Life is full of competitions, both big and small. From school sports to professional careers, the urge to compete drives us to improve and achieve. Quotes about competition can inspire, motivate, and remind us of the spirit of striving to be our best.
In this article, we’ve gathered some of the best quotes on competition. These words from athletes, leaders, and thinkers will help you push through challenges and reach your goals.
Motivational Quotes for Competitors
“The only limit to our realization of tomorrow is our doubts of today.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt
“Champions keep playing until they get it right.” ― Billie Jean King
“The harder the battle, the sweeter the victory.” ― Les Brown
“Winning isn’t everything, but wanting to win is.” ― Vince Lombardi
“Don’t watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going.” ― Sam Levenson
“Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom.” ― George S. Patton
“Once you learn to quit, it becomes a habit.” ― Vince Lombardi
“The measure of who we are is what we do with what we have.” ― Vince Lombardi
“In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.” ― Albert Einstein
“The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus.” ― Bruce Lee
“It’s not whether you get knocked down; it’s whether you get up.” ― Vince Lombardi
“Yesterday’s home runs don’t win today’s games.” ― Babe Ruth
“The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a person’s determination.” ― Tommy Lasorda
“Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” ― Theodore Roosevelt
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” ― Winston Churchill
“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” ― Wayne Gretzky
“The only one who can tell you ‘you can’t win’ is you, and you don’t have to listen.” ― Jessica Ennis
“Do not wait to strike till the iron is hot; but make it hot by striking.” ― William Butler Yeats
“The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack in will.” ― Vince Lombardi
“Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” ― Confucius
“A champion is someone who gets up when he can’t.” ― Jack Dempsey
“Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen.” ― Michael Jordan
“Opportunities are usually disguised as hard work, so most people don’t recognize them.” ― Ann Landers
“Don’t count the days, make the days count.” ― Muhammad Ali
“The best way to predict the future is to create it.” ― Peter Drucker
“What you do today can improve all your tomorrows.” ― Ralph Marston
“Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.” ― Robert Collier
“To be a champ, you have to believe in yourself when nobody else will.” ― Sugar Ray Robinson
“The more difficult the victory, the greater the happiness in winning.” ― Pelé
“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” ― C.S. Lewis
“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
Inspirational Quotes on Winning
“Winning isn’t everything, but the will to win is everything.” – Vince Lombardi
“The moment you give up is the moment you let someone else win.” – Kobe Bryant
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston S. Churchill
“Winning takes talent, to repeat takes character.” – John Wooden
“Run when you can, walk if you have to, crawl if you must; just never give up.” – Dean Karnazes
“it’s extra effort that separates a winner from second place. But winning takes a lot more than that, too. It starts with complete command of the fundamentals.” – Pat Riley
“Victory belongs to the most persevering.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
“To win is to rise above oneself and grasp eternity.” – Friedrich Nietzsche
“Winning is a state of mind that embraces everything you do.” – Bryce Courtenay
“To be a champion, you have to believe in yourself when nobody else will.” – Sugar Ray Robinson
“Winning is about struggle and effort and optimism, and never, ever, ever giving up.” – Amby Burfoot
“Champions keep playing until they get it right.” – Billie Jean King
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena.” – Theodore Roosevelt
“Those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly.” – John F. Kennedy
“Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn.” – John Maxwell
“Grit is the stubborn refusal to quit.” – Jonah Lehrer
“Winning is something that builds physically and mentally every day that you train and every night that you dream.” – Emmitt Smith
“The harder the battle, the sweeter the victory.” – Les Brown
“You learn more from losing than winning. You learn how to keep going.” – Morgan Wootten
“Every accomplishment starts with the decision to try.” – Unknown
“Victory comes from finding opportunities in problems.” – Sun Tzu
“The best way to predict the future is to create it.” – Peter Drucker
“To compete, you must be confident; to win, you must be obsessed.” – Unknown
“Live daringly, boldly, fearlessly. Taste the relish to be found in competition – in having put forth the best within you.” – Henry J. Kaiser
“Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.” – Pelé
“Winning doesn’t always mean being first. Winning means you’re doing better than you’ve ever done before.” – Bonnie Blair
“Victory is sweetest when you’ve known defeat.” – Malcolm Forbes
“You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.” – Michael Jordan
“Strength doesn’t come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths.” – Arnold Schwarzenegger
“A true champion can adapt to anything.” – Floyd Mayweather Jr.
