Best Two-Word Quotes For Daily Motivation + Inspiration | STRIVE (2024)

Mental toughness is that “special something” that people posses which allows them to power through the challenges and chaos of life. To many, it’s an almost magic-like ability that makes the facing of setbacks and adversity so much easier to surmount. Mental toughness is also about going further, doing more, and bouncing back quicker than others would normally come to expect. It facilitates resilience, grit, and dogged determination.

Undoubtedly, if you’re mentally tough, the world is your oyster. So, given that mental toughness is one of the most important qualities found amongst the successful, we aim to inspire you to strengthen your mindset, so you too can have the world at your fingertips.

With that said, we’ve rounded up some of the absolute best mental toughness quotes to aid you in fortifying your mindset. So, if you’re ready to for some powerful quotes to help you level up your mental fortitude, let’s get to it:

TOP MOTIVATIONAL QUOTES ABOUT MENTAL TOUGHNESS

1. “Mental toughness is finding fuel on an empty tank.” – Kent Morris

2. “Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.” – Mahatma Gandhi

3. “Toughness is in the soul and spirit, not in muscles.” – Alex Karras

4. “Mental Toughness: The ability to consistently perform toward the upper range of your talent and skill regardless of the competitive circ*mstances.” – James E. Loehr

5. “Increasing the state of our minds is the only way to reduce the difficulty of life.” – Mokokoma Mokhonoana

6. “I don’t stop when I’m tired. I stop when I’m done.” – David Goggins

7. “I am thankful for my struggle because without it I wouldn’t have stumbled across my strength.” – Alex Elle

8. “It’s mental toughness that determines what you’ll do on the third, fourth, and fifth tries.” – The STRIVE

9. “There’s confidence and a mental toughness that comes from the very highest level competition, whatever the sport it. Whether it’s boxing or wrestling, or whatever.” – Joe Rogan

10. “Mental toughness is essential to success.” – Vince Lombardi

11. “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

12. “Mental toughness is doing the right thing for the team when it’s not the best thing for you.” – Bill Belichick

13. “Enthusiasm is common. Endurance is rare.” – Angela Duckworth

14. “If youthinkyou’ll lose, you’re lost, for out of the world we find, success begins with a person’s will — It’s all in thestate of mind.” – Walter D. Wintle

15. “As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

16. “Mental will is a muscle that needs exercise, just like muscles of the body.” – Lynn Jennings

17. “Strength is what we can gain from the madness we survive.” – Unknown

18. “The will to prepare has to be greater than the will to win.” – Bobby Knight

19. “You can train your mental strength just like you train your body. If your body looks fit or ripped, it looks strong, and you can flex your muscles. So, physically, you have a certain strength. Mentally, it’s the same thing. You can train your psychological strength.” – Wladimir Klitschko

20. “Concentration and mental toughness are the margins of victory.” – Bill Russell

21. “Mental toughness is many things and rather difficult to explain. Its qualities are sacrifice and self-denial. Also, most importantly, it is combined with a perfectly disciplined will that refuses to give in. It’s a state of mind — you could call it character in action.” – Vince Lombardi

22. “People don’t realize how often you have to come in second in order to finish first.” – Jack Nicklaus

23. “You never know how strong you are, until being strong is the only choice you have.” – Bob Marley

24. “Mind is everything. Muscle – pieces of rubber. All that I am, I am because of mind.” – Paavo Nurmi

25. “Self-doubt is the biggest threat to your success.” – Anonymous

26. “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

27. “In terms of instilling the values of mental toughness and work ethic, discipline is the gift that keeps on giving.” – William Baldwin

28. “Mental strength induces mind and body.” – Toba Beta

29. “Motivation is crap. It comes and goes. When you’re driven, whatever is in front of you will get destroyed.” – David Goggins

30. “Mental dominance is what ultimately makes you unstoppable.” – Tim S. Grover

31. “It’s not about the setback, it’s about the comeback.” – Robyn Benincasa

32. “Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune; but great minds rise above it.” – Washington Irving

33. “The mental game is more about subtraction than it is addition.” – Dr. Rob Bell

34. “You must want to be a butterfly so badly, you are willing to give u being a caterpillar.” – Sekou Andrews

35. “The goal is to be physically loose and mentally tight.” – Arthur Ashe

36. “Rule your mind or it will rule you.” – Horace

37. “Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go to through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.” – Arnold Schwarzenegger

38. “It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up.” – Babe Ruth

39. “Mental toughness is the willingness to keep commitments you make to yourself.” – Anonymous

40. “One may walk over the highest mountain one step at a time.” – John Wanamaker

41. “Everything negative–pressure, challenges–is all an opportunity for me to rise.” – Kobe Bryant

42. “Every quarterback can throw a ball; every running back can run; every receiver is fast; but that mental toughness that you talk about translates into competitiveness.” – Tom Brady

