QUOTES AND SAYINGS
FOR BASKETBALL,
SPORTS AND LIFE

These are quotes and saying collected over 20 years of coaching. I regret that I do not have the source for all of them. But I think you will find something here that you can use. At least that is my purpose in placing them here. I hope none are repeated but I'm sure some will be, so please forgive me in advance.

If there is no wind - ROW!!

The impossible is what nobody can do until somebody does it.

The quality of a man's life is in direct proportion to his commitment to excellence. (Vince Lombardi)

Doing a thing nearly right and doing it right, is the difference between success and failure.

If the cows don't get fed - they don't get fed! Excuses don't help the matter.

The winds and waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators. (Gibbon)

A lot of people want to go to Heaven but not too many people want to die to get there.

It's them as take advantage that get advantage in this world. (George Eliot)

The guy who gets ahead, is the guy who does more than is necessary - and keeps on doing it.

All the energy in the world would not be enough, if headed in the wrong direction.

In-Put equals Out-Put.

If you are behind in a race you must run harder and faster than the one in front or forever remain behind.

If it is to be it is up to me.

The greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming.

A man in earnest finds means, or if he cannot find, creates them. (Channing)

Obstacles are what you see when you take your eyes off the goal.

A ship in a harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.

If the mailman stopped to worry about every barking dog, he'd never get the mail delivered.

It is better to understand little than to misunderstand a lot. (Anatole France)

When speculation has done its worst, two and two still make four.

He who builds according to every man's advice will have a crooked house.

There is always a best way of doing everything, if it be to boil an egg. (R.W. Emerson)

Adventure is not outside a man, it is within. (David Grayson)

Life is either a daring adventure or it is nothing.

I would rather be disliked for what I am, than to be liked for what I am not.

When you look back on your life be able to regret things you have done instead of things you wished you had done.

I do the very best I know how - the very best I can and I mean to keep doing so until the end. If the end brings me out all right, what is said against me won't amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, the angles swearing I was right would make no difference. (Abraham Lincoln)

A hole is nothing at all, but you can break your neck in it.

Facts don't cease to exist because they are ignored. (Aldrous Huxley)

Chance is a name for our ignorance. (Leslie Stephens)

Difficulty is the excuse history never accepts. (Samuel Grafton)

He that imagines that he has knowledge enough hath none.

Lord, grant that I may always desire more than I can accomplish. (Michelangelo)

The first and worst of all frauds is to cheat oneself. (Philip J. Bailey)

The future is NOW! (George Allen)

We cannot direct the winds but we can adjust the sails.

Even if you are on the right track, you will get run over if you just sit there.

Compliments are like cologne. It smells good but it is better not to swallow it.

May you live all the days of your life. (Jonathan Swift)

It is differences of opinion that makes horse races. (Mark Twain)

Once upon a time a tiger ate a bull. He felt so good that he growled and growled. A hunter heard him growling and killed him with just one shot.
MORAL: When you are full of bull keep your mouth shut.

Life is a play! Tis not its length, but its performance that counts. (Seneca)

Once man with courage makes a majority. (Andrew Jackson)

Compromise is the sacrifice of one right or good in the hope of retaining another, too often ending in the loss of both. (Tryon Edwards)

Be bold in what you stand for but be careful what you fall for.

It is better to be silent and thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt. (Abraham Lincoln)

Don't let yesterday use up too much of today.

Occasions don't make a man either strong or weak, but they show what he is. (Thomas a` Kempis)

Please all, and you will please none. (Aesop)

Put all your eggs in one basket - and watch the basket. (Mark Twain)

It may be that the race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong - but that's the way to bet. (Damon Runyon)

Great minds have purposes, others have wishes. (Wahington Irving)

You cannot prevent the birds of sorrow from flying over your head, but you can prevent them from building nests in your hair.

He that lives on hope has but a slender diet.

To do two things at once is to do neither. (Publibius Syrus)

Defeat isn't a bitter pill, if you refuse to swallow it.

It's but little good you'll do, a-watering last year's crop. (George Eliot)

The eagle does not catch flies.

The difficult we do immediately;
The impossible takes a little longer.

Be sure you are right, then go ahead. (David Crockett)

The only lasting security for any of us lies in moving constantly forward. (Henry A. Wallace)

If a person has no education he just has to use his brains.

The more we study the more we discover our ignorance. (Shelly)

The secret of success is constancy of purpose. (Disraeli)

He who excuses himself accuses himself. (Gabriel Meurier)

A small leak will sink a great ship. (Ben Franklin)

Whatever is worth doing at all, is worth doing well. (Chesterfield)

The only competition of a wise man is with himself. (Washington Allston)

Circumstances are the rulers of the weak; they are but the instruments of the wise. (Samuel Lover)

Some things have to be belived to be seen.

Good, Better, Best; Never let it rest, till your Good is Better, and your Better is Best.

