Our Centers for Ethics:

Quotations: Sportsmanship

---

Want more? This PDF file contains 36 pages of sports quotes.

---

The moment of victory is much too short to live for that and nothing else.
— Martina Navratilova, tennis player

If it is a cliché to say athletics build character as well as muscle, then I subscribe to the cliché.
— Gerald Ford, 38th President

Sports gives your life structure, discipline, and a pure fulfillment that few other areas of endeavor provide.
— Bob Cousy, basketball player

One man practicing good sportsmanship is far better than 50 others preaching it.
— Knute Rockne, football coach

I never thought about losing, but now that it’s happened, the only thing is to do it right.
— Muhammad Ali, boxer

Football is like life. It teaches work, sacrifice, perseverance, competitive drive, selflessness, and respect for authority.
— Vince Lombardi, football coach

World War II was a must win.
— Marv Levy, football coach

Dictators lead through fear; good coaches do not.
— John Wooden, basketball coach

A good coach will make his players see what they can be rather than what they are.
— Ara Parseghian, football coach

I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career, lost almost 300 games, missed the game-winning shot 26 times. I’ve failed over and over again in my life. That is why I succeed.
— Michael Jordan, basketball player

Champions keep playing until they get it right.
— Billie Jean King, tennis player

You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take.
— Wayne Gretzky, hockey player

The only way to prove you’re a good sport is to lose.
— Ernie Banks, baseball player

It is your response to winning and losing that makes you a winner or a loser.
— Harry Sheehy, athletic director

If you can believe it, the mind can achieve it.
— Ronnie Lott, football player

The difference between a successful person and others is not lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but a lack of will.
— Vince Lombardi, football coach

It does not matter how many times you get knocked down, but how many times you get up.
— Vince Lombardi, football coach

The will must be stronger than the skill.
— Muhammed Ali, boxer

Love never fails, character never quits, and dreams do come true.
— Pete Maravich, basketball player

Always imitate the behavior of the winner when you lose.
— Anonymous

It’s not up to anyone else to make me give my best.
— Hakeem Olajuwon, basketball player

In golf and in life, it’s the follow-through that makes the difference. 
— Anonymous

If all I’m remembered for is being a good basketball player, then I’ve done a bad job with the rest of my life.
— Isiah Thomas, basketball player

Once you learn to quit, it becomes a habit.
— Vince Lombardi, football coach

When the game is over, it is really just beginning.
— Jerry Kramer, football player

When the Great Scorer comes to mark against your name,
He writes not that you won or lost, but how you played the Game.
— Grantland Rice, sportswriter