Top 200 Competition Quotes (2025 Update)
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51. “I play to win, whether during practice or a real game.”

— Michael Jordan

52. “It's not whether you got knocked down; it's whether you get back up.”

— Vince Lombardi

53. “I don’t relax, I don’t celebrate. I sit and plot.”

— Conor McGregor

54. “Everybody shut up. Let us work.”

— Kobe Bryant

55. “Strength is the product of struggle; you must do what others don’t to achieve what others won’t.”

— Henry Rollins

56. “You should learn from your competitor, but never copy. Copy and you die.”

— Jack Ma

57. “I think the high-tech industry is used to developing new things very quickly. It’s the Silicon Valley way of doing business: You either move very quickly and you work hard to improve your product technology, or you get destroyed by some other company.”

— Elon Musk

58. “When you compete against everyone else, no one wants to help you. But when you compete against yourself, everyone wants to help you.”

— Simon Sinek

59. “And where I excel is ridiculous, sickening, work ethic. You know, while the other guy’s sleeping? I’m working.”

— Will Smith

60. “What I want is to be number one.”

— Steve Prefontaine

61. “I firmly believe that any man's finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle - victorious.”

— Vince Lombardi

62. “I am not in competition with anyone but myself. My goal is to improve myself continuously.”

— Bill Gates

63. “Being second is to be the first of the ones who lose.”

— Ayrton Senna

64. “Be extremely subtle, even to the point of formlessness. Be extremely mysterious, even to the point of soundlessness. Thereby, you can be the director of the opponent’s fate.”

— Sun Tzu

65. “Compete with yourself, not with others.”

— Sophia Amoruso

66. “No individual can win a game by himself.”

— Pelé

67. “The world is changing very fast. Big will not beat small anymore. It will be the fast beating the slow.”

— Rupert Murdoch

68. “My coach said I ran like a girl, I said if he could run a little faster he could too.”

— Mia Hamm

69. “To be the best and stay there, sweat is necessary.”

— Ray Lewis

70. “To be successful you have to be selfish, or else you never achieve. And once you get to your highest level, then you have to be unselfish. Stay reachable. Stay in touch. Don’t isolate.”

— Michael Jordan

71. “Don’t be afraid of failure. This is the way to succeed.”

— LeBron James

72. “Don’t make training easy. Make it harder so that you will get better.”

— Manny Pacquiao

73. “If winning isn't everything, why do they keep score?”

— Vince Lombardi

74. “Quit or be exceptional. Average is for losers.”

— Seth Godin

75. “There is always someone out there working harder than you, and you may be standing next to him or her in your next competition.”

— Robert Cheeke

76. “The thing that keeps a business ahead of the competition is excellence in execution.”

— Tom Peters

77. “I know fear is an obstacle for some people, but it is an illusion to me. Failure always made me try harder next time.”

— Michael Jordan

78. “I plot my ascent daily.”

— Conor McGregor

79. “I’m not trying to make friends, I’m trying to make money.”

— Kevin O'Leary

80. “There is always someone out there getting better than you by training harder than you.”

— Pelé

81. “Success isn’t owned – it’s leased. And rent is due every day. Every single day, someone’s coming for your job. Someone’s coming for your greatness. If you’re the greatest, someone wants to be the greatest, and so if you’re not constantly improving your game, somebody else is.”

— J. J. Watt

82. “Losers let it happen; winners make it happen!”

— Denis Waitley

83. “I’m going to work so that it’s a pure guts race at the end, and if it is, I am the only one who can win it.”

— Steve Prefontaine

84. “Know thyself, know thy enemy.”

— Sun Tzu

85. “Rest at the end, not in the middle.”

— Kobe Bryant

86. “Love me or hate me. It’s one or the other. Always has been. Hate my game, my swagger. Hate my fadeaway, my hunger. Hate that I’m a veteran, a champion. Hate that. Hate it with all your heart. And hate that I’m loved for the exact same reasons.”

— Kobe Bryant

87. “I accept any challenge.”

— Jennifer Hudson

88. “Mental toughness is essential to success.”

— Vince Lombardi

89. “When you play a game of thrones you win or you die.”

— George R.R. Martin

90. “Strategy is about setting yourself apart from the competition. It’s not a matter of being better at what you do – it’s a matter of being different at what you do.”

— Michael Porter

91. “Desire is the key to motivation, but it’s determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal – a commitment to excellence – that will enable you to attain the success you seek.”

— Mario Andretti

92. “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.”

— Vince Lombardi

93. “First, you have to finish.”

— Michael Schumacher

94. “To be the best you have to work overtime.”

— Floyd Mayweather, Jr.

95. “I can’t remember the last day I didn’t train.”

— Michael Phelps

96. “They may outsmart me, or be luckier, but they can’t outwork me.”

— Woody Hayes

97. “Paralyze resistance with persistence.”

— Woody Hayes

98. “In whatever you do, strive to be the best at it.”

— Aliko Dangote

99. “It takes time, it’s a grind. There are no shortcuts. You’ve got to grind and grind.”

— Mark Cuban

100. “No one wants to get up at 4 and run when it’s pitch-dark, but it has to be done. The only reason I do it so early is because I believe the other guy isn’t doing it and that gives me a little edge.”

— Mike Tyson