You have a choice. You can throw in the towel, or you can use it to wipe the sweat off of your face.

This motivational saying draws on boxing imagery. In a fight, “throwing in the towel” is a cornerman’s signal to stop the bout and concede defeat; the towel is also a practical object used to wipe sweat between rounds. The quote appears to be a modern, anonymous piece of locker-room or self-help rhetoric rather than a line traceable to a single identifiable speech, book, or historical figure. It circulates widely in posters, coaching talk, and online quotation collections, typically used to encourage perseverance during training, competition, or personal setbacks.

The line frames adversity as a moment of agency: the same symbol can represent surrender or renewed effort. By contrasting quitting (“throw in the towel”) with continuing (“use it to wipe the sweat”), it suggests that hardship is not merely endured but managed—sweat is evidence of work, and wiping it away is preparation to keep going. The quote’s punch comes from reinterpreting a culturally familiar idiom of defeat into a tool for resilience, implying that persistence is often a decision made repeatedly in small moments rather than one grand act of heroism.