An aphorism is nothing else but the slightest
QUOTES AND APHORISMS ON COMPETITION
I worked very hard. I felt I could play the game. The only thing that could stop me was myself.
Jim Abbott
You have to be able to center yourself, to let all of your emotions go... Don't ever forget that you play with your soul as well as your body.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (1947-, American basketball player)
It has meant a lot to me to challenge the best players in the world and to beat them. And it means a lot to me to be out here and fighting for the title and, you know, it hurts not to win it.
Andre Agassi (1970-, American tennis player)
How can we hope to remain economically competitive in a world in which... 90% of Dutch high-school students take advanced math courses and 100% of teachers in Germany have double majors, while the best we can say about our pocket of excellence is that 75% of [American] students have learned to critique tactfully?
Barbara J. Alexander (American executive, senior manager of Cornerstone Research)
World trade means competition from anywhere; advancing technology encourages cross-industry competition. Consequently, strategic planning must consider who our future competitors will be, not only who is here today.
Eric Allison (1951- American financial writer)
The Law of Win/Win says, "Let's not do it your way or my way; let's do it the best way.
Greg Anderson (American author, "The 22 Non-Negotiable Laws of Wellness")
What it comes down to is that anybody can win with the best horse. What makes you good is if you can take the second or third-best horse and win.
Vicky Aragon (American jockey)
Thank God for competition. When our competitors upset our plans or outdo our designs, they open infinite possibilities of our own work to us.
Gil Atkinson (American historian)
Show me a guy who is afraid to look bad, and I'll show you a guy you can beat every time.
Lou Brock
Competitions are for horse, not artist.
Bela Bartok (1881-1945, Hungarian composer)
I love the winning, I can take the losing, but most of all I Love to play.
Boris Becker (1967-, German tennis player)
To free the mind from the habit of competition, we must see in detail the process by which the mind is ensnared by competition.
Marguerite Beecher
Competition is a process or variety of habitual behavior that grows out of a habit of mind.
Willard Beecher
Differentiate your products, provide great service and don’t even think about trying to compete with Wal-Mart on Price.
Michael Bergdahl (American professional speaker, consultant, author)
The game isn't over until it's over.
Yogi Berra (1925-, American baseball player)
You must not fight too often with one enemy, or you will teach him all your tricks of war.
Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821, French general, emperor)
Becoming number one is easier than remaining number one.
Bill Bradley (1943-, American basketball player)
Focus on competition has always been a formula for mediocrity.
Daniel Burrus (American trend predictor, author of "Techo Trends")
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 Horton Cooley (1864-1929, American sociologist)
Somebody will always break your records. It is how you live that counts.
Earl Campbell (1955-, American football player)
Somebody will always break your records. It is how you live that counts.
Earl Campbell (1955-, American football player)
Our life is not really a mutual helpfulness; but rather, it's fair competition cloaked under due laws of war; it's a mutual hostility.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881, Scottish philosopher, author)
I don't psyche myself up; I psyche myself down. I think clearer when I'm not psyched up.
Steve Cauthen (American jockey)
Everybody pulls for David, nobody roots for Goliath.
Wilt Chamberlain (1936-, American basketball player)
Thou shalt not covet; but tradition approves all forms of competition.
Arthur Hugh Clough (1819-1861, British poet)
World records are only borrowed.
Sebastian Coe (1956-, British athlete)
It's amazing how much of this is mental. Everybody's in good shape. Everybody knows how to ski. Everybody has good equipment. When it really boils down to it, it's who wants it the most, and who's the most confident on his skis.
Reggie Crist (1968-, American skier)
I believe in rules. Sure I do. If there weren't any rules, how could you break them?
Leo Durocher (1905-1991, American baseball player/manager)
What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight; it's the size of the fight in the dog.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969, American President (34th))
Hail Caesar, those who are about to die salute you.
Gladiator's Salute
You must sacrifice, train, do everything possible to put yourself in a position to win. But if you consider second or third a failure, I feel sorry for you.
