Quotes from Bobby Knight

I've never felt my job was to win basketball games - rather, that the essence of my job as a coach was to do everything I could to give my players the background necessary to succeed in life.

Everybody has an opportunity in America. I don't care if guys whine and complain about this or that. You know, no country affords its inhabitants the opportunities that the U.S.A. gives to its people.

Most people have the will to win, few have the will to prepare to win.

You play ball against yourself; your opponent is your potential.

Don't fight the rabbits. If you fight the rabbits, the elephants are going to kill you.

Do what needs to be done, when it needs to be done the best way it can be done, and do it that way every time.

All of us learn to write in the second grade. Most of us go on to greater things.

Your biggest opponent isn't the other guy. It's human nature.

Well, I think it's pretty much established that I just didn't have any interest in coaching in the pros.

I think that we as a people are always prone to think about, well, tomorrow will be a better day. Well, why will it be a better day? And I think the more that we believe in doing things better, doing the right thing rather than hoping that that's going to happen, let's make it happen.

If I came in to recruit your son, I would tell you, your wife, and your son, that I will be the most demanding coach your son can play for.

I don't think I have ever been out of control.

Failure, to me, is not having the desire to try. Having the desire to try is in it own way success.

Practice structure determines success.

The structure of your practice is the main reason for your success or lack of success as a coach

The will to succeed is important, but what's more important is the will to prepare.

The key is not the will to win... everybody has that. It is the will to prepare to win that is important.

During my 40-year coaching career at West Point, Indiana and Texas Tech, my teams reached the Final Four on five occasions, winning the national championship three times.

As his team prepares, a coach's entire being must be concentrated on winning games.

I want to say to you Indiana people that I owe you a big, big debt of gratitude because nowhere in the world is a sporting group followed more than this state follows basketball. And I just want to thank you for the opportunity that I had to coach in this state - it will always be something that I will cherish.

I'm not sure what a conservative is. I don't know whether a conservative is a guy that goes to bed too early or maybe doesn't sleep long enough or just what the hell he might be. I don't know. Maybe he's a guy that - you know, he just wants to be real quiet.

I don't think my dad ever raised his voice to my mother or to me, ever.

I don't know what a conservative is, you know, but I do know what good people are. And that's where I sit with Donald Trump.

My dad was a very quiet person, and unbelievably tough. But my grandmother gave me my first look at negative thinking to bring about positive results. When I was just a little guy, anytime I came to my grandmother and said I wish for this or that, Grandma would say, 'If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.'