Bear Bryant, fully Paul William "Bear" Bryant

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 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.

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

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

Winning isn't everything, but it beats anything that comes in second.

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

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

When you make a mistake, admit it; learn from it and don’t repeat it.

When you get in the end zone act like you've been there before.

When we have a good team, I know it’s because we have boys that come from good mamas and papas.

There's no substitute for guts.

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

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.

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

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.

The first thing a football coach needs when he’s starting out is a wife who’s willing to put up with a whole lot of neglect. The second thing is a five-year contract.

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

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

Players can be divided, roughly, into four types. Those who have ability and know it, those who have it and don't know it, those who don't have it and know it, and those who don't have it but don't know it.

Our game plan is first year, a .500 season. Second year, a conference championship. Third year, undefeated. Fourth, a national championship. And by the fifth year, we'll be on probation, of course.

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

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

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.

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

It's not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog