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Defeat just isn't an option. Ever.
By Aria Gmitter — Written on Jan 01, 2021
It can be tempting to throw in the towel. You might even have walked away from what you really wanted believing that maybe this battle was not one you could win.
When you feel like you're on the verge of giving up, these fight quotes will help give you the boost you need to keep fighting the good fight against all odds.
You may wish you could take a small break to think through a new strategy, or you may have thought you already quit for good and now find yourself wanting to get back in the ring again.
Sometimes walking away is exactly what you need in order to gain perspective and return to shatter the wall that keeps you from your dreams.
You wouldn't be the first person to believe the path you're on is too tough to handle.
Defeat doesn't have to be permanent. As long as you remain willing to get up and try again, there's no stopping you from attaining your dreams. If you want something bad enough, realize that it's your tenacity that can get you to where you are headed.
Sometimes half the struggle is just hanging in there until the miracle happens.
Whatever the struggle may be, you can decide that no matter how tough it gets, you will stay true to your goals — even if life knocks you down, you will get back up again and never stop fighting.
Here are fighting quotes to remind you that it's not how long you stay down that matters, but the number of times you get back up again until you reach victory.
80 Inspirational Fighting Quotes
1. “If you have a dream, don’t just sit there. Gather courage to believe that you can succeed and leave no stone unturned to make it a reality.” ― Roopleen
2. “When the going gets tough, put one foot in front of the other and just keep going. Don’t give up.” ― Roy T. Bennett, 'The Light in the Heart'
3. “Courage doesn't always roar, sometimes it's the quiet voice at the end of the day whispering 'I will try again tomorrow” ― Mary Anne Radmacher
4. "Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out." — Robert Collier
5. "It always seems impossible until it's done." — Nelson Mandela
6. "It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop." — Confucius
7. "Let me tell you the secret that has led to my goal. My strength lies solely in my tenacity." — Louis Pasteur
8. "How long should you try? Until." — Jim Rohn
9. "Don’t be discouraged. It’s often the last key in the bunch that opens the lock." — Anonymous
10. “You just can’t beat the person who won’t give up.” — Babe Ruth
11. "Success is what happens after you have survived all your mistakes.” — Anora Lee
12. "Every master was once a disaster." — David T.S. Wood
13. "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." — Thomas Edison
14. "The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses — behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights." —Muhammad Ali
15. "The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting." —Sun Tzu
16. "To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody but yourself means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight, and never stop fighting." —E.E. Cummings
17. “If you are going through hell, keep going.” ― Winston S. Churchill
18. “Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.” ― Lucius Annaeus Seneca
19. “Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” ― Thomas A. Edison
20. “I am a slow walker, but I never walk back.” ― Abraham Lincoln
21. "To win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill." —Sun Tzu
22. “Real courage is when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.” ― Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
23. “Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat.” ― F. Scott Fitzgerald
24. “Just because you fail once doesn't mean you're gonna fail at everything.” ― Marilyn Monroe
25. "Let me not beg for the stilling of my pain, but for the heart to conquer it.” ― Rabindranath Tagore
26. "You keep putting one foot in front of the other, and then one day you look back and you've climbed a mountain.” ― Tom Hiddleston
27. “Continuous effort — not strength or intelligence — is the key to unlocking our potential.” ― Winston S. Churchill
28. "To fight and conquer in all our battles is not supreme excellence. Supreme excellence consists of breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting." — Sun Tzu
29. “Dripping water hollows out stone, not through force but through persistence.” ― Ovid
30. “The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack in will.” ― Vince Lombardi
31. “Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.” ― Babe Ruth
32. “When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt
33. “It's not how we fall. It's how we get back up again.” ― Patrick Ness
34. “Courage is not having the strength to go on; it is going on when you don't have the strength.” ― Teddy Roosevelt
35. “Failure is a bend in the road, not the end of the road. Learn from failure and keep moving forward.” ― Roy T. Bennett
