78+ Best Sportsmanship Quotes: Exclusive Selection

Sportmanship is behaviour in sport that is fair and shows respect to the other players. Profoundly inspirational sportsmanship quotes will fire up your brain and encourage you to look at life differently while making you laugh.

If you’re searching for best sports quotes of all time and greatest running quotes that perfectly capture what you’d like to say or just want to feel inspired yourself, browse through an amazing collection of significant marathon quotes, best gym quotes and greatest bicycle quotes.

Famous Sportsmanship Quotes

Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships. Michael Jordan

Games give you a chance to excel, and if you’re playing in good company you don’t even mind if you lose because you had the enjoyment of the company during the course of the game. Gary Gygax

The most important lesson I’ve learned from sports is how to be not only a gracious winner, but a good loser as well. Not everyone wins all the time, as a matter of fact, no one wins all the time. Winning is the easy part, losing is really tough. But, you learn more from one loss than you do from a million wins. You learn a lot about sportsmanship. Amy Van Dyken

It’s because you absolutely love the sport. Nastia Liukin

Good sportsmanship goes beyond the game; it starts with respect. Tommy Hilfiger

After I hit a home run I had a habit of running the bases with my head down. I figured the pitcher already felt bad enough without me showing him up rounding the bases. Mickey Mantle

Sportsmanship is the ethical and moral dimension of sports. It is demonstrated by a number of attributes and attitudes such as fair play, respect for the rules and traditions of the sport and various traits of good character including integrity abiding by the letter and spirit of the rules and concepts of honor; demonstrated respect for others including teammates, opponents, officials and spectators; accountability, self control, and graciousness in victory and defeat. Michael Josephson

We old athletes carry the disfigurements and markings of contests remembered only by us and no one else. Nothing is more lost than a forgotten game. Pat Conroy

Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn. Xunzi

If it’s not whether you win or lose but how you play the game, why keep score? Ron Brackin

If character is what you do when no one is watching, then sportsmanship is that conduct with everybody watching. Bob Ley

On athleticism, God knows no favor. It seems rather he is in the business of teaching winners how to lose and losers how to win. Criss Jami

One man practicing sportsmanship is far better than a hundred teaching it. Knute Rockne

Some things are better than winning. Claire Annette Noland

Struggle and survival, losing and winning, doesn’t matter. It’s entering the race that counts. You enter, you can win, you can lose  but it’s all about entering the race. Pam Grier

Tennis taught me to take chances, to take life as it comes. To hit every ball that comes to me no matter how hard it looks, to give it my best shot. Thisuri Wanniarachchi

Sportsmanship is that quality of honor that desires always to be courteous, fair, and respectful, and it is interpreted in the conduct of players, spectators, coaches, and school authorities. Fielding H. Yost

Sports inculcate something in you that no institution, family or friendship can. A quality that eventually emanate from you, something called Sportsmanship. Sandeep Sahajpal

Win as if you were used to it, lose as if you enjoyed it for a change. Ralph Waldo Emerson

In most sports, like in tennis, love means nothing. Wyatt Allen

If you win through bad sportsmanship that’s no real victory. Babe Didrikson Zaharias

Sport should be in your Blood Veins, Not in the Joints or Bones. Binoy Boban

The five S’s of sports training are stamina, speed, strength, skill, and spirit; but the greatest of these is spirit. Ken Doherty

A decayed body is not made the least more aesthetic by a brilliant mind, indeed the highest intellectual training could not be justified if its bearers were at the same time physically degenerate and crippled, weak minded, wavering and cowardly individuals. What make the Greek ideal of beauty a model is the wonderful combination of the most magnificent physical beauty with brilliant mind and noblest soul. Adolf Hitler

Sports is a moral undertaking because it requires of participants, and it schools spectators in the appreciation of, noble things courage, grace under pressure, sportsmanship. George Will

Karate begins and ends with courtesy. This means respect others, refrain from violent behavior, practice fairness in the spirit of good sportsmanship. Takahashi Miyagi

I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying. Michael Jordan

Don’t be a cheater, lose with clsss. Bert McCoy

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

Sqauash is the only gane where you call your opponent a partner, and both of you play on the same side! Sandeep Sahajpal

Remember that sports are meant to be fun. Don’t let someone make the sport unfun for you. A. J. Kitt

Bowing low, he gave a last confident nod toward home plate, the kind that said, You know kid, I’m Danny Dragoon. I pitch fire, and you can’t hit fire. No one can. Anthony Trendl

Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are. John Wooden

Life is a game. Have the sportsmanship to enjoy it. Tapan Ghosh

Competition is great for everyone. Sports can teach you so much at an early age, including camaraderie and sportsmanship. Competition aspect is something I’ve always been big on I always wanted to compete in something. It was swimming for many years, then I moved on to basketball. I had to find a way to channel my competitive energy, so I’m lucky that basketball worked out for me. Tim Duncan

