Bear Bryant quotes:

If you believe in yourself and have dedication and pride - and never quit, you'll be a winner. The price of victory is high but so are the rewards.

Never quit. It is the easiest cop-out in the world. Set a goal and don't quit until you attain it. When you do attain it, set another goal, and don't quit until you reach it. Never quit.

Georgia Tech beat us and Mississippi Southern tied us last year, and Texas beat us after we had the game won. We only played about five games the way we were capable of playing and lost one of those.

I've had many a player tell me all through high school and right up until signing day that they were coming to Alabama, then they signed with somebody else.

Don't give up at half time. Concentrate on winning the second half.

I plan on staying at Alabama for the rest of my career. I guarantee that I'll be here for you through it all, regardless of what happens.

Lee Roy was the best college linebacker - bar none. He would have made every tackle on every play if they had stayed in bounds.

I didn't care if we ever quit practicing. I loved it. The only other guy I ever knew who loved it as much was Jerry Duncan. He would beg to practice even when he was hurt. I've actually seen him cry because the trainer told him he couldn't scrimmage.

You never know how a horse will pull until you hook him to a heavy load.

Show class, have pride, and display character. If you do, winning takes care of itself.

I hope to get out before they start football next year.

I can remember loving to recruit. I knew I was going to do my best. But traveling and recruiting doesn't appeal to me any more. It's not as much fun as it used to be.

If anything goes bad, I did it. If anything goes semi-good, we did it. If anything goes real good, then you did it. That's all it takes to get people to win football games for you.

Don't ever give up on ability. Don't give up on a player who has it.

I know what it takes to win. If I can sell them on what it takes to win, then we are not going to lose too many football games.

Winning isn't imperative, but getting tougher in the fourth quarter is.

There's a lot of blood, sweat, and guts between dreams and success.

I want to make sure I don't interfere with the success of that team next year. I don't see any way I could go to practice like most of 'em do, and not hurt the team. I'd go nuts if I tried doing that.

That's all it takes to get people to win football games for you.

Mama wanted me to be a preacher. I told her coachin' and preachin' were a lot alike.

It's been years since I've had a real input in the game anyway. For this game, I've just tried to keep all the other stuff away from the players and coaches.

I told them my system was based on the "ant plan," that I'd gotten the idea watching a colony of ants in Africa during the war. A whole bunch of ants working toward a common goal.

I'm no genius, but I'm a damn good football coach.

My approach to the game has been the same at all the places I've been. Vanilla. The sure way. That means, first of all, to win physically. If you got eleven on a field, and they beat the other eleven physically, they'll win. They will start forcing mistakes. They'll win in the fourth quarter.

I ain't never had much fun. I ain't never been two inches away from a football. Here guys go fishing on the day of the game, hunting, golfing, and all I want to do is be alone, studying how not to lose.

There is no substitute for guts.

There's no substitute for guts.

It's awfully important to win with humility. It's also important to lose. I hate to lose worse than anyone, but if you never lose you won't know how to act. If you lose with humility, then you can come back.

Don't tolerate lazy people. They are losers.

Don't worry about making friends; don't worry about making enemies. Worry about winning, because if you win, your enemies can't hurt you, and if you lose, your friends can't stand you.

Sure, I'd love to beat Notre Dame, don't get me wrong. But nothing matters more than beating that cow college on the other side of the state!

In my lifetime, I may have put too much emphasis on winning, because here I am an old man and the only fun I've had is winning, and that's ridiculous.

If you want to walk the heavenly streets of gold, you gotta know the password, "Roll, Tide, Roll!"

Baton Rouge happens to be the worst place in the world for a visiting team. It's like being inside a drum.

I make my practices real hard because if a player is a quitter, I want him to quit in practice, not in a game.

If I miss coaching that much, I could go to some little school where they didn't recruit, where all the kids wanted to go. I believe I could find somewhere to coach.

I'm no innovator. If anything I'm a stealer, or borrower. I've stolen or borrowed from more people than you can shake a stick at.

The summer day is closed, the sun is set: Well they have done their office, those bright hours, The latest of whose train goes softly out In the red west.

In order to have a winner, the team must have a feeling of unity; every player must put the team first ahead of personal glory.

The first time you quit, it's hard. The second time, it gets easier. The third time, you don't even have to think about it.

Being inside Tiger Stadium is like being on the inside of a drum.

Expect the unexpected.

I think I'm telling the truth. I sat by Ray Perkins at the Hall of Fame dinner in New York, and at that time he didn't know he was our coach and I didn't either.

It's not the will to win that matters-everyone has that. It's the will to prepare to win that matters.

I think the most important thing of all for any team is a winning attitude. The coaches must have it. The players must have it. The student body must have it. If you have dedicated players who believe in themselves, you don't need a lot of talent.

If they don't have a winning attitude, I don't want them.

I'll put you through hell, but at the end of it all we'll be champions.

Nearly every coach I've talked with tells me that the attention you get from media and other people is the thing you miss most. I don't know if that's right.

The fun never goes out, but it changes with the years, with winning and losing.

There is a big difference in wanting to and willing to.

When you make a mistake, there are only three things you should ever do about it: 1. Admit it. 2. Learn from it, and 3. Don't repeat it.

The old lessons (work, self-discipline, sacrifice, teamwork, fighting to achieve) aren't being taught by many people other than football coaches these days. The football coach has a captive audience and can teach these lessons because the communication lines between himself and his players are more wide open than between kids and parents. We better teach these lessons or else the country's future population will be made up of a majority of crooks, drug addicts, or people on relief.

If it is worth playing, it is worth paying the price to win.

In a crisis, don't hide behind anything or anybody. They're going to find you anyway.

Little things make the difference. Everyone is well prepared in the big things, but only the winners perfect the little things.

Find your own picture, your own self in anything that goes bad. It's awfully easy to mouth off at your staff or chew out players, but if it's bad, and your the head coach, you're responsible. If we have an intercepted pass, I threw it. I'm the head coach. If we get a punt blocked, I caused it. A bad practice, a bad game, it's up to the head coach to assume his responsibility.

Never be too proud to get down on your knees and pray.

What are you doing here? Tell me why you are here. If you are not here to win a national championship, you're in the wrong place. You boys are special. I don't want my players to be like other students. I want special people. You can learn a lot on the football field that isn't taught in the home, the church, or the classroom. There are going to be days when you think you've got no more to give and then you're going to give plenty more. You are going to have pride and class. You are going to be very special. You are going to win the national championship for Alabama.

I ain't never been nothin but a winner.

It really doesn't cost anything to be nice, and the rewards can be

If you don't have discipline, you can't have a successful program.

A champion pays an extra price to be better than anyone else.

I honestly believe that if you are willing to out-condition the opponent, have confidence in your ability, be more aggressive than your opponent and have a genuine desire for team victory, you will become the national champions. If you have all the above, you will acquire confidence and poise, and you will have those intangibles that win the close ones.

Have a plan. Follow the plan, and you'll be surprised how successful you can be. Most people don't have a plan. That's why it's easy to beat most folks.

No coach has ever won a game by what he knows; it's what his players know that counts.

Offense sells tickets, but defense wins championships.

I have always tried to teach my players to be fighters. When I say that, I don't mean put up your dukes and get in a fistfight over something. I'm talking about facing adversity in your life. There is not a person alive who isn't going to have some awfully bad days in their lives. I tell my players that what I mean by fighting is when your house burns down, and your wife runs off with the drummer, and you've lost your job and all the odds are against you. What are you going to do? Most people just lay down and quit. Well, I want my people to fight back.

Hell, no! A tie is like kissing your sister!

Don't talk too much or too soon.

I left Texas A&M because my school called me. Mama called, and when Mama calls, then you just have to come running.

I'll never give up on a player regardless of his ability as long as he never gives up on himself. In time he will develop.

We can't have two standards, one set for the dedicated young men who want to do something ambitious and one set for those who don't.

Losing doesn't make me want to quit. It makes me want to fight that much harder.

Recruiting is the one thing I hate. I won't do it unless my coaches tell me I've just got to. The whole process is kind of undignified for me and the young man.

If there is one thing that has helped me as a coach, it's my ability to recognize winners, or good people who can become winners by paying the price.

