Sports Quotes:

Sport is how poor kids from poor countries pass through the eye of the needle to riches and recognition.

- A. A. Gill

topic: Sports, Country, Kids

The gods have fled, I know. My sense is the gods have always been essentially absent. I do not believe human beings have played games or sports from the beginning merely to summon or to please or to appease the gods. If anthropologists and historians believe that, it is because they believe whatever they have been able to recover about what humankind told the gods humankind was doing. I believe we have played games, and watched games, to imitate the gods, to become godlike in our worship of eachother and, through those moments of transmutation, to know for an instant what the gods know.

- A. Bartlett Giamatti

topic: Sports, Believe, Games, Godlike, Transmutation

Major sports are major parts of society. It's not anomalous to have people who love sports come from other parts of that society.

- A. Bartlett Giamatti

topic: Sports, People

You have no control over what the other guy does. You only have control over what you do.

- A. J. Kitt

topic: Sports, Guy, Doe

Remember that sports are meant to be fun. Don't let someone make the sport unfun for you.

- A. J. Kitt

topic: Sports, Fun, Athlete

Walking is the favorite sport of the good and wise.

- A. L. Rowse

topic: Sports, Wise, Favorite Sports

After love, book collecting is the most exhilarating sport of all.

- A. S. W. Rosenbach

topic: Sports, Book, Collecting

If I can slow it down in my mind, things will be fine.

- Aaron Rodgers

topic: Motivational, Sports, Mind

It's a special honor to be one of the leaders of this football team. But I said it once, I'll say it again, no one person wins a game by themselves. Individually, it's top of the mountain, my sport, my profession. It's what you dream about as a kid.

- Aaron Rodgers

topic: Sports, Football, Dream

I didn't grow up a theatre kid, going to theatre camps. I played sports, and that was my main direction. But luckily, I never had to choose between sports and theatre.

- Aaron Tveit

topic: Sports, Growing Up, Kids

You always catch the wrong players.

- Abe Lemons

topic: Sports, Player, Psychology

Basketball is my favorite sport, and I'm also a very passionate football fan.

- Abhishek Bachchan

topic: Basketball, Sports, Football

If you trust, you will be disappointed occasionally, but if you mistrust, you will be miserable all the time.

- Abraham Lincoln

topic: Sports, Miserable, Mistrust

Let me be clear: Any new approach must ensure the integrity of the game. One of my most important responsibilities as commissioner of the NBA is to protect the integrity of professional basketball and preserve public confidence in the league and our sport. I oppose any course of action that would compromise these objectives. But I believe that sports betting should be brought out of the underground and into the sunlight where it can be appropriately monitored and regulated

- Adam Silver

topic: Basketball, Sports, Integrity, Sports Betting, Commissioners

Flying is more than a sport and more than a job; flying is pure passion and desire, which fill a lifetime.

- Adolf Galland

source: Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

topic: Sports, Jobs, Passion, Passion And Desire

We're never as good as we think we are, nor as bad as we think we are.

- Adolph Rupp

topic: Sports, Thinking

I wouldn't give one iota to make a trip from the cradle to the grave unless I could live in a competitive world.

- Adolph Rupp

topic: Motivational, Sports, Giving

I've always envied the kind of coach who could go completely out of his mind and nobody would know the difference.

- Adolph Rupp

topic: Leadership, Sports, Differences

Boxing is an all year round sport. You never know when they're going to call you, so you got to stay ready.

- Adrien Broner

topic: Sports, Motivation, Years

Gambling in the mark has been the great indoor sport of the capitalists for months, and consequently food has increased by 25 to 100 per cent.

- Agnes Smedley

topic: Sports, Gambling, Squash

It would indeed be a great delusion, if we stated that those sports of Nature [we find] enclosed in rocks are there by chance or by some vague creative power. Ah, that would be superficial indeed! In reality, those shells, which once were alive in water and are now dead and decomposed, were made thus by time not Nature; and what we now find as very hard, figured stone, was once soft mud and which received the impression of the shape of a shell, as I have frequently demonstrated.

- Agostino Scilla

topic: Life, Sports, Reality

Sports can unite a group of people from different backgrounds, all working together to achieve a common goal. And even if they fall short, sharing that journey is an experience they'll never forget. It can teach some of the most fundamental and important human values: dedication, perseverance, hard work, and teamwork. It also teaches us how to handle our success and cope with our failure. So, perhaps the greatest glory of sport is that is teaches us so much about life itself.

- Ahmad Rashad

topic: Teamwork, Sports, Perseverance, Common Goal

In sports, I refused to do any interviews that were just going to become human-interest stories. Don't turn me into a tragic heroine.

- Aimee Mullins

topic: Sports, Stories, Interviews

Everyone is really afraid of getting out there and not being good. That's the challenge: To be afraid and know people are staring at you and know you might not do all that well, but you do it anyway. What singles out the successful athlete from the ones who never make it past a plateau, it that successful athletes risk failure, even though they are terrified.

- Aimee Mullins

topic: Softball, Sports, Motivation, Staring At You

The power of the human will to compete and the drive to excel beyond the body's normal capabilities is most beautifully demonstrated in the arena of sport.

- Aimee Mullins

topic: Sports, Athlete, Body

An athlete experiences the emotions of pain and elation through triumph and defeat, through teamwork and individuality, as nothing more than a human being...that is the true glory of sport.

- Aimee Mullins

topic: Sports, Teamwork, Pain

Success isn't winning every time. A lot of different factors go into every race, and you can't control all of them. Success means doing as excellent a job as you can on that particular day. The people I admire most aren't necessarily the most wonderful athletes. I admire the ones who keep coming back and doing it, time after time.

