Quotes By John Wooden

Discipline yourself, and others won't need to.

All of life is peaks and valleys. Don't let the peaks get too high and the valleys too low.

Love is the most important thing in the world. Hate, we should remove from the dictionary.

If I were a young coach today, I would be extremely careful in selecting assistants.

I seldom was ever off my seat on the bench during the game.

The worst thing about new books is that they keep us from reading the old ones.

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

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.

Be prepared and be honest.

I don't believe in praying to win.

Just do the best you can. No one can do more than that.

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.

We can have no progress without change, whether it be basketball or anything else.

I think you have to be what you are. Don't try to be somebody else. You have to be yourself at all times.

I found golf was too time consuming, but I did enjoy it.

I'm glad I was a teacher.

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

Defense is a definite part of the game, and a great part of defense is learning to play it without fouling.

Success is never final, failure is never fatal. It's courage that counts.

I'd rather have a lot of talent and a little experience than a lot of experience and a little talent.

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

Whatever you do in life, surround yourself with smart people who'll argue with you.

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

Well, your greatest joy definitely comes from doing something for another, especially when it was done with no thought of something in return.

Young people need models, not critics.

Today is the only day. Yesterday is gone.

There's as much crookedness as you want to find. There was something Abraham Lincoln said - he'd rather trust and be disappointed than distrust and be miserable all the time. Maybe I trusted too much.

I like to spend time in the past, with the things that have been important to me.

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

If there's anything you could point out where I was a little different, it was the fact that I never mentioned winning.