Vince Lombardi Quotes

The strength of the group is in the will of the leader, and the will is character in action.

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

Those who have invested the most are the last to surrender.

Winning isn't everything, but striving to win is.

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

I hold it more important to hold the player's confidence than their affection.

I don't necessarily have to like my players and associates but as their leader I must love them. Love is loyalty, love is teamwork, love respects the dignity of the individual. This is the strength of any organization.

No one is ever hurt. Hurt is in the mind.

The best game plan in the world never blocked or tackled anybody.

You carry on no matter what are the obstacles. You simply refuse to give up - and, when the going gets tough, you get tougher. And, you win.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

The joy is in creating, not maintaining.

If you'll not settle for anything less than your best, you will be amazed at what you can accomplish in your lives.

While statistics are interesting, they're all in the past.

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.

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.

Winning in not a sometimes thing. You don't win once in awhile... You don't do things right once in awhile... You do them right all the time. Winning is a habit.

I don't build character. I eliminate the people who don't have it.

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.

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.

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. Mental toughness is spartanism with qualities of sacrifice, self-denial, dedication. It is fearlessness, and it is love.

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.

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.

Success is like anything worthwhile. It has a price. You have to pay the price to get to the point where success is possible.

Winning is not everything - but making the effort to win was ... If you can't accept losing, you can't win.

Gentlemen, we are going to relentlessly chase perfection, knowing full well we will not catch 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 incandescence of which he is capable. The flame of fire that burns inside of him. The magnetism which draws the heart of other men to him.

Greatness is not attainable, but in the pursuit of it, you can achieve excellence.

Winning is habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.

In a game like football, where you have very little time to decide what you are going to do, you have to react almost instinctively, naturally.

If you don't think you're a winner, you don't belong here.

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

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

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

We don't pray to win. We pray to play the best we can, and to keep us free from injury. And the prayer we say after the game is one of thanksgiving.

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?

Leadership is based on a spiritual quality; the power to inspire, the power to inspire others to follow

The pursuit of perfection may be impossible, but if we chase perfection, we just might catch excellence.

Each of us, if we would grow, must be committed to excellence. The championships, the money, the color; all of these things linger only in the memory. It is the spirit, the will to excel, the will to win; these are the things that endure.

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.

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

Beat your opponent where he is strongest, and you demoralize him.

The only true satisfaction a player receives is the satisfaction that comes from being part of a successful team, regardless of his personal accomplishments.

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

Mental toughness is essential to success.

Mistakes are the necessary steps in the learning process; once they have served their purpose, they should be forgotten and not repeated.

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

Running a football team is no different than running any other kind of organization ...

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

Gentleman, this is a football.

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

Inches make champions.

You've got to keep yourself in prime physical condition, because fatigue makes cowards of us all.

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.

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

Leaders are not born, they're made.

One's desire, not ability, determines success.

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

When you travel with the team and you eat with the team - you eat what the team eats.

Leaders are made, they are not born

To me, a leader is a visionary that energizes others. This definition of leadership has two key dimensions: a) creating the vision of the future, and b) inspiring others to make the vision a reality.

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.

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

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

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

The coaches who win are the ones who can motivate their players. Winning isn't everything, but the will to win is everything.

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

A good executive goes around with a worried look on his assistants.

We will be relentless in our pursuit for perfection. We won't ever be perfect - but in the process we will achieve greatness.

Winning isn't a sometime thing; it's an all-the-time thing.

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.

The successful man is himself. To be successful, you've got to be honest with yourself.

To achieve success, whatever the job we have, we must pay a price

[Football is] a game that requires the constant conjuring of animosity.

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

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

Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing.

Some need a whip and others a pat on the back and others are better off when they are ignored.

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.

I've been in football all my life, gentlemen, and I don't know whether I'm particularly qualified to be a part of anything else, except I consider it a great game, a game of many assets, by the way, and I think a symbol of what this country's best attributes are: courage and stamina and a coordinated efficiency or teamwork.

The object is to win fairly, by the rules - but to win.

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