You must learn how to hold a team together. You must lift some men up, calm others down, until finally they've got one heartbeat. Then you've got yourself a team.

Most coaches study the films when they lose. I study them when we win -to see if I can figure out what I did right

A few minutes ago, I had a hard time getting through the lobby because of all the people. After today, that won't be happening.

You're still going to win with preparation and dedication and plain old desire. If you don't have genuine desire, you won't be dedicated enough to prepare properly.

The Lord expects you to do some things for yourself.

If we'd beaten 'em, I wouldn't be going out.

Set goals - high goals for you and your organization. When your organization has a goal to shoot for, you create teamwork, people working for a common good.

Motivating people- the ingredient that separates winners from losers.

If wanting to win is a fault, as some of my critics seem to insist, then I plead guilty. I like to win. I know no other way. It's in my blood.

There's no use fussing on a boy who doesn't have any ability.

Be aware of "yes" men. Generally, they are losers. Surround yourself with winners. Never forget - people win.

A good, quick, small team can beat a big, slow team any time.

You take those little rascals, talk to them good, pat them on the back, let them think they are good, and they will go out and beat the biguns.

The price of victory is high, but so are the rewards.

Don't give up. Reach down inside of you and you'll find something left.

People who are in it for their own good are individualists. They don't share the same heartbeat that makes a team so great. A great unit, whether it be football or any organization, shares the same heartbeat.

I can reach a kid who doesn't have any ability as long as he doesn't know it.

You have to be willing to out-condition your opponents.

Sacrifice. Work. Self-discipline. I teach these things, and my boys don't forget them when they leave.

Don't talk too much. Don't pop off. Don't talk after the game until you cool off.

But it's still a coach's game. Make no mistake. You start at the top. If you don't have a good one at the top, you don't have a cut dog's chance. If you do, the rest falls into place. You have to have good assistants, and a lot of things, but first you have to have the chairman of the board.

I didn't have a thing to do with picking a coach, and didn't want to. But I didn't think they'd pick one I didn't like.

I always want my players to show class, knock'em down, pat on the back, and run back to the huddle.

Don't overwork your squad. If you're going to make a mistake, under-work them.

I have had players who are good, and who know they are good; I have had players who are bad and know they are bad; I have had players who are good, but who don't know they are good; I have had players who are bad, but who don't know they are bad. It is this last group that has won more games for me than the first three groups combined.

You try to make your team do something they're not capable of and you get murdered.

One man doesn't make a team. It takes eleven.

At Alabama, our players don't win Heisman Trophies. Our teams win National Championships.

When you play defense you have to storm the fort or play cover - you can't do both.

I ain't won but one. My team won the rest in spite of me.

Football changes and so do people.

When you win, there's glory enough for everybody. When you lose, there's glory for none.

I don't care how much talent a team has - if the boys don't think tough, practice tough, and live tough, how they play tough on Saturday.

They say I teach brutal football, but the only thing brutal about football is losing.

I'm not much of a golfer, I don't have any friends and all I like to do is go home and be alone, and not worry about ways not to lose.

I don't have any ideas; my coaches have them. I just pass the ideas on and referee the arguments.

Football games are generally won by the boys with the greatest desire.

Everybody's got pretty good players now, more players than there've ever been. If you play poorly, you're going to get beat.

If you don't learn anything but self discipline, then athletics is worthwhile.

I've never recommended anybody go into coaching, 'cause if they have enough on the ball, if they can do without coaching, they should do without it. If they put as much work into it and spend as much time, the rewards are going to be much better in something else.

Every time a player goes out there, at least 20 people have some amount of influence on him. His mother has more influence than anyone. I know because I played, and I loved my mama.

All I know is, I don't want to stop coaching, and I don't want to stop winning, so we're gonna break the record unless I die.

The faint old man shall lean his silver head To feel thee; thou shalt kiss the child asleep, And dry the moistened curls that overspread His temples, while his breathing grows more deep.

You have to learn what makes this or that Sammy run. For one it's a pat on the back, for another it's eating him out, for still another it's a fatherly talk, or something else. You're a fool if you think as I did as a young coach, that you can treat them all alike.

I don't hire anybody not brighter than I am. If they're not brighter than I am, I don't need them.