- Aimee Mullins

topic: Softball, Sports, Jobs

My love for sports will never die. I love martial arts and I want to promote it in whichever way I can. I am a fighter first, then an actor.

- Akshay Kumar

topic: Sports, Art, Actors

This is a hump you have to get over, and it usually comes in the first series. You get over the hump and you're on a roll.

- Al Arbour

topic: Sports, Psychology, Firsts, Sports Psychology

We have forty-four defenses for him, but he has forty-five ways to score.

- Al Attles

topic: Sports, Defense, Four

To the victor belong the responsibilities.

- Al Bernstein

topic: Sports, Responsibility

It hurt me a great deal. It put a lot of pressure on me because I was at a young age and the writers around here and throughout the league starting comparing me to Cobb. It put a lot of pressure on me.

- Al Kaline

topic: Sports, Hurt, League

One reason outfielders don't have stronger arms might be they don't practice as much as we did. Most teams today don't take outfield practice. Another reason is baseball has to compete with other sports now - basketball, football, soccer - for the better athletes that might have more skills and stronger arms.

- Al Kaline

topic: Basketball, Soccer, Sports, Outfielders

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

- Al McGuire

topic: Leadership, Basketball, Sports, Winning Basketball, Encouraging Basketball

Keep it simple, when you get too complex you forget the obvious.

- Al McGuire

topic: Sports, Simple, Forget, Inspirational Coaching, Sports Coach

You measure a player from the head up.

- Al McGuire

topic: Motivational, Sports, Player

I don't know why people question the academic training of an athlete. Fifty percent of the doctors in this country graduated in the bottom half of their classes.

- Al McGuire

topic: Sports, Country, Silly

I believe in a business boarding up early. If you make a mistake, you put the boards in the window of the store and say, "Hey, I made a mistake." Let me take two shots in the arm and a punch on the nose and let me get on to the next thing. I don't believe in worrying over failures. I worry about successes. This is opposite from most people. Most people zero in on their failures. I try to keep all my attention on a pyramid type philosophy rather than the averaging-down philosophy.

- Al McGuire

topic: Leadership, Sports, Zero

I tell the players that they can't relive any day in their lives and that they can't relive the minutes of a game, so they should make a great effort, a Mount Everest type effort, to live up to their potential. Success is a communal type thing, and if we win, then everyone can be considered successful and we can move uptown together.

- Al McGuire

topic: Sports, Moving, Successful, Uptown, Mount Everest

Do you believe in miracles?

- Al Michaels

source: Television broadcast of Olympic hockey game, 24 Feb. 1980

topic: Sports, Believe, Miracle, Believe In Miracles

I don't think the discus will ever attract any interest until they let us start throwing them at one another.

- Al Oerter

topic: Sports, Thinking, Throwing, Bloopers

So what if I never win my fifth gold medal; It's only one end of the string. It's competing that matters. It's proving that there is a place for guys like me in sports. It's a persona challenge to extend myself.

- Al Oerter

topic: Leadership, Sports, Winning

I was foreign and Jewish, with a funny name, and was very small and hated sport, a real problem at an English prep school. So the way to get round it was to become the school joker, which I did quite effectively - I was always fooling around to make the people who would otherwise dump me in the loo laugh.

- Alain de Botton

topic: Sports, Real, School, Fooling Around, Funny Name

I was looking at the history of the sport and I couldn't understand why there have been so many good South American drivers, especially Brazilians.

- Alain Prost

topic: Sports, Squash, Drivers

When you win a race like this the feeling is very, very good. There have been times when I have been flat-out to finish sixth, but you can't see that from the outside. In 1980 I finished three or four times in seventh place. I pushed like mad, yet everyone was gathered around the winner and they were thinking that I was just trundling around. But that's motor racing. So in fact the only thing you can judge in this sport is the long term. You can judge a career or a season, but not one race.

- Alain Prost

source: "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

topic: Sports, Thinking, Winning, Motor Racing

So in fact the only thing you can judge in this sport its the longterm. You can judge a career or a season, but not one race.

- Alain Prost

topic: Sports, Race, Careers

When I was a kid I used to hate getting picked for team sports. It would be the fit and sporty guys over there. And me and the fat kids over here. Those kids were fat! One girl had to be cut out a hula hoop.

- Alan Carr

topic: Funny, Girl, Sports, Hula, Fat Kid

Blood is drawn! I am impressed-though my hell-spawned powers will heal it! Besides... next to giving pain my favourite sport's to feel it.

- Alan Grant

topic: Sports, Pain, Blood

Our point isn't to make an examination of popular film but to illustrate that the yearning for a heroic adventure lies just beneath the surface of our consciousness; film, television, literature, sports, and travel are in a sense vicarious adventures.

- Alan Hirsch

topic: Sports, Lying, Adventure, Vicarious, Popular Film

I'm opposed to any sport that reduces the coefficient of friction between me and the ground.

- Alan Kotok

topic: Sports, Friction

It's basically the same, just darker. (on racing Saturday nights as opposed to Sunday afternoons, 1991

- Alan Kulwicki

topic: Sports, Sunday, Night

Our success at friendship, business, sports, love--indeed, at nearly every enterprise we attempt--is largely determined by our self-image. People who have a confidence in their personal worth seem to be magnets for success and happiness.