There is a big difference between wanting to and willing to.

He who will not be denied will find a way.

They say you can't do it, but sometimes it doesn't always work out that way.

We accomplish in proportion to what we attempt.

Anything you can do, you can do better.

A man of character knows his limitations - but doesn't accept them.

You can't cross a chasm is two small jumps.

It is very easy to be ordinary, but it takes courage to excel.

The difference between mediocrity and greatness is extra effort.

The reward of a thing well done is to have done it. (R.W. Emerson)

He who says it can't be done shouldn't interrupt the one who is doing it.

If better is even possible, good isn't enough.

Life is like a ten-speed bike. Most of us have gears we never use.

Luck will get you over a ditch - if you jump hard enough.

It isn't the load that breaks us down, it's the way we carry it.

If you fail to prepare, you are preparing to fail.

Nothing is successful until it is accomplished.

When a fellow ain't got much mind, it don't take him long to make it up. (Will Rogers)

It is no rest to be idle.

There are two kinds of men that never amount to much - those that cannot do what they are told and those who can do nothing else. (Cyrus H.K. Curtis)

Winning is not everything, but it sure beats anything that comes in second.

There is no limit to what one can accomplish if one doesn't know what one can't do.

Silence is the hardest argument to refute. (Josh Billings)

Funny thing how trouble acts different on folks. Kind of like hot weather - sours milk and sweetens apples. (Joseph C. Lincoln)

Show me a thoroughly satisfied man - and I will show you a failure. (Thomas Edison)

Failure is the line of least persistence.

The mightiest works have been accomplished by men who have somehow kept their ability to dream great dreams. (Walter Russell Bowie)

Our imagination is the only limit to what we can hope to have in the future. (Charles F. Ketttering)

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundation under them. (Henry D. Thoreau)

The man who cannot wonder is but a pair of spectacles behind which there is no eye. (Thomas Carlyle)

One of the greatest pleasures in life is doing what people say can't be done.

Rise above the ordinary.

Those who dare to dream, dare to do.

The day you take responsibility for yourself, the day you stop making excuses, that's the day you start to the top.

Right is right even if everyone is against it.
Wrong is wrong even if everyone is for it.

The higher the standards you have the better you become.

MENTAL TOUGHNESS: The strength to know yourself, to know your own truth, and to put that forth even when others tell you that you are wrong.

Concentration is a habit.

A man has to have goals to accomplish anything worthwhile.

Faced with crises, the man of character falls back upon himself.

I never did anything worth doing by accident. (Thomas Edison)

They can conquer who believe they can.

The right attitude is the key to everything in the world.

Dream the impossible dream, and go after it.

Mr. Meant-To has a comrad and his name is Didn't-Do. Have you ever chanced to meet them? Did they ever call on you? These two fellows live together in the House-of-Never-Win. And I am told that it is haunted by the ghost of Could-Have-Been.

The unexamined life is not worth living.

With slight efforts how could one obtain great results?

The superior man will watch over himself.

Satisfaction comes from a job well done.

If what you did yesterday still looks big to you today, then you have not done much today.

You can always tell a failure by the way he criticizes success.

Tough times never last, but tough people do.

It is amazing what you can do when everybody does what they are suppose to do.

Don't call yourself a dogcatcher if you can't catch a dog.

Size isn't everything. The whale is an endangered species but the ant is doing all right.

The man who wakes up and finds himself a success, hasn't been asleep.

No dream comes true until you wake up and go to work.

It is the loose ends with which men hang themselves.

It is astonishing how long it takes to finish something you are not working on.

There is a lot of difference between getting up steam and being full of hot air.

Your job will never be any bigger than your imagination makes it.

Courage is knowing what not to fear. (Socrates)

If the horse is dead - get off.

Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. (Samuel Johnson)

It is better to wear out than to rust out. (Richard Cumberland)

Skill to do comes of doing. (R.W. Emerson)

Make your opponent fear and respect you. (Knute Rockne)

You don't win games with optimism. You win with preparation.

If you don't have a goal there is nothing to shoot for.

I can because I have to.

Act as if it were impossible to fail, and it will be.

Trust everybody but always cut the cards.

When a man has not a good reason for doing a thing, he has one good reason for letting it alone. (Thomas Scott)

No man has a good enough memory to make a successful lier. (Abraham Lincoln)

If a little knowledge is dangerous, where is the man who has so much as to be out of danger? (T.H. Huxley)

Excellence is the perfect excuse. Do it well and it matters little what. (R.W. Emerson)

Don't make excuses - make good. (Elbert Hubbard)

You've got to do your own growing, no matter how tall your grandfather was.

Ay, we must all hang together, else we shall hang seperately. (Ben Franklin)

Keeping from falling is better than helping up.

Keeping from falling is better than getting up.

There are no hopeless situations; there are only men who have grown hopeless about them.

