As you think, so shall you become. — Bruce Lee
If you have a body, you are an athlete! — Bill Bowerman
I am not young enough to know everything. — James M. Barrie
Sports do not build character. They reveal it. — Heywood Broun
If you’re fail to prepare, you’re prepared to fail. — Mark Spitz
Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way. — Booker T. Washington
You have to believe in yourself when no one else does. — Serena Williams
Boxing is the toughest and loneliest sport in the world. — Frank Bruno
Age is no barrier. It’s a limitation you put on your mind. — Jackie Joyner-Kersee
College athletes used to get a degree in bringing your pencil. — Ruby Wax
When you fall, get right back up. Just keep going, keep pushing it. — Lindsey Vonn
Winning is about heart, not just legs. It’s got to be in the right place. — Lance Armstrong
It’s just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up. — Muhammad Ali
The man who graduates today and stops learning tomorrow is uneducated the day after. — Newton D. Baker
Coaches are bridge builders. It’s our job to build a bridge for our athletes to cross over. — Rick Pitino
It’s about you. If you win, it’s you; if you lose, it’s you. Black and white. Nowhere to hide. — Greg Rusedski
I don’t believe professional athletes should be role models. I believe parents should be role models. — Charles Barkley
When I watch a singer perform, or an athlete, I can’t help but be driven to be the best I can be at my craft. — Jonathan Sadowski
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 I got to do is keep getting the most out of each one of my days and keep trying to be the best athlete I can become. — Derrick Rose
Trust is a skill learned over time so that, like a well-trained athlete, one makes the right moves, usually without much reflection. — Robert C. Solomon
When you reach a certain level, you live in a bubble when all you think, dream and breathe is becoming the best athlete in the world. — Katarina Witt
Thank you to everyone that has made me the athlete I am! God, family and friends, my competitors and supporters! You have all had a hand! — Oscar Pistorius
The best athletes in any sport take stretching very seriously before and after matches. Stretching is instrumental in any athlete’s physical success. — Jozy Altidore
The sadness of the end of a career of an older athlete, with the betrayal of his body, is mirrored in the rest of us. Consciously or not, we know: there, soon, go I. — Ira Berkow
Obviously, you’re known for what you do. But you still want to be known as a good person. You’re a person a lot longer before and after you’re a professional athlete. — Derek Jeter
You find that you have peace of mind and can enjoy yourself, get more sleep, and rest when you know that it was a one hundred percent effort that you gave – win or lose. — Gordie Howe
To be the best in your field is a great ambition, and requires discipline and a huge amount of effort. The athletes who possess this drive are the ones I am attracted to. — Giorgio Armani
Overall, I think Michael Jordan is the greatest athlete in any particular sport. He dominated the game for the Chicago Bulls and brought the NBA to its greatest peak of popularity. — Will McDonough
I never blame myself when I’m not hitting. I just blame the bat and if it keeps up, I change bats. After all, if I know it isn’t my fault that I’m not hitting, how can I get mad at myself? — Yogi Berra
One of the perks of being an actor is to get to meet athletes that you respect. Especially who played before my time. Brooks Robinson is one of those athletes; they just don’t make them any nicer. — Josh Charles
Every young person is going to be inspired to be a maker from now on. It’s like how everyone used to want to be a musician, an actor, an athlete — but a maker is what people are going to want to be. — will.i.am
NASA might do well to adopt the Red Bull approach to branding and astronautics. Suddenly the man in the spacesuit is not an underpaid civil servant; he’s the ultimate extreme athlete. Red Bull knows how to make space hip. — Mary Roach
In reality, we can prove that the incidents of drug, alcohol abuse and violence have dropped dramatically among professional athletes – but the problem is it would be impossible to convince than fans, because of what they read on the AP wire. — Leigh Steinberg
I think you can just go out and try to be the best you can be, deal with people with respect, with honesty, with integrity, have a high moral standard. I’ve always really tried to exemplify that as an athlete. I’ll continue to try to do that. — Tom Brady
Once you become a professional athlete or once you do anything well, then you’re automatically a role model … I have no problem being a role model. I love it. I have kids looking up to me and hopefully I inspire these kids to do good things. — LeBron James
I’m really clear about what my life mission is now. There’s no more depression or lethargy, and I feel like I’ve returned to the athlete I once was. I’m integrating all the parts of me – jock, musician, writer, poet, philosopher – and becoming stronger as a result. — Alanis Morissette
Truthfully, this is how I approach my workout: I want to be the best athlete I can possibly be. If I can out-perform some of the better athletes then I’m happy. When I look at the NFL or the NBA, these guys look how I want to look – it’s useable, functional muscle. — Channing Tatum
There’s nothing masculine about being competitive. There’s nothing masculine about trying to be the best at everything you do, nor is there anything wrong with it. I don’t know why a female athlete has to defend her femininity just because she chooses to play sports — Rebecca Lobo
It is essential that we put an end to steroid abuse and set a better example for aspiring young athletes to follow, so that some day, when they make it in the All Star Game, it will be because of their own natural talents, and not because of a performance enhancing product. — Jim Sensenbrenner
