Skip to Content

41 Inspirational Rocky Balboa Quotes

Robert “Rocky” Balboa is the main character of the Rocky film series famous for his ferocious body attack, extreme tenacity, and indomitable spirit.

The film series has grossed over $1.7 billion at the worldwide box office. The budget of the first Rocky film was a little over $1 million.

The films are:

  • Rocky (1976)
  • Rocky II (1979)
  • Rocky III (1982)
  • Rocky IV (1985)
  • Rocky V (1990)
  • Rocky Balboa (2006)
  • Creed (2015)
  • Creed II (2018)

List of 41 Inspirational Rocky Balboa Quotes:

#1 ”Every champion was once a contender who refused to give up.”

#2 ”I’m pursuing something and nobody looks too happy about it.”

#3 ”One step at a time. One punch at a time. One round at a time.”

#4 ”Nobody owes nobody nothin’. You owe yourself. Friends don’t owe! They do because they wanna do.”

READ MORE: 42 Sadhguru Quotes

#5 ”Somewhere along the line, you changed. You stopped being you. You let people stick a finger in your face and tell you you’re no good.”

#6 ”Every once in a while a person comes along who defies the odds, who defies logic, and fulfills an incredible dream.”

#7 ”Time takes everybody out. Time is undefeated.”

Rocky Balboa Quotes

@Getty

#8 ”The only kind of respect that matters is self-respect.”

#9 ”You can’t learn when you’re talking. That’s a fact of life. As long as you’re talking, you’re not listening.”

#10 ”If you guys could sing or dance, I wouldn’t be doin’ this, you know?”

#11 ”When things got hard you started looking for something to blame, like a shadow.”

#12 ”If you know what you’re worth then go out and get what you’re worth.”

#13 ”You see, fear is a fighter’s best friend. You know, but it ain’t nothing to be ashamed of. See, fear keeps you sharp, it keeps you awake, you know, it makes you want to survive.”

#14 ”You know a lot of people come to Vegas to lose – I didn’t.”

#15 ”Don’t take any more chances out there than you have to.”

#16 ”I guess what I’m trying to say, is that if I can change, and you can change, everybody can change!”

READ MORE: Gary Zukav Quotes

#17 ”Remember, the mind is your best muscle. Big arms can move rocks, but big words can move mountains.”

#18 ”Going in one more round when you don’t think you can. That’s what makes all the difference in your life.”

#19 ”I don’t know if you’re special. Only you’re gonna know that.”

#20 ”It’s your right to listen to your gut, it ain’t nobody’s right to say no after you earned the right to be where you want to be and do what you want to do!”

Rocky Balboa inspirational Quotes

@Getty

#21 ”You see this guy here? That’s the toughest opponent you’re ever going to have to face. I believe that’s true in the ring, and I think that’s true in life.”

#22 ”In the ring, you got rules. Outside, you got nothing.”

#23 ”Success is usually the culmination of controlling failure.”

#24 ”I think every guy should at one time try to name an animal or something.”

#25 ”It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.”

#26 ”The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It is a very mean and nasty place and it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it.”

#27 ”I gotta go out the way I gotta go out.”

#28 ”You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life.”

#29 ”Why don’t you just turn off your brain and let your heart do the talking?”

#30 ”It doesn’t matter how this looks to other people. If this is something you gotta do, then you do it.”

#31 ”Nothing’s over ’til it’s over.”

READ MORE: 45 Maya Angelou Quotes

#32 ”You want to change things in a big way, then you need to make some big changes.”

#33 ”Ya know, they always say if you live in one place long enough, you are that place.”

quotes by Rocky Balboa

@Getty

#34 ”The older I get the more things I gotta leave behind, that’s life.”

#35 ”If you’re willing to go through all the battling you got to go through to get where you want to get, who’s got the right to stop you?”

#36 ”You knocked him down, why don’t you try knocking me down now.”

#37 ”What’s so crazy about standing toe-to-toe with someone saying ‘I am’?”

#38 ”Choice? That’s the same thing your father said, and he died right here, in my hands.”

#39 ”I am not the richest, smartest, or most talented person in the world. But I succeed because I keep going and going and going.”

#40 ”He’s just a man… be more a man than him.”

#41 ”You gotta work hard. I swear to God, if you’re not gonna do it, I’m out.”

Images credit – @Getty Images

READ THIS NEXT: Inspirational Quotes About God