1 – “The best way to improve the team is to improve ourselves.” – John Wooden
2 – “The worst thing about new books is that they keep us from reading the old ones.” – John Wooden
3 – “It’s the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen.” – John Wooden
4 – “Mistakes come from doing, but so does success.” – John Wooden
5 – “Don’t let yesterday take up too much of today.” – John Wooden
6 – “Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be.” – John Wooden
7 – “It’s not so important who starts the game but who finishes it.” – John Wooden
8 – “Success is never final, failure is never fatal. It’s courage that counts.” – John Wooden
9 – “Passion is momentary; love is enduring.” – John Wooden
10 – “Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?” – John Wooden
11 – “Whatever you do in life, surround yourself with smart people who’ll argue with you.” – John Wooden
12 – “Next to love, balance is the most important thing.” – John Wooden
13 – “Being average means you are as close to the bottom as you are to the top.” – John Wooden
14 – “Don’t be afraid to fail. The greatest failure of all is not to act when action is needed.” – John Wooden
15 – “It’s important to keep trying to do what you think is right no matter how hard it is or how often you fail. You never stop trying. I’m still trying.” – John Wooden
16 – “Did I win? Did I lose? Those are the wrong questions. The correct question is: Did I make my best effort? That’s what matters. The rest of it just gets in the way.” – John Wooden
17 – “A mentor must always guide, never push. It was my job to listen to them, offer my perspective, and encourage them to pursue the ideals they believed to be true.” – John Wooden
18 – “If there’s anything you could point out where I was a little different, it was the fact that I never mentioned winning.” – John Wooden
19 – “Happiness is in many things. It’s in love. It’s in sharing. But most of all, it’s in being at peace with yourself knowing that you are making the effort, the full effort, to do what is right.” – John Wooden
20 – “The importance of repetition until automaticity cannot be overstated. Repetition is the key to learning.” – John Wooden
21 – “Adversity is the state in which man most easily becomes acquainted with himself, being especially free of admirers then.” – John Wooden
22 – “Discipline yourself, and others won’t need to.” – John Wooden
23 – “I am just a common man who is true to his beliefs.” – John Wooden
24 – “Earn the right to be proud and confident.” – John Wooden
25 – “Today is the only day. Yesterday is gone.” – John Wooden
26 – “Joy makes the longest journey too short.” – John Wooden
27 – “If I am through learning, I am through.” – John Wooden
28 – “Nothing will work unless you do.” – John Wooden
29 – “Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.” – John Wooden
30 – “If we magnified blessings as much as we magnify disappointments, we would all be much happier.” – John Wooden
31 – “Just do the best you can. No one can do more than that.” – John Wooden
32 – “Don’t let making a living prevent you from making a life.” – John Wooden
33 – “Winning takes talent, to repeat takes character.” – John Wooden
34 – “The main ingredient of stardom is the rest of the team.” – John Wooden
35 – “Don’t give up on your dreams, or your dreams will give up on you.” – John Wooden
36 – “It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.” – John Wooden
37 – “You are not a failure until you start blaming others for your mistakes.” – John Wooden
38 – “A coach is someone who can give correction without causing resentment.” – John Wooden
39 – “We can agree to disagree, but we don’t need to be disagreeable.” – John Wooden
40 – “Well, if you’re true to yourself you’re going to be true to everyone else.” – John Wooden
41 – “If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?” – John Wooden
42 – “I like to spend time in the past, with the things that have been important to me.” – John Wooden
43 – “If you stay intent and your ability warrants it, you will eventually reach the top of the mountain.” – John Wooden
44 – “It is important for us to see that our mentors are human and therefore fallible; it makes our own shortcomings more tenable.” – John Wooden
45 – “Defense is a definite part of the game, and a great part of defence is learning to play it without fouling.” – John Wooden
46 – “When you hurry you’re more apt to make mistakes. But you have to be quick. If you’re not quick you can’t get things done.” – John Wooden
47 – “Five years from now, you’re the same person except for the people you’ve met and the books you’ve read.” – John Wooden
48 – “I think that is the tendency of people who choke under pressure. They’re thinking about living up to the expectations of everybody else instead of just doing their job the best they can.” – John Wooden
49 – “If I were a young coach today, I would be extremely careful in selecting assistants.” – John Wooden
50 – “It takes time to create excellence. If it could be done quickly, more people would do it.” – John Wooden
51 – “I don’t believe in praying to win.” – John Wooden
52 – “It isn’t what you do, but how you do it.” – John Wooden
53 – “Never lie, never cheat, never steal.” – John Wooden
54 – “Listen if you want to be heard.” – John Wooden
