Quotes from John Wooden

Work without joy is drudgery. Drudgery does not produce champions, nor does it produce great organizations.

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

What it comes down to, I believe, is that mentoring often involves telling people what they need to hear, rather than what they want to hear. When you are able to be humbly honest with someone about a situation with which you have personal experience—even if you risk angering or hurting that person—you are offering the most valuable gift of all.

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

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

He told me that he always insisted on two things above all else in his players: That they were always trying to improve and always willing to put the team above themselves. If they weren't willing to do those things, he didn't want them at UCLA.

In game play it was always my philosophy that patience would win out. By that, I meant patience to follow our game plan. If we believed in it, we would wear the opposition down and would eventually get to them. If we broke away from our style, however, and played their style, we would be in trouble. And if we let our emotions, rather than our reason, command the game we would not function effectively.

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

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.

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

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

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.

The teams that compete at the highest level love the thrill of the contest. They may have winning in their heads, but they have a love for the effort and struggle in their hearts.

I remain convinced to this day that compassion like that—sincerely caring for your players and maintaining an active interest in their lives, concerns, and motivations—is one of the most important qualities a coach can have.

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.

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

when coaches or parents make consistency their foundation, everyone around them becomes more comfortable and everyone around them has a greater opportunity to grow.

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

The best leaders are lifelong learners; they take measures to create organizations that foster and inspire learning throughout. The most effective leaders are those who realize it's what you learn after you know it all that counts most.

Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to become the best of which you are capable.

If any one premise typifies my teams in all the years I've coached, it is this concept. Often as a player, I'd tell myself, I may play someone better than I am, but I'll never run against one who is going to be in better condition And I never played against a man in my life I felt was in better shape, and Lambert often cited me as an example of top conditioning.

Have something to believe in; have a reason to believe in it, but stay open-minded.

don't worry about whether you're better than somebody else, but never cease trying to be the best you can become. You have control over that; the other you don't.