Larry Bird
• If you want a place in the sun, you have to expect some blisters. – Unknown

Worry

• My religious beliefs teach me to feel as safe in battle as in bed. – Stonewall Jackson
• It is not work that kills, but “worry.” – Dinah Mulock
• How much pain has cost us the evils which have never happened. – Thomas Jefferson
• The reason why worry kills more people than work is that more people worry than work. – Robert Frost
• Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God – (Philippians 4:6)

Related: Basketball: Remember the Dream

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