Top 240 Quotes & Sayings by Vince Lombardi

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American coach Vince Lombardi.
Last updated on September 13, 2024.
Vince Lombardi

Vincent Thomas Lombardi was an American football coach and executive in the National Football League (NFL). Lombardi is considered by many to be the greatest coach in football history, and he is recognized as one of the greatest coaches and leaders in the history of all American sports. He is best known as the head coach of the Green Bay Packers during the 1960s, where he led the team to three straight and five total NFL Championships in seven years, in addition to winning the first two Super Bowls at the conclusion of the 1966 and 1967 NFL seasons.

Battles are won in the hearts of men.
The greatest accomplishment is not in never falling, but in rising again after you fall.
The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will. — © Vince Lombardi
The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.
Winning is habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.
We would accomplish many more things if we did not think of them as impossible.
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.
People who work together will win, whether it be against complex football defenses, or the problems of modern society.
Fatigue makes cowards of us all.
There is something good in men that really yearn for discipline.
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.
Some of us will do our jobs well and some will not, but we will be judged by only one thing-the result.
The achievements of an organization are the results of the combined effort of each individual.
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.
At many a moment on many a day, I am convinced that pro football must be a game for madmen, and I must be one of them. — © Vince Lombardi
At many a moment on many a day, I am convinced that pro football must be a game for madmen, and I must be one of them.
If you're lucky enough to find a guy with a lot of head and a lot of heart, he's never going to come off the field second.
The measure of who we are is what we do with what we have.
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 that each and every one of us must pay to achieve any goal that is worthwhile.
Some people try to find things in this game that don't exist but football is only two things - blocking and tackling.
I don't think there's a punch-line scheduled, is there?
We didn't lose the game; we just ran out of time.
You don't do things right once in a while. You do things right all the time.
A disciplined person is one who follows the will of the one who gives the orders.
Leaders are made, they are not born. They are made by hard effort, which is the price which all of us must pay to achieve any goal that is worthwhile.
Winners never quit and quitters never win.
The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary.
Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect.
There is no room for second place. There is only one place in my game and that is first place. I have finished second twice in my time at Green Bay and I never want to finish second again.
If you aren't fired with enthusiasm, you will be fired with enthusiasm.
The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender.
Why did I choose Washington among offers from other cities? Because it is the capital of the world.
The quality of a person's life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor.
Once you learn to quit, it becomes a habit.
If you can accept losing, you can't win.
The real glory is being knocked to your knees and then coming back. That's real glory. That's the essence of it.
Confidence is contagious. So is lack of confidence.
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.
Coaches who can outline plays on a black board are a dime a dozen. The ones who win get inside their player and motivate.
It's easy to have faith in yourself and have discipline when you're a winner, when you're number one. What you got to have is faith and discipline when you're not a winner.
A school without football is in danger of deteriorating into a medieval study hall. — © Vince Lombardi
A school without football is in danger of deteriorating into a medieval study hall.
The difference between men is in energy, in the strong will, in the settled purpose and in the invincible determination.
Unless a man believes in himself and makes a total commitment to his career and puts everything he has into it - his mind, his body, his heart - what's life worth to him?
Go back through football, and you will see that the team with the best defense wins.
The will to win is the only thing.
Individual commitment to a group effort - that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.
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.
It's not whether you get knocked down, it's whether you get up.
Success demands singleness of purpose.
If you can shrug off a loss, you can't be a winner.
I'll put the Packers' best players on defense. It's best for a team and good for its morale. — © Vince Lombardi
I'll put the Packers' best players on defense. It's best for a team and good for its morale.
Winning is not a sometime thing; it's an all the 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.
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. Everyone is different in what I will call magnitude, but the capacity to achieve character is still the same.
We run to win, not just to be in the race.
Mental toughness is spartanism with qualities of sacrifice, self-denial, dedication. It is fearlessness, and it is love.
If it doesn't matter who wins or loses, then why do they keep score?
Every time a football player goes to ply his trade, he's got to play from the ground up - from the soles of his feet right up to his head. Every inch of him has to play.
Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.
Football is like life - it requires perseverance, self-denial, hard work, sacrifice, dedication and respect for authority.
I'm not afraid to die - it's just that I had so much left to do in this world.
Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing.
I have finished second twice in my time at Green Bay, and I don't ever want to finish second again. There is a second place bowl game, but it is a game for losers played by losers. It is and always has been an American zeal to be first in anything we do, and to win, and to win, and to win.
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