John Wooden

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

— John Wooden

Don't mistake activity for achievement.

— John Wooden

Never mistake activity for achievement.

— John Wooden

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

— John Wooden

Nothing will work unless you do.

— John Wooden

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

— John Wooden

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

— John Wooden

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

— John Wooden

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.

— John Wooden

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

— John Wooden

Be prepared and be honest.

— John Wooden

It's what you learn after you know it all that counts.

— John Wooden

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.

— John Wooden

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

— John Wooden

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.

— John Wooden

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

— John Wooden

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

— John Wooden

Failure to prepare is preparing to fail.

— John Wooden

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

— John Wooden

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.

— John Wooden

Sports do not build character. They reveal it.

— John Wooden

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.

— John Wooden

It is most difficult, in my mind, to separate any success, whether it be in your profession, your family, or as in my case, in basketball, from religion.

— John Wooden

Success is peace of mind, a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming, and not just in a physical way: seek ye first the kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be yours as well.

— John Wooden

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

— John Wooden

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

— John Wooden

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

— John Wooden

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

— John Wooden

Young people need models, not critics...

— John Wooden