- Alan Loy McGinnis

topic: Confidence, Sports, Self, Personal Worth

I'm delighted about the track's success in the sports world, but the frustrating thing is, I don't think I got rich on it. The labels and publishers did very cheap deals on our songs.

- Alan Parsons

source: "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

topic: Sports, Song, Thinking, Frustrating Things, Delighted

Football's not just about scoring goals - it's about winning.

- Alan Shearer

topic: Sports, Football, Winning, Inspirational Soccer, Soccer Player

At times they don't like you to kick them and they feel you're not allowed to kick them.

- Alan Shearer

topic: Sports, Like You, Kicks

Of course, in our grade school, in those days, there were no organized sports at all. We just went out and ran around the school yard for recess.

- Alan Shepard

topic: Sports, School, Yards, Organized Sports, Recess

On a selfish basis, I really enjoy sports and activity.

- Alan Thicke

topic: Sports, Selfish, Enjoy

My priority is to turn people - especially kids - on to sports and being active so they don't even have to think about it being good for their health. If people participate for the fun of it, and believe me - it is fun, then fitness programs will be much more successful.

- Alan Thicke

topic: Sports, Fun, Believe

It is interesting that Hindus, when they speak of the creation of the universe do not call it the work of God, they call it the play of God, the Vishnu lila, lila meaning play. And they look upon the whole manifestation of all the universes as a play, as a sport, as a kind of dance — lila perhaps being somewhat related to our word lilt

- Alan Watts

topic: Sports, Play, Interesting, Creation Of The Universe, Vishnu

We should confine booing in sports arenas to sport. I love a good boo as much as the next football fan.

- Alastair Campbell

topic: Sports, Football, Fans, Booing

I do sport at the gym a few times a week, but I hate it. Work is my only remedy. I feel so twisted and horrible in the morning, but then I go to the office and I start feeling better. Work is my Tylenol. Extra-strength.

- Alber Elbaz

topic: Sports, Morning, Hate, Tylenol

An athlete must have a sound and trained body, and only after, indulge in sport he prefers.

- Albert Azaryan

topic: Sports, Athlete, Sound

School failed me, and I failed the school. It bored me. The teachers behaved like Feldwebel (sergeants). I wanted to learn what I wanted to know, but they wanted me to learn for the exam. What I hated most was the competitive system there, and especially sports. Because of this, I wasn't worth anything, and several times they suggested I leave.

- Albert Einstein

topic: Sports, Teacher, School

The time will come when public opinion will no longer tolerate amusements based on the mistreatment and killing of animals. The time will come, but when? When will we reach the point that hunting, the pleasure in killing animals for sport, will be regarded as a mental aberration?

- Albert Schweitzer

topic: Sports, Animal, Hunting, Killing Animals, Mistreatment

I run in practically every single road race in my country, 5k, 10k just to promote the sport.

- Alberto Juantorena

topic: Sports, Running, Country

In Cuba we use our champions to promote the sport.

- Alberto Juantorena

topic: Sports, Champion, Cuba

We may train or peak for a certain race, but running is a lifetime sport.

- Alberto Salazar

topic: Sports, Running, Race, Inspirational Runner

I really lack the words to compliment myself today.

- Alberto Tomba

topic: Sports, Motivational Sports, Today

Oh God, if there be cricket in heaven, let there also be rain.

- Alec Douglas-Home

source: Quoted in Helen Exley Cricket Quotations (1992).

topic: Sports, Rain, Heaven, Cricket Funny

I can't believe it. I can't believe it. Football. Bloody hell.

- Alex Ferguson

source: "Sir Alex Ferguson's 25 years at Manchester United - in quotes" by Benji Inwood, www.theguardian.com. November 4, 2011.

topic: Sports, Football, Believe

I love The Miz. His approach to his job is second to none; it's extremely important to him that he prepares on a daily basis. I travel with him and from the moment he gets up to the moment he goes to bed it's all WWE, all sports entertainment. He keeps his body in shape and he is a true champion in the ring and out. He's a great representative of the company and I'm learning a lot from him, not only on TV but outside as well.

- Alex Riley

topic: Sports, Jobs, Wwe, Sports Entertainment, True Champion

Enjoy your sweat because hard work doesn't guarantee success, but without it you don't have a chance.

- Alex Rodriguez

topic: Sports, Work, Sweat, Hardwork And Determination

I truly believe my job starts the minute I leave the baseball field. Going out and catching ground balls and hitting, that's a job, and that's what I've wanted to do ever since I was a kid. But when you think about leaving that field, that's when the job and the demands really start. In New York, Seattle, every city. The community, the media, business stuff. You have to stay on a narrow path.

- Alex Rodriguez

topic: Sports, Baseball, Jobs, Baseball Field, Narrow Path

I just don't see the light. Where is the light? What am I in this for?

- Alex Rodriguez

topic: Sports, Light

I kept thinking my father would come back, But he never did.

- Alex Rodriguez

topic: Sports, Father, Thinking

People don't win because they're physically stronger. It's because they're stronger between the ears.

- Alex Shaffer

topic: Softball, Sports, Motivation

I did everything - I did newscasts, I did sports, I did dramas.

- Alex Trebek

topic: Sports, Drama

I am the person you'll see everyday training when everyone else has gone home. I live for the one moment of glory when I save that goal or sink that 3-point shot and score the winning basket. I am the sport, I am the glory, nothing can change that. I am an athlete, no one can forget that.

