Words To Live By: John Wooden

HIGHLIGHT: Ability may get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there.

Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.

It isn't what you do, but how you do it.

Never mistake activity for achievement.

Sports do not build character. They reveal it.

Talent is God given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful.

MORAL: Read books by people who are great teachers.


A coach is someone who can give correction without causing resentment.

Ability is a poor man's wealth.

Ability may get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there.

Adversity is the state in which man mostly easily becomes acquainted with himself, being especially free of admirers then.

Although I wanted my players to work to win, I tried to convince them they had always won when they had done their best.

Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.

Be prepared and be honest.

Consider the rights of others before your own feelings, and the feelings of others before your own rights.

Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.

Don't measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your ability.

Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be.

For an athlete to function properly, he must be intent. There has to be a definite purpose and goal if you are to progress. If you are not intent about what you are doing, you aren't able to resist the temptation to do something else that might be more fun at the moment.

I'd rather have a lot of talent and a little experience than a lot of experience and a little talent.

I always tried to make clear that basketball is not the ultimate. It is of small importance in comparison to the total life we live. There is only one kind of life that truly wins, and that is the one that places faith in the hands of the Savior. Until that is done, we are on an aimless course that runs in circles and goes nowhere.

If you're not making mistakes, then you're not doing anything. I'm positive that a doer makes mistakes.

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

It's not so important who starts the game but who finishes it.

It's the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen.

It is what we learn after we know it all that really counts.

It isn't what you do, but how you do it.

Material possessions, winning scores, and great reputations are meaningless in the eyes of the Lord, because He knows what we really are and that is all that matters.

Never mistake activity for achievement.

Our land is everything to us... I will tell you one of the things we remember on our land. We remember that our grandfathers paid for it - with their lives.

Sports do not build character. They reveal it.

Success comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.

Success is never final, failure is never fatal. It's courage that counts.

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

Talent is God given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful.

The main ingredient of stardom is the rest of the team.

The worst thing about new books is that they keep us from reading the old ones.

There are many things that are essential to arriving at true peace of mind, and one of the most important is faith, which cannot be acquired without prayer.

Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out.

What you are as a person is far more important that what you are as a basketball player.

Winning takes talent, to repeat takes character.

You can't let praise or criticism get to you. It's a weakness to get caught up in either one.

You can't live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you.

You cannot attain and maintain physical condition unless you are morally and mentally conditioned. And it is impossible to be in moral condition unless you are spiritually conditioned. I always told my players that our team condition depended on two factors / how hard they worked on the floor during practice and how well they behaved between practices.

Young people need models, not critics.

For Kenzie.