Up until the time I was 14 years old, I was sure that I was going to be a big–league baseball player. But that dream came to a rude awakening when I got cut from my high school baseball team. — Phil Knight

There is an immutable conflict at work in life and in business, a constant battle between peace and chaos. Neither can be mastered, but both can be influenced. How you go about that is the key to success. — Phil Knight

Why is it always so hard to get started? — Phil Knight

Like it or not, life is a game. — Phil Knight

If my life was to be all work no play, I wanted my work to be play. — Phil Knight

We must all be professors of the jungle. — Phil Knight

Fear of failure, I thought, will never be our downfall as a company. — Phil Knight

We wanted Nike to be the world’s best sports and fitness company. Once you say that, you have a focus. You don’t end up making wing tips or sponsoring the next Rolling Stones world tour. — Phil Knight

A brand is something that has a clear–cut identity among consumers, which a company creates by sending out a clear, consistent message over a period of years until it achieves a critical mass of marketing. — Phil Knight

It’s never just business. It never will be. If it ever does become just business, that will mean that business is very bad. — Phil Knight

The single easiest way to find out how you feel about someone. Say goodbye. — Phil Knight

Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that. — Phil Knight

Before running a big race, you always want to walk the track. — Phil Knight

I thought of that phrase, ‘It’s just business.’ It’s never just business. It never will be. If it ever does become just business, that will mean that business is very bad. — Phil Knight

Have faith in yourself, but also have faith in faith. Not faith as others define it. Faith as you define it. Faith as faith defines itself in your heart. In — Phil Knight

Now we understand that the most important thing we do is market the product. We’ve come around to saying that Nike is a marketing–oriented company, and the product is our most important marketing tool. — Phil Knight

Like it or not, life is a game. Whoever denies that truth, whoever simply refuses to play, gets gets left on the sidelines, and I didn’t want that. — Phil Knight

Whatever comes, just don’t stop. That’s — Phil Knight

Fight not to win, but to avoid losing. A surefire losing strategy. — Phil Knight

The trouble in America is not that we are making too many mistakes, but that we are making too few. — Phil Knight

No brilliant idea was ever born in a conference room,’ he assured the Dane. ‘But a lot of silly ideas have died there,’ said Stahr.–F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Last Tycoon — Phil Knight

But that’s the nature of money. Whether you have it or not, whether you want it or not, whether you like it or not, it will try to define your days. Our task as human beings is not to let it. — Phil Knight

Dare to take chances, lest you leave your talent buried in the ground. — Phil Knight

Meeting sports athletes that are the best in the world is a thrill to this day. — Phil Knight

It’s alright to be Goliath but always act like David. — Phil Knight

Don’t tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results. — Phil Knight

Just keep going. Don’t stop. Don’t even think about stopping until you get there, and don’t give much thought to where ‘there’ is. Whatever comes, just don’t stop. — Phil Knight

Business is no more about making money than the human body is about making blood. Yes you need to make the stuff, but only to serve your higher aims. — Phil Knight

Somebody may beat me–but they’re going to have to bleed to do it. — Phil Knight

My job is to listen to ideas, maybe cook up a few of my own, and make decisions based on what’s good for the shareholders and for the company. — Phil Knight

I was a linear thinker, and according to Zen linear thinking is nothing but a delusion, one of the many that keep us unhappy. Reality is nonlinear, Zen says. No future, no past. All is now. — Phil Knight

I tell the man Blue Ribbon is sinking like the Titanic, and he responds by begging for a berth in first class. — Phil Knight

The cowards never started and the weak died along the way. That leaves us, ladies and gentlemen. Us. — Phil Knight

Dream audaciously. Have the courage to fail forward. Act with urgency. — Phil Knight

There’s a kind of exuberant clarity in that pulsing half second before winning and losing are decided. I wanted that, whatever that was, to be my life, my daily life. At — Phil Knight

I’m Phil Knight, and I don’t believe in advertising. — Phil Knight

You are remembered, he said, prophetically, for the rules you break. I — Phil Knight

How can I leave my mark on the world, I thought, unless I get out there first and see it? — Phil Knight

In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s mind there are few.–Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind — Phil Knight

Play by the rules, but be ferocious. — Phil Knight

I don’t consider myself enigmatic, but I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about my public persona. — Phil Knight

I still get real nervous when I go in front of more than two people. — Phil Knight