Vince Lombardi, a titan of American football, has left an indelible mark not just on the sport but on the philosophy of leadership, teamwork, and the pursuit of excellence. Lombardi, head coach of the Green Bay Packers during the 1960s, led the team to unprecedented victories, solidifying his legacy as an icon of success. It’s not surprising that his wisdom, encapsulated in numerous motivational quotes, has resonated with athletes, coaches, business leaders, and individuals across all walks of life. In this article, we’ll delve into the timeless wisdom of 100 Vince Lombardi quotes.
Vince Lombardi Quotes
- “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.”
- “Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.”
- “It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get up.”
- “The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary.”
- “Leaders aren’t born, they are made.”
- “Winning is not a sometime thing, it’s an all the time thing.”
- “The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack in will.”
- “The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender.”
- “People who work together will win, whether it be against complex football defenses, or the problems of modern society.”
- “Confidence is contagious. So is lack of confidence.”
- “Individual commitment to a group effort – that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.”
- “Once you learn to quit, it becomes a habit.”
- “Success is like anything worthwhile. It has a price.”
- “Teamwork is what the Green Bay Packers were all about. They didn’t do it for individual glory. They did it because they loved one another.”
- “The real glory is being knocked to your knees and then coming back. That’s real glory. That’s the essence of it.”
- “Show me a good loser, and I’ll show you a loser.”
- “If it doesn’t matter who wins or loses, then why do they keep score?”
- “Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect.”
- “If you aren’t fired with enthusiasm, you will be fired with enthusiasm.”
Vince Lombardi Motivational Quotes
- “Football is a great deal like life in that it teaches that work, sacrifice, perseverance, competitive drive, selflessness and respect for authority is the price each and every one of us must pay to achieve any goal that is worthwhile.”
- “Winning is habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.”
- “If you can accept losing, you can’t win.”
- “Fatigue makes cowards of us all.”
- “The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor.”
- “The measure of who we are is what we do with what we have.”
- “A school without football is in danger of deteriorating into a medieval study hall.”
- “We would accomplish many more things if we did not think of them as impossible.”
- “It’s easy to have faith in yourself and have discipline when you’re a winner, when you’re number one. What you’ve got to have is faith and discipline when you’re not yet a winner.”
- “We run to win, not just to be in the race.”
- “To be successful, a man must exert an effective influence upon his brothers and upon his associates, and the degree in which he accomplishes this depends on the personality of the man.”
- “Mental toughness is many things. It is humility because it behooves all of us to remember that simplicity is the sign of greatness and meekness is the sign of true strength.”
- “It’s easy to have faith in yourself when you’re a winner, when you’re number one. What you’ve got to have is faith in yourself when you’re not a winner.”
- “There’s only one way to succeed in anything, and that is to give it everything.”
- “It does not matter how many times you get knocked down, but how many times you get up.”
- “The man on top of the mountain didn’t fall there.”
- “Obstacles are what you see when you take your eyes off the goal.”
- “If you can shrug off a loss, you can never be a winner.”
- “The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand.”
- “The only time success comes before work is in the dictionary.”
Vince Lombardi Football Quotes
- “The dictionary is the only place that success comes before work. Hard work is the price we must pay for success. I think you can accomplish anything if you’re willing to pay the price.”
- “Coaches who can outline plays on a black board are a dime a dozen. The ones who win get inside their player and motivate.”
- “Live as if you were living already for the second time and as if you had acted the first time as wrongly as you are about to act now!”
- “Inches make a champion.”
- “Winning isn’t everything, but wanting to win is.”
- “You don’t do things right once in a while. You do them right all the time.”
- “I firmly believe that any man’s finest hour, his greatest fulfillment of all he holds dear, is the moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle – victorious.”
- “We didn’t lose the game; we just ran out of time.”
- “The Green Bay Packers never lost a football game. They just ran out of time.”
- “I’ve never known a man worth his salt who in the long run, deep down in his heart, didn’t appreciate the grind, the discipline.”
- “Some people try to find things in this game that don’t exist but football is only two things – blocking and tackling.”
- “The achievements of an organization are the results of the combined effort of each individual.”
- “The harder you work, the harder it is to lose.”
- “A man can be as great as he wants to be. If you believe in yourself and have the courage, the determination, the dedication, the competitive drive and if you are willing to sacrifice the little things in life and pay the price for the things that are worthwhile, it can be done.”
