Running is a great cardiovascular exercise that can be done in many different ways. You can run on a treadmill, at the park, or on the street.
Running is also an excellent way to relieve stress. It feels good to get out of your head and focus only on the cadence of your feet hitting the ground and the continuous inhalation/exhalation of air as you run.
The best part about running is that it’s free! You don’t need any equipment other than a pair of shoes (although some runners use short pants, long-sleeved shirts, gloves, hats, or even visors).
Here are some of the most inspiring quotes to help you stay motivated and push yourself to achieve your goals.
Top 105 Motivational Running Quotes to Stay Active
“Someone who is busier than you is running right now.” — Nike
“Run often. Run long. But never outrun your joy of running.” — Julie Isphording
“Run when you can, walk if you have to, crawl if you must; just never give up.” — Dean Karnazes
“As we run, we become.” — Amby Burfoot
“Never limit where running can take you. I mean that geographically, spiritually, and of course, physically.” — Bart Yasso
“The point is whether or not I improved over yesterday. In long-distance running the only opponent you have to beat is yourself, the way you used to be.” — Haruki Murakami
“I always thought of running as just dancing forward.” — Tom Hiddleston
“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realise how close they were to success when they gave up.” — Thomas Edison
“But you can’t muscle through a five-hour run that way; you have to relax into it like easing your body into a hot bath, until it no longer resists the shock and begins to enjoy it.” — Christopher McDougall
“A good laugh and a long run are the two best cures for anything.” — Unknown
“If you become restless, speed up. If you become winded, slow down. You climb the mountain in an equilibrium between restlessness and exhaustion.” — Robert Pirsig
“The miracle isn’t that I finished. The miracle is that I had the courage to start.” — John Bingham
“It’s very hard in the beginning to understand that the whole idea is not to beat the other runners. Eventually you learn that the competition is against the little voice inside you that wants to quit.” — George Sheehan
“If you don’t believe then who will?”
“If you want to win something, run 100 metres. If you want to experience something, run a marathon.” — Emil Zatopek
“Ask yourself: can I give a little more? The answer is usually ‘’yes’’.” — Paul Tergat
“Fear kills more dreams than failure ever will.” — Suzy Kassem
“If you run, you are a runner. It doesn’t matter how fast or how far. It doesn’t matter if today is your first day or if you’ve been running for twenty years. There is no test to pass, no license to earn, no membership card to get. You just run.” — John Bingham
“The true but rare runner’s high is a zone that we enter when everything seems to click prefectly, when time stands still, and when we can run almost without effort” – Amby Burfoot
“What seems hard now will one day be your warm-up.” — Unknown
“You must expect great things from yourself before you can do them.” — Michael Jordan
“The runner must be a fanatic for hard work and enthusiastic enough to enjoy it” – Franz Stampfl
“Make each day your masterpiece” – John Wooden
“A short run is better than no run.” — Unknown
“Set aside a time solely for running. Running is more fun if you don’t have to rush through it.” — Jim Fixx
“Go fast enough to get there, but slow enough to see.” — Jimmy Buffett
“Running is alone time that lets my brain unspool the tangles that build up over days…I run, pound it out on the pavement, channel that energy into my legs, and when I’m done with my run, I’m done with it.” — Rob Haneisen
“I think I get addicted to the feelings associated with the end of a long run. I love feeling empty, clean, worn out, and sweat-purged. I love that good ache of the muscles that have done me proud.” — Kristin Armstrong
“I run because I can. When I get tired, I remember those who can’t run, what they would give to have this simple gift I take for granted, and I run harder for them. I know they would do the same for me.” — Unknown
“There will come a day when I can no longer run. Today is not that day.” — Unknown
“The voice inside your head that says you can’t do this is a liar.” — Unkown
“Have a dream, make a plan, go for it. You’ll get there I promise.” — Zoe Koplowitz
“The harder the battle, the sweeter the victory.” — Les Brown
“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 is.“ – Kara Goucher
“You have to wonder at times what you’re doing out there. Over the years, I’ve given myself a thousand reasons to keep running, but it always comes back to where it started. It comes down to self-satisfaction and a sense of achievement.” — Steve Prefontaine
“Just move your legs. Because of you don’t thing you were born to run, you’re not only denying history; you’re denying who you are” – Dr. Dennis Bramble
“I was born to be a runner. I simply love to run. It’s almost like the faster I go, the easier it becomes” – Mary Decker Slaney
“Running is the classical road to self-consciousness, self-awareness, and self-reliance.” — Noel Carroll
“The only place that success comes before work is in the dictionary.” — John Wooden
“The long run is what puts the tiger in the cat.” — Bill Squires
“Once you’re beat mentally, you might as well not even go to the starting line.” — Todd Williams
“Get going… Walk if you have to, but finish the damned race” – Ron Hill
“It’s not so much that I began to run, but that I continued.” — Hal Higdon
“If you want to change your body, exercise. If you want to change your life, become a runner.” — Unknown
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” — Aristotle
“Remember, the feeling you get from a good run is far better than the feeling you get from sitting around wishing you were running.” — Sarah Condor
“Our running shoes have magic in them. The power to transform a bad day into a good day; frustration into speed; self-doubt into confidence; chocolate cake into muscle.” — Mina Samuels
“All I do is keep on running in my own cozy, homemade void, my own nostalgic silence. And this is a pretty wonderful thing. No matter what anybody else says.” — Haruki Murakami
“On your good days, run hard. On your bad days, run as long as you need.” — Unknown
“Act like a horse. Be dumb. Just run.” — Jumbo Elliot
