Tom Landry
Character is the ability of a person to see a positive end of things. This is the hope that a man of character has.Collection: Positive
I learned early in sports that to be effective - for a player to play the best he can play - is a matter of concentration and being unaware of distractions, positive or negative.Collection: Sports
If you show emotion in competition, temporarily, you'll be ineffective. If you're disciplined enough, you don't get down when you're behind, and you have a chance to create something positive.Collection: Positive
Leadership is a matter of having people look at you and gain confidence, seeing how you react. If you're in control, they're in control.Collection: Leadership
As a Christian, I know my life is in God's hands. He has a plan for me. Therefore, I never worry about tomorrow or never worry about winning or losing football games. That knowledge gives me a lot of composure in tough situations.Collection: Knowledge
Football is an incredible game. Sometimes it's so incredible, it's unbelievable.Collection: Sports
Leadership is getting someone to do what they don't want to do, to achieve what they want to achieve.Collection: Leadership
A winner never stops trying.
Setting a goal is not the main thing. It is deciding how you will go about achieving it and staying with that plan.
When you want to win a game, you have to teach. When you lose a game, you have to learn.
Being the best at whatever talent you have, that's what stimulates life.
The secret to winning is constant, consistent management.
I've learned that something constructive comes from every defeat.
Right after the game, say as little as possible.
Really, coaching is simplicity. It's getting players to play better than they think that they can.
Today, you have 100% of your life left.
You don't have to drink or swear or hit people in the face when they're not looking, but you do have to be tough to win.
I wouldn't think I would coach again, because it would just be hard not being in the Cowboys' blue.
Achievement builds character.
If you were to see me as a cheerleader, that would mean I was only watching instead of thinking.
If you are prepared, you will be confident, and will do the job.
My hats did give me an identity. In fact, if I had a dollar for every time someone has seen me bareheaded and said, 'I almost didn't recognize you without a hat on', I could have bought the Cowboys myself.
People striving, being knocked down and coming back... this is what builds character in a man.
I don't believe in team motivation. I believe in getting a team prepared so it knows it will have the necessary confidence when it steps on a field and be prepared to play a good game.
Take away winning, and you take away everything that is strong about America.
I just didn't want to leave the Cowboys when they were down. I at least wanted them to get into a respectable position before anyone else took over.
When a big play occurs for our team, I'm concentrating on how the defense is reacting to it. Most of the time, I don't see the great catch or the long run. What I'm looking at is how the other team defended it.
Confidence comes from knowing what you're doing. If you are prepared for something, you usually do it. If not, you usually fall flat on your face.
I know that life is really finding the right relationship between yourself and God.
There are coaches to whom winning or losing means something close to life or death. If they lose, then their life has somehow been diminished. I'm not that way, and it keeps me steady.
People say you have to know when to retire, which is a dumb thing to say. If you want to go out on top, yeah, it becomes important when you quit. But I wasn't afraid of that. And I wasn't worried about getting fired. I knew the risk. To me, it's not an ego thing. I enjoy coaching. I enjoy helping people achieve something.
If I had to pick my greatest strength as a football coach, I say it would be innovation.
I've come to the conclusion that players want to be treated alike.
Generally, achieving goals... which in many cases means winning... is really the ultimate in this life we live in.
If you don't believe in winning, you don't believe in free enterprise, capitalism, our way of life.
If you eliminate our way of life, the American way of life, what is the effect... what are the alternatives?
The greatest thing is to win your first Super Bowl.
If you don't win a Super Bowl, you're not considered successful in the National Football League. I can remember, when we finally won that first one, feeling so good for the players and fans.
I probably should have gotten out, but I really enjoyed the challenge of bringing a team to that game. In fact, I probably enjoy the challenge of it more than the actual game.
People will forget me pretty quick.
I try to block out everything that distracts me. Even a big play, I blank it out.
Look at Bjorn Borg or Jack Nicklaus. Those guys really concentrate. With the world on their shoulders, they're so absorbed with what they're doing.
Every coach has his own style of play, but when you spend your whole life as a Cowboy, you have to be influenced by what we did.
A champion is simply someone who did not give up when he wanted to.Collection: Football
There's a misconception about teamwork. Teamwork is the ability to have different thoughts about things; it's the ability to argue and stand up and say loud and strong what you feel. But in the end, it's also the ability to adjust to what is the best for the team.Collection: Basketball
Coaching is making men do what they don't want, so they can become what they want to beCollection: Basketball
In my opinion, character is the most important determinant of a person's success, achievement and ability to handle adversity.Collection: Character
The quality of a man's life is in direct proportion to his commitment to excellence.Collection: Life
To live a disciplined life, and to accept the result of that discipline as the will of God - that is the mark of a man.Collection: Men