43. “Physical strength will get you to the start line. But mental strength will get you to the finish line.'” – Mental Toughness Quote

44. “Physical stamina is the root of mental toughness.” – Major Dick Winters

45. “I never made any sacrifices; I made choices.” – Greg Searle

46. “Now if you are going to win any battle you have to do one thing. You have to make the mind run body. Never let the body tell the mind what to do. The body will always give up. It is always tired in the morning, noon, and night. But the body is never tired if the mind is not tired.” – George S. Patton

47. “Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty… I have never in my life envied a human who led an easy life.” – Teddy Roosevelt

48. “Pushing for a third-wind, when you know you only have two… that is mental toughness.” – Nate Lee Morales

49. “It takes energy, mental toughness and spiritual reinforcement to successfully deal with life’s opportunities, and to reach your objectives.” – Zig Ziglar

50. “It ain’t about how hard you hit; it’s about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward. How much you can take, and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done.” – Rocky

51. “You gotta train your mind to be stronger than your emotions or else you’ll lose yourself every time.” – Anonymous

52. “Your toughness is made up of equal parts persistence and experience. You don’t so much outrun your opponents at outlast and outsmart them, and the toughest opponent of all is the one inside your head.” – Joe Henderson

53. “Mental toughness is spartanism with qualities of sacrifice, self-denial, dedication. It is fearlessness and it is love.” – Vince Lombardi

54. “Whether you think you can or think you can’t, your’e right.” – Henry Ford

55. “The most important attribute a player must have is mental toughness.” – Mia Hamm

Halfway There

You’re more than halfway through our collection of quotes about mental toughness. Many of them are meant to inspire, while others are meant to inform. Our hope, is that the end result of your reading these quotes, is a new found appreciation for mental toughness.

With said, don’t stop on our behalf, as there are plenty more inspiring and wise words to be had.

Related: Mental Toughness Extra Effort

56. “The trial you encounter will introduce you to your strengths, remain steadfast… and one day you will build something that endures, something worthy of your potential.” – Epictetus

57. “Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle.” – Napoleon Hill

58. “Our strength grows out of our weaknesses.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

59. “Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever.” – Lance Armstrong

60. “Mental toughness is everything.” – Anonymous

61. “Life’s battles don’t always go to the stronger or faster man, but soon or latethe one who wins is the onewho thinks he can.” – Walter D. Wintle

62. “The ability to continue moving when you are feeling scared, fearful or lazy is the sign of true mental strength.” – Matthew Donnelly

63. “What MTXE taught me is that full effort is full victory. And if you’re not pushing your limits, chasing your dreams, or leaning into your legacy…chances are nil you’ll ever make history.” – Atlas Rowe

64. “Argue for your limitations and, sure enough, they’re yours.” – Richard Bach

65. “Mental toughness is the ability to focus on and execute solutions, especially in the face of adversity.” – Jason Selk

66. “We don’t quit, we don’t cower, we don’t run. We endure and conquer.” – Kobe Bryant

67. “The future bears down upon each one of us with all the hazards of the unknown. The only way out is through.” ― Plutarch

68. “People take classes on self-help, mental toughness, breathing control — the only way to get tougher is to put yourself in hellacious situations.” – David Goggins

69. “It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.” – Sir Edmund Hillary

70. “A champion is someone who gets up when he can’t.” –Jack Dempsey

71. “Mental toughness is the ability to manage the stress, the pressure, the challenge, and the chaos of life.” – Penny Mallory

72. “Don’t say, ‘If I could, I should.’ Say, ‘If I can, I will.’” – Jim Rohn

73. “No limbs. No limits. No excuses.” – Nick Vujicic

74. “Crave the result so intensely that the work is irrelevant.” – Tim S. Grover

75. “It’s not wanting to win that makes you a winner; it’s refusing to fail.” – Peyton Manning

76. “You have power over your mind, not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.” – Marcus Aurelius

77. “If you’re going through hell, keep going.” – Winston Churchill

78. “If you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint,’ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.” – Vincent van Gogh

80. “The harder the conflict, the greater the triumph.” – George Washington

81. “Long is the way and hard, that out of hell leads up to the light.” – John Milton

82. “You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.” – Margaret Thatcher

83. “Nothing can resist a human will that will stake its very existence on its purpose.” – Benjamin Disraeli

84. “It’s when the discomfort strikes that they realize a strong mind is the most powerful weapon of all.” – Chrissie Wellington

85. “I honestly believe that with a strong mind, you can literally ‘will’ the ball into the hole.” – Ray Floyd

86. “Visualizing and mental preparation is every bit as effective as physical preparation.” – Phil Mickelson

87. “Men’s best successes come after their disappointments.” – Henry Ward Beecher

88. “The pain you feel today will be the strength you feel tomorrow.” – Ray Lewis