From the very start in 1969, I wanted to be a part of helping our Special Olympics athletes succeed. I wanted to be on Eunice Shirver’s team as another set of eyes, another set of hands and a heart working to be there for them, finding a way to help them be the best they can be. — Rafer Johnson
The sport of wrestling is a tremendous builder of the values and characteristics which are needed to succeed in any walk of life. Much of what I have managed to achieve in life I owe directly to the years I spent in the wrestling room, as an athlete and a coach. Wrestling is a great educational tool. — Dennis Hastert
When you invest your time, you make a goal and a decision of something that you want to accomplish. Whether it’s make good grades in school, be a good athlete, be a good person, go down and do some community service and help somebody who’s in need, whatever it is you choose to do, you’re investing your time in that. — Nick Saban
[He] would drive his sculling boat through mile after mile, in a silent brutal programe of conditioning – he would work all alone, at first light, punishing himself without mercy. His was the private dignity of the lone athlete, with a grim purpose, fighting a solitary war with himself, toward a goal only he can see. — Daniel Topolski
The athlete who is building muscles though weight training should be very sure to work adequately on speed and flexibility at the same time. In combat, without the prior attributes, a strong man will be like the bull with its colossal strength futilely pursuing the matador or like a low-geared truck chasing a rabbit. — Bruce Lee
“”I’ve tried not to exaggerate the glory of athletes. I’d rather, if I could, preserve a sense of proportion, to write about them asexcellent ballplayers, first-rate players. But I’m sure I have contributed to false values–as Stanley Woodward said, “”””Godding up those ballplayers.””””
The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new.”” — Samuel Beckett
No building is better than its structural foundation, and no man (woman) is better than his (her) mental foundation. When I prepared my original Success Pyramid years ago, I put industriousness and enthusiasm as the two cornerstones with LOYALTY right in the middle of the pyramid – Loyalty to yourself and to all those dependent upon you. — John Wooden
O.J. Simpson existed in a bubble. So when Harry Edwards approached him about being involved in the Olympic Project for Human Rights, O.J.’s response was, famously, “”I’m not black – I’m O.J.”” O.J. had ambitions to be famous, rich and liked by everyone, and I think he understood that being political and militant as a black athlete was not a way to engender universal love. — Ezra Edelman
In the space of less than seven days, I attended a track meet in Boston, flew from there to Bowling Green for the National Jaycees, then to Rochester for the blind, Buffalo for another track meet, New York to shoot a film called The Black Athlete, Miami for Ford Motor Company, back up to New York for 45 minutes to deliver a speech, then into L. A. for another the same night. — Jesse Owens
Throughout his many years, he enriched the lives of countless others and served as a model of generosity and discipline to those he met, fostering an atmosphere of compassion, harmony, and unity. Sri Chinmoy was a leader, humanitarian, artist, athlete, and public servant who will be sorely missed. His legacy of kindness, reflection, and resolve will endure for many years to come. — William J. Clinton
What we’re seeing is an era where governments and huge organizations such as the IOC don’t have accountability. They don’t have accountability to the athletes they are supposed to be protecting and they don’t have accountability to the truth. What we’ve seen out of Russia is a continual denial, no matter what has been presented. They are still blaming Grigory Rodchenkov as an individual who did this all on his own. — Bryan Fogel
Oscar Pistorius is on the cusp of a paradigm shift in which disability becomes ability, disadvantage becomes advantage. Yet we mustn’t lose sight of what makes an athlete great. It’s too easy to credit Pistorius’ success to technology. Through birth or circumstance, some are given certain gifts, but it’s what one does with those gifts, the hours devoted to training, the desire to be the best, that is at the true heart of a champion. — Oscar Pistorius
If you want to make it as a sportsperson – Become knowledgeable in the sport you want to participate in. Think about the sport and what it can offer in its entirety. You shouldn’t want to become a professional sportsperson because of the money. There’s a lot more to gain from being involved in sport. Work hard to get what you want. If it’s your ambition, go for it. You don’t have to be the best in the world to make it as an elite athlete. You need to be a grafter and be prepared to sacrifice. — Hope Powell
I want to see all the countries in the world and learn all the languages. I want to have thousands of friends and I want all my friends to be different. I want to play six instruments. I want to be the best in the world at two things. I want to be a great athlete and I want to be a great surgeon. I need to practice very hard every day. I need to sleep as little as possible. I need to read at least one major book every week. And I need to remember that my seventy years are going to go by too quickly. — Diana Nyad
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
Look at the great athletes, musician, artists, and writers. They all tap into a source. Some call that source God or soul or spirit or consciousness. The Seven Faces of Intention: creativity, kindness, love, beauty, expansion, abundance, and receptivity. And all seven are expressions of what I imagine that source to look like. The very fact that we exist is proof to me that the nature of that source is creative at its core. And there isn’t a person reading this who does not have a gnawing sense inside that there’s something they’re here to do, something creative. — Wayne Dyer
