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The life lessons taught by John Wooden have become legend. Here's a collection of some of the greatest 'Woodenisms.'

John Wooden

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John Wooden
Age: 99 †
Born: 1910
Born: October 14
Died: 2010
Died: May 26
Basketball Coach
Basketball Player
Military Officer
Hall
Indiana
John Robert Wooden
Life
Legends
Collection
Collections
John
Lessons
Taught
Greatest
Wooden
Become
Legend

More quotes by John Wooden

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Fairness is giving all people the treatment they earn and deserve. It doesn't mean treating everyone alike.
John Wooden
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The main ingredient of stardom is the rest of the team.
John Wooden
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What it comes down to, I believe, is that mentoring often involves telling people what they need to hear, rather than what they want to hear. When you are able to be humbly honest with someone about a situation with which you have personal experience-even if you risk angering or hurting that person-you are offering the most valuable gift of all.
John Wooden
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It is difficult for young players to learn - because of the great emphasis on records - but, ideally, the joy and frustration of sport should come from the performance itself, not the score. While he is playing, the worst thing a player can think about in terms of concentration - and therefore of success - is losing. The next worst is winning.
John Wooden
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Intensity makes you stronger. Emotionalism makes you weaker.
John Wooden
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Too often, we just ask for help instead of really giving thanks for the many things that we've had and are so helpful to us that we did nothing to deserve, so we should give thanks each and every day and pray for guidance in helping us along the proper path.
John Wooden
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Don't get discouraged: it is often the last key in the bunch that opens the lock. Ability may get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there.
John Wooden
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Opponents are working very hard to defeat us. Let's not do it for them by defeating ourselves from within.
John Wooden
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Make each day your masterpiece. Life is now. Life is not later on.
John Wooden
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I talked to the players and tried to make them aware of what was good and bad, but I didn't try to run their lives.
John Wooden
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You can’t do anything about yesterday, and the only way to improve tomorrow is by what you do right now.
John Wooden
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Reputation is what others perceive you as being, and their opinion may be right or wrong. Character, however, is what you really are, and nobody truly knows that but you. But you are what matters most.
John Wooden
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If we, as coaches, aren't teachers, we are nothing
John Wooden
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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.
John Wooden
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You have to apply yourself each day to becoming a little better. By becoming a little better each and every day, over a period of time, you will become a lot better.
John Wooden
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The outstanding coach is a teacher that gets all his squad to accept the role that he considers to be the most important for the welfare of all.
John Wooden
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The true leader isn't really looking for leadership. He's trying to set an example and be in the proper way to get the most productive results and don't realize it. When the followers get something done, if the leader has been what he should, they'll feel like they did it, not him. That's the way it should be.
John Wooden
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We can agree to disagree, but we don’t need to be disagreeable.
John Wooden
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A mistake is valuable if you do four things with it: recognize it, admit it, learn from it, forget it
John Wooden
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Winning breeds winning.
John Wooden