Kobe Bean Bryant was an American professional basketball player. He played his entire 20 season career in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and won 5 NBA championships.

He is and will always be a very inspiring sports personality and his tragic passing away today in a helicopter crash alongside his daughter Gigi and 7 other victims has left a big vacuum in the whole world.

In honour of his short and impactful life I’ve put together some of the most inspiring and motivational Kobe Bryant quotes of all time.

1. “The most important thing is to try and inspire people so that they can be great in whatever they want to do”

2. “I can’t relate to lazy people. We don’t speak the same language. I don’t understand you. I don’t want to understand you”

3. “When we are saying this cannot be accomplished, this cannot be done, then we are short-changing ourselves. My brain, it cannot process failure. It will not process failure. Because if I have to sit there and face myself ‘you are a failure’, I think that is almost worse than dying.”

4. “There’s a choice that we have to make as people, as individuals. If you want to be great at something, there’s a choice you have to make. We all can be masters at our craft, but you have to make a choice. What I mean by that is, there are inherent sacrifices that come along with that. Family time, hanging out with friends, being a great friend, being a great son, nephew, whatever the case maybe. There are sacrifices that come along with making that decision.”

5. “It doesn’t bother me at all. Do I hold hard feelings? Not at all. Life is too short to sit around and hold grudges. I don’t hold any whatsoever”

6. “If you don’t belief in yourself, no one will do it for you”

7. “The moment you give up, is the moment you let someone else win”

8. “Dedication sees dreams come true”

9. “Determination silences doubters”

10. “Either way, I refuse to change what I am. A lion has to eat. Run with me or run from me.

11. “Trust me, setting things up right from the beginning will avoid a ton of tears and heartache”

12. “The odd thing is that I wound up learning more about the world around me by having a singular focus inside me”

13. “We can always be kind of be average and do what’s normal. I’m not in this to do what’s normal”

14. “Passion is the fuel for success”

15. Everything negative; pressure, challenges, is an opportunity for me to rise”

16. “We all have self-doubt. You don’t deny it, but you also don’t capitulate to it. You embrace it”

17. “The biggest dreams aren’t fuelled by belief. They’re fuelled by doubt”

18. “We don’t quit, we don’t cower, we don’t run. We endure and conquer”

19. “I don’t want to be the next Michael Jordan, I only want to be Kobe Bryant”

20. “If you’re afraid to fail, then you probably going to fail”

21. “I’m reflective only in the sense that I learn to move forward. I reflect with a purpose”

22. “As I sit here now when I take off my shoe and I look down at my scar, I see the beauty in it. I see all the hard work, all the sacrifices. I see the journey that it took to get back to this point of being healthy. And I see beauty in that struggle. That’s what makes it beautiful.

23. “I’ll do whatever it takes to win games, whether it’s sitting on a bench waving a towel, handing a cup of water to a teammate, or hitting the game-winning shot”

24. “People just don’t understand how I obsessed I am with winning”

25. “Winning takes precedence over all. There’s no grey area. No almost”

Rest in peace Kobe Bryant. Your legacy lives on….