Vince Lombardi (1913-1970) was a renowned American football coach, best known for his tenure with the Green Bay Packers in the 1960s. Lombardi led the Packers to five NFL championships and the first two Super Bowls, establishing a legacy of success. His coaching style was characterized by discipline, hard work, and a commitment to excellence, encapsulated in his famous quote, “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.” The Super Bowl trophy is named in his honor, emphasizing his lasting impact on the sport. Lombardi’s coaching principles, motivational techniques, and emphasis on teamwork continue to influence the football world. Despite his early departure from coaching due to cancer, his name remains synonymous with achievement and leadership in American football history.
Vince Lombardi Quotes
1. “Winners never quit and quitters never win.”
— Vince Lombardi
2. “The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack in will.”
— Vince Lombardi
3. “The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary.”
— Vince Lombardi
4. “Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.”
— Vince Lombardi
5. “The man on top of the mountain didn’t fall there.”
— Vince Lombardi
6. “Practice does not make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect.”
— Vince Lombardi
7. “Once you learn to quit, it becomes a habit.”
— Vince Lombardi
8. “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.”
— Vince Lombardi
9. “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.”
— Vince Lombardi
10. “The dictionary is the only place that success comes before work. ”
— Vince Lombardi
11. “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.”
— Vince Lombardi
12. “Winning isn’t everything, but the will to win is everything.”
— Vince Lombardi
13. “The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender.”
— Vince Lombardi
14. “Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.”
— Vince Lombardi
15. “Everyone Has The Will To Win But Very Few Have The Will To Prepare To Win.”
— Vince Lombardi
16. “The greatest accomplishment is not in never falling, but in rising again after you fall. ”
— Vince Lombardi
17. “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.”
— Vince Lombardi
18. “Most people fail, not because of lack of desire, but, because of lack of commitment.”
— Vince Lombardi
19. “Individual commitment to a group effort – that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.”
— Vince Lombardi
20. “If winning isn’t everything, why do they keep score?”
— Vince Lombardi
21. “If you can accept losing, you can’t win.”
— Vince Lombardi
22. “If you are five minutes early, you are already ten minutes late.”
— Vince Lombardi
23. “The quality of a man’s life is in direct proportion to his commitment to excellence, regardless of his chosen field of endeavor.”
— Vince Lombardi
24. “Success is never final. Failure is never fatal. It’s courage that counts.”
— Vince Lombardi
25. “It’s not whether you got knocked down; it’s whether you get back up.”
— Vince Lombardi
26. “Praise in public; criticize in private.”
— Vince Lombardi
27. “Confidence is contagious. So is lack of confidence.”
— Vince Lombardi
28. “We will be relentless in our pursuit for perfection. We won’t ever be perfect – but in the process we will achieve greatness.”
— Vince Lombardi
29. “We would accomplish many more things if we did not think of them as impossible.”
— Vince Lombardi
30. “The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand.”
— Vince Lombardi
31. “In great attempts it is glorious even to fail.”
— Vince Lombardi
32. “We didn’t lose the game; we just ran out of time.”
— Vince Lombardi
33. “Leaders are not born, they’re made.”
— Vince Lombardi
34. “Mental toughness is essential to success.”
— Vince Lombardi
35. “Hard work is the price we must pay for success.”
— Vince Lombardi
36. “The real glory is being knocked to your knees and then coming back. That’s real glory. Thats the essence of it.”
— Vince Lombardi
37. “If you aren’t fired with enthusiasm, you will be fired with enthusiasm. ”
— Vince Lombardi
38. “You’ve got to keep yourself in prime physical condition, because fatigue makes cowards of us all.”
— Vince Lombardi
39. “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.”
— Vince Lombardi
40. “Success demands singleness of purpose.”
— Vince Lombardi
41. “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.”
— Vince Lombardi
42. “There’s only one way to succeed in anything, and that is to give it everything.”
— Vince Lombardi
43. “The measure of who we are is what we do with what we have.”
— Vince Lombardi
44. “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing. If you can shrug off a loss, you can never be a winner!”
— Vince Lombardi
45. “The good Lord gave you a body that can stand most anything. It’s your mind you have to convince.”
— Vince Lombardi
46. “The achievements of an organization are the results of the combined effort of each individual.”
— Vince Lombardi
47. “Success is not a sometimes thing. In other words, you don’t do what is right once in awhile, but all the time. Success is a habit. Winning is a habit.”
— Vince Lombardi
48. “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.”
