People Quotes by John Wooden

Surround yourself with people strong enough to change your mind.

— John Wooden

Young people need models, not critics.

— John Wooden

Hardship brings people closer together if you share it.

— John Wooden

Good values are like a magnet – they attract good people.

— John Wooden

Worry about your character, not your reputation. Your character is who you are, and your reputetion is who people think you re.

— John Wooden

Five years from now, you’re the same person except for the people you’ve met and the books you’ve read.

— John Wooden

A coach's primary function should be not to make better players, but to make better people

— John Wooden

Fairness is giving all people the treatment they earn and deserve. It doesn't mean treating everyone alike.

— John Wooden

Too many people look on outscoring someone as winning, I never tried to get that across to my players.

— John Wooden

It takes time to create excellence. If it could be done quickly, more people would do it.

— John Wooden

Whatever you do in life, surround yourself with smart people who'll argue with you.

— John Wooden

People want to believe you are sincerely interested in them as a person, not just what they can do for you.

— John Wooden

Being true to ourselves doesn't make us people of integrity. Charles Manson was true to himself, and as a result, he rightly…

— John Wooden

Let’s face it, we’re all imperfect and we’re going to fall short on occasion. But we must learn from failure and that…

— John Wooden

When people ask me now if I miss coaching UCLA basketball games, the national championships, the attention, the trophies, and everything that…

— John Wooden

Motivating through fear may work in the short term to get people to do something, but over the long run I believe…

— John Wooden

People ask me if I'd permit fancy things, like dunks. Well, if they did dunk, it was with no fancy flair. No…

— John Wooden

I worry that business leaders are more interested in material gain than they are in having the patience to build up a…

— John Wooden

All that matters is the pressure you put on yourself. External pressures cause people to choke. While you can't control what happens…

— John Wooden

I'm not going to say I was opposed to the Vietnam War. I'm going to say I'm opposed to war. But I'm…

— John Wooden

The leader has to command the respect of all those under his supervision - and he must be open to those under…

— John Wooden

What it comes down to, I believe, is that mentoring often involves telling people what they need to hear, rather than what…

— John Wooden

How many of us have conflicts with someone else- and how many of us pray for that person? We have individuals with…

— John Wooden

You can always look back and see where you might have done something differently, changed this or that. If you can learn…

— John Wooden

Time lost is time lost. It’s gone forever. Some people tell themselves that they will work twice as hard tomorrow to make…

— John Wooden

Most people think of poise as calm, self-assured dignity; but I call it “just being you”.

— John Wooden