89. “Make sure your worst enemy doesn’t live between your own two ears.” – Laird Hamilton

90. “Mental toughness is a lifestyle.” – David Goggins

91. “Strong minds suffer without complaining; weak minds complain without suffering.” – Lettie Cowman

92. “Where the head goes, the body follows. Perception precedes action. Right action follows the right perspective.” – Ryan Holiday

93. “Developing mental toughness isn’t just about being resilient — it’s about accessing your reserve tank when you think you just can’t go any further.” – Richard Branson

94. “To me, football is so much about mental toughness, it’s digging deep, it’s doing whatever you need to do to help a team win and that comes in a lot of shapes and forms.” – Tom Brady

95. “It’s about mental toughness. Mental toughness is everything.” – Jon Gordon

96. “Wake up thinking WIN! What is important, what do you need to accomplish today to come closer to your long-term goals? Then visualize the life you will have once you attain your dreams.” – Lou Holtz

97. “Self-controlis strength, right thought is mastery, calmness is power.” – James Allen

98. “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” – Friedrich Nietzsche

99. “No matter how much falls on us, we keep plowing ahead. That’s the only way to keep the roads clear.” – Greg Kincaid

100. “There is no failure. Only feedback.” – Robert Allen

101. “You can’t be battle ready unless you’re battle tested. So, embrace the suck and push through.” – Dr. Sean Penwell

102. “‎Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody else expects of you. Never excuse yourself. Never pity yourself. Be a hard master to yourself-and be lenient to everybody else.” – Henry Ward Beecher

103. “Don’t fail yourself today!” – Dr. Adam Rogers

104. “It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.” – Albert Einstein

105. “Success is a combination of effort, talent and hard work. There’s got to be hard work and mental toughness. It’s not just one thing that gets you there it’s an accumulation of things.” – Brock Lesnar

106. “Successful people aren’t born successful. They hone their mental might to scrape, claw, and climb their way out of the shadows and into the light.” – Atlas Rowe

107. “We like to think of our champions and idols as superheroes who were born different from us. We don’t like to think of them as relatively ordinary people who made themselves extraordinary.” – Carol Dweck

108. “I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” – Nelson Mandela

109. “Do. The. Work. Every day, you have to do something you don’t want to do. Every day. Challenge yourself to be uncomfortable, push past the apathy and laziness and fear.” – Tim S. Grover

110. “Mental strength is what separates champions from near champions.” – Rafael

111. “Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.” – Thomas Edison

112. “It’s a huge step forward to realize that the worst thing to happen is never the event, but the event and losing your head.” – Ryan Holiday

113. “I felt that I could win it, and that was what I was there for. I wasn’t there to compete. I was there to win.” – Arnold Schwarzenegger

114. “If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.” – Michael Jordan

115. “If you want to be tougher mentally, it is simple; be tougher, don’t meditate on it.” – Jocko Willink

116. “You can endure anything your mind can make endurable, by treating it as in your interest to do so.” – Marcus Aurelius

117. “On your worst day, you need to beat people at their best.” – Martina Navratilova

118. “The most interesting thing to me in chess are not the gambits. Or the moves. It’s the mental toughness.” – Edward Zwick

119. “You can make all the excuses you want, but if you’re not mentally tough and you’re not prepared to play every night, you’re not going to win.” – Larry Bird

120. “It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you don’t stop.” – Confucius

121. “I hated every minute of training, but I said, “Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.” – Muhammad Ali

122. “Grit, resilience and mental toughness are about leaning in, not checking out.” – Andrew D. Huberman, Ph.D.

123. “Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.” – Khalil Gibran

124. “Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.” – Thomas Jefferson

125. “The mentally tough tough embrace their struggles with patience and poise.” – Nathan Lee Morales

126. “We’re in hell right now, gentlemen, believe me. And, we can stay here — get the sh** kicked out of us — or we can fight our way back into the light. We can climb outta hell one inch at a time.” – Coach Tony D’Amato,Any Given Sunday

127. “It is your mental toughness that will set you apart from the rest, your mental toughness is your game-changer.” – Penny Mallory

Bonus Quote On Mental Toughness

Bonus: Alright, here’s our last and final quote on mental toughness. It’s one of our favorites as it stems from The Harvard Business Review’s Must Reads on Mental Toughness, and because we believe it points in right direction towards finding more success in life.

Final Thoughts

We hope you enjoyed our collection of quotes on mental toughness. If you think someone else might enjoy some of these mind strengthen quotes, please consider sharing the page with them.

With that said, repetition is the mother of skill, so we hope you’ll come back soon and often to re-saturate your mind with these mental toughness quotes.

Till then,

STRIVE

PS – If you enjoyed our collection of mental toughness quotes that strengthen your mindset, then you’ll love these quotes from the father of mental toughness, Vince Lombardi.