Great comeback quotes can help inspire you to turn your setbacks into comebacks.
Dealing with adversity is one of the most difficult and endearing lessons in sports. Use these quotes to inspire and motivate players returning from injury or setbacks in their pursuit of excellence.
While everyone loves a good comeback story, most folks don’t see all the training and work that go into one. Hopefully, these carefully selected words will serve as inspiration and motivation.
Best Comeback Quotes
1.) Turn every setback into a comeback.
Kobe Bryant
2.) It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up.
Babe Ruth
3.) You’re never a loser until you quit trying.
Mike Ditka
4.) You have to believe in yourself when no one else does.
Serena Williams
5.) I’m coming back. Write it down in big letters. I’m not going out like this.
Mariano Rivera
6.) Never, ever give up.
Jimmy Valvano
7.) The mark of a great champion is the one who can get up off the mat and win.
Bill Belichick
8.) A champion is defined by the adversity he overcomes.
Anderson Silva
9.) No athlete is truly tested until they’ve started an injury in the face and come out on the other side stronger than ever.
Unknown
10.) The real glory is being knocked to your knees and then coming back. That’s real glory. That’s the essence of it.
Vince Lombardi
Good Comeback Quotes For Sports
11.) An injury is not just a process of recovery. It’s a process of discovery.
Connor McGregor
12.) My body could stand the crutches, but my mind couldn’t stand the sideline.
Michael Jordan, on his retirement
13.) Tough times don’t last, but tough people do.
Unknown
14.) Going in, you want to play a perfect season and play throughout the whole entire season, but injuries are a part of basketball.
Kyrie Irving
15.) I’ve dealt with adversity before and had injuries before. I didn’t let that slow me down. It just changed my attitude about the game.
Deshaun Watson
16.) Injuries are a part of the game. Every athlete knows that.
Damian Lillard
17.) I think that’s one of the things I’ve learned through my injuries is that I need to play smarter.
Taysom Hill
18.) Injuries made people lose confidence in me, but I never lost confidence in myself.
Penny Hardway
19.) Every team deals with obstacles throughout the course of the season, and it’s as a unit that they need to be worked through. Injuries are part of the game, just like facing tough teams on the road or having one of your best players get into foul trouble.
Scottie Pippen
Check out Best Quotes for Athletes
Injury Comeback Quotes
20.) Injuries can never be used as excuses.
Victor Valdes
21.) Injury taught me I need to learn how to face challenges.
Shawn Johnson
22.) Injury, in general, teaches you to appreciate every moment. I’ve had my share of injuries throughout my career. It’s humbling. It gives you perspective. No matter how many times I’ve been hurt, I’ve learned from that injury and come back even more humble.
Troy Polamalu
23.) Pain is weakness leaving the body.
Tom Sobal
24.) I had to develop the mentality and stay positive about making my comeback.
Alonzo Mourning
25.) I don’t know if God is a sports fan or not, but I do know this: He loves a good comeback.
Lane Kiffin
26.) A comeback in gymnastics is almost impossible in itself.
Shawn Johnson
27.) To persevere is important to everybody. Don’t give up. Don’t Give in. There is always an answer to everything.
Louis Zamperini
28.) Injuries are our best teachers.
Scott Jurek
29.) Back before I injured my hip, I thought going to the gym was for wimps.
Bo Jackson
30.) I get Tweets every day from people telling me, hey, I’m going to overcome my injury or my illness. Cancer. Different diseases. I can beat it because Adrian Peterson showed me the determination and the willpower to be able to prosper and get through adversity whenever it comes.
Adrian Peterson
Keep Pushing Quotations
40.) The moment you give up is the moment you let someone else win.
Kobe Bryant
41.) Show me someone who has done something worthwhile, and I’ll show you someone who has overcome adversity.
Lou Holtz
42.) I have overcome many difficult moments in my career.
Kaka
43.) My family and I had to overcome a lot to get where we are today.
Gabby Douglas
44.) Pain doesn’t tell you when you ought to stop. Pain is the little voice in your head that tries to hold you back because it knows if you continue, you will change.
Kobe Bryant
45.) If everything was going smoothly, you’d never build character.
Maria Sharapova
46.) The real glory is being knocked to your knees and then coming back. That’s real glory; that’s the essence of it.
Vince Lombardi
47.) Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up.
Michael Jordan
48.) Be patient. Everything is coming together.
Unknown
49.) Sports do not build character; they reveal it.
John Wooden
Inspirational Quotes For Athletes
50.) We were going to have to experiment, and we needed to develop our younger players. And a lot of the changes were because of injuries. But that’s where I give a lot of credit to the group in terms of being able to maintain things.
Isaiah Thomas
51.) Don’t pray when it rains if you don’t pray when the sun shines.
Satchel Paige
52.) Pain heals. Chicks dig scars.
Shane Falco
53.) Don’t let an injury be the determining factor of who you are. Instead, try to use it as a learning experience.
Mota
54.) Now, I don’t take anything for granted.
Derrick Rose
55.) There is no ghost so difficult to lay as the ghost of an injury.
Alexander Smith
56.) Love is playing every game as if it’s your last.
