Sport Quotes

Our best and favourite sport quotes.

Sport quotes from Muhammed Ali, Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Alex Ferguson, Tyson Fury and Brian Cough. For sports fans, quotes which offer the epitome of hard work and dedication, and also inspire and amuse.

Sport Quotes

1. "It is not the size of a man but the size of his heart that matters."
   - Evander Holyfield
2. "The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part; the essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well."
   - Pierre de Coubertin
3. "Statistics are like bikinis - they show a lot but not everything."
   - Luo Piniella
4. "I look into their eyes, shake their hand, pat their back, and wish them luck, but I am thinking, 'I am going to bury you.'"
   - Seve Ballesteros
5. "If you eat caviar everyday, it's difficult to return to sausages."
   - Arsene Wenger
6. "I can dribble with my right hand and I can dribble with my left hand. I'm amphibious."
   - Charles Shackleford
7. "Worrying gets you nowhere. if you turn up worrying about how you’re going to perform, you’ve already lost. Train hard, turn up, run your best and the rest will take care of itself."
   - Usain Bolt
8. "Do you have any problems, other than that you're unemployed, a moron, and a dork?"
   - John McEnroe
9. "A lifetime of training for just ten seconds."
   - Jesse Owens
10. "You big dosser."
    - Tyson Fury
11. "Boxing is just show business with blood."
    - Frank Bruno
12. "Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I assure you, it's much more serious than that."
    - Bill Shankly
13. "Let that be a lesson to you all. Nobody beats Vitas Gerulaitis 17 times in a row!"
    - Vitas Gerulaitis
14. "I’ve failed over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."
    - Michael Jordan
15. "That's the greatest comeback since Lazarus."
    - Sid Waddell
16. "Hockey is a sport for white men. Basketball is a sport for black men. Golf is a sport for white men dressed like black pimps."
    - Tiger Woods
17. "In the dust of defeat as well as the laurels of victory there is a glory to be found if one has done his best."
    - Eric Liddell
18. "Rugby players are either piano shifters or piano movers. Fortunately, I am one of those who can play a tune."
    - Pierre Danos
19. "I’ve been in the twilight of my career longer than most people have had their career."
    - Martina Navratilova
20. "I quit school in the sixth grade because of pneumonia. Not because I had it, but because I couldn't spell it."
    - Rocky Graziano
21. "In any sport, you need a rival."
    - Phil Taylor
22. "If you fail to prepare, you’re prepared to fail."
    - Mark Spitz
23. "It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it’s the pebble in your shoe."
    - Muhammed Ali
24. "We had a good team on paper. Unfortunately, the game was played on grass."
    - Brian Clough
25. "He dribbles a lot and the opposition don’t like it – you can see it all over their faces."
    - Ron Atkinson
26. "All this cuddling and kissing on stage these days, well it's all right in football when someone scores a goal, but not when you're playing darts."
    - Eric Bristow
27. "Never give up; just absolutely never give up."
    - Shane Warne
28. "You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take."
    - Wayne Gretzky
29. "He called me a ‘rapist’ and a ‘recluse.’ I’m not a recluse."
    - Mike Tyson
30. "The more I practice, the luckier I get."
    - Gary Player
31. "I should be a postage stamp. That’s the only way I’ll ever get licked."
    - Muhammad Ali
32. "If you have everything under control, you’re not moving fast enough."
    - Mario Andretti
33. "It ain't over 'til it's over."
    - Yogi Berra
34. "If you don’t have confidence, you’ll always find a way not to win."
    - Carl Lewis
35. "It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up."
    - Babe Ruth
36. "A champion is someone who gets up when he can’t."
    - Jack Dempsey
37. "Champions aren't made in the gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them -- a desire, a dream, a vision."
    - Muhammad Ali
38. "I went to a fight the other night, and a hockey game broke out."
    - Rodney Dangerfield
39. "If you think it's hard to meet new people, try picking up the wrong golf ball."
    - Jack Lemmon
40. "The difference between a score in the 90s and a century is often reflected as the difference between failure and success. It may be illogical, but in cricket, a century has its own magic."
    - Geoffrey Boycott
41. "If you gone come in second, you're just the first loser!"
    - Tiger Woods
42. "Remember that rugby is a team game; all 14 of you make sure you pass the ball to Jonah."
    - Anonymous fax to the New Zealand rugby team in 1995
43. "Ah, isn’t that nice, the wife of the Cambridge president is kissing the cox of the Oxford crew."
    - Harry Carpenter
44. "If you're not in it you can't win it."
    - Daley Thompson
45. "I don't ask my wife to face Michael Holding, so there's no reason why I should be changing nappies."
    - Ian Botham
46. "The trouble with referees is that they know the rules, but they do not know the game."
    - Bill Shankly
47. "I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just squandered."
    - George Best
48. "Whoever said 'It's not whether you win or lose that counts' probably lost."
    - Martina Navratilova
49. "If anyone sees me go near a boat, you’ve got my permission to shoot me."
    - Steve Redgrave
50. "Football is a simple game. Twenty-two men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans always win."
    - Gary Lineker
51. "It’s not whether you get knocked down; it’s whether you get up."
    - Vince Lombardi
52. "Compromise for your Dream but never Compromise on your Dream."
    - Imran Khan
53. "When the seagulls follow the trawler, it's because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea. Thank you very much."
    - Eric Cantona
54. "Rugby backs can be identified because they generally have clean jerseys and identifiable partings in their hair… come the revolution the backs will be the first to be lined up against the wall and shot for living parasitically off the work of others."
    - Peter Fizsimmons
55. "We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline and effort."
    - Jesse Owen
56. "I owe a lot to my parents, especially by mother and my father."
    - Greg Norman
57. "We didn’t underestimate them. They were a lot better than we thought."
    - Bobby Robson
58. "Golf is my real profession. Entertainment is just a sideline. I tell jokes to pay my greens fees."
    - Bob Hope
59. "I had to lift players' expectations. They should never give in. I said that to them all the time: "If you give in once, you'll give in twice."
    - Sir Alex Ferguson
60. "There are 7 billion people in the world, but there's only one heavyweight champion of the world, and that's me."
    - Tyson Fury
61. "My parents have been there for me, ever since I was about 7."
    - David Beckham
62. "Sure there have been injuries and deaths in boxing — but none of them serious."
    - Alan Minter
63. "I guess I’m gonna fade into Bolivian."
    - Mike Tyson
64. "I'm so mean I make medicine sick."
    - Muhammed Ali
65. "The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary."
    - Vince Lombardi
66. "I'll pray for him so God will soften his heart."
    - Tyson Fury
67. "Things won’t go perfect. It’s all about how you adapt from those things and learn from mistakes."
    - Michael Phelps
68. "When Alexander of Macedon was 33, he cried salt tears because there were no more worlds to conquer. Eric Bristow is only 27."
    - Sid Waddel1
69. "Scientists have proven that it's impossible to long-jump 30 feet, but I don't listen to that kind of talk. Thoughts like that have a way of sinking into your feet."
    - Carl Lewis
70. "No Alex Higgins, no snooker."
    - Alex Higgins