Top 100 Arnold Palmer Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “It’s a funny thing, the more I practice the luckier I get.”

— Arnold Palmer

Featured in: Practice Quotes

2. “I’ve always made a total effort, even when the odds seemed entirely against me. I never quit trying; I never felt that I didn’t have a chance to win.”

— Arnold Palmer

Featured in: Never Give Up Quotes, Giving Up Quotes, Victory Quotes, Sports Quotes, Determination Quotes

3. “The most rewarding things you do in life are often the ones that look like they cannot be done.”

— Arnold Palmer

Featured in: Impossible Quotes, Challenges Quotes

4. “Always make a total effort, even when the odds are against you.”

— Arnold Palmer

Featured in: Never Give Up Quotes, Willpower Quotes, Obstacles Quotes, Sports Quotes

5. “Know how to win by following the rules.”

— Arnold Palmer

6. “Golf is deceptively simple and endlessly complicated; it satisfies the soul and frustrates the intellect. It is at the same time rewarding and maddening – and it is without a doubt the greatest game mankind has ever invented.”

— Arnold Palmer

7. “Golf is a game of inches. The most important are the six inches between your ears.”

— Arnold Palmer

8. “Timing is everything in life and in golf.”

— Arnold Palmer

9. “Hit it hard, go find it and hit it hard again.”

— Arnold Palmer

10. “Concentration comes out of a combination of confidence and hunger.”

— Arnold Palmer

11. “If you can concentrate on what you’re doing and have the desire to do the things you have to do to win, you’ll succeed.”

— Arnold Palmer

12. “I have a tip that can take 5 strokes off anyone’s golf game. It’s called an eraser.”

— Arnold Palmer

13. “You must play boldly to win.”

— Arnold Palmer

14. “The secret of concentration is the secret of self-discovery. You reach inside yourself to discover your personal resources, and what it takes to match them to the challenge.”

— Arnold Palmer

15. “Success in golf depends less on strength of body than upon strength of mind and character.”

— Arnold Palmer

16. “When you play by the rules, defy mental demons, overcome every challenge, and enjoy a walk in the country at the same time – that’s being alive.”

— Arnold Palmer

17. “If you can see it, you can hit it and if you can hit it, you can hole it.”

— Arnold Palmer

18. “What separates great players from the good ones is not so much ability as brain power and emotional equilibrium.”

— Arnold Palmer

19. “Golf is deceptively simple and endlessly complicated.”

— Arnold Palmer

20. “How did I make a twelve on a par five hole? It’s simple – I missed a four foot putt for an eleven.”

— Arnold Palmer

21. “Here is a philosophy of boldness to take advantage of every tiny opening toward victory.”

— Arnold Palmer

22. “What do I mean by concentration? I mean focusing totally on the business at hand and commanding your body to do exactly what you want it to do.”

— Arnold Palmer

23. “Concentration, Confidence, Competitive urge, Capacity for enjoyment.”

— Arnold Palmer

24. “What other people may find in poetry or art museums, I find in the flight of a good drive: the white ball sailing up into the sky, reaching its apex, falling and finally dropping to the turf, just the way I planned it.”

— Arnold Palmer

25. “One thing I’ve learned over time is, if you hit a golf ball into water, it won’t float.”

— Arnold Palmer

26. “Golf is deceptively simple, endlessly complicated. A child can play it well and a grown man can never master it. It is almost a science, yet it is a puzzle with no answer.”

— Arnold Palmer

27. “Putting is a fascinating, aggravating, wonderful, terrible and almost incomprehensible part of the game of golf.”

— Arnold Palmer

28. “The whole secret to mastering the game of golf – and this applies to the beginner as well as the pro – is to cultivate a mental approach to the game that will enable you to shrug off the bad days, keep patient and know in your heart that sooner or later you will be back on top.”

— Arnold Palmer

29. “I’m in love with golf, and I want everybody else to share my love affair.”

— Arnold Palmer

30. “That’s another thing about my father. He made me very conscious of the fact I wasn’t very good and I had to prove to him that I was good. And that hung with me, and I always wanted to play golf with him and show him. He said Never, Never tell anyone how good you are. Show them!”

— Arnold Palmer

31. “Players need to remember they didn’t make golf. Golf made them.”

— Arnold Palmer

32. “My grandson Sam Saunders has been playing golf since he could hold a club and I spent a lot of time with him over the years. Like my father taught me, I showed him the fundamentals of the game and helped him make adjustments as he and his game matured over the years.”

— Arnold Palmer

33. “Swing your swing. I know, I did.”

— Arnold Palmer

34. “Swing your swing. Not some idea of a swing. Not a swing you saw on TV. Not that swing you wish you had. No, swing your swing. Capable of greatness. Prized only by you. Perfect in it’s imperfection. Swing your swing. I know, I did.”

— Arnold Palmer

35. “Putting is like wisdom – partly a natural gift and partly the accumulation of experience.”

— Arnold Palmer

36. “Don’t be ashamed to play safe.”

— Arnold Palmer

37. “Establish a system you have confidence in and rely on it when you get into tough situations.”

— Arnold Palmer

38. “What other people may find in poetry or art museums, I find in the flight of a good drive.”

— Arnold Palmer

39. “The only really unplayable lie I can think of is when you’re supposed to be playing golf and come home with lipstick on your collar.”

— Arnold Palmer

40. “I was playing cowboys and Indians in the trees, and then I started hitting the golf club with clubs father sawed off for me, and I began playing right here with my father.”

— Arnold Palmer

41. “I never felt that I didn’t have a chance to win.”

— Arnold Palmer

42. “I had a system, and the system worked.”

— Arnold Palmer

43. “I love America. I wanted to play golf.”

— Arnold Palmer

44. “You can describe my round as having moments of ecstasy and stark raving terror. I looked like I knew what I was doing at times and at other times I looked like a twenty handicap player.”

— Arnold Palmer

45. “Your worst putt will usually be as good as your best chip.”

— Arnold Palmer

46. “The game has such a hold on golfers because they compete not only against an opponent, but also against the course, against par, and most surely- against themselves.”

— Arnold Palmer

47. “I wanted to emulate my father. I wanted to be as tough as he was. I wanted to do the things that he did. I watched him.”

— Arnold Palmer

48. “I would like to say, however, that a man might be walking around lucky and not know it unless he tries.”

— Arnold Palmer

49. “I was national amateur champion. I was 24 years old. My father was there, and I couldn’t wait to see him, and my mother. I went up and was waiting for all the accolades, and my mom was teary and happy and my dad looked at me and said, “Well, boy, you did good,” and that was it.”

— Arnold Palmer

50. “When I was in college, I thought about becoming an attorney. But I wasn’t smart enough; I hate being cooped up indoors; and I’m too nice a guy.”

— Arnold Palmer