1910-, American Basketball Coach
Ability may get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there.
John Wooden – [Ability]
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 – [Winners and Winning]
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 – [Character]
Be prepared and be honest.
John Wooden – [Honesty]
Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.
John Wooden – [Performance]
Don't measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your ability.
John Wooden – [Potential]
Don't mistake activity for achievement.
John Wooden – [Achievement]
Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be.
John Wooden – [Failure]
Failure to prepare is preparing to fail.
John Wooden – [Planning]
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 – [Purpose]
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 – [Passion]
I'd rather have a lot of talent and a little experience than a lot of experience and a little talent.
John Wooden – [Talent]
If you're not making mistakes, then you're not doing anything. I'm positive that a doer makes mistakes.
John Wooden – [Mistakes]
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]
It isn't what you do, but how you do it.
John Wooden – [Excellence]
It's not so important who starts the game but who finishes it.
John Wooden – [Perseverance]
It's the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen.
John Wooden – [Things and Little Things]
It's what you learn after you know it all that counts.
John Wooden – [Learning]
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 – [Success]
Never mistake activity for achievement.
John Wooden – [Achievement]