Running Sayings and Quotes

Below you will find our collection of inspirational, wise, and humorous old running quotes, running sayings, and running proverbs, collected over the years from a variety of sources.

Good things come slow, especially in distance running. Bill Dellinger
Ask nothing from your running, in other words, and you’ll get more than you ever imagined. Christopher McDougall
Run like hell and get the agony over with. Clarence DeMar
Running is about finding your inner peace, and so is a life well lived. Dean Karnazes
Run when you can, walk if you have to, crawl if you must; just never give up. Dean Karnazes
A runner must run with dreams in his heart. Emil Zatopek
Experience has taught me how important it is to just keep going, focusing on running fast and relaxed. Eventually pain passes and the flow returns. It’s part of racing. Frank Shorter
Running is my private time, my therapy, my religion. Gail W. Kislevitz
The obsession with running is really an obsession with the potential for more and more life. George Sheehan
Most runners run not because they want to live longer, but because they want to live life to the fullest. Haruki Murakami
The miracle isn’t that I finished. The miracle is that I had the courage to start. John Bingham
Run often. Run long. But never outrun your joy of running. Julie Isphording
Running allows me to set my mind free. Nothing seems impossible. Nothing unattainable. Kara Goucher
That's the thing about running: your greatest runs are rarely measured by racing success. They are moments in time when running allows you to see how wonderful your life it. Kara Goucher
Running became the one event in my daily life that I looked forward to. Books and movies paled in comparison to the refuge of my feet slapping patiently in the fresh morning air Kate Kinsey
A runners creed I will win; if I cannot win, I shall be second if I cannot be second, I shall be third if I cannot place at all, I shall still do my best. Ken Doherty
Running is a thing worth doing not because of the future rewards it bestows, but because of how it feeds our bodies and minds and souls in the present. Kevin Nelson
Running is in my blood the adrenaline flows before the races, the love/hate of butterflies in your stomach. Marcus O’Sullivan
Running is real and relatively simple but it ain’t easy. Mark Will-Weber
Running is the movement of a free human being. It doesn’t demand any special premises or machines. You only need to put on your shoes and get going. Let the blood circulate. Then everything becomes much clearer. Markus Torgeby
If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it. Michael Jordan
Run hard, be strong, think big. Percy Cerutty
I don’t run to add days to my life, I run to add life to my days. Ronald Rook
Most people run a race to see who is fastest. I run a race to see who has the most guts. Steve Prefontaine
Running helps me stay on an even keel and in an optimistic frame of mind. William J. Clinton