Top 10 John Wooden Quotes

John Wooden died on Friday, June 4, 2010, leaving behind a legacy that began on the basketball court but went far beyond it.

Wooden coached the UCLA men's basketball team to 10 NCAA championships in a 12-year stretch from 1964 to 1975, a feat that has never been duplicated.

He also won an NCAA title as a player in 1932 for Purdue.

As a coach, Wooden won 620 games over 27 years, including 88 in a row during one incredible stretch with the Bruins.

Wooden has long been admired as the greatest coach the game of basketball has ever seen. He also had a unique way of keeping things in perspective and of explaining that perspective.

Here are the 10 best John Wooden quotes, in no particular order:

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

"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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Official Site of Coach John Wooden

John Wooden quotes, Los Angeles Times