John Wooden Quotes

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.

Don't mistake activity with achievement.

The true test of a man’s character is what he does when no one is watching.

If you don't have time to do it right, when will you have the time to do it over?

The best thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother.

Talent is God given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful.

Ability may get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there.

Never make excuses. Your friends don't need them and your foes won't believe them.

Seek opportunities to show you care. The smallest gestures often make the biggest difference.

You can't let praise or criticism get to you. It's a weakness to get caught up in either one.

It is amazing how much can be accomplished if no one cares who gets the credit.

You can’t live a perfect day until you do something for someone who will never be able to repay you.

Don't let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.

Don't let yesterday take up too much of today.

Discipline yourself and others won't need to.

Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.

Be true to yourself. Make each day your masterpiece. Help others. Drink deeply from good books. Make friendship a fine art. Build a shelter against a rainy day. Pray for guidance and give thanks for your blessings every day.

If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it again?

A coach is someone who can give correction without causing resentment.

Happiness begins where selfishness ends.

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.

Listen if you want to be heard

Players with fight never lose a game, they just run out of time

Things work out best for those who make the best of the way things work out.

Five years from now, you’re the same person except for the people you’ve met and the books you’ve read.

Don't let making a living prevent you from making a life.

Be quick, but don't hurry.

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.

It's the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen.

‎"Consider the rights of others before your own feelings, and the feelings of others before your own rights.

Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.

There is nothing stronger than gentleness.

It's what you learn after you know it all that counts.

John Wooden, the legendary basketball coach, says you aren’t a failure until you start to blame. What he means is that you can still be in the process of learning from your mistakes until you deny them.

If we magnified blessings as much as we magnify disappointments, we would all be much happier.

Tell the truth. That way you don't have to remember a story.

Being average means you are as close to the bottom as you are to the top.

Make every day your masterpiece.

Don't measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your ability.

You are not a failure until you start blaming others for your mistakes

Remember this your lifetime through: Tomorrow there will be more to do. And failure waits for all who stay With some success made yesterday. Tomorrow you must try once more, And even harder than before.

Although there is no progress without change, not all change is progress.

I like wooden shoes—John Wooden. They are better for playing basketball. Nail them to the hardwood floor for increased shooting efficiency.

Talent is God-given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful.

I believe ability can get you to the top,” says coach John Wooden, “but it takes character to keep you there.… It’s so easy to … begin thinking you can just ‘turn it on’ automatically, without proper preparation. It takes real character to keep working as hard or even harder once you’re there. When you read about an athlete or team that wins over and over and over, remind yourself, ‘More than ability, they have character.'

Your reputation is what you're perceived to be, Your character is what you really are

If I were ever prosecuted for my religion, I truly hope there would be enough evidence to convict me.

Worry more about your character than your reputation. Character is what you are, reputation merely what others think you are.

Success comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.

Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be.

Success is peace of mind in knowing you did your best.

The man who is afraid to risk failure seldom has to face success.

The key ingredient to stardom is the team.

The importance of repetition until automaticity cannot be overstated. Repetition is the key to learning.

Make each day your masterpiece.

It isn't about what you do, but how you do it

He took a bite, swallowed. "God. If asparagus tasted like that all the time, I'd be vegetarian, too." Some people in a lacquered wooden boat approached us on the canal below. One of them, a woman with curly blond hair, maybe thirty, drank from a beer then raised her glass towards us and shouted something. "We don't speak Dutch," Gus shouted back. One of the others shouted a translation: "The beautiful couple is beautiful.

Never try to be better than somebody else. But most importantly, never cease trying to be the best you can be.

John Wooden quote: “You show me your friends, and I’ll show you your future.

Be more concerned with character than reputation. Character is what you are, reputation is what people think you are.

