John Wooden
The true test of a man’s character is what he does when no one is watching.Collection: Inspirational
What is right is more important than who is right.Collection: Important
We're not all equal as far as intelligence is concerned. We're not equal as far as size. We're not all equal as far as appearance. We do not all have the same opportunities. We're not born in the same environments, but we're all absolutely equal in having the opportunity to make the most of what we have and not comparing or worrying about what others have.Collection: Opportunity
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.Collection: Teamwork
You must be interested in finding the best way, not in having your own way.Collection: Wrestling
If you spend too much time learning the 'tricks' of the trade, you may not learn the trade. There are no shortcuts. If you're working on finding a short cut, the easy way, you're not working hard enough on the fundamentals. You may get away with it for a spell, but there is no substitute for the basics. And the first basic is good, old fashioned hard work.Collection: Hard Work
How hard you work at correcting your faults reveals your character.Collection: Character
The true athlete should have character, not be a characterCollection: Basketball
A leader’s most powerful ally is his or her own example.Collection: Leadership
I like to give opinions, not suggestionsCollection: Giving
Time lost is time lost. It’s gone forever. Some people tell themselves that they will work twice as hard tomorrow to make up for what they did not do today. People should always do their best. If they work twice as hard tomorrow, then they should have also worked twice as hard today. That would have been their best.Collection: Motivational
You must have respect, which is a part of love, for those under your supervision. Then they will do what you ask and more.Collection: Basketball
Apply yourself everyday to just becoming a little bit better.Collection: Everyday
Once you become a good person, then you have a chance of becoming a good basketball player.Collection: Basketball
Selfishness is the greatest challenge for a coach. Most players are more concerned with making themselves better than the team.Collection: Team
Make a decision! Failure to act is often the biggest failure of all.Collection: Positivity
Everything we know, we learned from someone else!Collection: Coaching
In my opinion, being an effective leader requires being an effective listener. The most productive leaders are usually those who are consistently willing to listen and learn.Collection: Empathy
I believe we are most likely to succeed when ambition is focused on noble and worthy purposes and outcomes rather than on goals set out of selfishness.Collection: Believe
You may be better than the rest, but you are not a success until you have made the effort to become the best you can be.Collection: Effort
Losing does not make you a failure; it is when you blame someone for losing when you become a failureCollection: Doe
First be the best and then be firstCollection: Firsts
If I were ever prosecuted for my religion, I truly hope there would be enough evidence to convict me.Collection: Would Be
As long as you try your best, you are never a failure. That is, unless you blame others.Collection: Art
You can respect a person without necessarily liking that individual.Collection: Individual
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.Collection: Inspirational
You should never try to be better than someone else, you should always be learning from others. But you should never cease trying to be the best you could be because that's under your control and the other isn't.Collection: Trying
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.Collection: Motivational
Winning and losing aren't all they're cracked up to be, but the trip to the destination is.Collection: Teaching
It's not what you teach, it's what you emphasize.Collection: Basketball
Sincerity may not help us make friends, but it will help us keep them.Collection: May
The purpose of discipline is not to punish, but to correct.Collection: Sports
As a leader, you must be filled with energy and eagerness, joy and love for what you do. If you lack enthusiasm for your job, you cannot perform to the best of your ability. Industriousness is unattainable without Enthusiasm.Collection: Jobs
Any structure must have a strong foundation. The cornerstones anchor the foundation. For some reason the cornerstones that I chose to begin with I never changed.Collection: Strong
Forget favors given; remember those received.Collection: Favors
Confidence comes from being prepared.Collection: Inspirational
While I made my living as a coach, I have lived my life to be a mentor-and to be mentored!-constantly.Everything in the world has been passed down. Every piece of knowledge is something that has been shared by someone else. If you understand it as I do, mentoring becomes your true legacy. It is the greatest inheritance you can give to others. It is why you get up every day-to teach and be taught.Collection: Giving
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.Collection: Integrity
There is great joy in doing something for somebody else with no thought in receiving anything in return.Collection: Joy
Every day, try to help someone who can't reciprocate your kindness.Collection: Kindness
I've never stopped trying to do what's right. I'm not doing it to earn favor with God. I'm doing it because it's the right thing to do.Collection: Trying
Make every day your masterpiece.Collection: Inspirational
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.Collection: Sports
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.Collection: Sports
The goal in life is the same as in basketball: make the effort to do the best you are capable of doing--in marriage, at your job, in the community, for your country. Make the effort to contribute in whatever way you can. You may do it materially or with time, ideas, or work. Making the effort to contribute is what counts. The effort is what counts in everything.Collection: Basketball
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.Collection: Teaching
You can lose when you outscore somebody in a game, and you can win when you're outscored.Collection: Motivation
I believe correcting is the positive approach. I believe in the positive approach. Always have.Collection: Believe
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.Collection: Moving