Quotes About Perseverance

Running is not always easy. Some days you may feel like you can run forever, while there are those bad runs when you feel like you’re not making any progress and you just want to throw in the towel.

Get inspired to run and finish the race with these quotes about perseverance from famous athletes, coaches, and other notable people.

1. “No matter how far you walk, how hard you work, or how bad it hurts, you’ll always get to where you need to be.”
-Unknown Author

2. “Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after another.”
-Walter Elliott, Scottish politician

3. “I’ve always made a total effort, even when the odds seemed entirely against me. I never quit trying; I never felt that I didn’t have a chance to win.”
-Arnold Palmer, legendary golfer

4. “Once you learn to quit, it becomes a habit.”
-Vincent Lombardi, football coach

5. “Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.”
-Unknown author

6. “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did so.”
-Mark Twain, American author

7. “I run because it’s so symbolic of life. You have to drive yourself to overcome the obstacles. You might feel that you can’t. But then you find your inner strength, and realize you’re capable of so much more than you thought.”
-Arthur Blank, Home Depot founder

8. “It’s easier to go down a hill than up it but the view is much better at the top.”
-Arnold Bennet, English writer

9. “Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did.”
–Newt Gingrich, former speaker of the U.S House of Representatives

10. “I am a slow walker, but I never walk backwards.”
-Abraham Lincoln, 16^th U.S. President

11. I do not think that there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature.
-John D. Rockefeller, American business magnate

12. “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”
–Thomas Edison, inventor

13. “Let me tell you the secret that has led to my goal. My strength lies solely in my tenacity.”
–Louis Pasteur, French biologist

14. “Some lean back. But those who lean forward are poised to cross the finish-line, first!”
– T.F. Hodge, writer

15. “A bend in the road is not the end of the road…Unless you fail to make the turn.”
– Helen Keller, American author

16. “Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.”
– Pele, soccer star

17. “The days without difficulty are the days you do not improve.”
-Evan Winter, author

18. “Some days it just flows and I feel like I’m born to do this, other days it feels like I’m trudging through hell. Every day I make the choice to show up and see what I’ve got, and to try and be better. My advice: keep showing up.”
-Des Linden, 2018 Boston Marathon women’s winner

19. “You dream. You plan. You reach. There will be obstacles. There will be doubters. There will be mistakes. But with hard work, with belief, with confidence and trust in yourself and those around you, there are no limits.”
-Michael Phelps, most-decorated Olympic athlete with 28 swimming medals

20. “You need three things to win: discipline, hard work and, before everything maybe, commitment. No one will make it without those three. Sports teaches you that.”
-Haile Gebrselassie, world-class Ethiopian distance runner

More Running Quotes:

Running coach, avid runner, and fitness writer Christine Luff is an RRCA-certified running coach and ACE-certified personal trainer. Founder of the website Run for Good and author of the book Run for Good: How to Create a Lifelong Running Habit, she coaches runners, from beginners to advanced, who are training for races, from 5Ks to marathons.