36. “You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.” ― Margaret Thatcher
37. “The harder you fall, the heavier your heart; the heavier your heart, the stronger you climb; the stronger you climb, the higher your pedestal.” ― Criss Jami
38. “Giving up is the only sure way to fail.” ― Gena Showalter
39. “Remember the two benefits of failure. First, if you do fail, you learn what doesn't work; and second, the failure gives you the opportunity to try a new approach.” ― Roger Von Oech
40. “It's always to soon to quit!” ― Norman Vincent Peale
41. “Nothing great is ever achieved without much enduring.” ― St. Catherine of Siena
42. “Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did.” ― Newt Gingrich
43. “Get up, stand up: don’t give up the fight!” ― Bob Marley
44. “A dream you don’t have to fight for isn’t a dream—it’s a nap. One changes your afternoon. The other changes your world. Keep fighting.” ― Jon Acuff
45. “No matter how much falls on us, we keep plowing ahead. That's the only way to keep the roads clear.” ― Greg Kincaid
46. “If the fire in your heart is strong enough, it will burn away any obstacles that come your way.” ― Suzy Kassem
47. “A champion is someone who gets up when he can't.” ― Jack Dempsey
48. “You go on. You set one foot in front of the other, and if a thin voice cries out, somewhere behind you, you pretend not to hear, and keep going.” ― Geraldine Brooks
49. “It will get easier each time, I think. I hope. I just have to keep trying.” ― Jenny Han
50. “There always comes a time in life where you can either give up or step up.” ― Graeme Rodaughan
51. “Champions keep playing until they get it right.” ― Billie Jean King
52. “The only guarantee for failure is to stop trying” ― John C. Maxwell
53. “In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins, not through strength but by perseverance.” ― H. Jackson Brown
54. “There are always periodic opportunities to give up, while every single moment is an opportunity to persevere.” ― Dean F. Wilson
55. “Every pain is a lesson.” ― Frank Delaney
56. “We all fall sometime but it's those that get back up and try again that make the difference.” ― Gary Revel
57. “Be strong, be fearless, be beautiful. And believe that anything is possible when you have the right people there to support you.” — Misty Copeland
58. “Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough.” — Og Mandino
59. “Sometimes you don’t realize your own strength until you come face to face with your greatest weakness.” — Susan Gale
60. “Promise me you’ll always remember: You’re braver than you believe and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” — A. A. Milne
61. “Hard times don’t create heroes. It is during the hard times when the ‘hero’ within us is revealed.” — Bob Riley
62. “Build up your weaknesses until they become your strong points.” — Knute Rockne
63. “The bird rises against a strong headwind, not only in spite of the wind but because of it. The opposing force becomes a lifting force if faced at the right angle.” — L.B. Cowman
64. “Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.”— Arnold Schwarzenegger
65. “Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.” — Dale Carnegie
66. “Tough times never last, but tough people do.” — Robert H. Schuller
67. “Each of us is stronger than we realize. Strength is something we often find in desperate moments.” — Jennifer Arnold
68. “Nothing is impossible, the word itself says ‘I’m possible’!” — Audrey Hepburn
69. “Difficulties are meant to rouse, not discourage. The human spirit is to grow strong by conflict.” — William Ellery Channing
70. “Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal. My strength lies solely in my tenacity.” — Louis Pasteur
71. “The greatest test of courage on the earth is to bear defeat without losing heart.” — Arvind Jain
72. “Problems are not stop signs; they are guidelines.” — Robert Schuller
73. “When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.” — Henry Ford
74. “Stay strong, be brave, love hard and true, and you will have nothing to lose.” — Demi Lovato
75. “In life, you have 3 choices. Give up, give in, or give it your all.” ― Charleston Parker
76. "There is no substitute for hard work. Never give up. Never stop believing. Never stop fighting." — Hope Hicks
77. "You become a champion by fighting one more round. When things are tough, you fight one more round." — James J. Corbett
78. "Either you give in, or you fight. That's all I know, being where I'm from. You fight for what you want. You go after what you want." — Allen Iverson
79. "Either you give in, or you fight. That's all I know, being where I'm from. You fight for what you want. You go after what you want." — Napoleon Hill
80. "Just dream big. Go for it. There's nothing holding you back. You can have ups and downs, but if you believe in something, keep the faith; keep fighting. And don't let people put you down." — Geraint Thomas
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Aria Gmitter, M.F.A., is YourTango's Senior Editor for Horoscopes and Spirituality.