Top 100 Quotes About John Wooden
#1. Growing up, my parents were very, very strict. And then I went to UCLA with John Wooden, who was just off the charts.
Bill Walton
#2. There's never been a finer man in American sports than John Wooden, or a finer coach.
Rick Reilly
#3. John Wooden made a name as a coach but also a life as a mentor.
Don Yaeger
#4. Coach John Wooden used seven players at UCLA. Coach Denny Crum used to say, 'The more moving parts you have, the greater the chance you have for a breakdown.' I think there's a lot of veracity to that.
Skip Prosser
#5. The life lessons taught by John Wooden have become legend. Here's a collection of some of the greatest 'Woodenisms.'
John Wooden
#6. It's not so important who starts the game but who finishes it.
-John wooden
John Wooden
#7. Make each day your masterpiece. - JOSHUA WOODEN, father of John Wooden
Mark Sanborn
#8. There are certain people in our business that you don't replace - Bob Knight, Dean Smith, Mike Krzyzyewski, and you don't replace John Wooden, either.
Steve Alford
#9. John Wooden, the legendary basketball coach, says you aren't a failure until you start to blame.
Carol S. Dweck
#10. Be prepared and be honest." -John Wooden
John Wooden
#11. Well, if you're true to yourself you're going to be true to everyone else.
John Wooden
#12. Tell the truth. That way you don't have to remember a story.
John Wooden
#13. You haven't taught until they've learned.
John Wooden
#14. Mix idealism with realism and add hard work. This will often bring much more than you could ever hope for.
John Wooden
#15. Climb the mountain so you can see the world, not so the world can see you. Focus all your effort on what is in your power to control.
John Wooden
#16. Happiness begins when selfishness ends.
John Wooden
#17. A coach's primary function should be not to make better players, but to make better people
John Wooden
#18. If there's anything you could point out where I was a little different, it was the fact that I never mentioned winning.
John Wooden
#19. Without organization and leadership toward a realistic goal, there is no chance of realizing more than a small percentage of your potential.
John Wooden
#20. 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.
John Wooden
#21. Helping others is perhaps the greatest joy! You cannot have a perfect day without helping others with no thought of getting something in return.
John Wooden
#22. There are little details in everything you do, and if you get away from any one of the little details, you're not teaching the thing as a whole. For it is little things which, together, make the whole. This, I think, is extremely important.
John Wooden
#23. You cannot antagonize and be a positive influence, and you will antagonize when you discipline through emotion.
John Wooden
#24. Don't let making a living prevent you from making a life.
John Wooden
#25. I've always believed that hustle can make up for a lot of mistakes.
John Wooden
#26. I never yelled at my players much. That would have been artificial stimulation, which doesn't last very long. I think it's like love and passion. Passion won't last as long as love. When you are dependent on passion, you need more and more of it to make it work. It's the same with yelling.
John Wooden
#27. Being true to ourselves doesn't make us people of integrity. Charles Manson was true to himself, and as a result, he rightly is spending the rest of his life in prison. Ultimately, being true to our Creator gives us the purest form of integrity.
John Wooden
#28. The man who is afraid to risk failure seldom has to face success.
John Wooden
#29. The past cannot change what is to come. The work that you do each and every day is the only true way to improve and prepare yourself for what is to come. You cannot change the past, but you can influence the future by what you do today. -
John Wooden
#30. Not everyone is equipped to be a leader, but in a sense, everyone is a leader to someone, even though you're not equipped. I think parents are a leader to youngsters, teacher are leaders, coaches are leaders, businessmen are leaders.
John Wooden
#31. While you, the leader, can teach many things, character is not taught easily to adults who arrive at your desk lacking it. Be cautious about taking on reclamation projects regardless of the talent they may possess. Have the courage to make character count among the qualities you seek in others.
John Wooden
#32. What a leader learns after you've learned it all counts most of all.
John Wooden
#33. The purpose of discipline is not to punish, but to correct.
John Wooden
#34. Things turn out best for those who make best of how things turn out.
John Wooden
#35. We can have no progress without change, whether it be basketball or anything else.
John Wooden
#36. Be at your best when your best is needed.
John Wooden
#37. Never lie; never cheat; never steal. Don't whine; don't complain; don't make excuses.
John Wooden
#38. I wanted my players to always be searching, especially for truth. I wanted them to know what they believed and be able to defend it. Truth will always stand the test of scrutiny.
John Wooden
#39. You get ideas across better through listening and the pat-on-the-back method than you do with a kick on the pants.
John Wooden
#40. Success is mine when I work my hardest to become my best, and I alone determine whether I do so.
John Wooden
#41. The most important thing in the world is family and love.
John Wooden
#42. Promise to wear a cheerful appearance at all times and give every person you meet a smile.
John Wooden
#43. Be true to yourself.
Make each day your masterpiece.
Help others.
Drink deeply from good books.
Make friendship a fine art.
Build a shelter against a rainy day.
Pray for guidance and give thanks for your blessings every day.
John Wooden
#44. If you're not making mistakes, then you're not doing anything. I'm positive that a doer makes mistakes.
John Wooden
#45. If you get too engrossed and involved and concerned in regard to things over which you have no control, it will adversely affect the things over which you have control.
John Wooden
#46. I think permitting the game to become too physical takes away a little bit of the beauty.
John Wooden
#47. Big things are accomplished when we master the little things.
John Wooden
#48. I am not a strategic coach; I am a practice coach.