55 – “I think the teaching profession contributes more to the future of our society than any other single profession.” – John Wooden
56 – “Those of us who have been blessed with worldly success have an even greater responsibility to make an impact with our time, talents, and resources.” – John Wooden
57 – “Consider the rights of others before your own feelings, and the feelings of others before your own rights.” – John Wooden
58 – “Be prepared and be honest.” – John Wooden
59 – “I don’t believe in fate.” – John Wooden
60 – “Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.” – John Wooden
61 – “Ability is a poor man’s wealth.” – John Wooden
62 – “Happiness begins where selfishness ends.” – John Wooden
63 – “Tell the truth. That way you don’t have to remember a story.” – John Wooden
64 – “The best competition I have is against myself to become better.” – John Wooden
65 – “Succeeding is performing at your best when your best is required.” – John Wooden
66 – “The most important thing in the world is family and love.” – John Wooden
67 – “Be quick, but don’t hurry.” – John Wooden
68 – “You can do more good by being good than any other way.” – John Wooden
69 – “No one can really honestly be the very best, no one.” – John Wooden
70 – “Young people need models, not critics.” – John Wooden
71 – “Success comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.” – John Wooden
72 – “Does worrying about it, complaining about it, change it? Nope, it just wastes your time. And if you complain about it to other people, you’re also wasting their time. Nothing is gained by wasting all of that time.” – John Wooden
73 – “Envy, jealousy, and criticism can become cancerous. They hurt the person who feels them rather than the person they’re directed toward.” – John Wooden
74 – “Don’t measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your ability.” – John Wooden
75 – “My eyesight is not nearly as good. My hearing is probably going away. My memory is slipping too. But I’m still around.” – John Wooden
76 – “I think that in any group activity – whether it be business, sports, or family – there has to be leadership or it won’t be successful.” – John Wooden
77 – “I talked to the players and tried to make them aware of what was good and bad, but I didn’t try to run their lives.” – John Wooden
78 – “In classic times, the courageous struggle for a noble cause was considered a success in itself. Sadly, that idea has been forgotten. But it is well worth remembering.” – John Wooden
79 – “I probably have all the same faults anyone has, and so do you. There’s nothing wrong with that. Having faults means you’re human; you’re alive and breathing. There’s nothing wrong with having faults so long as you work conscientiously to correct them. How hard you work at correcting your faults reveals your character.” – John Wooden
80 – “Never try to be better than someone else. Learn from others, and try to be the best you can be. Success is the by-product of that preparation.” – John Wooden
81 – “Well, your greatest joy definitely comes from doing something for another, especially when it was done with no thought of something in return.” – John Wooden
82 – “Perfection is what you are striving for, but perfection is an impossibility. However, striving for perfection is not an impossibility. Do the best you can under the conditions that exist. That is what counts.” – John Wooden
83 – “Be true to yourself. Make each day a masterpiece. Help others. Drink deeply from good books. Make friendship a fine art. Build a shelter against a rainy day.” – John Wooden
84 – “There are many things that are essential to arriving at true peace of mind, and one of the most important is faith, which cannot be acquired without prayer.” – John Wooden
85 – “Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.” – John Wooden
86 – “Being a role model is the most powerful form of educating…too often fathers neglect it because they get so caught up in making a living they forget to make a life.” – John Wooden
87 – “You have to apply yourself each day to become a little better. By applying yourself to the task of becoming a little better each and every day over a period of time, you will become a lot better.” – John Wooden
88 – “I worry that business leaders are more interested in material gain than they are in having the patience to build up a strong organization, and a strong organization starts with caring for their people.” – John Wooden
89 – “Friendship is two-sided. It isn’t a friend just because someone’s doing something nice for you. That’s a nice person. There’s friendship when you do for each other. It’s like marriage – it’s two-sided.” – John Wooden
90 – “Material possessions, winning scores, and great reputations are meaningless in the eyes of the Lord because He knows what we really are and that is all that matters.” – John Wooden
91 – “In the end, it’s about the teaching, and what I always loved about coaching was the practices. Not the games, not the tournaments, not the alumni stuff. But teaching the players during practice was what coaching was all about to me.” – John Wooden
92 – “I’m no wizard, and I don’t like being thought of in that light at all. I think of a wizard as being some sort of magician or something, doing something on the sly or something, and I don’t want to be thought of in that way.” – John Wooden
