Jim Valvano Quotes

#1. All really successful coaches have a system.

Jim Valvano

#2. The difference between Namath and me is that when you make the money he makes, they say you're ruggedly handsome. When you make the money I make, they say you have a big nose. (On resembling Joe Namath)

Jim Valvano

#3. Are you saying that the assistant had the answers all along, he just wasn't telling anyone?

Jim Valvano

#4. Nothing has ever been accomplished in any walk of life without enthusiasm, without motivation, and without perseverance.

Jim Valvano

#5. I'll also tell you that five hundred thousand people will die this year of cancer. And I'll also tell you that one in every four will be afflicted with this disease, and yet, somehow, we seem to have put it in a little bit of the background.

Jim Valvano

#6. I will thank God for the day and the moment I have.

Jim Valvano

#7. Never give up! Failure and rejection are only the first step to succeeding.

Jim Valvano

#8. Time is very precious to me. I don't know how much I have left and I have some things that I would like to say. Hopefully, at the end, I will have said something that will be important to other people too.

Jim Valvano

#9. But try if you can to support, whether it's AIDS or the cancer foundation, so that someone else might survive, might prosper, and might actually be cured of this dreaded disease.

Jim Valvano

#10. We should do three things every day of our life. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is to think, we should spend some time in thought. And, number three is you should have your emotions moved to tears.

Jim Valvano

#11. I just got one last thing, I urge all of you, all of you, to enjoy your life, the precious moments you have. To spend each day with some laughter and some thought, to get you're emotions going.

Jim Valvano

#12. Take time every day to laugh, to think, to cry.

Jim Valvano

#13. A person really doesn't become whole, until he becomes a part of something that's bigger than himself.

Jim Valvano

#14. I can't tell you what an honor it is, to even be mentioned in the same breath with Arthur Ashe. This is something I certainly will treasure forever.

Jim Valvano

#15. Now I'm fighting cancer, everybody knows that. People ask me all the time about how you go through your life and how's your day, and nothing is changed for me.

Jim Valvano

#16. Cancer can take away all of my physical abilities. It cannot touch my mind, it cannot touch my heart, and it cannot touch my soul.

Jim Valvano

#17. Now, I look at where I am now and I know what I wanna to do. What I would like to be able to do is to spend whatever time I have left and to give, and maybe some hope to others.

Jim Valvano

#18. Conceive the inconceivable - then accomplish it.

Jim Valvano

#19. I talked about my family, my family's so important.

Jim Valvano

#20. What enables us to achieve our greatness contains the seeds of our destruction.

Jim Valvano

#21. Be a dreamer. If you don't know how to dream, you're dead.

Jim Valvano

#22. I was an absolute maniac, a terrible husband and father.

Jim Valvano

#23. Each day, be sure to laugh, to think, to cry; that's one heckuva full day ...

Jim Valvano

#24. In every single day, in every walk of life, ordinary people do extraordinary things. Ordinary People accomplish Extraordinary things.

Jim Valvano

#25. If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that's a full day. That's a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you're going to have something special.

Jim Valvano

#26. Life changes when you least expect it to. The future is uncertain. So, seize this day, seize this moment, and make the most of it.

Jim Valvano

#27. I asked a ref if he could give me a technical foul for thinking bad things about him. He said, of course not. I said, well, I think you stink. And he gave me a technical. You can't trust em.

Jim Valvano

#28. There are 86,400 seconds in a day. It's up to you to decide what to do with them.

Jim Valvano

#29. I made a ridiculous statement when I first went to North Carolina State. I said I know basketball down there was like life or death. It was very wrong. It's more important.

Jim Valvano

#30. And I'm going to work as hard as I can ... for cancer research and hopefully, maybe, we'll have some cures and some breakthroughs. I'd like to think I'm going to fight my brains out to be back here again next year for the Arthur Ashe recipient. I want to give it next year!

Jim Valvano

#31. I set out very calculatedly to become known. The only thing I maybe miscalculated was how easy it would be.

Jim Valvano

#32. The greatest gift you can give your children is to believe in them.

Jim Valvano

#33. We win or the alumni bash in our teeth. (On the dental plan at NC State)

Jim Valvano

#34. We have a very intelligent team. I've had clubs that when you tell a guy to go back door, he leaves the gym. Or you tell the team you're going to have a closed practice and eight guys don't show up.

Jim Valvano

#35. I know, I gotta go, I gotta go, and I got one last thing and I said it before, and I'm gonna say it again: Cancer can take away all my physical ability. It cannot touch my mind; it cannot touch my heart; and it cannot touch my soul. And those three things are going to carry on forever.

Jim Valvano

#36. Why shouldn't I milk it? We're an agricultural institution.

Jim Valvano

#37. Other people go to the office. I get to coach. I know I've been blessed.

Jim Valvano

#38. To me there are three things everyone should do every day. Number one is laugh. Number two is think
spend some time time in thought. Number three, you should have your emotions move you to tears. If you laugh, think and cry, that's a heck of a day.

Jim Valvano

#39. To find the unlimited scope of human possibility, look within yourself.

Jim Valvano

#40. My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person, he believed in me.

Jim Valvano

#41. I'm not happy to be here. I'm just happy to be!

Jim Valvano

#42. People think I have courage. The courage in my family are my wife Pam, my three daughters, here, Nicole, Jamie, LeeAnn, my mom, who's right here too.

Jim Valvano

#43. How do you go from where you are to where you wanna be? And I think you have to have an enthusiasm for life. You have to have a dream, a goal. And you have to be willing to work for it.

Jim Valvano

#44. It's so important to know where you are.

Jim Valvano

#45. Never give up ... never ever give up.

Jim Valvano

#46. No matter what business you're in, you can't run in place or someone will pass you by. It doesn't matter how many games you've won.

Jim Valvano

#47. You need to have a dream, a goal, and you must be willing to work hard.

Jim Valvano

#48. Coaches are basically schizophrenic. We are pessimistic to the press and among fellow coaches, but to our team, we are the eternal optimists.

Jim Valvano

#49. Don't give up, don't ever give up.

Jim Valvano

#50. Know where you have been, where you are now and where you want to be

Jim Valvano

#51. Enjoy your life, the precious moments you have.

Jim Valvano

#52. Nothing can happen if it's not first a dream. If you have someone with a dream, if you have a motivated person with a goal and a vision, if you have someone that never gives up, who has great hope, Anything can happen.

Jim Valvano

#53. And if you see me, smile and maybe give me a hug. That's important to me too.

Jim Valvano

#54. We need your help. I need your help. We need money for research. It may not save my life. It may save my children's life. It may save someone you love. And it's very important.

Jim Valvano

#55. How many people do you know who've had their dream come true? You're looking at one.

Jim Valvano