Joe Falcon (American athlete)
Competition is the keen cutting edge of business, always shaving away at costs.
Henry Ford (1863-1947, American industrialist, founder of Ford Motor Company)
You get out in front -- you stay out in front.
AJ Foyt (1935-, American race car driver)
It is better for a woman to compete impersonally in society, as men do, than to compete for dominance in her own home with her husband, compete with her neighbors for empty status, and so smother her son that he cannot compete at all.
Betty Friedan (1921-, American feminist writer)
There are two kinds of people: those who do the work and those who take the credit. Try to be in the first group because there is less competition there.
Indira Gandhi (1917-1984, Indian Prime Minster)
The ability to learn faster than your competitors may be the only sustainable competitive advantage.
Arie de Geus (Dutch business strategist)
No wise combatant underestimates their antagonist.
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749-1832, German poet, dramatist, novelist)
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 (1728-1774, Anglo-Irish author, poet, playwright)
Racing is a matter of spirit not strength.
Janet Guthrie (1938-, American race car driver)
Every time you go out on the ice, there are slight flaws. You can always think of something you should have done better. These are the things you must work on.
Dorothy Hamill (1956-, American figure skater)
Men often compete with one another until the day they die; comradeship consists of rubbing shoulders jocularly with a competitor.
Edward Hoagland (1932-, American novelist, essayist)
I play [golf] with friends sometimes, but there are never friendly games.
Ben Hogan (1912-1997, American golfer)
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 (1937-, American football coach)
The biggest things are often the easiest to do because there is so little competition.
William Van Horne
You find that you have peace of mind and can enjoy yourself, get more sleep, and rest when you know that it was a one hundred percent effort that you gave -- win or lose.
Gordie Howe (1928-, Canadian hockey player)
Do your work with your whole heart, and you will succeed -- there's so little competition.
Elbert Hubbard (1859-1915, American author, publisher)
And what is the greatest number? Number one.
David Hume (1711-1776, Scottish philosopher, historian)
And what is the greatest number? Number one.
David Hume (1711-1776, Scottish philosopher, historian)
The only competition worthy of a wise man is with himself.
Mrs. Jamieson
Once you’re physically capable of winning a gold medal, the rest is ninety percent mental.
Patti Johnson (American athlete)
The medals don't mean anything and the glory doesn't last. It's all about your happiness. The rewards are going to come, but my happiness is just loving the sport and having fun performing.
Jackie Joyner-Kersee (1962-, American track athlete)
We want to be first; not first if, not first but; but first!
John F. Kennedy (1917-1963, American President (35th))
You have no control over what the other guy does. You only have control over what you do.
A. J. Kitt
Mental toughness is to physical as four is to one.
Bobby Knight (1940-, American basketball coach)
When the game is over it is really just beginning.
Jerry Kramer
Man is a gaming animal. He must always be trying to get the better in something or other.
Charles Lamb (1775-1834, British essayist, critic)
Every sect is a moral check on its neighbor. Competition is as wholesome in religion as in commerce.
Walter Savage Landor (1775-1864, British poet, essayist)
When you want to win a game, you have to teach. When you lose a game, you have to learn.
Tom Landry (1924-, American football player, coach)
I watch a man shoot pool for an hour. If he misses more than one shot I know I can beat him.
Luther Lassiter
The time your game is most vulnerable is when you're ahead, never let up.
Rod Laver (1938-, Australian tennis player)
Competition is the spice of sports; but if you make spice the whole meal you'll be sick.
George Leonard
A competitor will find a way to win. Competitors take bad breaks and use them to drive themselves just that much harder. Quitters take bad breaks and use them as reasons to give up. It's all a matter of pride.
Nancy Lopez (1957-, American golfer)
He can run but he can't hide.
Joe Louis (1914-1981, American boxer)
I consider myself one of a very small handful of drivers in the world that are top drivers. The best one? I don't think anybody can say they're the best one because, from one week to the next, you can be on form or off form a little bit.
Nigel Mansell (1953-, American race car driver)
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 (1834-1896, British artist, writer, printer)
Don't look back. Something might be gaining on you.