John Wooden
#49. Dwelling in the past prevents doing something in the present.
John Wooden
#50. Practice self-discipline and keep emotions under control. Good judgment and common sense are essential.
John Wooden
#51. Decisions are more apt to be accepted when you've listened to suggestions first. I wanted them to see the reason behind what I asked of them, not to do things just because I said so.
John Wooden
#52. Coach Wooden didn't treat everybody the same; he treated people the way they deserved to be treated.
John Wooden
#53. I like to spend time in the past, with the things that have been important to me.
John Wooden
#54. Effective leaders are, first and foremost, good teachers. We're in the education business.
John Wooden
#56. Remember, results aren't the criteria for success - it's the effort made for achievement that is most important.
John Wooden
#57. Succeeding is performing at your best when your best is required
John Wooden
#59. Never try to be better than somebody else. But most importantly, never cease trying to be the best you can be.
John Wooden
#60. How you run the race - your planning, preparation, practice, and performance - counts for everything. Winning or losing is a by-product, and aftereffect, of that effort.
John Wooden
#61. It matters not the subject taught, nor all the books on all the shelves, What matters most, yes most of all, is what the teachers are themselves.
John Wooden
#62. Do your best every day. Live each day as if it's your masterpiece.
John Wooden
#63. You have to work hard, and you have to enjoy what you're doing. If you don't enjoy it, no matter how hard you seem to work, you're not going to be working as hard as you can because you're not enjoying it.
John Wooden
#64. With the experience to judge, one need not pre-judge.
John Wooden
#65. The genius of Cornell is that he sees and enables us to see with the eyes of childhood, before our vision got clouded by experience, when objects like a rubber ball or a pocket mirror seemed charged with meaning, and a marble rolling across a wooden floor could be as portentous as a passing comet.
John Ashbery
#66. So often we fail to acknowledge what we have because we're so concerned about what we want.
John Wooden
#67. It is harmful to compare yourself to others. Others will do that for you.
John Wooden
#68. The coach must never forget that he is, first of all, a teacher. He must come (be present), see (diagnose), and conquer (correct). He must continuously be exploring for ways to improve himself in order that he may improve others and welcome every person and everything that maybe helpful to him.
John Wooden
#69. I'm no wizard, and I don't like being thought of in that light at all. I think of a wizard as being some sort of magician or something, doing something on the sly or something, and I don't want to be thought of in that way.
John Wooden
#70. I would spend almost as much time planning a practice as conducting it. Everything was planned out each day
John Wooden
#71. Adversity is the state in which man most easily becomes acquainted with himself, being especially free of admirers then.
John Wooden
#72. Success may result in winning, but winning does not necessarily mean you are a success.
John Wooden
#73. As a leader, you will receive a large amount of praise and criticism and you should not unduly affected by either.
John Wooden
#74. Have something to believe in; have a reason to believe in it, but stay open-minded.
John Wooden
#75. Just do the best you can. No one can do more than that.
John Wooden
#76. The important things to me are your faith, your family and your friends. If you have that, you have everything.
John Wooden
#77. You control the terms of the conflict. Make them play your game. Don't try to play theirs.
John Wooden
#78. Seek opportunities to show you care. The smallest gestures often make the biggest difference.
John Wooden
#80. The four laws of learning are: the first is demonstration of what you want. The second is the criticism of the demonstration. The third is the imitation of the correct model, and the fourth is repetition, over and over until it becomes habit where is you don't think about it.
John Wooden
#81. The close games are usually lost, rather than won. What I mean by that is games are mostly won because of the opponent making mistakes during crucial moments.
John Wooden
#82. The great mystery is why robots come off so well in science-fiction films when the human characters are often so astoundingly wooden.
John Podhoretz
#83. You can't let praise or criticism get to you. It's a weakness to get caught up in either one.
John Wooden
#84. An effective leader develops the ability to correctly identify the pertinent detail or details - incidentals in a market, industry or sport that might create an incremental advantage.
John Wooden
#85. Things work out best for those who make the best of the way things work out.
John Wooden
#86. Being a role model is the most powerful form of educating ... too often fathers neglect it because they get so caught up in making a living they forget to make a life.
John Wooden
#87. Whatever you're doing, you must have patience.
John Wooden
#88. I continually stress to my players that all I expect from them at practice and in the games is their maximum effort.
John Wooden
#89. There is a choice you have to make in everything you do. So keep in mind that in the end, the choice you make, makes you.
John Wooden
#90. The ability to see the good in others and the bad in ourselves is perfect vision.
John Wooden
#91. As long as you try your best, you are never a failure. That is, unless you blame others.
John Wooden
#92. It's too late for preparation when opportunity strikes.
John Wooden
#93. A player who makes a team great is more valuable than a great player. Losing yourself in the group, for the good of the group, that's teamwork.
John Wooden
#95. I tried to teach them [his sons] that about the importance of self-discipline, and that the culture of yes is built on a foundation of no.
Bill Walton
#96. Never allow anyone else to define your success.
John Wooden
#97. I had three rules for my players: No profanity. Don't criticize a teammate. Never be late.
John Wooden
#98. Most people think of poise as calm, self-assured dignity; but I call it "just being you".
John Wooden
#99. Promise yourself to make all your friends know there is something in them that is special and that you value.
John Wooden
#100. When people ask me now if I miss coaching UCLA basketball games, the national championships, the attention, the trophies, and everything that goes with them, I tell them this: I miss the practices.
John Wooden