Michael Jordan
57.) There will be obstacles. There will be doubters. And there will be mistakes. But with hard work, there are no limits.
Michael Phelps
58.) No matter how hard it is or how hard it gets, I’m going to make it.
Les Brown
59.) Life is not an accident.
Jay Williams, after his leg injury.
Encouraging Quotes For Sports
60.) What makes something special is not just what you have to gain but what you feel you there is to lose.
Andre Agassi
61.) It was the greatest comeback I’ve ever seen.
Michael Jordan, on Tiger Woods Masters victory
62.) If it doesn’t challenge you, it won’t change you.
Fred DeVito
63.) You hear about how many fourth-quarter comebacks that a guy has, and I think that means a guy screwed up in the first three quarters.
Peyton Manning
64.) It’s not about the setback; it’s about the comeback.
Robyn Benincasa
65.) Comeback is a good word, man.
Mickey Rourke
Inspirational
66.) By making a comeback, I’m changing the attitude of people toward me. If I’d known that people would react so enthusiastically, I’d have done it years ago.
Mark Spitz
67.) That was a great comeback, probably one of the best that I’ve ever been involved in.
Amani Toomer
68.) I’m never going to be content with a comeback when we lose.
Charlie Weis
69.) This is our comeback year.
Mark Purnell
70.) It’s always great to see a comeback.
Marty Smith
Short Comeback Quotes
71.) There’s no talent here. This is hard work; this is an obsession.
Connor McGregor
72.) The mental game is more about subtraction than addition.
Rob Bell
73.) It was never easy. It’s not supposed to be easy.
Tiger Woods, on his comeback
74.) Success is not an accident; it is a choice.
Steph Curry
75.) If you don’t fall, how are you going to know what getting up is like?
Steph Curry
76.) If you aren’t going all the way, why go at all?
Joe Namath
77.) You have to fight to reach your dream. You have to sacrifice and work for it.
Lionel Messi
78.) You either have a victory or an excuse. You can’t have both.
Tiger Woods
79.) Keep working when nobody is watching.
Alex Morgan
80.) Failures are expected by winners but are ignored by winners.
Joe Gibbs
81.) A setback is a setup for a comeback.
Eric Thomas
82.) It’s always a comeback season for me.
Johnny Manziel
83.) Most guys would have retired. Not me.
Derrick Rose
Inspiring Comeback Sayings
84.) I’ve grown most not from victories but from setbacks. If winning is God’s reward, then losing is how he teaches us.
Serena Williams
85.) That’s why I made a comeback in 1988. I knew there were chances of not making it, but I didn’t want to end up at sixty years old and say I should have tried when I was thirty-eight.
Guy LaFleur
86.) I wanted to show the world that it can be done. Anything is possible with the right mindset. If you believe in yourself and you sacrifice and dedicate, with the right help, you can come back.
Tyson Fury
87.) Persistence can change failure into extraordinary achievement.
Matt Biondi
88.) I’m not looking for any excuses.
Martina Hingis
89.) A successful person never loses… They either win or learn!
Unknown
Motivational Comeback Quotes
90.) It is not the size of the man that matters but the size of his heart that matters.
Evander Holyfield
91.) The true measure of success is how many times you can bounce back from failure.
Stephen Richards
92.) Resilience is knowing that you are the only one that has the power and responsibility to pick yourself up.
Mary Holloway
93.) Durability is part of what makes a great athlete.
Bill Russell
94.) The more difficult the victory, the greater the happiness in winning.
Pele
95.) Persistence can change failure into extraordinary achievement.
Marv Levy
96.) During my 18 years, I came to bat almost 10,000 times. I struck out about 1,700 times and walked maybe 1,800 times. You figure a ballplayer will average about 500 at-bats a season. That means I played seven years without ever hitting the ball.
Mickey Mantle
Motivating Quotations For Sports
97.) I’ve learned that something constructive comes from every defeat.
Tom Landry
98.) It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it’s the pebble in your shoe.
Muhammad Ali
99.) Winners are not people who never fail but people who never quit.
Larry Bird
100.) You can never make up for a lost day.
John Wooden
101.) It’s important to keep trying to do what you think is right no matter how hard it is or how often you fail. You never stop trying. I’m still trying.
John Wooden
102.) Only a man who knows what it is like to be defeated can reach down to the bottom of his soul and come up with the extra ounce of power it takes to win when the match is even.
Muhammad Ali
103.) When you’re crying, your tears may be watering the seeds of your comeback.
Steve Maraboli
104.) There’s nothing as exciting as a comeback – seeing someone with dreams, watching them fail, and then getting a second chance.
Rachel Griffiths
Second Chance Quotes
105.) It’s not too late for a new beginning.
Eleanor Brown
106.) Nothing is cooler and more attractive than a big comeback, and that’ll be me.
Steven Adler
107.) I’ve always felt like the underdog, and I’m comfortable with that label.
Pink
108.) I always think of the good comebacks on the car ride home.
Ron Howard
109.) To admit you want to have a comeback means you have to admit you weren’t what you were supposed to be. You dropped below your own standard.