- Alexa Wilkinson

topic: Sports, Home, Athlete

If we set out with... a scrupulous regard to the Constitution, the government will acquire a spirit and a tone productive of permanent blessings to the community. If on the contrary,... the Constitution is slighted, or explained away, upon every frivolous pretext, the future of government will be feeble, distracted and arbitrary. The rights of the subjects will be the sport of every party vicissitude. There will be no settled rule of conduct, but everything will fluctuate with the alternate prevalency of contending factions.

- Alexander Hamilton

topic: Sports, Party, Blessing, Slighted, Contending

Even bear-baiting was esteemed heathenish and unchristian: the sport of it, not the inhumanity, gave offence.

- Alexander Hume

topic: Sports, Bears, Unchristian, Inhumanity

My heart lies in music and acting, however, my inspiration comes from adrenaline rush I get from sports... and life.

- Alexander Ludwig

topic: Sports, Lying, Inspiration, Adrenaline Rush

A sport, a struggle for results and a fight for prizes. I think that the discussion about "chess is science or chess is art" is already inappropriate. The purpose of modern chess is to reach a result.

- Alexander Morozevich

topic: Sports, Art, Struggle

Destroy all creatures for thy sport or gust, Yet cry, if man's unhappy, God's unjust.

- Alexander Pope

topic: Sports, Men, Unhappy

I never really did sports growing up. Maybe that's why they intrigue me. The technology that goes into that clothing is steps ahead, so it's always been something I look towards.

- Alexander Wang

topic: Sports, Growing Up, Technology

I wear sports clothes because I feel comfortable in them.

- Alexander Wang

topic: Sports, Clothes, Feels

A woman can beat any man; it's difficult to imagine another kind of sport where a woman can beat a man. That's why I like chess.

- Alexandra Kosteniuk

source: "The New Face of Chess Is a Pretty One". Interview with Catherine Donaldson-Evans, www.foxnews.com. April 15, 2002.

topic: Sports, Men, Chess

See, I respect boxing because it has given me so much and that's why I will never allow anyone to mistreat the sport of boxing if I can help it.

- Alexis Arguello

topic: Sports, Boxing, Helping, Mistreat, Boxing Gloves

Aside from a handful of guys boxing is missing the good trainers, that's why our sport is so in the air now because we don't have people who have the capability to not only train fighters but also train and create decent respectable citizens of the world.

- Alexis Arguello

topic: Sports, Air, People, Decent Guys

I actually love pressure. I loved playing sport at school in front of a crowd; I love being on stage in front of a big audience. I buzz off that.

- Alfie Allen

source: "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

topic: Sports, School, Love Is, Playing Sports

Have you never, when waves were breaking, watched children at sport on the beach, With their little feet tempting the foam-fringe, till with stronger and further reach Than they dreamed of, a billow comes bursting, how they turn and scamper and screech!

- Alfred Austin

source: Alfred Austin, “A Woman’s Apology”

topic: Inspirational, Sports, Beach

Some observers compare elections in some countries with sports events, where people are but spectators. Moreover, elections must not be mere interludes for pushing a lever and then retreating to passivity, for democracy demands committed participation in the daily workings of society.

- Alfred-Maurice de Zayas

source: "Promotion of a democratic and equitable international order". August 07, 2013.

topic: Sports, Country, People, Daily Work

It was probably right after I made my comeback - after retiring post-2008 Olympics - when I finally felt more at ease with my body. Being away from the sport helped put things in perspective.

- Alicia Sacramone

topic: Sports, Perspective, Ease

I literally tried every sport and was miserable. Soccer couldn't hold my attention. I couldn't figure skate. I'm afraid to swim. So I did dance for five years. It came a time where I was getting a little bit bored with it.

- Alicia Sacramone

topic: Soccer, Sports, Years

Every sport pretends to a literature, but people don't believe it of any other sport but their own.

- Alistair Cooke

topic: Sports, Believe, People

No myth dies harder, and none is more regularly debunked by the facts, than the one about international sports contributing to international friendship.

- Alistair Cooke

topic: Sports, Facts, Myth, Contributing

I'd rather have more heart than talent any day.

- Allen Iverson

topic: Softball, Sports, Motivation

We talkin' bout practice?

- Allen Iverson

topic: Sports, Practice

We talkin' about practice?

- Allen Iverson

topic: Sports, Practice, Funniest Sports

I've been in Philadelphia 10 years, man. I knew it was going to be a challenge, mentally. I always thought life would come to an end if I ever left Philadelphia. And I feel like a newborn. Being in Denver it's just a better situation for me. And I'm just happy that I feel like I got an opportunity where I can win basketball games here.

- Allen Iverson

topic: Basketball, Sports, Men

We got to stop people. We go ahead and we score 100 points every night, but we give up more. Our whole thing was, we know we can score, and we have to start having some kind of fun on the defensive end. Everybody want to play offense. Not too many people want to play defense. Defense is ego, pride, and that's the way we've been coming out, just taking the challenge. Man-on-man first, and having each other's back when a guy gets beat.

- Allen Iverson

topic: Sports, Fun, Giving Up, Every Night

The single most important thing in coaching is turning out educated kids who are ready for society.

- Allen Newell

topic: Sports, Kids, Coaching

I think that kids aren't even exploring the option of sports anymore, and they don't even know what they could do.

- Allyson Felix

topic: Sports, Kids, Thinking

You know, I love wearing heels. I wish I could wear them all the time, but, you know, my sport doesn't really permit it.

- Allyson Felix

topic: Sports, Wish, Permit

I always look back to my first Olympic medal in 2004 in Athens. I was very new to the sport, and it was my first big win at the Olympics.

