Top 240 Quotes & Sayings by Vince Lombardi - Page 3

We know how rough the road will be, how heavy here the load will be, we know about the barricades that wait along the track, but we have set our soul ahead upon a certain goal ahead and nothing left from hell to sky shall ever turn us back.

Success rests not only on ability, but upon commitment, loyalty, and pride.

There are three things important to every man in this locker room. His God, his family, and the Green Bay Packers. In that order.

Relentlessly pursue perfection knowing we won't catch it, but in the process we'll achieve excellence.

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.

Gentlemen, we will chase perfection, and we will chase it relentlessly, knowing all the while we can never attain it. But along the way, we shall catch excellence.

I derived my strength from daily mass and communion.

They may not love you at the time, but they will later.

There's no such thing as Perfection. But, in striving for perfection, we can achieve excellence.

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.

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.

The strength of the group is the strength of the leaders.

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.

Gentlemen, we are going to relentlessly chase perfection, knowing full well we will not catch it, because nothing is perfect. But we are going to relentlessly chase it, because in the process we will catch excellence. I am not remotely interested in just being good.

The good Lord gave you a body that can stand most anything. It's your mind you have to convince.

One must not hesitate to innovate and change with the times. The leader who stands still is not progressing, and he will not remain a leader for long.

There is only one kind of discipline, and that is the perfect discipline. As a leader, you must enforce and maintain that discipline; otherwise, you will fail at your job.

A team that thinks it's going to lose is going to lose.

In all my years of coaching, I have never been successful using somebody else's play.

Football isn't a contact sport; it's a collision sport. Dancing is a contact sport.

To me, the big thing in being a successful team is repetition of what you're doing, either by word of mouth, blackboard, or specifically by work on the field. You repeat, repeat, repeat as a unit.

Gentlemen, we are going to relentlessly chase perfection, knowing full well we will not catch it.

It is essential to understand that battles are primarily won in the hearts of men.

Most important of all, to be successful in life demands that a man make a personal commitment to excellence and to victory, even though the ultimate victory can never be completely won. Yet that victory might be pursued and wooed with every fiber of our body, with every bit of our might and all our effort. And each week, there is a new encounter; each day, there is a new challenge.

They do not truly love who do not show their love.

Football is a great deal like life in that it teaches that work, sacrifice, perseverance, competitive drive, selflessness, and respect for authority are the price each and every one of us must pay to achieve any goal that is worthwhile.

Offensively, you do what you do best and you do it again and again. Defensively, you attack your opponent's strength.

After the cheers have died down and the stadium is empty, after the headlines have been written and after you are back in the quiet of your room and the championship ring has been placed on the dresser and all the pomp and fanfare has faded, the enduring things that are left are: the dedication to excellence, the dedication to victory, and the dedication to doing with our lives the very best we can to make the world a better place in which to live.

Build for your team a feeling of oneness, of dependence on one another and of strength to be derived by unity.

I think you can accomplish anything if you're willing to pay the price.

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. His leadership is then based on truth and character. There must be truth in the purpose and will power in the character.

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

The joy is in creating, not maintaining.

If you give me anything less than your best, you're not only cheating yourself. your coaches, your teamates, everybody in Green Bay, and everything pro football stands for. Your also cheating the Maker who gave you the talent.

I said, 'You missed practice yesterday didn't you?' The player replied, 'No coach, not a bit.'

The Green Bay Packers never lost a football game. They just ran out of time.

In great attempts, it is glorious even to fail.

One comes to believe whatever one repeats to oneself sufficiently often, whether the statement be true of false. It comes to be the dominating thought in one's mind.

It is essential to understand that battles are primarily won in the hearts of men. Men respond to leadership in a most remarkable way and once you have won his heart, he will follow you anywhere.

When you're tired, you rationalize. You make excuses in your mind. You say, "I'm too tired; I'm bushed; I can't do this; I'll loaf." Then you're a coward.

No leader, however great, can long continue unless he wins battles. The battle decides all.

It does not matter how many times you get knocked down, but how many times you get up.

We shall play every game to the hilt with every ounce of fiber we have in our bodies.

You defeat defeatism with confidence.

They call it coaching but it is teaching. You do not just tell them...you show them the reasons.

We live in an age fit for heroes. No time has ever offered such perils or prizes... The test of this century will be whether man confuses the growth of wealth and power with the growth of spirit and character.

When we place our dependence in God, we are unencumbered, and we have no worry. In fact, we may even be reckless, insofar as our part in the production is concerned. This confidence, this sureness of action, is both contagious and an aid to the perfect action. The rest is in the hands of God - and this is the same God, gentlemen, who has won all His battles up to now.

Leadership rests not only on outstanding ability. It also rests on commitment, loyalty and pride. It rests on followers who are ready to accept guidance. Leadership is the ability to direct people and - more important - to have those people accept that direction.

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.

Before I can embrace freedom, I should be aware of what duties I have.

We win our games in practice. We learn and follow the fundamentals of our game better than anyone in the league. All of our games are won in practice.

The darkest moments of our lives are not to be buried and forgotten, rather they are a memory to be called upon for inspiration to remind us of the unrelenting human spirit and our capacity to overcome the intolerable

All right mister, let me tell you that winning means you're willing to go longer, work harder, give more than anyone else.

Nobody is hurt. Hurt is in the mind. If you can walk, you can run.

I think good physical conditioning is essential to any occupation. A man who is physically fit performs better at any job. Fatigue makes cowards of us all.

If you get into the endzone, act as if you've been there before.

I will demand a commitment to excellence and to victory, and that is what life is all about.

Winning is not the most important thing; it's everything.

The objective is to win: fairly, squarely, decently, win by the rules, but still win.

And the trouble with me is that my ego just can't accept a loss. I suppose that if I were more perfectly adjusted, I would toss off defeat, but my name is on this ball club. Thirty-six men publicly reflect me and reflect on me, and it's a matter of my pride.