51 Exercise Quotes to Fire Up Your Motivation

1) "Lack of activity destroys the good condition of every human being, while movement and methodical physical exercise save it and preserve it." - Plato

2) "If something stands between you and your success, move it. Never be denied." - Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson

3) "My grandmother started walking five miles a day when she was sixty. She's ninety-seven now, and we don't know where the heck she is." - Ellen DeGeneres

4) "You're going to have to let it hurt. Let it suck. The harder you work, the better you will look. Your appearance isn't parallel to how heavy you lift, it's parallel to how hard you work." - Joe Manganiello

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5) "Get comfortable with being uncomfortable!" - Jillian Michaels

6) "Those who think they have not time for bodily exercise will sooner or later have to find time for illness." - Edward Stanley

7) "A bear, however hard he tries, grows tubby without exercise." - Winnie the Pooh

8) "If you are in a bad mood go for a walk.If you are still in a bad mood go for another walk."  - Hippocrates

9) "I know a man who drives 600 yards to work. I know a woman who gets in her car to go a quarter of a mile to a college gymnasium to walk on a treadmill, then complains passionately about the difficulty of finding a parking space. When I asked her once why she didn't walk to the gym and do five minutes less on the treadmill, she looked at me as if I were being willfully provocative. 'Because I have a program for the treadmill,' she explained. 'It records my distance and speed, and I can adjust it for degree of difficulty.' It hadn't occurred to me how thoughtlessly deficient nature is in this regard." - Bill Bryson

10) "Don't wait until you've reached your goal to be proud of yourself. Be proud of every step you take toward reaching that goal." - Unknown


11) "Any workout which does not involve a certain minimum of danger or responsibility does not improve the body - it just wears it out." - Norman Mailer

12) "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

13) "It is exercise alone that supports the spirits, and keeps the mind in vigor." - Cicero

14) "I'm not telling you it's going to be easy, I'm telling you it's going to be worth it." - Art Williams

15) "Nothing is more certain than the defeat of a man who gives up." - George Sheehan

16) "If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee

17) "Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will." - Mahatma Gandhi

18) "If your dog is fat, you're not getting enough exercise." - Author Unknown

19) "You shall gain, but you shall pay with sweat, blood, and vomit." - Pavel Tsatsouline

20) "Just believe in yourself. Even if you don't, pretend that you do and, at some point, you will." - Venus Williams

21) "All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking." - Friedrich Nietzsche
22) "I was never a natural athlete, but I paid my dues in sweat and concentration, and took the time necessary to learn karate and became a world champion." - Chuck Norris

23) "Your health account, your bank account, they're the same thing. The more you put in, the more you can take out. Exercise is king and nutrition is queen. Together you have a kingdom." - Jack LaLanne

24) "An hour of basketball feels like 15 minutes. An hour on a treadmill feels like a weekend in traffic school." - David Walters

25) "I have to exercise in the morning before my brain figures out what I'm doing." - Marsha Doble

26) "Exercise is done against one's wishes and maintained only because the alternative is worse." - George A. Sheehan

27) "Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going." - Jim Ryin

28) "In terms of fitness and battling through cancer, exercise helps you stay strong physically and mentally." - Grete Waitz

29) "Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen." - Michael Jordan

30) "The reason I exercise is for the quality of life I enjoy." - Kenneth H. Cooper

31) "Exercise is like an addiction. Once you're in it, you feel like your body needs it." - Elsa Pataky

32) "If a man achieves victory over this body, who in the world can exercise power over him? He who rules himself rules over the whole world." - Vinoba Bhave

33) "A man's health can be judged by which he takes two at a time - pills or stairs." - Joan Welsh

34) "Movement is a medicine for creating change in a person's physical, emotional, and mental states." - Carol Welch

35) "If we could give every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise, not too little and not too much, we would have found the safest way to health." - Hippocrates

36) "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


37) "When you're at the gym feeling like you'll never be one of those people who look like they've been at it their entire lives, remember that they all started somewhere." - Unknown

38) "Never hurry. Take plenty of exercise. Always be cheerful. Take all the sleep you need. You may expect to be well." - James Freeman Clarke

39) "You must do the thing you think you cannot do." - Eleanor Roosevelt

40) "We run for the people who think they cant." - Dick Hoyt

41) "If it weren't for the fact that the TV set and the refrigerator are so far apart, some of us wouldn't get any exercise at all." - Joey Adams

42) "If I'd known I was going to live this long, I'd have taken better care of myself." - Eubie Blake

43) "To enjoy the glow of good health, you must exercise." - Gene Tunney

44) "Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right." - Henry Ford

45) "Exercise to stimulate, not to annihilate. The world wasn't formed in a day, and neither were we. Set small goals and build upon them." - Lee Haney

46) "Walking is the best possible exercise. Habituate yourself to walk very far." - Thomas Jefferson

47) "You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don't try." - Beverly Sills

48) "Champions aren't made in the gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them...a desire, a dream, a vision." - Muhammad Ali

49) "Don't wait. The time will never be just right." - Napoleon Hill

50) "Exercise is the chief source of improvement in our faculties." - Hugh Blair

51) "I feel better in my mind when I work out. It makes everything better." - Keri Russell