Welcome to our collection of quotes (with shareable picture quotes) by Vince Lombardi. We hope you enjoy pondering them and that you will share them widely.
Wikipedia Summary for Vince Lombardi
Vincent Thomas Lombardi (June 11, 1913 – September 3, 1970) was an American football coach, and executive in the National Football League (NFL). He is best known as the head coach of the Green Bay Packers during the 1960s, where he led the team to three straight and five total NFL Championships in seven years, in addition to winning the first two Super Bowls at the conclusion of the 1966 and 1967 NFL seasons.
Lombardi began his coaching career as an assistant and later as a head coach at St. Cecilia High School in Englewood, New Jersey. He was an assistant coach at Fordham, at the United States Military Academy, and with the New York Giants before becoming a head coach for the Green Bay Packers from 1959 to 1967 and the Washington Redskins in 1969.
He never had a losing season as a head coach in the NFL, compiling a regular-season winning percentage of 73.8% (96–34–6), and 90% (9–1) in the postseason for an overall record of 105 wins, 35 losses, and 6 ties in the NFL.
Lombardi is considered by many to be the greatest coach in football history, and he is recognized as one of the greatest coaches and leaders in the history of all American sports.
The year after his sudden death from cancer in 1970, he was enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and the NFL Super Bowl trophy was named in his honor.
Winning means you're willing to go longer, work harder, and give more than anyone else.
Individual commitment to a group effort -- that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work.
Longer Version:
Individual commitment to a group effort - that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.
I've never been with a losing team in my life, and I don't think I'll start now.
Why did I choose Washington among offers from other cities? Because it is the capital of the world.
I'm not afraid to die -- it's just that I had so much left to do in this world.
Perfection is not attainable. But if we chase perfection, we can catch excellence.
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.
Illness and fatigue can be career ending. It mean the fans are sick and tired of you.
Every time a football player goes to ply his trade, he's got to play from the ground up -- from the soles of his feet right up to his head. Every inch of him has to play.
Longer Version:
Every time a player goes out to ply his trade he's got to play from the ground up - from the soles of his feet right up to his head. Every inch of him has to play. Some guys play with their heads. That's O.K. You've got to be smart to be Number One in any business. But more important, you've got to play with you heart - with every fiber of your body. If you're lucky enough to find a guy with a lot of head and a lot of heart, he's never going to come off the field second.
I've been accused of lacking compassion. But that just shows I'm not without compassion.
We live in an age fit for heroes. No time has ever offered such perils or prizes... The test of this century will be whether man confuses the growth of wealth and power with the growth of spirit and character.
Second place is meaningless. You can't always be first, but you have to believe that you should have been -- that you were never beaten -- that time just ran out on you.
To the winner, there is 100-percent elation, 100-percent fun, 100-percent laughter; and yet the only thing left to the loser is resolution and determination.
Faithfulness and truth are the most sacred excellences and endowments of the human mind.
To play this game (football) you must have fire in you, and there is nothing that strokes fire like hate.
Winning is not everything -- but making the effort to win was... If you can't accept losing, you can't win.
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.
It does not matter how many times you get knocked down, but how many times you get up.
I think good physical conditioning is essential to any occupation. A man who is physically fit performs better at any job. Fatigue makes cowards of us all.
Success is like anything worthwhile. It has a price. You have to pay the price to get to the point where success is possible.
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.
If you really want something , you can have it if you're willing to pay the price. And the price means you have to work better and harder than the next guy.
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.
There's no such thing as Perfection. But, in striving for perfection, we can achieve excellence.
The will to win... the will to achieve... goes dry and arid without continuous renewal.
The coaches who win are the ones who can motivate their players. Winning isn't everything, but the will to win is everything.
Some need a whip and others a pat on the back and others are better off when they are ignored.
I'll put the Packers' best players on defense. It's best for a team and good for its morale.
The only true satisfaction a player receives is the satisfaction that comes from being part of a successful team, regardless of his personal accomplishments.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Football isn't a contact sport; it's a collision sport. Dancing is a contact sport.
The pursuit of perfection may be impossible, but if we chase perfection, we just might catch excellence.
Regardless of what you do put in, every game boils down to doing the things you do best and doing them over and over again.
If winning isn't everything, why do they keep score?
Longer Version:
If winning isn't everything, why do they keep score.
Most people fail, not because of lack of desire, but, because of lack of commitment.
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.
Leadership is based on a spiritual quality; the power to inspire, the power to inspire others to follow.
Having the capacity to lead is not enough. The leader must be willing to use it.
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.
Morally, the life of the organization must be of exemplary nature. This is one phase where the organization must not have criticism.
If you can't get emotional about what you believe in your heart, you're in the wrong business.
One comes to believe whatever one repeats to oneself sufficiently often, whether the statement be true of false. It comes to be the dominating thought in one's mind.
The dictionary is the only place that success comes before work.
Longer Version:
The dictionary is the only place that success comes before work. work is the key to success, and hard work can help you accomplish anything.
Football is like life -- it requires perserverance, self-denial, hard work, sacrifice, dedication and respect for authority.
Success rests not only on ability, but upon commitment, loyalty, and pride.
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.
The difference between men is in energy, in the strong will, in the settled purpose and in the invincible determination.
The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand.
Longer Version:
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.
I think you can accomplish anything if you're willing to pay the price.
The challenge of every team is to build a feeling of oneness, of dependence on one another because the question is usually not how well each person performs, but how well they work together.
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.
A disciplined person is one who follows the will of the one who gives the orders.
The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.
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.
The real glory is being knocked to your knees and then coming back. That's real glory. That's the essence of it.
A school without football is in danger of deteriorating into a medieval study hall.
The achievements of an organization are the results of the combined effort of each individual.
Longer Version:
The achievements of an organization are the results of the combined effort of each individual.
People who work together will win, whether it be against complex football defenses, or the problems of modern society.
Individual commitment to a group effort - that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.
The quality of a person's life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor.
Go back through football, and you will see that the team with the best defense wins.
If you're lucky enough to find a guy with a lot of head and a lot of heart, he's never going to come off the field second.
Some guys play with their heads. That's okay. You've got to be smart to be number one in any business. But more importantly, you've got to play with your heart, with every fiber of your body.
At many a moment on many a day, I am convinced that pro football must be a game for madmen, and I must be one of them.
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.
We would accomplish many more things if we did not think of them as impossible.
Coaches who can outline plays on a black board are a dime a dozen. The ones who win get inside their players and motivate.
If you aren't fired with enthusiasm, you will be fired with enthusiasm.
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.