— Vince Lombardi
49. “Preparedness is the ultimate confidence builder.”
— Vince Lombardi
50. “There’s no such thing as Perfection. But, in striving for perfection, we can achieve excellence.”
— Vince Lombardi
51. “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.”
— Vince Lombardi
52. “Inches make champions.”
— Vince Lombardi
53. “If you’ll not settle for anything less than your best, you will be amazed at what you can accomplish in your lives.”
— Vince Lombardi
54. “Build for your team a feeling of oneness, of dependence on one another and of strength to be derived by unity.”
— Vince Lombardi
55. “Winning is not the most important thing; it’s everything.”
— Vince Lombardi
56. “The strength of the group is the strength of the leaders.”
— Vince Lombardi
57. “If you don’t think you’re a winner, you don’t belong here.”
— Vince Lombardi
58. “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.”
— Vince Lombardi
59. “Some of us will do our jobs well and some will not, but we will be judged by only one thing-the result.”
— Vince Lombardi
60. “Show me a good loser, and I’ll show you a loser.”
— Vince Lombardi
61. “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.”
— Vince Lombardi
62. “Mistakes are the necessary steps in the learning process; once they have served their purpose, they should be forgotten and not repeated.”
— Vince Lombardi
63. “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.”
— Vince Lombardi
64. “Leaders are made, they are not born.”
— Vince Lombardi
65. “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.”
— Vince Lombardi
66. “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.”
— Vince Lombardi
67. “There are three things important to every man in this locker room. His God, his family, and the Green Bay Packers. In that order.”
— Vince Lombardi
68. “Those who have invested the most are the last to surrender.”
— Vince Lombardi
69. “Nobody is hurt. Hurt is in the mind. If you can walk, you can run.”
— Vince Lombardi
70. “Gentleman, this is a football.”
— Vince Lombardi
71. “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.”
— Vince Lombardi
72. “Don’t succumb to excuses. Go back to the job of making the corrections and forming the habits that will make your goal possible.”
— Vince Lombardi
73. “Mental toughness is Spartanism, with all its qualities of self-denial, sacrifice, dedication, fearlessness, and love.”
— Vince Lombardi
74. “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?”
— Vince Lombardi
75. “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.”
— Vince Lombardi
76. “Leadership is based on a spiritual quality; the power to inspire, the power to inspire others to follow.”
— Vince Lombardi
77. “You defeat defeatism with confidence.”
— Vince Lombardi
78. “Choose to achieve perfection. We won’t achieve it because perfection is impossible. But by pursuing perfection, we will achieve excellence.”
— Vince Lombardi
79. “I don’t build character. I eliminate the people who don’t have it.”
— Vince Lombardi
80. “Football is blocking and tackling. Everything else is mythology.”
— Vince Lombardi
81. “Brains without competitive hearts are rudderless.”
— Vince Lombardi
82. “The successful man is himself. To be successful, you’ve got to be honest with yourself.”
— Vince Lombardi
83. “Live as if you were living already for the second time.”
— Vince Lombardi
84. “Once a man has made his commitment, nothing will stop him short of success.”
— Vince Lombardi
85. “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.”
— Vince Lombardi
86. “I think you’ve got to pay the price for anything that’s worthwhile, and success is paying the price. You’ve got to pay the price to win, you’ve got to pay the price to stay on top, and you’ve got to pay the price to get there.”
— Vince Lombardi
87. “Success is like anything worthwhile. It has a price. You have to pay the price to get to the point where success is possible.”
— Vince Lombardi
88. “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.”
— Vince Lombardi
89. “Gentlemen, we are going to relentlessly chase perfection, knowing full well we will not catch it.”
— Vince Lombardi
90. “If it doesn’t matter who wins or loses, then why do they keep score?”
— Vince Lombardi
91. “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.”
— Vince Lombardi
92. “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.”
— Vince Lombardi
93. “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.”
— Vince Lombardi
94. “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.”
— Vince Lombardi
95. “Watch your actions, they become your habits. Watch your habits, they become your character.”
— Vince Lombardi
96. “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.”
— Vince Lombardi
97. “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.”
— Vince Lombardi
98. “People who work together will win, whether it be against complex football defenses, or the problems of modern society.”
— Vince Lombardi
99. “Coaches who can outline plays on a black board are a dime a dozen. The ones who win get inside their player and motivate.”
— Vince Lombardi
100. “Some need a whip and others a pat on the back and others are better off when they are ignored.”
— Vince Lombardi