- Allyson Felix

topic: Sports, Winning, Looks, Olympic Medals

I myself am frustrated in just where sports are at. It's a hard thing when you're out there working every day, and you know that someone else is cheating and they may not necessarily get caught.

- Allyson Felix

topic: Sports, Cheating, Frustrated, Hard Things

I love the relays. Track is such an individual sport, so it's fun to do something together.

- Allyson Felix

topic: Sports, Fun, Track, Relays

You can play a particular sport as long as you take good care of your body and you're confident enough and still have that hunger to where you want to be a part of an organization, a group of individuals where you feel you can contribute to the success of that team.

- Alonzo Mourning

topic: Sports, Team, Play

So many people feel that once you reach a certain age then it's time for you to retire from a sport you love. I don't think that's true at all. I think age should not dictate that.

- Alonzo Mourning

source: "Zo talks comeback and Wade being NBA MVP" by Sarah Rothschild, blogs.herald.com. August 13, 2008.

topic: Sports, Thinking, People

I can still play this game at a high level; I've proven that. I want to be home. I want to be close to my family. I want to be close to my foundation and my business interests.

- Alonzo Mourning

topic: Sports, Home, Games, High Level

There's nobody else on the face of this earth that's playing a sport at a highest level... with a transplant. That alone continues to inspire me, because I realize throughout the whole world the struggles that people are going through. I need to inspire them the best way I can.

- Alonzo Mourning

topic: Sports, Struggle, People

In the field of sports you are more or less accepted for what you do rather than what you are.

- Althea Gibson

topic: Sports, Fields, Accepted

In sports, you simply aren't considered a real champion until you have defended your title successfully. Winning it once can be a fluke; winning it twice proves you are the best.

- Althea Gibson

topic: Sports, Real, Winning, Flukes, Real Champions

From 143rd Street in Harlem to the center court at Wimbledon is about as far as one can travel.

- Althea Gibson

topic: Leadership, Sports, Wimbledon

I enjoy going to the Y. I take all the fitness classes that my dad takes; that's sort of our bonding - anything athletic, anything sports related.

- Alyson Stoner

source: Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

topic: Sports, Dad, Class, Sports Related

With my sport, I am outside and in the water, which can be really drying and damaging to the skin, so I try to be vigilant about taking good care of it.

- Amanda Beard

source: "What’s in Amanda Beard’s Gym Bag?". Interview with Leslie Goldman, www.huffingtonpost.com. July 19, 2011.

topic: Sports, Water, Skins

Look around the table. If you don't see a sucker, get up, because you're the sucker.

- Amarillo Slim

source: "Amarillo Slim obituary" by Michael Carlson, www.theguardian.com. May 4, 2012.

topic: Sports, Looks, Tables

I definitely wanted this win today and I don't want anybody to talk about my nerves anymore.

- Amelie Mauresmo

topic: Sports, Winning, Nerves

I have been amongst the best players in the world for 8 years. None at that level played as many ties as I did.

- Amelie Mauresmo

topic: Sports, Player, Years, Best Players

It took me time to adjust and to realise it was not going to happen like it did in the juniors.

- Amelie Mauresmo

source: Interview with Stephen Bierley, www.theguardian.com. May 23, 2004.

topic: Sports, Juniors, Realising

This trophy is so special in the world of tennis and it feels great.

- Amelie Mauresmo

topic: Sports, Tennis, Special

Well, I guess I needed this tough first round to really put me into that tournament, to really erase what happened at Indian Wells, which is now the case, you know.

- Amelie Mauresmo

topic: Sports, Firsts, Tough

We all had, at some point, matches we should have won and we didn't and that's the game. That's just the way the sport is. Otherwise, if everything was written before, we don't need to play.

- Amelie Mauresmo

topic: Sports, Games, Play

When I finished the juniors I felt, perhaps for about a year and a half, that everything was going to be the same and that I would be able to go out there and win any match. But it wasn't the case. I struggled. It took me time to adjust and to realise it was not going to happen like it did in the juniors. It was three years between the junior ranks and reaching the Australian Open, and even then, having reached the final against Hingis, I wasn't really realising what it would take to go higher.

- Amelie Mauresmo

topic: Sports, Winning, Years

I pray not for victory, but to do my best.

- Amos Alonzo Stagg

topic: Sports, Victory, Praying

Winning isn't worthwhile unless one has something finer and nobler behind it. When I reach the soul of one of my boys with an idea, or ideal, or vision, then I have done my job as a coach.

- Amos Alonzo Stagg

topic: Sports, Jobs, Winning

There are many benefits to a sports entity breaking news directly to their recipients: the entity has full control over the message and how it is shared versus previously relying on a media outlets to translate or distribute as they choose. Also, there's no quicker place for valuable information to spread than Twitter.

- Amy Jo Martin

topic: Sports, Media, Benefits, Versus, Breaking News

My dad was a sports writer when I was younger and then he became just a general columnist. But I grew up with him literally getting into brawls with football coaches.

- Amy Klobuchar

source: "Do Tell: Sen. Amy Klobuchar, the Funny Senator". Interview with Mary Ann Akers, voices.washingtonpost.com. June 8, 2007.

topic: Sports, Football, Dad

Listing the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act could harm bear conservation efforts by eliminating revenues from the carefully-regulated sport hunting of polar bears by Americans and the importation of polar bear meat and trophies into the U.S. As hunting by non-Americans would replace hunting by Americans, nothing would be accomplished in terms of reducing the number of polar bears killed, but the revenue currently generated by American sport hunters for conservation and research efforts would be eliminated.

