Encouraging Basketball Quotes

• We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.

  Will Durant

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

  456 Copy quote

• The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender.

  Vince Lombardi

  Inspirational, Motivational, Basketball

  Vince Lombardi (2012). “What it Takes to be Number One”, p.70, Thomas Nelson Inc

  62 Copy quote

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• Winning is overrated. The only time it is really important is in surgery and war.

  Al McGuire

  Leadership, Basketball, Sports

  19 Copy quote

• Be strong in body, clean in mind, lofty in ideals.

  James Naismith

  Inspirational, Motivational, Basketball

  47 Copy quote

• We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails.

  Dolly Parton

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

  Twitter post from May 11, 2010

  48 Copy quote

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• Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Motivational, Inspiring, Leadership

  Theodore Roosevelt (2015). “Theodore Roosevelt on Bravery: Lessons from the Most Courageous Leader of the Twentieth Century”, p.5, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

  520 Copy quote

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• The idea is not to block every shot. The idea is to make your opponent believe that you might block every shot.

  Bill Russell

  Basketball, Motivational Sports, Block

  92 Copy quote

• Don't give up. Don't ever give up.

  Jim Valvano

  Basketball, Sports, Giving Up

  Arthur Ashe Courage Award Acceptance Address, delivered 3 March 1993

  48 Copy quote

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• Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.

  John Wooden

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

  "This Speech Was Given Before The #4Women4AllWomen Run" by Powdered Feet, womensrunning.competitor.com. January 25, 2017.

  216 Copy quote

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• The measure of who we are is what we do with what we have.

  Vince Lombardi

  Inspirational, Motivational, Running

  47 Copy quote

• A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.

  Francis Bacon

  Inspirational, Success, Graduation

  1625 Essays, no.52,'Of Ceremonies and Respects'.

  35 Copy quote

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• Basketball is like war in that offensive weapons are developed first, and it always takes a while for the defense to catch up.

  Red Auerbach

  Motivational, Basketball, Sports

  20 Copy quote

• Imagination is more important than knowledge.

  Albert Einstein

  Inspirational, Positive, Leadership

  Albert Einstein (2015). “Bite-Size Einstein: Quotations on Just About Everything from the Greatest Mind of the Twentieth Century”, p.32, St. Martin's Press

  229 Copy quote

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• Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.

  Vince Lombardi

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

  President Robert Robbins' Installation Speech, president.arizona.edu. November 29, 2017.

  122 Copy quote

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  Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.

  Henry Ford

  Inspirational, Success, Leadership

  615 Copy quote

• Effort is only effort when it begins to hurt.

  Jose Ortega y Gasset

  Basketball, Art, Hurt

  53 Copy quote

• Be more concerned with your character than your reputation.

  John Wooden

  Basketball, Motivational Sports, Character

  Andrew Hill, John Wooden (2002). “Be Quick - But Don't Hurry: Finding Success in the Teachings of a Lifetime”, p.114, Simon and Schuster

  23 Copy quote

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• Other people go to the office. I get to coach. I know I've been blessed.

  Jim Valvano

  Basketball, Motivational Sports, Blessed

  9 Copy quote

• If what you have done yesterday still looks big to you. You haven't done much today.

  Mikhail Gorbachev

  Basketball, Running, Yesterday

  Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev, Green Cross International (2011). “Mikhail Gorbachev: Prophet of Change : from the Cold War to a Sustainable World”, p.322, CLAIRVIEW BOOKS

  109 Copy quote

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• Winning is about having the whole team on the same page.

  Bill Walton

  Motivational, Basketball, Sports

  51 Copy quote

• It is not the critic who counts...The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Success, Courage, Badass

  Address at the Sorbonne, Paris, 23 Apr. 1910. Richard M. Nixon quoted this passage in his address to the nation announcing his decision to resign the presidency, 8 Aug. 1974. See Theodore Roosevelt 1; Theodore Roosevelt 2; Theodore Roosevelt 5

  26 Copy quote

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  What to do with a mistake: recognize it, admit it, learn from it, forget it.

  Dean Smith

  Inspiring, Basketball, Sports

  69 Copy quote

• You can run a lot of plays when your X is twice as big as the other guys' O. It makes your X's and O's pretty good.

  Paul Westphal

  Inspirational, Basketball, Running

  21 Copy quote

• The coach should be the absolute boss, but he still should maintain an open mind.

  Red Auerbach

  Basketball, Sports, Boss

  6 Copy quote

• The most important quality I look for in a player is accountability. You've got to be accountable for who you are. It's too easy to blame things on someone else.

  Lenny Wilkens

  Motivational, Basketball, Sports

  4 Copy quote