Cam Newton gave a nod to one of sports’ most famous quotes in his first set of interviews following his loss at Super Bowl 50. With that in mind, we decided to compile some other memorable sports quotes about winning and losing. This list is in no particular order. Enjoy!
1. Vince Lombardi
“Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.”
2. Bobby Knight
“The key is not the will to win… everybody has that. It is the will to prepare to win that is important.”
3. Michael Jordan
“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
4. Knute Rockne
“Show me a gracious loser and I’ll show you a failure.”
5. Wilma Rudolph
“Winning is great, sure, but if you are really going to do something in life, the secret is learning how to lose. Nobody goes undefeated all the time. If you can pick up after a crushing defeat, and go on to win again, you are going to be a champion someday.”
6. Muhammad Ali
“I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‘Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.'”
7. Paul Brown
“When you win, say nothing. When you lose, say less.”
8. Billie Jean King
“A champion is afraid of losing. Everyone else is afraid of winning.”
9. Paul Bryant
“Winning isn’t everything, but it beats anything that comes in second.”
10. Vin Scully
“Losing feels worse than winning feels good.”
11. George Steinbrenner
“Winning is the most important thing in my life, after breathing. Breathing first, winning next.”
(AP)
12. Morgan Wootten
“You learn more from losing than winning. You learn how to keep going.”
13. Jackie Robinson
“It kills me to lose. If I’m a troublemaker, and I don’t think that my temper makes me one, then it’s because I can’t stand losing. That’s the way I am about winning, all I ever wanted to do was finish first.”
14. Pat Riley
“A champion needs a motivation above and beyond winning.”
15. Art Rooney
“The biggest thrill wasn’t in winning on Sunday but in meeting the payroll on Monday.”
16. Arsene Wenger
“At a young age winning is not the most important thing… the important thing is to develop creative and skilled players with good confidence.”
17. Boris Becker
“I love the winning, I can take the losing, but most of all I Love to play.”
18. Vince Lombardi
“Winning is not a sometime thing; it’s an all time thing. You don’t win once in a while, you don’t do things right once in a while, you do them right all the time. Winning is habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.”
19. Steve Nash
“Nothing is black-and-white, except for winning and losing, and maybe that’s why people gravitate to that so much.”
20. Grantland Rice
“It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game.”
21. Tim Tebow
“We play a sport. It’s a game. At the end of the day, that’s all it is, is a game. It doesn’t make you any better or any worse than anybody else. So by winning a game, you’re no better. By losing a game, you’re no worse. I think by keeping that mentality, it really keeps things in perspective for me to treat everybody the same.”
22. Leo Durocher
“I never did say that you can’t be a nice guy and win. I said that if I was playing third base and my mother rounded third with the winning run, I’d trip her up.”
23. Lionel Messi
“There are more important things in life than winning or losing a game.”
24. Mike Krzyzewski
“Imagination has a great deal to do with winning.”
25. Kobe Bryant
“Winning takes precedence over all. There’s no gray area. No almosts.”
26. Emmitt Smith
“For me, winning isn’t something that happens suddenly on the field when the whistle blows and the crowds roar. Winning is something that builds physically and mentally every day that you train and every night that you dream.”
27. Bill Parcells
“No matter how much you’ve won, no matter how many games, no matter how many championships, no matter how many Super Bowls, you’re not winning now, so you stink.”
28. Pete Sampras
“All I cared about in tennis was winning.”
29. Tiger Woods
“Winning solves everything.”
(Getty Images)
30. Tom Landry
“The secret to winning is constant, consistent management.”
31. Joe Torre
“Competing at the highest level is not about winning. It’s about preparation, courage, understanding and nurturing your people, and heart. Winning is the result.”
32. Mia Hamm
“The person that said winning isn’t everything, never won anything.”
33. Carmelo Anthony
“When I step on that basketball court, I’m thinking about basketball, I’m thinking about winning – but there’s so much that goes into thought about how I’m going to open this game up to others. It’s so much more than just basketball.”
34. Chuck Noll
“The critics are always right. The only way you shut them up is by winning.”
35. Andy Murray
“I used to think that losing made you more hungry and determined but after my success at the Olympics and the U.S. Open I realise that winning is the biggest motivation.”
36. Charles Barkley
“I’m a mad dog whose only concern is winning.”
AP Photo/Marty Lederhandler
36. Malcolm Gets
“I’ve certainly had periods when I felt like life was winning and I was losing, so I think everybody can relate to that quandary — the temptation to give in, to give up, and then what It takes to keep going.”
37. Arnold Palmer
“Winning isn’t everything, but wanting it is.”
38. Roger Staubach
“Winning isn’t getting ahead of others. It’s getting ahead of yourself.”
39. Lindsey Vonn
“I’m never tired of winning, and I’m never tired of skiing.”
40. Tony Dungy
“I just think winners win. And guys who won all the way through high school and college, the best player at every level, they have a way of making things happen and winning games.”
41. Tom Brady
“I’m a pretty good winner. I’m a terrible loser. And I rub it in pretty good when I win.”
42. Nancy Kerrigan
“It was never about winning medals or being famous.”
(Getty)
43. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
“You can’t win unless you learn how to lose.”
44. Kobe Bryant
“I’ll do whatever it takes to win games, whether it’s sitting on a bench waving a towel, handing a cup of water to a teammate, or hitting the game-winning shot.”
45. Derek Jeter
“If you’re going to play at all, you’re out to win. Baseball, board games, playing Jeopardy, I hate to lose.”
46. Babe Ruth
“Yesterday’s home runs don’t win today’s games.”
47. Jimmy Connors
“I think my greatest victory was every time I walked out there, I gave it everything I had. I left everything out there. That’s what I’m most proud of.”
48. Yogi Berra
“I tell the kids, somebody’s gotta win, somebody’s gotta lose. Just don’t fight about it. Just try to get better.”
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