Contest Win Quotes

“That is what is marvelous about school, she realized: when you are in school, your talents are without number, and your promise is boundless. You ace a math test: you will one day work for NASA. The choir director asks you to sing a solo at the holiday concert: you are the next Mariah Carey. You score a goal, you win a poetry contest, you act in a play. And you are everything at once: actor, astronomer, gymnast, star. But at a certain point, you begin to feel your talents dropping away, like feathers from a molting bird. Cello lessons conflict with soccer practice. There aren't enough spots on the debating team. Calculus remains elusive. Until the day you realize that you cannot think of a single thing you are wonderful at.”

— Sarah Shun-lien Bynum

“I'm past competing in pissing contests. My jet stream is now more of a trickle. The only contest I'd win is the number of trips to the bathroom it takes to purge a 32oz soda.”

— Brian MacLearn

“Whenever we doubt our own ability to achieve, it is worthwile pondering the obstacles that others have overcome. To name a few ...
*Napoleon overcame his considerable handicap, his tiny stature, to lead his conquering armies across Europe.
*Abraham Lincon failed in business aged 31, lost a legislative race and 32, again failed in business at 34, had his sweetheart die when he was 35, had a nervous breakdown at 36, lost congressional races aged 43, 46 and 48, lost a senatorial race at 55, failed in his efforts to become vice president of the U.S.A aged 56 and lost a further senatorial contest at 58. At 60 years of age he was elected president of the U.S.A and is now remembered as one of the great leaders in world history.
*Winston Churchill was a poor student with a speech impediment. Not only did he win a Nobel Prize at 24, but he became one of the most inspiring speakers of recent times.
It is not where you start that counts, but where you choose to finish.”

— Andrew Matthews

“She was one of those people who seemed to regard busyness as a contest you could win.
p. 246”

— Ann Packer

“The fact is, the contest has always been invulnerability, and even when you win, you still lose.”

— Brenna Yovanoff

“Your love of glory must conquer your will to survive; or why fight at all? Why not be a smith, a brewer, a wool merchant? Why are you in the contest, if not to win, and if not to win, then to die?”

— Hilary Mantel

“She came unannounced, certain of finding him there and alone. In his room, there was no necessity to spare, lie, agree and erase herself out of being. Here she was free to resist, to see her resistance welcomed by an adversary too strong to fear a contest, strong enough to need it; she found a will granting her the recognition of her own entity, untouched and not to be touched except in clean battle, to win or to be defeated, but to be preserved in victory or defeat, not ground into the meaningless pulp of the impersonal.”

— Ayn Rand

“I love you, too," she said.
He took her face in his hands and kissed her, once,
deeply, on the mouth. "I mean," he said, "I really love
you."
She quirked a brow. "Is this a contest?"
"It is anything you want," he promised.
She grinned, that enchanting, perfect smile that was so
quintessentially hers. "I feel I must warn you, then," she
said, cocking her head to the side. "When it comes to
contests and games, I always win."
"Always?"
Her eyes grew sly. "Whenever it matters."
He felt himself smile, felt his soul lighten and his worries
slip away. "And what, precisely, does that mean?"
"It means," she said, reaching up and undoing the buttons
of her coat, "that I really really love you.”

— Julia Quinn

“And when you came right down to it, the only purpose to life that I have ever been able to find is not to die. You couldn't let them push you out the door to go gentle into that good night. You had to rage, rage, and slam that door on the bastards' fingers. That was the contest-to delay the end of your personal match as long as you could. The point was not to win; you never did. Nobody can win in a game that ends with everybody dying-always, without exception. No, the only real point was to fight back and enjoy the combat. And by gum, I would.”

— Jeff Lindsay

“For my next trick, I will win a staring contest with the moron in orange sunglasses.”

— Marissa Meyer

“We improve ourselves by victories over ourselves. There must be contest, and we must win.”

— Edward Gibbon

“I didn't go into politics because I wanted to win a popularity contest.”

— Andrew Lansley

“I'm not out here to win a beauty contest.”

— Kirk Gibson

“And often it would be a woman who was in her 70s or 80s who would win the beauty contest, because bound feet never age.”

— Lisa See

“A whopping 89 percent of buyers start their home search online. How your house looks online is the modern equivalent of 'curb appeal.' Rent a wide-angle lens and good lighting, get rid of your clutter and post at least eight great photos to win the beauty contest.”

— Barbara Corcoran

“I think at one time every drummer wanted to play like Krupa or wanted to win a Gene Krupa drum contest. This is the big inspiration for drummers and naturally it has to be the same way for me.”

— Buddy Rich

“In all honesty, at that time, I never saw myself as an author ... I was just a Mom in a state of panic, trying to enter a short story contest to win the prize money in order to keep the lights on in my home.”

— Leslie Banks

“Gore will not win a popularity contest, he will not win a personality contest, but he can win an idealogical battle, and he can win a battle of experience.”

— Susan Estrich

“God will win every contest in life, so stop trying to beat Him at his own game.”

— Richelle E. Goodrich

“It's not the makeup and it's not the way that you dance and this is like love too where there's only one dancer who will win your contest that night and they are not particularly the best one”

— Daniel Handler

“Perhaps in another era, a trial was an exercise in the presentation of facts, the search for truth, and the finding of justice. Now a trial is a contest in which one side will win and the other side will lose. Each side expects the other to bend the rules or to cheat, so neither side plays fair. The truth is lost in the melee.”