“Winners are willing to go longer, work harder, and give more than anyone else.” – Vince Lombardi
Famous Quotes from Athletes
“The only way to prove that you’re a good sport is to lose.” – Ernest Hemingway
“Champions keep playing until they get it right.” – Billie Jean King
“Winning isn’t everything, but wanting to win is.” – Vince Lombardi
“The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” – Nelson Mandela
“I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.” – Michael Jordan
“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” – Wayne Gretzky
“Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.” – John Wooden
“Sports do not build character; they reveal it.” – Heywood Broun
“The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a person’s determination.” – Tommy Lasorda
“To uncover your true potential, you must first find your own limits, and then you have to have the courage to blow past them.” – Picabo Street
“Age is no barrier. It’s a limitation you put on your mind.” – Jackie Joyner-Kersee
“I’ve learned that something constructive comes from every defeat.” – Tom Landry
“A winner is that person who gets up one more time than he was knocked down.” – Mia Hamm
“You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.” – Michael Jordan
“It’s not whether you get knocked down; it’s whether you get up.” – Vince Lombardi
“Gold medals aren’t really made of gold. They’re made of sweat, determination, and a hard-to-find alloy called guts.” – Dan Gable
“Do you know what my favorite part of the game is? The opportunity to play.” – Mike Singletary
“There may be people that have more talent than you, but there’s no excuse for anyone to work harder than you do.” – Derek Jeter
“A trophy carries dust. Memories last forever.” – Mary Lou Retton
“The more difficult the victory, the greater the happiness in winning.” – Pelé
“Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever.” – Lance Armstrong
“Winning takes talent; to repeat takes character.” – John Wooden
“The harder the battle, the sweeter the victory.” – Les Brown
“It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog.” – Archie Griffin
“If you can’t outplay them, outwork them.” – Ben Hogan
“Success is where preparation and opportunity meet.” – Bobby Unser
“What you lack in talent can be made up with desire, hustle, and giving 110% all the time.” – Don Zimmer
“Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.” – Pelé
“It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get up.” – Vince Lombardi
“Winners never quit and quitters never win.” – Vince Lombardi
“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
Quotes on Teamwork and Competition
“Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.” – Michael Jordan
“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” – Helen Keller
“Competition makes us faster; collaboration makes us better.” – Anonymous
“Success is best when it’s shared.” – Howard Schultz
“The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.” – Phil Jackson
“In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.” – Charles Darwin
“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” – African Proverb
“It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.” – Harry S. Truman
“One man can be a crucial ingredient on a team, but one man cannot make a team.” – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
“Teamwork divides the task and multiplies the success.” – Anonymous
“None of us is as smart as all of us.” – Ken Blanchard
“Great things in business are never done by one person; they’re done by a team of people.” – Steve Jobs
“Collaboration has no hierarchy. The Sun collaborates with soil to bring flowers on the earth.” – Amit Ray
“Competition brings out the best in products and the worst in people.” – David Sarnoff
“When competition is fierce, collaboration is priceless.” – Anonymous
“We rise by lifting others.” – Robert Ingersoll
“There’s nothing wrong with staying small. You can do big things with a small team.” – Jason Fried
“The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.” – Vidal Sassoon
“Cooperation is the thorough conviction that nobody can get there unless everybody gets there.” – Virginia Burden
“The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don’t play together, the club won’t be worth a dime.” – Babe Ruth
“Unity is strength… when there is teamwork and collaboration, wonderful things can be achieved.” – Mattie Stepanek
“Good teams become great ones when the members trust each other enough to surrender the ‘me’ for the ‘we’.” – Phil Jackson
“A single leaf working alone provides no shade.” – Chuck Page
“Collaboration allows us to know more than we are capable of knowing by ourselves.” – Paul Solarz
“Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.” – Henry Ford
“Teamwork is the secret that makes common people achieve uncommon results.” – Ifeanyi Enoch Onuoha
“Teamwork is not just working together, it’s working together towards the same goal.” – Anonymous
“A successful team is a group of many hands and one mind.” – Bill Bethel
“Competition is a sin.” – John D. Rockefeller
“Individual commitment to a group effort – that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.” – Vince Lombardi
“The power of one, if fearless and focused, is formidable, but the power of many working together is better.” – Gloria Macapagal Arroyo
Quotes on Overcoming Challenges
“The greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it.” – Molière
“Difficulties in life are intended to make us better, not bitter.” – Dan Reeves
“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“It’s not whether you get knocked down. It’s whether you get up.” – Vince Lombardi
“The only way to achieve the impossible is to believe it is possible.” – Charles Kingsleigh, “Alice in Wonderland” (2010)
“The best way out is always through.” – Robert Frost
“Adversity causes some men to break; others to break records.” – William Arthur Ward
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill
“Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” – Confucius
“A challenge only becomes an obstacle when you bow to it.” – Ray Davis
“When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what the storm is all about.” – Haruki Murakami
“The harder the conflict, the greater the triumph.” – George Washington
“Courage is not having the strength to go on; it is going on when you don’t have the strength.” – Theodore Roosevelt
“You can’t cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water.” – Rabindranath Tagore
“Challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.” – Joshua J. Marine
“Fall seven times, stand up eight.” – Japanese Proverb
“The only limit to our realization of tomorrow is our doubts of today.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt
“Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome.” – Booker T. Washington
“Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.” – Henry Ford
“In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity.” – Albert Einstein
“Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.” – Arnold Schwarzenegger
“The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it. Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests.” – Epicetus
“A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt
“Challenges are gifts that force us to search for a new center of gravity. Don’t fight them. Just find a new way to stand.” – Oprah Winfrey
“The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” – Lao Tzu
“You never know how strong you are until being strong is your only choice.” – Bob Marley
“It always seems impossible until it’s done.” – Nelson Mandela
“Sometimes life is about risking everything for a dream no one can see but you.” – Anonymous
“Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.” – Napoleon Hill
“When life gets tough, the tough get going.” – Billy Ocean
“Life’s challenges are not supposed to paralyze you; they’re supposed to help you discover who you are.” – Bernice Johnson Reagon
“Strength grows in the moments when you think you can’t go on but you keep going anyway.” – Anonymous
Quotes to Fuel Your Competitive Spirit
“The most important thing is to try and inspire people so that they can be great in whatever they want to do.” – Kobe Bryant
“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” – Wayne Gretzky
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill
“To be the best, you must be able to handle the worst.” – Wilson Kanadi
“The harder the battle, the sweeter the victory.” – Les Brown
“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” – C.S. Lewis
“Don’t watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going.” – Sam Levenson
“It’s not about how bad you want it. It’s about how hard you’re willing to work for it.” – Anonymous
“To win without risk is to triumph without glory.” – Pierre Corneille
“Champions keep playing until they get it right.” – Billie Jean King
“You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.” – Michael Jordan
“Opportunities are usually disguised as hard work, so most people don’t recognize them.” – Ann Landers
“It’s not the will to win that matters—everyone has that. It’s the will to prepare to win that matters.” – Paul Bryant
“Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” – Theodore Roosevelt
“Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.” – Vincent Van Gogh
“Don’t count the days, make the days count.” – Muhammad Ali
“If you’re not first, you’re last.” – Ricky Bobby (Talladega Nights)
“It always seems impossible until it’s done.” – Nelson Mandela
“I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.” – Stephen R. Covey
“The key is not the will to win. Everybody has that. It is the will to prepare to win that is important.” – Bobby Knight
“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Action is the foundational key to all success.” – Pablo Picasso
“Your competitors can copy your work but not your passion.” – Amit Kalantri
“A little progress each day adds up to big results.” – Satya Nani
“If you want to be the best, you have to do the things that others aren’t willing to do.” – Michael Phelps
“I never lose. I either win or learn.” – Nelson Mandela
“Work hard in silence, let your success be your noise.” – Frank Ocean
“The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a person’s determination.” – Tommy Lasorda
“The road to success is dotted with many tempting parking spaces.” – Will Rogers
“Push yourself, because no one else is going to do it for you.” – Anonymous
“The only way to prove that you’re a good sport is to lose.” – Ernie Banks
“In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.” – Albert Einstein
Wisdom Quotes in Competitive Contexts
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill
“it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” – Abraham Lincoln
“Do not wait to strike till the iron is hot; but make it hot by striking.” – William Butler Yeats
“The only way to prove that you’re a good sport is to lose.” – Ernie Banks
“Champions keep playing until they get it right.” – Billie Jean King
“It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.” – Sir Edmund Hillary
“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“You must expect great things of yourself before you can do them.” – Michael Jordan
“Opportunities don’t happen. You create them.” – Chris Grosser
“The best revenge is massive success.” – Frank Sinatra
“A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.” – Ayn Rand
“The more difficult the victory, the greater the happiness in winning.” – Pele
“Competition gives life meaning, and winning makes it all worthwhile.” – Original Contribution
“Don’t watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going.” – Sam Levenson
“In the realm of ideas everything depends on enthusiasm… in the real world all rests on perseverance.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“Winning isn’t everything, but wanting to win is.” – Vince Lombardi
“To climb steep hills requires a slow pace at first.” – William Shakespeare
“The secret of success is to do the common things uncommonly well.” – John D. Rockefeller
“Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.” – John Wooden
“It’s not whether you get knocked down; it’s whether you get up.” – Vince Lombardi
“To be number one, you have to train like you’re number two.” – Maurice Greene
“You can’t put a limit on anything. The more you dream, the farther you get.” – Michael Phelps
“The will to win means nothing without the will to prepare.” – Juma Ikangaa
“The more you sweat in practice, the less you bleed in battle.” – Richard Marcinko
“A winner never stops trying.” – Tom Landry
“Do something today that your future self will thank you for.” – Sean Patrick Flanery
“Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.” – William James
“The key to success is to focus our conscious mind on things we desire not things we fear.” – Brian Tracy
“Every champion was once a contender that refused to give up.” – Rocky Balboa
“Without a struggle, there can be no progress.” – Frederick Douglass
“The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.” – Thomas Paine
Last Words
Wrapping up, competition quotes serve as a powerful reminder of the determination and drive needed to succeed. These quotes inspire action, boost motivation, and help keep focus on achieving goals. They reflect the spirit of pushing boundaries and striving for excellence.
Whether you’re an athlete, a student, or a professional, these quotes can fuel your ambition and help you face challenges with confidence. Let them guide your mindset and actions. Stay motivated, stay competitive, and let these words of wisdom propel you forward.
