COMPETITION

Quote: I worked very hard. I felt I could play the game. The only thing that could stop me was myself.

Author: Jim Abbott American Baseball Player


Quote: You have to be able to center yourself, to let all of your emotions go... Don't ever forget that you play with your soul as well as your body.

Author: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 1947-, American Basketball Player


Quote: It has meant a lot to me to challenge the best players in the world and to beat them. And it means a lot to me to be out here and fighting for the title and, you know, it hurts not to win it.

Author: Andre Agassi 1970-, American Tennis Player


Quote: How can we hope to remain economically competitive in a world in which... 90% of Dutch high-school students take advanced math courses and 100% of teachers in Germany have double majors, while the best we can say about our pocket of excellence is that 75% of [American] students have learned to critique tactfully?

Author: Barbara J. Alexander


Quote: World trade means competition from anywhere; advancing technology encourages cross-industry competition. Consequently, strategic planning must consider who our future competitors will be, not only who is here today.

Author: Eric Allison American Financial Writer


Quote: The Law of Win/Win says, ''Let's not do it your way or my way; let's do it the best way.

Author: Greg Anderson American Author of ''The 22 Non-Negotiable Laws of Wellness''


Quote: What it comes down to is that anybody can win with the best horse. What makes you good is if you can take the second or third-best horse and win.

Author: Vicky Aragon American Jockey


Quote: Thank God for competition. When our competitors upset our plans or outdo our designs, they open infinite possibilities of our own work to us.

Author: Gil Atkinson


Quote: Competitions are for horse, not artist.

Author: Bela Bartok 1881-1945, Hungarian Composer


Quote: I love the winning, I can take the losing, but most of all I Love to play.

Author: Boris Becker 1967-, German Tennis Player


Quote: To free the mind from the habit of competition, we must see in detail the process by which the mind is ensnared by competition.

Author: Marguerite Beecher


Quote: Competition is a process or variety of habitual behavior that grows out of a habit of mind.

Author: Willard Beecher


Quote: The game isn't over until it's over.

Author: Yogi Berra 1925-, American Baseball Player


Quote: You must not fight too often with one enemy, or you will teach him all your tricks of war.

Author: Napoleon Bonaparte 1769-1821, French General, Emperor


Quote: Becoming number one is easier than remaining number one.

Author: Bill Bradley American Basketball Player


Quote: Show me a guy who is afraid to look bad, and I'll show you a guy you can beat every time.

Author: Lou Brock


Quote: Focus on competition has always been a formula for mediocrity.

Author: Daniel Burrus American Trend Predictor, Author of ''Techo Trends''


Quote: Somebody will always break your records. It is how you live that counts.

Author: Earl Campbell American Football Player


Quote: Our life is not really a mutual helpfulness; but rather, it's fair competition cloaked under due laws of war; it's a mutual hostility.

Author: Thomas Carlyle 1795-1881, Scottish Philosopher, Author


Quote: The price which society pays for the law of competition, like the price it pays for cheap comforts and luxuries, is great; but the advantages of this law are also greater still than its cost -- for it is to this law that we owe our wonderful material development, which brings improved conditions in its train. But, whether the law be benign or not, we must say of it: It is here; we cannot evade it; no substitutes for it have been found; and while the law may be sometimes hard for the individual, it is best for the race, because it ensures the survival of the fittest in every department.

Author: Andrew Carnegie 1835-1919, American Industrialist, Philanthropist


Quote: I don't psyche myself up. I psyche myself down. I think clearer when I'm not psyched up.

Author: Steve Cauthen American Jockey


Quote: Everybody pulls for David, nobody roots for Goliath.

Author: Wilt Chamberlain 1936-, American Basketball Player


Quote: Thou shalt not covet; but tradition approves all forms of competition.

Author: Arthur Hugh Clough 1819-1861, British Poet


Quote: The general fact is that the most effective way of utilizing human energy is through an organized rivalry, which by specialization and social control is, at the same time, organized co-operation.

Author: Charles Horton Cooley 1864-1929, American Sociologist


Quote: It's amazing how much of this is mental. Everybody's in good shape. Everybody knows how to ski. Everybody has good equipment. When it really boils down to it, it's who wants it the most, and who's the most confident on his skis.

Author: Reggie Crist American Skier


Quote: I believe in rules. Sure I do. If there weren't any rules, how could you break them?

Author: Leo Durocher 1905-1991, American Baseball Player/Manager


Quote: What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight; it's the size of the fight in the dog.

Author: Dwight D. Eisenhower 1890-1969, Thirty-fourth President of the USA


Quote: You must sacrifice, train, do everything possible to put yourself in a position to win. But if you consider second or third a failure, I feel sorry for you.

Author: Joe Falcon American Athlete


Quote: You get out in front -- you stay out in front.

