Wooden A Lifetime Of Observations Quotes

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

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

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

Discipline yourself and others won't need to.

Happiness begins where selfishness ends.

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

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.

There is nothing stronger than gentleness.

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.

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

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

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

Make each day your masterpiece.

We are many, but are we much?

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

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.

it is important to understand the purpose of criticism. Criticism is not meant to punish, but rather to correct something that is preventing better results. The only goal of criticism or discipline is improvement. You must keep that in mind and try to the best of your ability to use tact.

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.

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?

Competitiveness must be focused exclusively on the process of what you are doing rather than the result of that effort (the so-called winning or losing).

I wanted to win every single game I ever played in or coached. Absolutely. I wanted to win. But, I understood that ultimately the winning or losing may not be under my control. What was under my control was how I prepared myself and our team. I judged my success, my “winning,” on that. It just made more sense.

The locker rooms were clean when we departed because I asked the players to pick up after themselves. I believe this is just common courtesy. Somebody’s going to have to clean it up, and I see no reason why it shouldn’t be the person who messed it up.

I also believe that things turn out best for those who make the best of the way things turn out.

So often we fail to acknowledge what we have because we’re so concerned about what we want.

I am not what I ought to be, Not what I want to be, Not what I am going to be, But I am thankful that I am better than I used to be. It

Abraham Lincoln. He once said that the best thing a man can do for his children is to love their mother.

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

You can do more good by being good than any other way.

It took me a long time to understand that even a stubborn mule responds to gentleness.

There is a wonderful, almost mystical, law of nature that says three of the things we want most—happiness, freedom, and peace of mind—are always attained when we give them to others.

It’s so easy to relax, to cut corners, to let down after you’ve reached your goal, and 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.

I’ve always believed that hustle can make up for a lot of mistakes.

that things turn out best for those who make the best of the way things turn out.

don’t worry much about trying to be better than someone else.

Always try to be the very best that you can be. Learn from others, yes. But don’t just try to be better than they are.

Trusting is part of our higher nature. Doubting is a lower instinct. The latter is easy to do, the former more difficult—but so much more rewarding.

Talent is God-given: be humble. Fame is man-given: be thankful. Conceit is self-given: be careful.

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

You're just as good as anyone, but you're no better than anybody.

You never fail if you know in your heart that you did the best of which you are capable. I did my best. That is all I could do. Are you going to make mistakes? Of course. But it is not failure if you make the full effort.

Seven Things to Do.” It read as follows: 1. Be true to yourself. 2. Help others. 3. Make each day your masterpiece. 4. Drink deeply from good books, especially the Bible. 5. Make friendship a fine art. 6. Build a shelter against a rainy day. 7. Pray for guidance and count and give thanks for your blessings every day.

I believe in the basics: attention to, and perfection of, tiny details that might be commonly overlooked. They may seem trivial, perhaps even laughable to those who don’t understand, but they aren’t. They are fundamental to your progress in basketball, business, and life. They are the difference between champions and near champions. For example, at the first squad meeting each season, held two weeks before our first actual practice, I personally demonstrated how I wanted players to put on their socks each and every time: Carefully roll the socks down over the toes, ball of the foot, arch and around the heel, then pull the sock up snug so there will be no wrinkles of any kind.

Characteristics of a Team Player We all fit into different niches. Each of us must make the effort to contribute to the best of our ability according to our own individual talents. And then we put all the individual talents together for the highest good of the group. Thus, I valued a player who cared for others and could lose himself in the group for the good of the group. I believe that quality makes for an outstanding player. It is also why the best players don’t always make the best team. I mean by this that a gifted player, or players, who are not team players will ultimately hurt the team, whether it revolves around basketball or business. Understanding that the good of the group comes first is fundamental to being a highly productive member of a team.

James Russell Lowell wrote: It’s not what we give but what we share, For the gift without the giver is bare. Who gives of himself of his alms feeds three, Himself, his hungering neighbor, and me.

How hard you work at correcting your faults reveals your character.

Never believe you’re better than anybody else, but remember that you’re just as good as everybody else.

I told players at UCLA that we, as a team, are like a powerful car. Maybe a Bill Walton or Kareem Abdul-Jabbar or Michael Jordan is the big engine, but if one wheel is flat, we’re going no place. And if we have brand new tires but the lug nuts are missing, the wheels come off. What good is the powerful engine now? It’s no good at all.