It is possible to be in the Way of Excellence and still lose. Think about this for a moment. Would you rather experience playing, competing and performing at your all time best in the Zone and lose, or play awful, get lucky and win? When put in this perspective, the definition of winning and losing is not clear. In other words, it is possible to lose and still perform like a winner, just as it is possible to win and play like a loser. Tobe Hanson

Victories in life come through our ability to work around and over the obstacles that cross our path. We grow stronger as we climb our own mountains. Marvin J. Ashton

There’s a code of honor in sports, Guerin believed. You do not deliberately embarrass your opponent or set records outside the normal flow of the game. The Warriors were breaking a code. Gary M. Pomerantz

Sportsmanship is making sure you have respect for the guy you’re playing across from. Warren Moon

She detested rows and scenes, but enjoyed quietly pitting her cool will against opposition. It amused her; and when she was defeated, she withdrew in good order and lost interest in the campaign. She had little or no sporting spirit. Bloody battles to the death bored her, nor did she like other people to win. Stella Gibbons

Follow your dreams as long as you live! Never be afraid to go out on the limb to live up to your expectations. Always do things your way and Have Fun! Picabo Street

The geese were quick to enjoy themselves, once the sense of alarm had subsided and the spirit of fun took hold. Geese, Marika learned, are typically a serious lot; but after being brought into the game, they become quite committed and surprisingly sportsman like. Marti Healy

Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. Seneca the Younger

People focus on role models; it is more effective to find antimodels people you don’t want to resemble when you grow up. Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Good sportsmanship means treating others with respect. I consider myself a pretty good sport. Tommy Hilfiger

Someone who doesn’t make the Olympic team might weep and collapse. In my day no one fell on the track and cried like a baby. We lost gracefully. And when someone won, he didn’t act like he’d just become king of the world, either. Athletes in my day were simply humble in our victory. I believe we were more mature then. Maybe it’s because the media puts so much pressure on athletes; maybe it’s also the money. In my day we competed for the love of the sport. In my day we patted the guy who beat us on the back, wished him well, and that was it. Louis Zamperini

I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed. Michael Jordan

True sportsmanship is excellence in motion! Lorii Myers

When champions fail, they get back up and try again. They don’t let failure discourage them. Mary Ellen Clark

Be fair. Play hard. Dan Venezia

Pride makes us do things well. But it is love that makes us do them to perfection. H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

In sports, I win because your better. You win because your better. That’s it I don’t accept excuses. Kenneth de Guzman

I always tell kids, you have two eyes and one mouth. Keep two open and one closed. You never learn anything if you’re the one talking. Gordie Howe

How you harangue referees. How you fall over when you’ve not been touched. How you make a meal out of every tackle to try and get the other player booked. How you protest when you have nothing to fucking protest about. David Peace

Sweat plus sacrifice equals success. Charlie Finley

I think sportsmanship is knowing that it is a game, that we are only as good as our opponents, and whether you win or lose, to always give 100 percent. Sue Wicks

I’ve always made a total effort, even when the odds seemed entirely against me. I never quit trying; I never felt that I didn’t have a chance to win. Arnold Palmer

One man practicing sportsmanship is far better than a hundred teaching it. Knute Rockne

Sportsmanship, next to the Church, is the greatest teacher of morals. Herbert Hoover

Class always shows. Paul Brown

Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do. John Wooden

Victory is remembered for at most two decades; an act of good sportsmanship is remembered for a lifetime. Simon Nguyen

It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts. John Wooden

Sometimes I think sportsmanship is a little bit forgotten in place of the individual attention. Cal Ripken Jr.

Class is striving hard to be the best at what you do while taking the needs of others into consideration. Roger Staubach

After I hit a home run I had a habit of running the bases with my head down. I figured the pitcher already felt bad enough without me showing him up rounding the bases. Mickey Mantle

Tactics, fitness, stroke ability, adaptability, experience, and sportsmanship are all necessary for winning. Fred Perry

I never thought about losing, but now that it’s happened, the only thing is to do it right. Muhammad Ali

Failing to prepare is preparing to fail. John Wooden

Win as if you were used to it, lose as if you enjoyed it for a change. Ralph Waldo Emerson

You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them. Michael Jordan

When you win, say nothing. When you lose, say less. Paul Brown

For what I get paid to get into the ring, I owe it to my fans to uphold the institution of sportsmanship. Mike Tyson

I would prefer even to lose with honor than to win by cheating. Sophocles

Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there. Will Rogers

Victory is in the quality of competition and not the final score. Mike Marshall