“Every run is a work of art, a drawing on each day’s canvas. Some runs are shouts and some runs are whispers. Some runs are eulogies and others celebrations.” — Dagny Scott Barrios
“Run often. Run long. But never outrun your joy of running.” – Julie Isphording
“Running is a road to self-awareness and reliance-you can push yourself to extremes and learn the harsh reality of your physical and mental limitations or coast quietly down a solitary path watching the earth spin beneath your feet.” — Doris Brown Heritage
“If you want to become the best runner you can be, start now. Don’t spend the rest of your life wondering if you can do it.” — Priscilla Welch
“There is something magical about running; after a certain distance, it transcends the body. Then a bit further, it transcends the mind. A bit further yet, and what you have before you, laid bare, is the soul.” — Kristin Armstrong
“Running is in my blood – the adrenaline flows before the races, the love/hat of butterflies in your stomach” – Marcus o’Sullivan
“Every run is a work of art, a drawing on each day’s canvas. Some runs are shouts and some runs are whispers. Some runs are eulogies and others celebrations.” — Dagny Scott Barrio
“A comfort zone is a beautiful place but nothing ever grows there.” — Unknown
“Running has taught me that I’m capable of so much more than I ever imagined”
“If you are losing faith in human nature, go out and watch a marathon.” — Kathrine Switzer
“There is magic in misery. Just ask any runner.” — Dean Karnazes, ultramarathon runner and author of Ultramarathon Man
“It’s very hard at the beginning to understand that the whole idea is not to beat the other runners. Eventually, you learn that the competition is against the little voice inside you that wants you to quit.” — George Sheehan
“There are as many reasons for running as there are days in the year, years in my life. But mostly I run because I am an animal and a child, an artist and a saint. So, too, are you. Find your own play, your own self-renewing compulsion, and you will become the person you are meant to be.” — George Sheehan
“If you are losing faith in human nature, go out and watch a marathon” – Kathrine Switzer
“Today I will run for pure, absolute, joy”
“Running is alone time that lets my brain unspool the tangles that build up over days.” — Rob Haneisen
“Running is about finding your inner peace, and so is a life well lived.” — Dean Karnazes
“A runner must run with dreams in his heart.” — Emil Zatopek
“Try jogging when following your heart, it’s healthier”Benny Bellamacina
“Your body will argue that there is no justifiable reason to continue. Your only recourse is to call on your spirit, which fortunately functions independently of logic.” — Tim Noakes
“I don’t run to add days to my life, I run to add life to my days.” — Ronald Rook
“Don’t dream of winning, train for it!“ — Mo Farah
“When you cross the finish line, no matter how slow or fast, it will change your life forever.” — Dick Beardsley
“The real purpose of running isn’t to win a race. It’s to test the limits of the human heart.” — Bill Bowerman
“Runners just do it – they run for the finish line even if someone else has reached it first.” — Unknown
“There is no telling how many miles you will have to run while chasing a dream.” — Unknown
“The more I run, the more I love my body. Not because it’s perfect, far from it, but because with every mile it is proving to me that I am capable of more than I ever thought possible.” — Unknown
“It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get up.” — Vince Lombardi
“A runner is real when she takes the first step.”
“I don’t stop when I’m tired, I stop when I’m done.” — Unknown
“Most people run a race to see who is fastest. I run a race to see who has the most guts.” — Steve Prefontaine
“Ask nothing from your running, in other words, and you’ll get more than you ever imagined.” — Christopher McDougall
“If it doesn’t challenge you, it won’t change you.” — Fred DeVito
“Run when you can, walk if you have to, crawl if you must, just never give up.” — Dean Karnazes
“Some seek the comfort of their therapist’s office, other head to the corner pub and dive into a pint, but I chose running as my therapy.” — Dean Karnazes
“Running allows me to set my mind free. Nothing seems impossible. Nothing unattainable.” — Kara Goucher
“Measure success in life by effort and doing your best, then it is always in your hands to succeed and to be proud of yourself.” — Steve Peters
“Running is alone time that lets my brain unspool the tangles that build up over days. I run, pound it out on the pavement, channel that energy into my legs, and when I’m done with my run, I’m done with it.” — Rob Haneisen
“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
“I breathe in strength and breathe out weakness.” — Amy Hastings Cragg, quoting her mantra during marathons.
“Running is real and relatively simple. But it ain’t easy” – Mark Will-Weber
“An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.” — Henry David Thoreau
“Be patient and tough; someday this pain will be useful to you.” — Ovid
“To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.” — Steve Prefontaine
“It was being a runner that mattered, not how fast or how far I could run. The joy was in the act of running and in the journey, not in the destination.” — John Bingham
“Mind is everything: muscle – pieces of rubber. All that I am, I am because of my mind.” — Paavo Nurmi
“Nothing, not even pain, lasts forever. If I can just keep putting one foot in front of the other, I will eventually get to the end.” — Kim Cowart
“I didn’t feel like running today. Which is exactly why I went.” — Unknown
“Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.” — Haruki Murakami
“The obsession with running is really an obsession with the potential for more and more life.” — George Sheehan
“You are truly your own hero in running. It is up to you to have the responsibility and self-discipline to get the job done.” — Adam Goucher
“Laziness is nothing more than the habit of resting before you get tired” – Jules Rendard
“Fast running isn’t forced. You have to relax and let the run come out of you”. – Desiree Linden “Believe that you can run farther or faster. Believe that you’re young enough, old enough, strong enough, and so on to accomplish everything you want to do. Don’t let worn-out beliefs stop you from moving beyond yourself.” — John Bingham
