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Winning isn't everything; it's the only thing

Cultural  

  1. Attributed to the professional football coach Vince Lombardi, this proverb stresses the importance of reaching a goal no matter what effort is required. (Compare It's not whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game.)

Example Sentences

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He's best known for the quote, "Winning isn't everything; it's the only thing."

From Salon • Feb. 1, 2020

In America, as the approaches, much is being made of Vince Lombardi's motivational aphorism: "Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing."

From The Guardian • Feb. 6, 2011

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.