Quotes from Joe Paterno

The will to win is important, but the will to prepare is vital.

You must relate athletic experiences to life.

I don't think it's fair to 12-, 13- and 14-year-olds to say 'Show us you're a winner right now!' Winning isn't everything. I'll never buy that thing that if a boy loses a football game, he's a loser in life.

Believe deep down in your heart that you're destined to do great things.

I've had a wonderful experience here at Penn State.

I'm not as concerned about me. What's happened to me has been great. I got five great kids. Seventeen grandchildren.

We shall act with good intentions, but at times we will be wrong. When we are, let us admit it and try to right the situation.

When a kid plays football games before he attends a class, something is wrong.

My thing was play as hard as you can, don't be stupid, pay attention to details, and have enough guts in the clutch that you're not afraid to make a play. Some things I thought were important for a young man to know.

Right now I'm trying to figure out what I'm gonna do, 'cause I don't want to sit around on my backside all day. If I'm gonna do that I'll be a newspaper reporter.

What is a coach? We are teachers. Educators. We have the same obligations as all teachers, except we probably have more influence over young people than anybody but their families. And, in a lot of cases, more than their families.

Here, I have an opportunity to affect the lives of a lot of young people - and not just on my football team. I'm not kidding myself that that would be true at the professional level.

You have to perform at a consistently higher level than others. That's the mark of a true professional.

The minute you think you've got it made, disaster is just around the corner.

Its the name on the front of the jersey that matters most, not the one on the back.

The name on the front of the jersey is what really matters, not the name on the back.

Publicity is like poison; it doesn't hurt unless you swallow it.

Coaches have got to be given rank within the university so that you can't fire a coach unless you go through an academic committee, just as you would with a professor. If coaches are to have any stability and security, they need to be treated like an English professor.

We have to realize a kid will love us one day and hate us the next. That cannot change who we are and what we are about.

I don't think I deviated from what I'm all about and what I thought was important. Whether you want to call that a legacy, or whatever you want to call it.

It doesn't matter what people think of me. I've lived my life.

When a team outgrows individual performance and learns team confidence, excellence becomes a reality.