Marilyn Manson
110.) Your setback is just a setup for your comeback.
Steve Harvey
111.) A comeback is a setback that did its homework, learned the lesson, and then moved forward.
Eleanor Brown
112.) There is nothing as sweet as a comeback when you are down and out, about to lose, and out of time.
Anne Lamott
Making A Comeback
113.) Making a comeback is one of the most difficult things to do with dignity.
Greg Lake
114.) My comeback was not about winning or losing; it was about the feeling of being able to compete at the top level again.
Thomas Muster
115.) To uncover your true potential, you must first find your own limits and then you have to have the courage to blow past them.
Picabo Street
116.) He’s been to the brink and came back. I guess when you lose your pride, even for just a moment, you realize how much it means to you.
Markus Zusak
117.) Don’t expect to always be great. Disappointments, failures, and setbacks are a normal part of the lifecycle.
Colin Powell
118.) Nothing is cooler and more attractive than a big comeback, and that’ll be me.
Steve Adler
119.) I am the underdog, and I want to prove that one can follow one’s dreams despite all the flaws and setbacks.
Winnie Harlow
Rebound Quotes
120.) When you’ve got something to prove, there’s nothing greater than a challenge.
Terry Bradshaw
121.) I’ve always been an underdog. I feel like I beat the odds.
J. Cole
122.) You may be in a tough time but that setback is simply a setup for a greater comeback
Joel Osteen
123.) Always try to come back to your senses when in love because that’s the moment you become almost carried away by sensuality and sentiments.
Michael Bassey Johnson
124.) I was the undersized underdog who people never gave a chance. From that, the motivation to prove people wrong just grew and grew.
Baker Mayfield
125.) Persevere like a seed; even when people try to bury you, flourish.
Matshona Dhliwayo
126.) Unfortunately, I am incapable of thinking up perfectly biting, split-second retorts in any language. The French even have a word for this: l’esprit de l’escalier; staircase wit, something you only think of on the way out.
Tania Aebi
127.) Books can teach you many nice comebacks.
Tamuna Tsertsvadze
128.) The only way to prove that you’re a good sport is to lose.
Ernie Banks
129.) Never give up! Failure and rejection are only the first steps to succeeding.
Jim Valvano
Never Give Up Quotes
130.) Never give up, never give in, and when the upper hand is ours, may we have the ability to handle the win with the dignity that we absorbed the loss.
Doug Williams
131.) I was sure I’d have the perfect answer sometime tonight.
Karen Tayleur
132.) No one gets a free pass from them. Look not at these trials as setbacks. Rather, look at the lessons attached for your greatest personal comeback yet. You’ve got this.
Christine E. Szymanski
133.) Kindness is the key that opens the door of favor and beautiful surprises.
Michael Bassey Johnson
134.) I love being the underdog.
Howard Schultz
135.) A great champion deals with setbacks with a comeback.
Donna de Varona
136.) Never give up on yourself. Disappointments will happen. No one gets a free pass from them. Look not at these trials as setbacks. Rather, look at the lessons attached for your greatest personal comeback yet. You’ve got this.
Unknown
137.) I never expect to lose. Even when I’m the underdog, I still prepare a victory speech.
H. Jackson Brown, Jr
138.) I am often tongue-tied with strangers and have what the philosopher Monsieur Diderot calls l’esprit de l’escalier, staircase wit: only long after a remark is made to me will my imagination supply the thing I should have said in reply.
Debra Dean
139.) I’m always making a comeback, but nobody ever tells me where I’ve been.
Billie Holiday
Underdog Quotes
140.) I feel blessed to have as many comebacks as I can.
Paula Abdul
141.) You only think of the best comeback when you leave.
Jimmy Fallon
142.) There’s a place in me that can really relate to being the underdog.
Halle Berry
143.) I just think, as a people in general, we should always look at ourselves as the underdog, so we should always go harder than the next person.
Shaggy
144.) Sometimes loneliness makes the loudest noise.
Aaron Ben-Ze’ev
145.) A minor setback paves the way for a major comeback.
Unknown
Bonus Comeback Quotes
146.) The tougher the setback, the better the comeback.
Bernard Osei Annang
147.) Well, any good comeback needs some true believers.
John Boehner
148.) I’m making the comeback of the century.
Bob Backlund
149.) Those who mastered in the art of falling have no fear of rising!
Mehmet Murat ildan
150.) I am facing a challenge; I am not facing defeat. Remember this.
Nikki Rowe
151.) You’re about as useful as a screen door on a submarine.
Unknown
152.) That’s the greatest comeback since Lazarus.
Sid Waddell
153.) Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.
Winston S. Churchill
154.) I do a movie once every four years, and they call it a comeback.
Pam Grier
155.) Sometimes loneliness makes the loudest noise.
Aaron Ben-Ze’ev
156.) America loves a good comeback story!
Laura van den Berg
157.) Today’s struggle is tomorrow’s strength; today’s setback is tomorrow’s comeback.
Amit Kalantri
By Tom McGowan and Mike O’Halloran
Tom and Mike are sportswriters who live in the Twin Cities.
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