Vince Lombardi Quotations

Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.

The measure of who we are is what we do with what we have.

Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect.

If it doesn't matter who wins or loses, then why do they keep score?

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.

Once you learn to quit, it becomes a habit.

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.

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.

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

Individual commitment to a group effort - that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.

Football is like life - it requires perseverance, self-denial, hard work, sacrifice, dedication and respect for authority.

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.

We didn't lose the game; we just ran out of time.

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.

Confidence is contagious. So is lack of confidence.

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.

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.

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.

The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender.

The quality of a person's life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor.

The achievements of an organization are the results of the combined effort of each individual.

The real glory is being knocked to your knees and then coming back. That's real glory. That's the essence of it.

If you aren't fired with enthusiasm, you will be fired with enthusiasm.

The greatest accomplishment is not in never falling, but in rising again after you fall.

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?

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.

Coaches who can outline plays on a black board are a dime a dozen. The ones who win get inside their player and motivate.

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.

Some of us will do our jobs well and some will not, but we will be judged by only one thing-the result.

The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good. Ann Landers It's not whether you get knocked down; it's whether you get back up.

A school without football is in danger of deteriorating into a medieval study hall.

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.

Show me a good loser, and I'll show you a loser.

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.

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.

We would accomplish many more things if we did not think of them as impossible.

If you can accept losing, you can't win.

People who work together will win, whether it be against complex football defenses, or the problems of modern society.

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.

I'm not afraid to die - it's just that I had so much left to do in this world.

I don't think there's a punch-line scheduled, is there?

Some people try to find things in this game that don't exist but football is only two things - blocking and tackling.

There is something good in men that really yearn for discipline.

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.

A disciplined person is one who follows the will of the one who gives the orders.

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.

Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow. Every job is a self portrait of the person who did it ... Autograph your work with excellence.

People who work together will win, whether it be against complex football defences, or the problems of modern society.

I have been wounded but not yet slain. I shall lie here and bleed awile. Then I shall rise and fight again. The title of champion may from time to time fall to others more than ourselves. But the heart, the spirit, and the soul of champions remains in Green Bay.

Leaders aren't born, they are made. And they are made just like anything else, through hard work. And that's the price we'll have to pay to achieve that goal, or any goal.

getting to the final is everything, and winning is icing on the cake.

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!

I think the Kansas City team is a real top football team, but doesn't compare with the National Football League teams. That's what you want me to say. I said it.

Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.

Winning is not everything. It's the only thing.

Winning isn't everything, but the will to win is everything.

Winning isn't everything, but wanting to win is

When you've got the momentum in a football game... that is a time to keep going and get it into the end zone, ... We want to score for America's families.

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. Some guys play with their heads. That's OK You've got to be smart to be number one in any business. But more importantly, you've got to play with your heart, with every fiber of your body. 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 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.

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... I firmly believe that any man's finest hour-this greatest fulfillment to 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.

There is only one way to succeed in anything and that is to give everything. I do and I demand that my players do. Any man's finest hour is when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle... victorious.

There is only one way to succeed in anything and that is to give it everything.

Individual commitment to a group effort -- that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.

If you can accept losing you can't win. If you can walk you can run. No one is ever hurt. Hurt is in your mind.

If you are not fired with enthusiasm, you will be fired with enthusiasm.

If you aren't fired up with enthusiasm, you'll be fired with enthusiasm.

Be fired with enthusiasm or you'll be fired with enthusiasm.

You've got to be in top physical condition. Fatigue makes cowards of us all.

Football is like life -- it requires perseverance, self-denial, hard work, sacrifice, dedication and respect for authority.

It is time for us all to stand and cheer for the doer, the achiever -- the one who recognizes the challenges and does something about it.

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

The Winner is always part of the answer. The Loser is always part of the problem. The Winner always has a program. The Loser always has an excuse. The Winner says, "Let me do it for you." The Loser says, "That's not my job." The Winner sees an answer for every problem. The Loser sees a problem for every answer. The Winner sees a green near every sand trap The Loser sees two or three sand traps near every green. The Winner says, "It may be difficult but it's possible." The Loser says, "It might be possible but it's too difficult." Be a Winner.

Watch your actions, they become your habits. Watch your habits, they become your character.

Most people fail, not because of lack of desire, but, because of lack of commitment.

Second place is meaningless. You can't always be first, but you have to believe that you should have been - that you were never beaten - that time just ran out on you.

If you are not making mistakes, you are not trying hard enough.

If winning isn't everything, why do they keep score?

As soon as error is corrected, it is important that the error be forgotten and only the successful attempts be remembered. Errors, mistakes, and humiliations are all necessary steps in the learning process. Once they have served their purpose, they should be forgotten. If we constantly dwell upon the errors, then the error or failure becomes the goal.

If you can't get emotional about what you believe in your heart, you're in the wrong business.

Don't succumb to excuses. Go back to the job of making the corrections and forming the habits that will make your goal possible.

Everyone Has A Will To Win But Very Few Have The Will To Prepare To Win

The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand

If you really want something , you can have it if you're willing to pay the price. And the price means you have to work better and harder than the next guy.

It is time for us all to stand and cheer for the doer, the achiever - the one who recognizes the challenges and does something about it.

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.

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.

Leaders aren't born they are made. And they are made just like anything else, through hard work. And that's the price we'll have to pay to achieve that goal, or any goal.

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

Champions make their own luck.

Preparedness is the ultimate confidence builder.

Mental toughness is many things and rather difficult to explain. Its qualities are sacrifice and self-denial. Also, most importantly, it is combined with a perfectly disciplined will that refuses to give in. It's a state of mind-you could call it character in action.

You never win a game unless you beat the guy in front of you. The score on the board doesn't mean a thing. That's for the fans. You've got to win the war with the man in front of you. You've got to get your man.

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.

Fatigue makes cowards of us all.

Winning is not everything, but wanting to win is.

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.

Choose to achieve perfection. We won't achieve it because perfection is impossible. But by pursuing perfection, we will achieve excellence.

There's only one way to succeed in anything, and that is to give it everything.