Author: A. J. Foyt American Race Car Driver


Quote: It is better for a woman to compete impersonally in society, as men do, than to compete for dominance in her own home with her husband, compete with her neighbors for empty status, and so smother her son that he cannot compete at all.

Author: Betty Friedan 1921-, American Feminist Writer


Quote: There are two kinds of people: Those who do the work and those who take the credit. Try to be in the first group because there is less competition there.

Author: Indira Gandhi 1917-1984, Indian Prime Minster


Quote: The ability to learn faster than your competitors may be only sustainable competitive advantage.

Author: Arie de Geus Dutch Business Strategist


Quote: Hail Caesar, those who are about to die salute you.

Author: Gladiator's Salute


Quote: No wise combatant underestimates their antagonist.

Author: Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe 1749-1832, German Poet, Dramatist, Novelist


Quote: Surely the best way to meet the enemy is head on in the field and not wait till they plunder our very homes.

Author: Oliver Goldsmith 1728-1774, Anglo-Irish Author, Poet, Playwright


Quote: Racing is a matter of spirit not strength.

Author: Janet Guthrie American Race Car Driver


Quote: Every time you go out on the ice, there are slight flaws. You can always think of something you should have done better. These are the things you must work on.

Author: Dorothy Hamill American Figure Skater


Quote: Men often compete with one another until the day they die; comradeship consists of rubbing shoulders jocularly with a competitor.

Author: Edward Hoagland 1932-, American Novelist, Essayist


Quote: I play [golf] with friends sometimes, but there are never friendly games.

 

Author: Ben Hogan 1912-, American Golfer


Quote: How you respond to the challenge in the second half will determine what you become after the game, whether you are a winner or a loser.

Author: Lou Holtz 1937-, American Football Coach


Quote: The biggest things are often the easiest to do because there is so little competition.

Author: William Van Horne


Quote: You find that you have peace of mind and can enjoy yourself, get more sleep, and rest when you know that it was a one hundred percent effort that you gave -- win or lose.

Author: Gordie Howe 1928-, Canadian Hockey Player


Quote: Do your work with your whole heart, and you will succeed -- there's so little competition.

Author: Elbert Hubbard 1859-1915, American Author, Publisher


Quote: And what is the greatest number? Number one.

Author: David Hume 1711-1776, Scottish Philosopher, Historian


Quote: The only competition worthy a wise man is with himself.

Author: Mrs. Jamieson


Quote: Running for money doesn't make you run fast. It makes you run first.

Author: Ben Jipcho


Quote: Once your physically capable of winning a gold medal, the rest is ninety percent mental.

Author: Patti Johnson American Athlete


Quote: We want to be first; not first if, not first but; but first!

Author: John F. Kennedy 1917-1963, Thirty-fifth President of the USA


Quote: The medals don't mean anything and the glory doesn't last. It's all about your happiness. The rewards are going to come, but my happiness is just loving the sport and having fun performing.

Author: Jackie Joyner Kersee 1962-, American Track Athlete


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

Author: A. J. Kitt


Quote: Mental toughness is to physical as four is to one.

Author: Bobby Knight 1940-, American Basketball Coach


Quote: When the game is over it is really just beginning.

Author: Jerry Kramer


Quote: Man is a gaming animal. He must always be trying to get the better in something or other.

Author: Charles Lamb 1775-1834, British Essayist, Critic


Quote: When you want to win a game, you have to teach. When you lose a game, you have to learn.

Author: Tom Landry 1924-, American Football Player, Coach


Quote: I watch a man shoot pool for an hour. If he misses more than one shot I know I can beat him.

Author: Luther Lassiter


Quote: The time your game is most vulnerable is when you're ahead, never let up.

Author: Rod Laver 1938-, Australian Tennis Player


Quote: Competition is the spice of sports; but if you make spice the whole meal you'll be sick.

Author: George Leonard


Quote: A competitor will find a way to win. Competitors take bad breaks and use them to drive themselves just that much harder. Quitters take bad breaks and use them as reasons to give up. It's all a matter of pride.

Author: Nancy Lopez 1957-, American Golfer


Quote: He can run but he can't hide.

Author: Joe Louis 1914-1981, American Boxer


Quote: I consider myself one of a very small handful of drivers in the world that are top drivers. The best one? I don't think anybody can say they're the best one because, from one week to the next, you can be on form or off form a little bit.

Author: Nigel Mansell 1953-, American Race Car Driver


Quote: When you have them by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow.

Author: Jerry Martin American Actor


Quote: So long as the system of competition in the production and exchange of the means of life goes on, the degradation of the arts will go on; and if that system is to last for ever, then art is doomed, and will surely die; that is to say, civilization will die.

