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Athlete Quotes

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Athlete Quotes

“Boxing is a glorious sport to watch and boxers are incredible, heroic athletes, but it's also, to be honest, a stupid game to play. Even the winners can end up with crippling brain damage. In a lot of ways, hustling is the same. But you learn something special from playing the most difficult games, the games where winning is close to impossible and losing is catastrophic: You learn how to compete as if your life depended on it. That's the lesson I brought with me to the so-called "legitimate" world.”

“Now if you are going to win any battle you have to do one thing. You have to make the mind run the body. Never let the body tell the mind what to do. The body will always give up. It is always tired morning, noon, and night. But the body is never tired if the mind is not tired. When you were younger the mind could make you dance all night, and the body was never tired... You've always got to make the mind take over and keep going.”

“Somewhere behind the athlete you've become and the hours of practice and the coaches who have pushed you is a little girl who fell in love with the game and never looked back... play for her.”

“Teenage girls, please don’t worry about being super popular in high school, or being the best actress in high school, or the best athlete. Not only do people not care about any of that the second you graduate, but when you get older, if you reference your successes in high school too much, it actually makes you look kind of pitiful, like some babbling old Tennessee Williams character with nothing else going on in her current life. What I’ve noticed is that almost no one who was a big star in high school is also big star later in life. For us overlooked kids, it’s so wonderfully fair.”

“Without self-discipline, success is impossible, period.”

“Someone who doesn't make the (Olympic) team might weep and collapse. In my day no one fell on the track and cried like a baby. We lost gracefully. And when someone won, he didn't act like he'd just become king of the world, either. Athletes in my day were simply humble in our victory. I believe we were more mature then...Maybe it's because the media puts so much pressure on athletes; maybe it's also the money. In my day we competed for the love of the sport...In my day we patted the guy who beat us on the back, wished him well, and that was it.”

“I hated every minute of training, but I said, 'Don't quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.'”

“He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.”

“The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses - behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights.”

“The man who has no imagination has no wings.”

“But remember, boy, that a kind act can sometimes be as powerful as a sword. As a mortal, I was never a great fighter or athlete or poet. I only made wine. The people in my village laughed at me. They said I would never amount to anything. Look at me now. Sometimes small things can become very large indeed.”

“It's lack of faith that makes people afraid of meeting challenges, and I believed in myself.”

“I believe ability can get you to the top,” says coach John Wooden, “but it takes character to keep you there.… It’s so easy to … begin thinking you can just ‘turn it on’ automatically, without proper preparation. It takes real character to keep working as hard or even harder once you’re there. When you read about an athlete or team that wins over and over and over, remind yourself, ‘More than ability, they have character.'”

“Sweet baby Jesus, Blue Eyes was... He was gorgeous in all the ways that made girls do stupid things. He was tall, a good head or two taller than me and broad at the shoulders, but tapered at the waist. An athlete's body - like a swimmer's. Wavy black hair toppled over his forehead, brushing matching eyebrows. Broad cheekbones and wide, expressive lips completed the package created for girls to drool over. And with those sapphire-colored eyes, holy moley...”

“One man can be a crucial ingredient on a team, but one man cannot make a team.”

“You have to believe in yourself when no one else does.”

“Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.”

“Make sure your worst enemy doesn't live between your two ears.”

“If you're fail to prepare, you're prepared to fail.”

“If you don't have confidence, you'll always find a way not to win.”

“Most people give up just when they're about to achieve success.”

“You've got to take the initiative and play your game. In a decisive set, confidence is the difference.”

“Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterward.”

“Champions aren't made in the gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them-a desire, a dream, a vision.”

“The five S's of sports training are: stamina, speed, strength, skill, and spirit; but the greatest of these is spirit.”

“Toughness is in the soul and spirit, not in muscles.”

“Mental will is a muscle that needs exercise, just like the muscles of the body.”