How you respond to the challenge in the second half will determine what you become after the game, whether you are a winner or a loser.
—Lou Holtz (1893–1980) American Stage Performer
Surely the best way to meet the enemy is head on in the field and not wait till they plunder our very homes.
—Oliver Goldsmith (1730–74) Irish Novelist, Playwright, Poet
Without the spur of competition we’d loaf out our life.
—Arnold Glasow (1905–98) American Businessman
Someone will always be getting richer faster than you. This is not a tragedy.
—Charlie Munger (b.1924) American Investor, Philanthropist
There is a tendency among some businesses to criticize and belittle their competitors. This is a bad procedure. Praise them. Learn from them. There are times when you can co-operate with them to their advantage and to yours! Speak well of them and they will speak well of you. You can’t destroy good ideas. Take advantage of them.
—George Matthew Adams (1878–1962) American Columnist, Journalist
This is a tough game. There are times when you’ve got to play hurt, when you’ve got to block out the pain.
—Shaquille O’Neal (b.1972) American Sportsperson
Our business in life is not to get ahead of others but to get ahead of ourselves – to break our own records, to outstrip our yesterdays by our today, to do our work with more force than ever before.
—Stewart B. Johnson
A horse never runs so fast as when he has other horses to catch up and outpace.
—Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso) (c.43 BCE–c.18 CE) Roman Poet
When you fear a foe, fear crushes your strength; and this weakness gives strength to your opponents.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
There is nothing noble about being superior to some other person. The true nobility is in being superior to your previous self.
—Indian Proverb
Success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome.
—Arthur Ashe (1943–93) American Tennis Player
Competitions are for horse, not artist.
—Bela Bartok (1881–1945) Hungarian Composer, Ethnomusicologist
You must not fight too often with one enemy, or you will teach him all your art of war.
—Napoleon I (1769–1821) Emperor of France
Everybody pulls for David, nobody roots for Goliath.
—Wilt Chamberlain (1936–99) American Basketball Player
Every man in the world is better than someone else and not as good someone else.
—William Saroyan (1908–81) American Playwright, Novelist
My hat’s in the ring. The fight is on and I’m stripped to the buff.
—Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Explorer
All winning teams are goal-oriented. Teams like these win consistently because everyone connected with them concentrates on specific objectives. They go about their business with blinders on; nothing will distract them from achieving their aims.
—Lou Holtz (1893–1980) American Stage Performer
The general fact is that the most effective way of utilizing human energy is through an organized rivalry, which by specialization and social control is, at the same time, organized co-operation.
—Charles Cooley (1864–1929) American Sociologist
We want to be first; not first if, not first but; but first!
—John F. Kennedy (1917–63) American Head of State, Journalist
Competition is the keen cutting edge of business, always shaving away at costs.
—Henry Ford (1863–1947) American Businessperson, Engineer
Competition whose motive is merely to compete, to drive some other fellow out, never carries very far. The competitor to be feared is one who never bothers about you at all, but goes on making his own business better all the time. Businesses that grow by development and improvement do not die. But when a business ceases to be creative, when it believes it has reached perfection and needs to do nothing but produce-no improvement, no development-it is done.
—Henry Ford (1863–1947) American Businessperson, Engineer
Even after you’ve just won the Super Bowl—especially after you’ve just won the Super Bowl—there’s always next year. If Winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing, then the only thing is nothing—emptiness, the nightmare of life without ultimate meaning.
—Tom Landry (1924–2000) American Sportsperson
By competition the total amount of supply is increased, and by increase of the supply a competition in the sale ensues, and this enables the consumer to buy at lower rates. Of all human powers operating on the affairs of mankind, none is greater than that of competition.
—Henry Clay (1777–1852) American Politician
So long as the system of competition in the production and exchange of the means of life goes on, the degradation of the arts will go on; and if that system is to last for ever, then art is doomed, and will surely die; that is to say, civilization will die.
—William Morris (1834–96) British Designer, Craftsman, Poet, Writer
My grandfather once told me that there are two kinds of people: those who do the work and those who take the credit. He told me to try to be in the first group; there was less competition there.
—Indira Gandhi (1917–84) Indian Head of State
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 a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.
There is no room for second place. There is only one place in my game, and that’s first place.
—Vince Lombardi, Jr. (1913–70) American Football Player, Coach
When you want to win a game, you have to teach. When you lose a game, you have to learn.
—Tom Landry (1924–2000) American Sportsperson
Adversaries in law strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
In this game, by trying to win; you automatically lose.
—Ruth Ross
Most games are lost, not won.
—Casey Stengel (1890–1975) American Sportsperson