- Amy Ridenour

topic: Sports, Hunting, Numbers, Importation, Endangered Species Act

Everyone wants to win, but I think winners believe they deserve to win. They've made the commitment, they've followed the right path, and they've taken the right steps to be successful.

- Amy Ruley

topic: Softball, Sports, Motivation, Right Path

Look at what Al Davis has done. He hired the first Hispanic head coach (Tom Flores), the first black head coach (Art Shell), and now me. It's not a coincidence. People in sports talk a lot about inclusiveness and giving people opportunities. While they talk, I only see one person doing it. Al is the last person on Earth who'd do this for a pat on the back. A pat on the back would annoy him. He does it for the right reasons.

- Amy Trask

topic: Sports, Art, Opportunity, Inclusiveness, Hispanic

The most important lesson I've learned from sports is how to be not only a gracious winner, but a good loser as well. Not everyone wins all the time, as a matter of fact, no one wins all the time. Winning is the easy part, losing is really tough. But, you learn more from one loss than you do from a million wins. You learn a lot about sportsmanship.

- Amy Van Dyken

source: "Captain Corelli's Mandolin : Interview With Penélope Cruz". www.cinema.com. 2001.

topic: Sports, Loss, Winning, Important Lessons

I love pushing my body to the limit & seeing how far I can take it before it breaks.

- Amy Van Dyken

topic: Softball, Sports, Motivation

Sport doesn't build character, it shows it.

- Ana Ivanovic

topic: Sports, Character, Shows

Big mountains are a completely different world: snow, ice, rocks, sky, and thin air. You cannot conquer them, only rise to their height for a short time; and for that they demand a great deal. The struggle is not with the enemy, or a competitor like in sports, but with yourself, with the feelings of weakness and inadequacy. That struggle appeals to me. It is why I became a mountaineer.

- Anatoli Boukreev

source: Anatoli Boukreev (2015). “Above the Clouds: The Diaries of a High-Altitude Mountaineer”, p.4, St. Martin's Griffin

topic: Sports, Struggle, Rocks, Mountaineering, Short Time

Chess is everything: art, science, and sport.

- Anatoly Karpov

topic: Sports, Art, Chess, Playing Chess, Board Games

You must have a dragon hidden inside you. When you need, you let the dragon out.

- Anderson Silva

topic: Sports, Dragons, Needs

I practice the martial arts. I don't practice MMA. MMA is my job, MMA is a new sport. Martial arts is the knowledge from the ages.

- Anderson Silva

topic: Sports, Art, Jobs

What makes something special is not just what you have to gain, but what you feel there is to lose.

- Andre Agassi

source: Twitter post from Jan 25, 2016

topic: Inspirational, Sports, Athlete, Victory Inspirational, Give 100 Percent

I question myself every day. That's what I still find motivating about this. I don't have the answers, I don't pretend that I do just because I won the match. Just keep fighting and maybe something good happens.

- Andre Agassi

topic: Sports, Fighting, Answers

I'm going to have to pick my shots and play great tennis.

- Andre Agassi

topic: Sports, Play, Tennis, Great Tennis

Nothing can substitute for just plain hard work. I had to put in the time to get back. And it was a grind. It meant training and sweating every day. But I was completely committed to working out to prove to myself that I still could do it.

- Andre Agassi

topic: Motivational, Sports, Hard Work

You have to have the mentality of executing your game when you don't feel like there's a lot of hope. I think the best feeling is when somebody pushes you to the limit and you dig down a little bit extra. By the same token, you also need a little luck. Sometimes they come together.

- Andre Agassi

topic: Sports, Thinking, Games

No athletes talk to themselves like tennis players. Pitchers, golfers, goalkeepers, they mutter to themselves, but tennis players talk to themselves-and answer. Tennis players look like lunatics in a public square.

- Andre Agassi

topic: Sports, Athlete, Player, Tennis Player

When I was 7 years old I saw Jimmy Connors make someone carry his bag, as though he were Julius Caesar. I vowed then and there that I would always carry my own.

- Andre Agassi

topic: Sports, Years, Bags

It means a lot to you, to be out there. The highs are pretty high, and the lows are pretty low. You know, it's easy to feel like you let the team down. I mean, at the end of the day we still got to figure out a way to get through the tie.

- Andre Agassi

topic: Sports, Team, Mean

This sport has given me so much that my hope would be to give back as much as I can for as long as I can.

- Andre Agassi

topic: Sports, Long, Giving

Tennis is at an amazing time when you've got two of the best players ever to play the game. You can argue the two very best playing in the same generation. It's a rivalry I think that we've never seen in our sport.

- Andre Agassi

topic: Sports, Thinking, Player

Tennis is the loneliest sport

- Andre Agassi

topic: Sports, Tennis

But, I would say when I was four years old and I was at the Alan King Tennis Tournament and I was hitting with all the pros that would come to town. They would get me on the court or take notice and that stayed with me.

- Andre Agassi

topic: Sports, Kings, Years, Four Years

I'm going to go down swinging... I'm sure as heck not going to go home and say I had a bad tournament.

- Andre Agassi

topic: Sports, Home

Sometimes it's just harder to remind yourself about what you're doing and why you're doing it... Other times, you have a great desire for it, but physically you're not responding the way you want. That presents other challenges. Then sometimes it all comes together.

- Andre Agassi

topic: Sports, Challenges, Desire, Not Responding

First of all, in any sport where you can measure distance, height speed and all of that, you see how athletes have changed their sport and made it better. I believe, with every generation, the sport has improved. Certainly, in the men's game, that has been the case. I think that I played Pete [Sampras] at his best, I played Roger [Federer] at his best.. I believe wholeheartedly that Roger and [Rafael] Nadal have pushed the game much further than myself or Pete ever did. Their options on the tennis court are considerably more than ours.