Author: William Morris 1834-1896, British Artist, Writer, Printer


Quote: I don't compete with other discus throwers. I compete with my own history.

Author: Al Oerter 1936-, American Athlete, Discus-thrower


Quote: Playing safe is only playing.

Author: Chuck Olson


Quote: This is a tough game. There are times when you've got to play hurt, when you've got to block out the pain.

Author: Shaquille O'Neal 1971-, American Basketball Player, Actor


Quote: These are the days when it takes all you've got just to keep up with the losers.

Author: Robert Orpen


Quote: A horse never runs so fast as when he has other horses to catch up and outpace.

Author: Ovid BC 43-18 AD, Roman Poet


Quote: Don't look back. Something might be gaining on you.

Author: Leroy ''Satchel'' Paige 1906?-1982, American Baseball Player


Quote: You must play boldly to win.

Author: Arnold Palmer 1929-, American Golfer


Quote: I don't care how good you play, you can find somebody who can beat you, and I don't care how bad you play, you can find somebody you can beat.

Author: Harvey Penick American Golfer


Quote: There is nothing noble in being superior to some other person. The true nobility is in being superior to your previous self.

Author: Indian Proverb Sayings of Indian Origin


Quote: After the game the King and pawn go into the same box.

Author: Italian Proverb Sayings of Italian Origin


Quote: One cannot play chess if one becomes aware of the pieces as living souls and of the fact that the Whites and the Blacks have more in common with each other than with the players. Suddenly one loses all interest in who will be champion.

Author: Anatol Rapoport


Quote: For when the One Great Scorer comes to mark against your name, He writes -- not that you won or lost -- but how you played the Game.

Author: Grantland Rice 1880-1954, American Sportswriter


Quote: I won it, at least five million times. Men who were stronger, bigger and faster than I was could have done it, but they never picked up a pole, and never made the feeble effort to pick their legs off the ground and get over the bar.

Author: Bob Richards American Olympic Pole Vaulting Champion


Quote: You have to defeat a great players aura more than his game.

Author: Pat Riley 1945, American Basketball Coach


Quote: Win or lose, do it fairly.

Author: Knute Rockne 1888-1931, Norwegian-born American Football Coach


Quote: My hat's in the ring. The fight is on and I'm stripped to the buff.

Author: Theodore Roosevelt 1858-1919, Twenty-sixth President of the USA


Quote: In this game, by trying to win; you automatically lose. Author: Ruth Ross

Quote: The difference of great players is at a certain point in a match they raise their level of play and maintain it. Lesser players play great for a set, but then less.

Author: Pete Sampras 1971-, American Tennis Player


Quote: Every man in the world is better than someone else and not as good someone else.

Author: William Saroyan 1908-1981, American Writer, Novelist,, Playwright


Quote: When you step onto that field, you cannot concede a thing.

Author: Gayle Sayers American Football Player


Quote: Competition is the whetstone of talent.

Author: Saying


Quote: The weakness of an enemy forms part of our own strength.

Author: Saying


Quote: Strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends.

Author: William Shakespeare 1564-1616, British Poet, Playwright, Actor


Quote: When you fear a foe, fear crushes your strength; and this weakness gives strength to your opponents.

Author: William Shakespeare 1564-1616, British Poet, Playwright, Actor


Quote: Enjoy the successes that you have, and don't be too hard on yourself when you don't do well. Too many times we beat up on ourselves. Just relax and enjoy it.

Author: Patty Sheehan 1956, American Golfer


Quote: When you're riding, only the race in which you're riding is important.

Author: Willie Shoemaker 1931-, American Racing Jockey and Trainer


Quote: If you make every game a life and death proposition, you're going to have problems. For one thing, you'll be dead a lot.

Author: Dean Smith American College Basketball Coach


Quote: Most games are lost, not won.

Author: Casey Stengel 1889-1975, American Baseball Player and Manager


Quote: I ski to win. When the day comes that I can't get myself into a fighting mood anymore, I won't be able to win and I'll stop racing.

Author: Ingemar Stenmark Skier


Quote: If football taught me anything about business, it is that you win the game one play at a time.

Author: Fran Tarkenton American Football Player, Businessman, Corporate Consultant, Author


Quote: How can they beat me? I've been struck by lightning, had two back operations, and been divorced twice.

Author: Lee Trevino 1939-, American Golfer


Quote: We have a lot of players in their first year. Some of them are also in their last year.

Author: Bill Walsh American Football Coach


Quote: The key to any game is to use your strengths and hide your weaknesses.

Author: Paul Westphal


Quote: When I go our on the ice, I just think about my skating. I forget it is a competition.

Author: Katarina Witt 1955-, German Figure Skater


Quote: The person who figures out how to harness the collective genius of his or her organization is going to blow the competition away.

Author: Walter Wriston