Top 35 Steve Prefontaine Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.”

— Steve Prefontaine

Featured in: Inspirational Quotes, Goal Quotes, Excellence Quotes, Effort Quotes, Motivational Workout Quotes

2. “Don’t let fatigue make a coward out of you.”

— Steve Prefontaine

Featured in: Discipline Quotes, Athlete Quotes, Effort Quotes, Motivational Workout Quotes, Running Quotes

3. “Success isn’t how far you got, but the distance you traveled from where you started.”

— Steve Prefontaine

Featured in: Running Quotes

4. “The best pace is a suicide pace, and today looks like a good day to die.”

— Steve Prefontaine

Featured in: Hard Hitting Quotes, Grit Quotes, Running Quotes, Sports Quotes

5. “A man can fail many times, but he isn’t a failure until he begins to blame someone else.”

— Steve Prefontaine

6. “Somebody may beat me, but they are going to have to bleed to do it.”

— Steve Prefontaine

Featured in: Persistence Quotes, Attitude Quotes, Quotes About Trying, Running Quotes, Sports Quotes

7. “If you fail to prepare, prepare to fail.”

— Steve Prefontaine

8. “No matter how hard you train, Somebody will train harder. No matter how hard you run, Somebody will run harder. No matter how hard you want it, Somebody will want it more, I am Somebody.”

— Steve Prefontaine

9. “What I want is to be number one.”

— Steve Prefontaine

Featured in: Athlete Quotes, Excellence Quotes, Victory Quotes, Competition Quotes, Desire Quotes

10. “A lot of people run a race to see who is fastest. I run to see who has the most guts, who can punish himself into exhausting pace, and then at the end, punish himself even more.”

— Steve Prefontaine

Featured in: Performance Quotes, Fitness Quotes, Running Quotes, Sports Quotes, Pain Quotes

11. “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

Featured in: Fitness Quotes, Victory Quotes, Competition Quotes, Running Quotes, Sports Quotes

12. “I can endure more pain than anyone you’ve met. That’s why I win, because I can endure more pain.”

— Steve Prefontaine

Featured in: Willpower Quotes, Resilience Quotes, Fitness Quotes, Competition Quotes, Hurt Quotes

13. “You said I was weak. You said I couldn’t do it. Thank you. You gave me everything I needed to prove you wrong.”

— Steve Prefontaine

14. “A race is a work of art that people can look at and be affected in as many ways as they’re capable of understanding.”

— Steve Prefontaine

15. “You have to wonder at times what you’re doing out there. Over the years, I’ve given myself a thousand reasons to keep running, but it always comes back to where it started. It comes down to self-satisfaction and a sense of achievement.”

— Steve Prefontaine

Featured in: Athlete Quotes, Workout Quotes

16. “You cannot propel yourself forward by patting yourself on the back.”

— Steve Prefontaine

17. “What I like most about track is the feeling I get after a good run.”

— Steve Prefontaine

Featured in: Athlete Quotes, Running Quotes, Gym Motivation Quotes, Exercise Quotes

18. “What kind of crazy nut would spend two or three hours a day just running?”

— Steve Prefontaine

19. “If you can’t win your race, make sure the guy ahead of you breaks the record.”

— Steve Prefontaine

20. “Running gives me confidence.”

— Steve Prefontaine

21. “Something inside of me just said ‘Hey, wait a minute, I want to beat him,’ and I just took off.”

— Steve Prefontaine

22. “Having a true faith is the most difficult thing in the world. Many will try to take it from you.”

— Steve Prefontaine

23. “A race is a work of art.”

— Steve Prefontaine

Featured in: Running Quotes

24. “I run to see who has the most guts.”

— Steve Prefontaine

25. “No one will ever win a 5,000-meter by running an easy two miles. Not against me.”

— Steve Prefontaine

26. “Every once in a while I think, ‘What am I doing out here running, busting myself up? Life could be so much easier. The other guys are out having fun, doing other things, why not me?’”

— Steve Prefontaine

27. “I’ve been in international competition, and now I know what the big boys can do. You don’t go out and just run. There’s an offense and a defense.”

— Steve Prefontaine

Featured in: Competition Quotes

28. “Some people create with words or with music or with a brush and paints. I like to make something beautiful when I run.”

— Steve Prefontaine

29. “Nobody likes tainted victories.”

— Steve Prefontaine

30. “I don’t just go out there and run. I like to give people watching something exciting.”

— Steve Prefontaine

31. “How does a kid from Coos Bay, with one leg longer than the other win races?”

— Steve Prefontaine

32. “Kids made fun of me because I was a slow learner, because I was hyperactive, because of a lot of things. Running gave me confidence.”

— Steve Prefontaine

33. “My philosophy is that I’m an artist. I perform an art not with a paint brush or a camera. I perform with bodily movement. Instead of exhibiting my art in a museum or a book or on canvas, I exhibit my art in front of the multitudes.”

— Steve Prefontaine

34. “The idea of losing the three at Hayward Field and the idea of losing my specialty to someone who wasn’t running his specialty. Mostly, the idea of losing in front of my people. They haven’t forgotten about me.”

— Steve Prefontaine

35. “As far as being a coach, it’s always fascinated me. It’s a greater responsibility than most people give it credit for because you’re dealing with people.”

— Steve Prefontaine