Leroy Satchel Paige (1906-1982, American baseball player)
There is nothing noble in being superior to some other person. The true nobility is in being superior to your previous self.
Indian Proverb (Sayings of Indian origin)
Win or lose, do it fairly.
Knute Rockne (1888-1931, Norwegian-born American football coach)
I don't compete with other discus throwers. I compete with my own history.
Al Oerter (1936-, American athlete)
Playing safe is only playing.
Chuck Olson
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 (1971-, American basketball player, actor)
These are the days when it takes all you've got just to keep up with the losers.
Robert Orpen
A horse never runs so fast as when he has other horses to catch up and outpace.
Ovid (BC 43-18 AD, Roman poet)
You must play boldly to win.
Arnold Palmer (1929-, American golfer)
I don't care how good you play; you can find somebody who can beat you. And I don't care how bad you play; you can find somebody you can beat.
Harvey Penick (1904-, American golfer)
The clash of ideas brings forth the spark of truth.
Australian Proverb
When the feed box is empty, the horses bite each other
Danish Proverb (Sayings of Danish origin)
One cannot play chess if one becomes aware of the pieces as living souls and of the fact that the Whites and the Blacks have more in common with each other than with the players. Suddenly one loses all interest in who will be champion.
Anatol Rapoport
For when the One Great Scorer comes to mark against your name, He writes -- not that you won or lost -- but how you played the Game.
Grantland Rice (1880-1954, American sportswriter)
I won it, at least five million times. Men who were stronger, bigger and faster than I was could have done it, but they never picked up a pole, and never made the feeble effort to pick their legs off the ground and get over the bar.
Bob Richards (1926-, American Olympic pole-vaulting champion)
You have to defeat a great players aura more than his game.
Pat Riley (1945-, American basketball coach)
My hat's in the ring. The fight is on and I'm stripped to the buff.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919, American President (26th))
In this game, by trying to win; you automatically lose.
Ruth Ross
When you're riding, only the race in which you're riding is important.
Willie Shoemaker (1931-, American racing jockey and trainer)
The difference of great players is at a certain point in a match they raise their level of play and maintain it. Lesser players play great for a set, but then less.
Pete Sampras (1971-, American tennis player)
Every man in the world is better than someone else and not as good someone else.
William Saroyan (1908-1981, American writer, novelist, playwright)
When you step onto that field, you cannot concede a thing.
Gayle Sayers (American football player)
Strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616, British poet, playwright, actor)
When you fear a foe, fear crushes your strength; and this weakness gives strength to your opponents.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616, British poet, playwright, actor)
Enjoy the successes that you have, and don't be too hard on yourself when you don't do well. Too many times we beat up on ourselves. Just relax and enjoy it.
Patty Sheehan (1956-, American golfer)
If you make every game a life and death proposition, you're going to have problems. For one thing, you'll be dead a lot.
Dean Smith (1931-, American college basketball coach)
Most games are lost, not won.
Casey Stengel (1889-1975, American baseball player and manager)
I ski to win. When the day comes that I can't get myself into a fighting mood anymore, I won't be able to win and I'll stop racing.
Ingemar Stenmark (1956-, Swedish skier)
If football taught me anything about business, it is that you win the game one play at a time.
Fran Tarkenton (1940-, American football player, businessman, corporate consultant, author)
How can they beat me? I've been struck by lightning, had two back operations, and been divorced twice.
Lee Trevino (1939-, American golfer)
Competition is the whetstone of talent.
Author Unknown
When I go our on the ice, I just think about my skating. I forget it is a competition.
Katarina Witt (1955-, German figure skater)
The weakness of an enemy forms part of our own strength.
Author Unknown
We have a lot of players in their first year. Some of them are also in their last year.
Bill Walsh (1931-, American football coach)
The key to any game is to use your strengths and hide your weaknesses.
Paul Westphal
The person who figures out how to harness the collective genius of his or her organization is going to blow the competition away.
Walter Wriston
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