- Andre Agassi

topic: Sports, Distance, Believe, Tennis Courts, Federer

First of all, let me say, 1:15 in the morning, for 20,000 people to still be here, I wasn't the winner, tennis was. That's awesome. I don't know if I've ever felt so good here before.

- Andre Agassi

topic: Sports, Morning, People

Business is a combination of war and sport.

- Andre Maurois

topic: Sports, Business, War, Strategic Management, Motivational Business

You're only as good as your last fight. It's just the way things are. It's the way that the sport is built.

- Andre Ward

source: Source: www.realstylenetwork.com

topic: Sports, Motivation, Fighting

It's one thing to have an eye for the sport, and it's another to have a feel for the sport. He has both.

- Andre Ward

topic: Sports, Motivation, Eye

I want my legacy to be that I was a man of character, I was a God fearing man and somebody who bettered the sport in terms of the way I represented the sport. But also that fact that I was a fierce competitor and fought the best in the world and was able to come out on top, so if those things could be said about me, then I look at it as a job well done.

- Andre Ward

topic: Sports, Jobs, Motivation, Job Well Done, God Fearing Man

When I was a child, I saw in the news that a person from Belitung had done well in sports in Jakarta, and I just couldn't imagine that it was possible for someone from here to become famous, and it's still very isolated out here.

- Andrea Hirata

topic: Sports, Children, News, Jakarta

You can never meet everyone's expectations. It's hard enough to meet your own.

- Andrea Jaeger

topic: Softball, Sports, Motivation

These days, to be seven years in one spot in any pro sport is a pretty long tenure.

- Andrew Bogut

source: "Bogut downplays injury concerns, relishes fresh start with Warriors". Interview with Sam Amick, www.si.com. March 28, 2012.

topic: Sports, Years, Long

Concentrate on defense because the offense will come.

- Andrew Bogut

source: Interview with Victor Kelly, www.ign.com. February 8, 2006.

topic: Sports, Defense, Offense

I don't think you ever want to be too settled, because once you become settled, you lose a lot of your drive. I mean, I am settled off the court; the business side of things, the papers, contracts and all of that, but there are a lot things that I need to work on, on the court, like my free-throw shooting, which has been terrible. I need to work on being more demanding in the post. My teammates are going to come to me and I just need to go out there and score in the post, which will open up things for our guards.

- Andrew Bogut

source: Interview with Bobby Ciafardini, www.insidehoops.com. November 10, 2008.

topic: Sports, Mean, Thinking, Free Throw

I think Chris Paul is a great player. He is very unselfish and plays very hard, so he would be a guy if he plays. I think his hand is still questionable, though. I hear they are talking about resting him that weekend. I'm excited to play with all the guys. Marvin Williams is starting to play well, and Salim Stoudamire, I think he should be there.

- Andrew Bogut

source: Interview with Victor Kelly, www.ign.com. February 8, 2006.

topic: Sports, Player, Thinking

I was struggling at Rookie Camp to be quite honest with you. Basically, it was a week of being locked down like in jail for me. I would say about 50 percent of it was useful. The most challenging part of it was off the court. I mean, man we were just sitting there at times. We had meetings from about 10 a.m. in the morning to about 10 at night and you can't get a workout in at all.

- Andrew Bogut

topic: Sports, Morning, Workout, Mean Man

This is my job and I respect it enough to concentrate on it.

- Andrew Bogut

topic: Sports, Jobs, Enough

We have a high ceiling. We're still young. We're still learning coach's system and we're still learning how to play hard every night. I think that's been a bad habit of ours the last few years. It's a habit that's hard to shake, too. I think if we keep pushing, we'll be alright this season.

- Andrew Bogut

topic: Sports, Thinking, Night, Every Night

I will not permit thirty men to travel four hundred miles to agitate a bag of wind.

- Andrew Dickson White

source: On refusing permission for a team from Cornell University to visit Michigan to play a game of American football. Quoted in D Wallechinsky The People's Almanac (1975).

topic: Sports, Men, Wind, Agitate

In secondary school I was floating - I wasn't passionate about anything. I did a little sport, but it was pretty joyless because the competitiveness was too much to bear.

- Andrew Garfield

topic: Sports, School, Too Much, Secondary School

Now let us sport us while we may; And now, like amorous birds of prey, Rather at once our time devour, Than languish in his slow-chapped power.

- Andrew Marvell

topic: Sports, Time, Bird, Languish, Amorous

Now therefore, while the youthful hue Sits on thy skin like morning dew, And while thy willing soul transpires At every pore with instant fires Now let us sport us while we may, And now, like amorous birds of prey, Rather at once our time devour Than languish in his slow-chapped power. Let us roll our strength and all Our sweetness up into one ball And tear our pleasures with rough strife Through the iron gates of life: Thus, while we cannot make our sun Stand still, yet we will make him run.

- Andrew Marvell

topic: Sports, Running, Morning, Morning Dew, Languish

If you can drink beer while doing it, it's not a sport

- Andrew McMahon

topic: Sports, Beer, Enlightening

Winning isn't everything, but playing and competing and striving and going through things can be a lot of fun and really important. As long as you're doing it in a way that's healthy, sports can be an incredible opportunity.