— John Grisham

“I don't care whether people like me or dislike me. I'm not on earth to win a popularity contest. I'm here to be the best human being I possibly can be.”

— Tab Hunter

“I had ordered long legs, but they never arrived. My eyes are weird too, one is gray and the other is green. I have a crooked smile and my nose looks like a ski slope. No, I would not win a Miss contest.”

— Jane Seymour

“Trials are no longer about freeing the innocent, punishing the guilty, and making restitution to the injured. They have devolved into a contest over who will win.”

— Tammy Bruce

“Cory rested his leg on his opposite knee, apparently not concerned about his steel-gray tux. The guy might've stepped off a page in GQ, he was that handsome. In fact, she might've called him the most gorgeous man in the room, if not for the blond, eye-maskless pirate scowling at the head table. He would win that contest, effortlessly. In jeans and a T-shirt. In a flawless tux. Or better yet, completely naked. "You could choose to look at it as a hand, not a handout." "I can take”

— Cari Quinn

“I think I have the ability to win any contest I enter. As long as I stay healthy and keep having fun with my skiing, there's no regressing.”

— Nick Goepper

“Life must be lived as play, playing certain games, making sacrifices, singing and dancing, and then a man will be able to propitiate the gods, and defend himself against his enemies, and win in the contest.”

— Plato

“Sometimes emotions can win fights. Sometimes letting your feelings out in a fight can win you the fight. When it means the world to you, it's not just a sports contest - a boxing match for money or belts.”

— Tyson Fury

“(Dominic after winning King & Queen contest at Prom along with Tess)
"You like me, you really like me!" he said in a mock high-pitched voice, channeling his inner Sally Fields. "First of all, I have to thank my first grade teacher, what was her name? Mrs. Johnson? Nichols? Jameson? Prescott? Yeah, that was it. Man, I had such a crush on her. Even at five, I had awesome taste in women-just look at Tess. Isn't she banging? Anyway, I need to thank Mrs. Pentecostal, because she told me I'd never win anything, and that hurt, man. But I guess I showed her. So take that, Mrs. Presley!”

— J.M. Darhower

“Neutrinos ... win the minimalist contest: zero charge, zero radius, and very possibly zero mass.”

— Leon M. Lederman

“But this was one contest he would not win. For I had painted my heart into that picture, and I would not let him have it.”

— Julianne Donaldson

“Never believed in demons or monsters lurking under my bed. But lately I've started to wonder if evil hasn't in fact infiltrated this world, slithering streets and sidewalks, wearing what- ever disguise suits its immediate purpose. When a choirboy is molested, is it by the devil in a priest costume? Or does Satan play a more clever game to get what he wants? To win the contest, accomplish his goals, might the prince of hatred mask himself as love?”

— Ellen Hopkins

“It is impossible to win a contest with a helpless opponent since if you win you have won nothing.”

— Jay Haley

“I'm not in this business to win a popularity contest, I just want to be a good actor. Well, you've failed at being a good actor. Why not try for the popularity contest?”

— Roger Moore

“I'm not here to win a popularity contest. I'm here to work and have a career. Let the haters hate. I'm ready for the criticism.”

— Rosie Huntington-Whiteley

“I was that overachieving, annoying kid who was always trying to win some contest or win the role. I look back on it now and I'm like, "Chill, man." Calm down.”

— Mary Elizabeth Winstead

“Pakistan would be confident after their series win over England. The series will be a very close and good contest and if all the players play to their potential we're in for some wonderful cricket.”

— Greg Chappell

“When conflict becomes a win-lose contest in our minds, we immediately try to win.”

— Thomas Crum

“Winners expect to win before the contest starts; losers don't. Any individual becomes what he or she thinks about most. If you want to be a champion, then that thought must dominate your life. But most important, winners dwell on the rewards of winning; losers dwell on the penalties of failure.”

— Wade Schalles

“It was a revolving door that kept going in circles. I got to the point where I thought, "Man, none of this is doing it." but I'd keep repeating the same actions. I'd go win another contest, open another company, invent a new maneuver.”

— Christian Hosoi

“It's probably the toughest distance race in the world to win. World class runners from 1500m to the marathon contest it and instead of just three runners from each country, like in the Olympics or World Championships, in the senior men's race there are nine.”

— Paul Tergat

“Somehow we must transform the dynamics of the world power struggle from the negative nuclear arms race which no one can win to a positive contest to harness man's creative genius for the purpose of making peace and prosperity a reality for all of the nations of the world.”

— Martin Luther King, Jr.

“It's great to win, but it's also great fun just to be in the thick of any truly well and hard fought contest against opponents you respect, whatever the outcome.”

— Jack Nicklaus

“Anyone can win a slam-dunk contest. The real Superman is dead. He was assassinated by Pat Riley. I'm the Big Cactus now and ready to roll again.”

— Shaquille O'Neal

“I never set limits or created mental barriers. You may have read that I imagined my biceps as big as mountain peaks when I did my curling exercises. This visualization process was essential if I was to gain the kind of mass and size I needed to win the mr Olympia contest against monsters like Sergio Olivia and Lou ferrigno.”

— Arnold Schwarzenegger

“In America you're conditioned to regard everything as a contest. You have to make the Ten Best Dressed List, win this, win that. It drives me nuts sometimes. Who cares, for Christ's sake?”

— Arthur Ashe

“Dusty Rhodes wouldn't win a body building contest for best abs, MacMahon, he'd win for MOST abs.”

— Jesse Ventura