93 – “I’d be satisfied just coaching in high school. I turned down a number of colleges when I was teaching in South Bend, Indiana before I went into the service. I honestly believe that if I hadn’t enlisted in the service, I would never have left high school teaching. I’m sure I would have never left.” – John Wooden
94 – “We can have no progress without change, whether it be basketball or anything else.” – John Wooden
95 – “Measure yourself by…what you have accomplished with your ability.” – John Wooden
96 – “Players with fight never lose a game, they just run out of time.” – John Wooden
97 – “It’s always about focusing not on the mistakes but on the lessons learned from them.” – John Wooden
98 – “If you are afraid to fail, you will never do the things you are capable of doing.” – John Wooden
99 – “The true test of a man’s character is what he does when no one is watching.” – John Wooden
100 – “Passion is momentary; love is enduring.” – John Wooden
101 – “A coach is someone who can give correction without causing resentment.” – John Wooden
102 – “What you are as a person is far more important than what you are as a basketball player.” – John Wooden
103 – “I don’t think I was a fine game coach. I’m trying to be honest. I think I was a good practice coach.” – John Wooden
104 – “All of life is peaks and valleys. Don’t let the peaks get too high and the valleys too low.” – John Wooden
105 – “I think permitting the game to become too physical takes away a little bit of the beauty.” – John Wooden
106 – “It begins by trying to make each day count and knowing you can never make up for a lost day. If a player appeared to be taking it easy in practice, I told him, ‘Don’t think you can make up for it by working twice as hard tomorrow. If you have it within your power to work twice as hard, why aren’t you doing it now?” – John Wooden
107 – “You’ve heard the expression ‘Politeness and courtesy are a small price to pay for the goodwill of others.’ In fact, I’ve used it myself from time to time even though I don’t really agree with it. Being polite and courteous isn’t paying a price any more than smiling or being happy is paying a price. You get more than you give when you are polite and courteous. You don’t pay. You are paid.” – John Wooden
108 – “Many athletes have tremendous God-given gifts, but they don’t focus on the development of those gifts. Who are these individuals? You’ve never heard of them – and you never will. It’s true in sports and it’s true everywhere in life. Hard work is the difference. Very hard work.” – John Wooden
109 – “The goal in life is just the same as in basketball: make the effort to do the best you are capable of doing – in marriage, at your job, in the community, for your country. Make the effort to contribute in whatever way you can. You may do it materially or with time, ideas, or work. Making the effort to contribute is what counts. The effort is what counts in everything.” – John Wooden
110 – “I seldom was ever off my seat on the bench during the game.” – John Wooden
111 – “I had three rules for my players: No profanity. Don’t criticize a teammate. Never be late.” – John Wooden
112 – “Love is the most important thing in the world. Hate, we should remove from the dictionary.” – John Wooden
113 – “The man who is afraid to risk failure seldom has to face success.” – John Wooden
114 – “Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out.” – John Wooden
115 – “I’d rather have a lot of talent and a little experience than a lot of experience and a little talent.” – John Wooden
116 – “Seek opportunities to show you care. The smallest gestures often make the biggest difference.” – John Wooden
117 – “It is amazing how much can be accomplished if no one cares who gets the credit.” – John Wooden
118 – “You can’t let praise or criticism get to you. It’s a weakness to get caught up in either one.” – John Wooden
119 – “Never make excuses. Your friends don’t need them and your foes won’t believe them.” – John Wooden
120 – “The best thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother.” – John Wooden
121 – “Next to love, balance is the most important thing.” – John Wooden
122 – “When opportunity knocks, it’s too late to prepare.” – John Wooden
123 – “I think you have to be what you are. Don’t try to be somebody else. You have to be yourself at all times.” – John Wooden
124 – “Talent is God-given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful.” – John Wooden
125 – “You can’t live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you.” – John Wooden
126 – “Remember, results aren’t the criteria for success — it’s the effort made for achievement that is most important.” – John Wooden
127 – “Coach Wooden didn’t treat everybody the same; he treated people the way they deserved to be treated.” – John Wooden
128 – “A strong leader accepts blame and gives credit. A weak leader gives blame and accepts the credit.” – John Wooden
129 – “Just try to be the best you can be; never cease trying to be the best you can be. That’s in your power.” – John Wooden
130 – “So often we fail to acknowledge what we have because we’re so concerned about what we want. We fail to give real thanks for the many blessings for which we did nothing: our life itself, the flowers, the trees, our family and friends.” – John Wooden