- “Leadership rests not only upon ability, not only upon capacity; having the capacity to lead is not enough. The leader must be willing to use it.”
- “The real glory is being knocked to your knees and then coming back. That’s real glory.”
- “To achieve success, whatever the job we have, we must pay a price.”
- “In great attempts it is glorious even to fail.”
- “I’ve never been with a losing team in my life, and I don’t think I’ll start now.”
Best Vince Lombardi Quotes
- “Once a man has made a commitment to a way of life, he puts the greatest strength in the world behind him. It’s something we call heart power. Once a man has made this commitment, nothing will stop him short of success.”
- “Football is not a contact sport, it’s a collision sport.”
- “It’s not whether you get knocked down; it’s whether you get up.”
- “You never win a game unless you beat the guy in front of you.”
- “Character is just another word for having a perfectly disciplined and educated will. A person can make his own character by blending these elements with an intense desire to achieve excellence and intense determination to maintain high standards.”
- “The challenge of every team is to build a feeling of oneness, of dependence on one another because the question is usually not how well each person performs, but how well they work together.”
- “Life’s battles don’t always go to the stronger or faster man. But sooner or later the man who wins, is the man who thinks he can.”
- “The only yardstick for success our society has is being a champion. No one remembers anything else.”
- “Success demands singleness of purpose.”
- “It is and has always been an American zeal to be first in anything we do, and to win… and to win, and to win.”
- “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog.”
- “The good Lord gave you a body that can stand most anything. It’s your mind you have to convince.”
- “I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts.”
- “A disciplined person is one who follows the will of the one who gives the orders.”
- “It’s not the will to win that matters – everyone has that. It’s the will to prepare to win that matters.”
- “The man on top of the mountain didn’t fall there.”
- “Having the capacity to lead is not enough. The leader must be willing to use it.”
- “To be successful, a man must exert an effective influence upon his brothers and upon his associates, and the degree in which he accomplishes this depends on the personality of the man.”
- “The spirit, the will to win, and the will to excel are the things that endure. These qualities are so much more important than the events that occur.”
- “Once you agree upon the price you and your family must pay for success, it enables you to ignore the minor hurts, the opponent’s pressure, and the temporary failures.”
- “Mental toughness is spartanism with qualities of sacrifice, self-denial, dedication. It is fearlessness, and it is love.”
- “Football is like life, it requires perseverance, self-denial, hard work, sacrifice, dedication and respect for authority.”
- “If you can’t accept losing, you can’t win.”
- “Simplicity is a form of sophistication.”
- “The greatest accomplishment is not in never falling, but in rising again after you fall.”
- “If winning isn’t everything, why do they keep score?”
- “A good leader takes a little more than his share of the blame, a little less than his share of the credit.”
- “The only real glory is being knocked to your knees and then coming back. That’s real glory.”
- “The leader can never close the gap between himself and the group. If he does, he is no longer what he must be. He must walk a tightrope between the consent he must win and the control he must exert.”
- “It’s not what you’ve got, it’s what you use that makes a difference.”
Vince Lombardi Leadership Quotes
- “True perfection is unattainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.”
- “The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand.”
- “A man can be as great as he wants to be. If you believe in yourself and have the courage, the determination, the dedication, the competitive drive and if you are willing to sacrifice the little things in life and pay the price for the things that are worthwhile, it can be done.”
- “The will to win is the only thing.”
- “I would say that the quality of each man’s life is the full measure of that man’s commitment of excellence and victory – whether it be football, whether it be business, whether it be politics or government or what have you.”
- “The road to Easy Street goes through the sewer.”
- “You cannot achieve success without the risk of failure. If you are not afraid to fail, you have a chance, but no real security.”
- “The only yardstick for success our society has, is being a champion. No one remembers anything else.”
- “Morally, the life of the organization must be of exemplary nature. This is one phase where the organization must not have criticism.”
- “If you aren’t fired with enthusiasm, you will be fired with enthusiasm.”
- “Leadership is not just one quality, but rather a blend of many qualities; and while no one individual possesses all of the needed talents that go into leadership, each man can develop a combination to make him a leader.”
- “Some of us will do our jobs well and some will not, but we will be judged by only one thing-the result.”