- Andrew Shue

topic: Sports, Fun, Winning, Winning Isn't Everything

The biggest lesson from Africa was that life's joys come mostly from relationships and friendships, not from material things. I saw time and again how much fun Africans had with their families and friends and on the sports fields. they laughed all the time.

- Andrew Shue

topic: Sports, Fun, Joy

Blogging is to writing what extreme sports are to athletics: more free-form, more accident-prone, less formal, more alive. It is, in many ways, writing out loud.

- Andrew Sullivan

topic: Sports, Writing, Alive, Extreme Sports

The commercialization of sport is the democratization of sport.

- Andrew Young

topic: Sports, Democratization, Commercialization

If I was born again, I would be able to do any sport because I would have time to learn.

- Andy Lau

topic: Sports, Would Be, Able

Everything in tennis is so neat and nice but boxing has sport down to its essence; it is very pure and I like that.

- Andy Murray

topic: Sports, Nice, Essence

Boxing, mixed martial arts and tennis are the hardest sports to train for.

- Andy Murray

topic: Sports, Art, Boxing, Mixed Martial Arts

Tennis is an individual sport, and I am quite a self-conscious person.

- Andy Murray

topic: Sports, Self, Tennis

I've been asked a lot lately if tennis is clean or not. I don't know any more how you judge whether a sport is clean. If one in 100 players is doping, in my eyes that isn't a clean sport.

- Andy Murray

source: "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

topic: Sports, Eye, Player, Doping

A lot of athletes use sports psychologists.

- Andy Murray

topic: Sports, Athlete, Use

When you come off something really disappointing, you want to come back and kind of regroup and get involved in something positive right away.

- Andy Roddick

topic: Sports, Want, Kind

Having two older brothers is a healthy reminder that you're always closer to the bottom than you are to the top.

- Andy Roddick

topic: Inspirational, Sports, Brother

I'm not going to go run and hide because I'm catching some heat. I'm not going to stay at home and pout.

- Andy Roddick

topic: Sports, Running, Home

In the States, tennis is sixth or seventh on the totem pole as far as sports go.

- Andy Roddick

topic: Sports, Tennis, Totems

I played basketball in high school, and I love watching sports - I'll watch everything except maybe hockey.

- Andy Roddick

topic: Basketball, Sports, School, Watching Sports

We had an argument once, yeah. It was the best thing that could have happened to our working relationship. After that, we understood each other and got along much better. I always respected Barry Bonds, and I wanted to let him know that I did in a certain way.

- Andy Van Slyke

source: "Answer Man: Andy Van Slyke talks slugging Bonds, coaching first". Interview with David Brown, sports.yahoo.com. May 01, 2008.

topic: Sports, Way, Argument

They wanted me to play third like Brooks so I did play like Brooks - Mel Brooks.

- Andy Van Slyke

topic: Sports, Play, Brooks

Last year we had so many people coming in and out they didn't bother to sew their names on the backs of the uniforms. They just put them there with Velcro.

- Andy Van Slyke

topic: Sports, Years, Names, Velcro

With the Cardinals everybody would be reading the business section to see what their stocks were doing. You get to this locker room (Pirates) in the morning and everybody is looking at the sports page to see if Hulk Hogan won.

- Andy Van Slyke

topic: Sports, Morning, Reading, Locker Room

Every season has its peaks and valleys. What you have to try to do is eliminate the Grand Canyon.

- Andy Van Slyke

topic: Sports, Psychology, Trying, Grand Canyon, Canyons

Politics is a blood sport.

- Aneurin Bevan

source: Quoted in Jennie Lee My Life with Nye (1980).

topic: Sports, Motivational Sports, Blood

It certainly is dangerous that there are only a few clubs left in Europe that can afford to pay millions. At the end of the day however, the spectators decide the rates of pay - by watching the games and consuming the goods and services advertised on sports TV programmes.

- Angela Merkel

topic: Sports, Europe, Games, Goods And Services

I find that I've tried to become a better hockey player every year and not just hold on. At the same time, I've also made it a point to increase or grow in some other area of my life. If I were just playing hockey, I would probably be done with the sport.

- Angela Ruggiero

topic: Sports, Hockey, Player, Hockey Player, Playing Hockey

I look at myself, and how much I've gotten just because I play a sport well.

- Angela Ruggiero

topic: Sports, Play, Looks

I'm in the perfect position. It's a sports position and a political position where I can help better the lives of athletes around the world.

- Angela Ruggiero

topic: Sports, Athlete, Perfect

The Women's Sports Foundation holds a unique position in developing opportunities for girls and women of all abilities to be active whether recreationally or competitively, and I'm excited to help lead the organization to impact even more lives. It is an honor to continue to build the legacy created by Billie Jean King and all of our leaders.

- Angela Ruggiero

topic: Girl, Sports, Kings

I work out, I play sports, I go to concerts.

- Angie Everhart

source: "Interview: Angie Everhart". AskMen Interview, www.askmen.com.

topic: Sports, Play, Work Out

Martina Navratilova is not a 'girl,' nor is Debi Thomas or Katarina Witt, and the women skaters weren't 'cute' in 1988. The problem with describing women as girls is that they never grow up and therefore can't take positions of authority in the world of sport. But the good news is that you can change language, so ultimately you can change the picture of women in sports.

- Anita DeFrantz

topic: Cute, Girl, Sports, Skater

Someone who wants to write should make an effort to write a little something every day. Writing in this sense is the same as athletes who practice a sport every day to keep their skills honed.

- Anita Desai

source: Baruch College Class Interview, www.baruch.cuny.edu. 2003.

topic: Sports, Writing, Athlete