50 Mental Toughness Quotes on Focus & Determination

This list of mental toughness quotes will help you handle and conquer your fears, doubts, and obstacles!

Mental toughness is the ability to remain motivated in the face of failure.

You can push through setbacks and stay focused on your goals when you’re mentally tough. Aside from that, it makes you keep moving forward to reach success amidst the hardships in your life. 

To be mentally tough, you must understand yourself and your mind completely. You must know what makes you tick and use everything to your advantage.

It is also important to note that mental toughness isn’t just an attitude; you must be willing to put in the work and effort required to achieve your goals. 

So, to reach your full potential and have a strong mentality, read our collection below!

Be ready to transform into a stronger individual—inside and out—with each line!

Continue reading below!

And don’t forget to check out these encouraging quotes and emotional strength quotes.

Best Mental Toughness Quotes

1. Always remember you are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” – Christopher Robin

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

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

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

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

6. “Put character and mental toughness before execution, and you will get consistent execution.” – William James Moore

7. “Mental toughness: the ability to consistently perform toward the upper range of your talent and skill regardless of the competitive circumstances.” – James E. Loehr

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

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

10. “You’ve got to develop mental strength. And you develop mental strength with the will. The will is the mental faculty that gives you the ability to hold one idea under the screen of your mind to the exclusion of all outside distractions.” – Anonymous

Famous Quotes About Mental Toughness

11. “Mental toughness is to physical as four is to one.” – Bobby Knight

12. “Mental toughness is a state of mind—you could call it ‘character in action.’” – Vince Lombardi

13. “Mental toughness is Spartanism, with all its qualities of self-denial, sacrifice, dedication, fearlessness, and love.” – Vince Lombardi

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

15. “Real mental toughness is about being conscious of your behavior patterns, and from this knowledge, you are able to turn your life around.” – Tara Estacaan

16. “Mental toughness is a lifestyle. It’s something that you live every single day of your life.” – David Goggins

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

18. “Mental toughness doesn’t guarantee you’ll win, but playing without it pretty much guarantees you won’t.” – Tim Grover

Also read: Famous Quotes, Positive Quotes

Mental Toughness Quotes to Help You Overcome Adversity

19. “We talk about mental toughness all the time. That’s the biggest thing good teams have, that they can overcome adversity.” – Bryan Murray

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

21. “I’ve obviously learned a lot, a lot of mental toughness, learned how to deal with some adversity.” – Gerrit Cole

22. “You show me, anybody that’s great in anything they do, I’ll show you, somebody that’s persevered, demonstrated that mental toughness to overcome some obstacles and adversity.” – Sean McVay

Also read: Mindset Quotes

Positive Mental Toughness Quotes to Strengthen Your Mindset

23. “Mental toughness is many things. It is humility because it behooves all of us to remember that simplicity is the sign of greatness and meekness is the sign of true strength.” – Vince Lombardi

24. “We love being mentally strong, but we hate situations that allow us to put our mental strength to good use.” – Mokokoma Mokhonoana

25. “Build mental toughness. The human brain is like a muscle. You can build strength, but you need weights to lift. The challenges you face in life are those weights.” – Anonymous

26. “You have to want it, you have to plan for it, you have to fit it into a busy day, you have to be mentally tough, you have to use others to help you. The hard part isn’t getting your body in shape. The hard part is getting your mind in shape.” – Amby Burfoot

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

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

Mental Toughness Quotes for Those Who Refuse to Give Up

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

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

31. “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.” – Vince Lombardi

32. “This mental toughness will transfer into your everyday life, giving you drive and a clear, concise attitude, where giving up is not an option.” – Daniel Hudson

Short Mental Toughness Quotes to Influence Your Thoughts

33. “If you’re mentally tough, the world is your oyster.” – Anonymous

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

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

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

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

Mental Toughness Quotes That Will Develop Your Skills

38. “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

39. “Mental toughness must be developed before you start fighting because you don’t want to be that guy who quits in the ring.” – Forrest Griffin

40. “People are not born mentally tough. Mental toughness is developed by experience. Developing mental toughness is a very long process.” – C.N. Reede

Mental Toughness Quotes That Will Always Be Relevant

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

42. “I wish I could say someone taught me my mental toughness; it would have been a lot less painful.” – Kurt Warner

43. “I think it’s becoming cool to have mental toughness or to meditate. It’s a thing, but I don’t think people really understand the value of it.” – Jaylen Brown

44. “I found that to build mental toughness, you need to inconvenience yourself. The early morning runs if you hate early mornings. The late-night runs if you hate late nights. The snowy cold, the worst conditions you can get, put yourself in those and really make it inconvenient, and you start to get a genuine expectation of winning for the price you have to pay.” – Chael Sonnen

More Mental Toughness Quotes for Sports and Athletes

45. “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

46. “Legs and athleticism are worth nothing without mental toughness. You also need to be stubborn.” – Gonzalo Higuain

47. “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

48. “Tennis is all about mental toughness, and you have to keep your head in the game. I make time to relax away from competition pressures, travel, and intense training schedules to make sure I’m looking after myself. Taking time out with family and friends helps to maintain the work-life balance everyone needs.” – Samantha Stosur

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

50. “Mental toughness is doing whatever is necessary to get the job done, including handling the demands of a tough workout, withstanding pain, or touching an opponent out at the end of a race.” – Jennifer Everest

Did This Collection Make You Learn the Value of Being Mentally Tough? 

Mental toughness is having a positive state of mind that will allow you to focus on tasks at hand—no matter your current difficulty. When you are mentally strong, you can deal with various challenging situations that some can’t even fathom.

In the face of adversity, mental toughness can help you survive. Mentally strong people have an easier time dealing with stress because they tend to focus on the positive things in life. In fact, one of the pros of having mental toughness is the ability to zoom in on the good versus dwelling on the bad.

No matter your age, it’s never too late to cultivate a strong mental capacity. So, even though the start will be challenging, just continue working on yourself. With the continuous stream of experiences you encounter, your mind will slowly get stronger, too!

With that, we hope this list of mental toughness quotes was able to give you hints on how to cope with the variety of circumstances in your life. Remember, things will be difficult. But, with every challenge you conquer, the easier life will get in the future!

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Karen Danao

Hi, I’m Karen, a content curator and writer for Quote Ambition; I’m also a marketing and advertising professional. Beyond the keyboard and the screen, I’m someone who’s out to enjoy every bit that life has to offer!

Poetry, philosophy, history, and movies are all topics I love writing about! However, my true passion is in traveling, photography, and finding common ground to which everyone from different cultures can relate.

With the many places I’ve been to, I found that love, inspiration, and happiness are some things that bring people together. No matter how different we are on the outside, I’m a true believer that our emotions don’t lie; if you dig deep into our psyche, we’re all the same inside.

This belief was further amplified when I joined Quote Ambition. Through the quotes I’ve read, collected, organized, and written about, I found that humans are resilient, creative, and compassionate.

We take from each others’ hearts and courage, and it’s through our individual experiences that we learn how to rise above our challenges and pain. In so many ways, Quote Ambition is a platform that allows people from all over the world to gain the inspiration they need anytime, anywhere!

You can find me on MuckRack and LinkedIn.