How many of us have conflicts with someone else- and how many of us pray for that person? We have individuals with whom we are competitive, or whom we dislike or have a quarrel with; but very few of us have true enemies in the martial sense. And yet if Lincoln could pray fervently- and contemporary reports indicate he did- for the people who were opposing him, how much more can we do for someone we just find a little irritating?

Things turn out best for those who make best of how things turn out.

You cannot live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you

If you don't have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?" "Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out.

• "If you're not making mistakes, then you're not doing anything. I'm positive that a doer makes mistakes.

We are many, but are we much?

Be prepared and be honest." -John Wooden

Next to love, balance is the most important thing.

Never mistake activity for achievement.

If you stay intent and your ability warrants it, you will eventually reach the top of the mountain.

It's not so important who starts the game but who finishes it. -John wooden

Failure is not Fatal, but Failure to CHANGE can be.

We will begin by learning how to tie our shoes.

Things work out best for those who make the best of how things work out.

A good coach can change a game. A great coach can change a life.

Do not let what you can't do interfere with what you can do.

Little things make the big things happen

Success is peace of mind, which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.

Measure yourself by...what you have accomplished with your ability

To win once you must have talent, but to win again you must have character.

When opportunity comes, it’s too late to prepare.

It is most difficult, in my mind, to separate any success, whether it be in your profession, your family, or as in my case, in basketball, from religion.

Then she tilted the can and dripped the gasoline throughout the old wooden structure. She didn’t have either time or strength to haul the bodies. In a better world, she would have given One a decent burial, and positioned Four in the driver’s seat of her fashionable vehicle, but alas, neither was possible.

Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?

Remember, results aren't the criteria for success — it's the effort made for achievement that is most important.

The problem with new is you don't have time for the old ones.

Talent will get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there.

It’s always about focusing not on the mistakes but on the lessons learned from them.

A coach’s primary function should be not to make better players, but to make better people.

Sincerity may not help us make friends, but it will help us keep them.

Make each day a masterpiece.

When the Irish novelist John McGahern was a child, his sisters unlaced and removed one of his shoes while he was reading. He did not stir. They placed a straw hat on his head. No response. Only when they took away the wooden chair on which he was sitting did he, as he puts it, 'wake out of the book'.

George: [On getting the M.B.E.] 'After all we did for Great Britain, selling all that corduroy and making it swing, they gave us that bloody old leather medal with wooden string through it. But my initial reaction was, 'Oh, how nice, how nice.' And John's was, 'How nice, how nice.

The goal in life is just the same as in basketball: make the effort to do the best you are capable of doing

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.

Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out.

If I am through learning, I am through.

Very well," he said now. "Fighting positions, please, ladies..." "That's debatable," Halt said in an undertone to Will as they stood watchingn. A number of the off-duty crew had gathered to watch as well. There was a certain enjoyment to be had in watching two extremely attractive girls trying to split each other's skulls open with wooden swords. "The 'fighting' part or the 'ladies' part?" Will replied with a grin. Halt looked at him and shook his head. "Definitely the 'ladies,'" he said. "There's no debate about the fighting.'" ~Halt & Will about Evanlyn and Alyss

Only Esmeralda was not weeping. Instead she wore that wooden look that whites mistake for churlishenss or indifference. Woodrew knew it was neither. It was familiarity. This how real life is constituted, it said. This is grief and hatred and people hacked to death. This is the everyday we have known since we were born and you Wazungu have not.

Many building custodians across the country would tell you that UCLA left the shower and dressing room the cleanest of any team. We picked up all the tape, never there soap on the shower floor for someone to slip on, made sure all the showers were turned off and all towels were accounted for. The towels were always deposited in a receptacle, if there was one, or stacked nearly near the door. It seems to me that this is everyone's responsibility-not just the mangers's. Furthermore, I believe it is a form of discipline that should be a way of life, not to please some building custodian, but as an expression of courtesy and politeness that each of us owes to his follow-man. These little things establish a spirit of togetherness and consideration that help unite the team into a solid unit.