No person was ever honored for what he received. Honor has been the reward for what he gave.” It

Politeness and courtesy are a small price to pay for the goodwill of others.

A Successful Journey Is the Destination

Mix idealism with realism and add hard work. This will often bring much more than you could ever hope for.

Why do we dread adversity when we know that facing it is the only way to become stronger, smarter, better?

Now parents will say, “We’re just trying to make ends meet,” and they’re telling the truth. But if you think too much about the pursuit of material things, you’re going to hurt those youngsters you’re working so hard to buy material things for.

True happiness comes from the things that cannot be taken away from you. Making the full effort to do the right thing can never be taken away from you.

Be true to yourself. You know what’s right. Don’t let someone else decide for you.

You and I must accept some accountability for future bloodshed if each and every day we don’t do something in our own way to alleviate prejudice in ourselves or others.

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.

You must be interested in finding the best way, not in having your own way.

There is a choice you have to make, in everything you do. And you must always keep in mind the choice you make, makes you.

I believe that things are directed in some sort of way. I’m not exactly sure how. I also believe that things turn out best for those who make the best of the way things turn out.

when we are out of sympathy with the young, our work in this world is over.

I have prepared for death all of my life by the life I lived.” Socrates was at peace with himself.

Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value. —ALBERT EINSTEIN

Try your hardest in all ways and you are a success.

You never fail if you know in your heart that you did the best of which you are capable. I did my best. That is all I could do.

I had mistakes, plenty, but I had no failures

If you prepare properly, you may be outscored but you will never lose.

When you blame others you are trying to excuse yourself. When you make excuses you can’t properly evaluate yourself. Without proper self-evaluation, failure is inevitable.

Even if we were big underdogs I always felt anything could happen. Often enough, I was right. That’s also why I never assumed we were going to win.

Do not become too concerned about what others may think of you. Be very concerned about what you think of yourself.

You can always look back and see where you might have done something differently, changed this or that. If you can learn something, fine, but never second-guess yourself. It’s wasted effort.

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.

You will find that success and attention to details, the smallest details, usually go hand in hand, in basketball and elsewhere in your life.

never dreamed about winning a national championship. It happened before I even thought it was possible. What I was dreaming about each year, if you want to call it that, was trying to produce the best basketball team we could be.

Each day my mother demonstrated great patience and the ability and eagerness to work very hard without complaint

Being a role model is the most powerful form of educating. Youngsters need good models more than they need critics

Too often fathers neglect it because they get so caught up in making a living they forget to make a life.

Never lie. Never cheat. Never steal.

Don’t whine. Don’t complain. Don’t make excuses.

Some people today may think these are naive or kind of corny. But think a moment about what they mean and who you become if you abide by them. That isn’t naive. You don’t become corny.

Four things a man must learn to do If he would make his life more true: To think without confusion clearly, To love his fellow-man sincerely, To act from honest motives purely, To trust in God and Heaven securely.

If we are not true to ourselves, we cannot be true to others—our wife or husband, our family, our profession and colleagues

You must know who you are and be true to who you are if you are going to be who you can and should become.

You cannot have a perfect day without helping others with no thought of getting something in return.

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?

It’s friendship when you do good things for each other. It’s showing concern and consideration.

Your faith, whatever it may be, is the greatest shelter of all.

How much more pleasant this world would be if we magnified our blessings the way we magnify our disappointments.

I am not what I ought to be, Not what I want to be, Not what I am going to be, But I am thankful that I am better than I used to be.

You never stop trying.

three of the things we want most—happiness, freedom, and peace of mind—are always attained when we give them to others.

Why can’t we realize that it only weakens those we want to help when we do things for them that they should do for themselves?

Why does the person with the least to say usually take the longest to say it?

there would be times when we disagreed but there would never be times when we had to be disagreeable.

what I say about leadership: “You must be interested in finding the best way, not in having your own way.

Your family is what counts, and you must always remember that as you get caught up in your own professional responsibilities.

I’m very proud of the fact that while all the records were being set at UCLA by our basketball teams, I felt exactly the same way. Family is first. Always. Always.