Ideals are like stars - we never reach them, but like the mariners of the sea, we chart our course by them. (Carl Schurz)

Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much. Wisdom is humble that he knows no more. (Cowper)

The draft that blows out the match makes the furnance burn better, and what prostrates a coward excites a brave man to action.

The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise high to the occasion. (Abraham Lincoln)

It's a circle! Work and confidence and more work and more confidence.

Confidence comes from hours, and days, and weeks, and years of constant work and dedication.

There is no secret to success - It is just work, work, work, work.

Everybody knows how to boil water and coach basketball.

One of the best test of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency.

To be what we are and to become what we are capable of becoming, is the only end in life. (Robert Louis Stevenson)

If little labor, little are our gains; Man's fortunes are according to his pains. (Robert Herrick)

The fellow who isn't fired with enthusiasm is apt to be fired. (B.C. Forbes)

Skill and confidence are an unconquered army. (George Herbert)

Counting time is not so important as making time count. (James J. Walker)

To choose time is to save time. (Bacon)

It is not the going out of port, but the coming in, that determines the success of a voyage. (H.W. Beecher)

Consider the postage stamp. It secures success through its ability to stick to one thing till it gets there. (Josh Billings)

I will find a way or make one.

Easy street is a blind alley. (Wilson Mizner)

Labor disgraces no man, unfortunately you occasionally find men who disgrace labor. (U.S. Grant)

He is not worthy of the honeycomb that shuns the hive because the bees have stings. (Shakespeare)

No man ever dank under the burden of the day. It is when yesterday's burden is added to the burden of today that the weight is more than a man can bear.

Into the well which supplies thee water, cast no stones. (Talmund)

Errors, like straws, upon the surface flow; He who would search for pearls must dive below. (Dryden)

The thirst of desire is never filled or fully satisfied. (Cicero)

He who desires but acts not, breeds pestilence. (Blake)

That which is not good for the swarm, neither is it good for the bee. (Marcus Aurelius)

The bee, from her industry in the summer, eats honey all the winter.

No good sensible working bee listens to the advice of a bedbug on the subject of business. (Elbert Hubbard)

No man is his craft's master the first day.

The reward of a thing well done is to have done it. (R.W. Emerson)

Set your goal higher than you can reach - then reach it.

PRESS ON: Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.

One third of the people make things happen, one third let things happen and one third doesn't know what is happening.

Live every day like you are going to die tomorow and work every day like you are going to live forever.

Many people have a good aim in life, but for some reason they never pull the trigger.

The best time to do something worthwhile is between yesterday and tomorrow.

All progress is due to those who were not satisfied to let well enough alone.

We rate ability in men by what they finish, not by what they attempt.

People may doubt what you say, but they will always believe what you do>

It is a mistake to try to judge a man's horsepower by the size of his exhaust.

If you are going to climb, you've got to grab the branches, not the blossoms.

All things come to him who goes after what the other fellow waits for.

If you don't climb the mountain, you can't see the view.

The man who doesn't do more than he's paid to do, isn't worth what he is paid.

The best kind of pride is that which comples a man to do his best work - even when no one is looking.

It is useless to have an aim in life unless one has ammunition to back it up.

Having the right aim in life doesn't mean a thing if you are loaded with blanks.

There is no use aiming for a goal with no arrow in your bow.

No one ever climbed a hill just by looking at it.

A genius shoots at something no one else sees - and hits it.

Ability without ambition is like a car without a motor.

If you itch for success, keep on scratching.

Some people entertain ideas, others put them to work.

Knowing without doing is like plowing without sowing.

No farmer ever plowed a field by turning it over in his mind.

No one has yet climbed the ladder of success with his hands in his pockets.

Life is like a poker game. If you don't put anything in the pot, there won't be anything to take out.

Just over the hill is a beautiful valley, but you must climb the hill to see it.

Some fellows dream of worthy accomplishments, while others stay awake and do them.

Rejecting things because they are old-fashioned would rule out the sun and the moon.

Do not look back unless you plan to go that way.

The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender.

It is a case of give and take in this world. With not enough people willing to give what it takes.

A heel never toes the line.

Life is like a bicycle. Stop pedaling and you fall off.

Fatigue makes cowards of us all. (Vince Lombardi)

A man must consider what a rich realm he abdicates when he becomes a conformist. (R.W. Emerson)

Babe Ruth's record (until it was broken by Hank Aaron) of 714 home runs will never be forgotten. But how many of us know that the Babe struck out 1330 times, a record unapproached by any other player in the history of baseball.

Chance favors the prepared mind. (Louis Pasteur)

Most of life's problems are like those cloverleaf interchanges we find on our highways - unlikely though it may seem, there is a way out. (Bill Vaughn)

Follow impulse, and you may be sorry. But ignore it, and you deny yourself one of the too rare moments when individuality is possible. (Sheldon Cain)

Success is the child of audacity. (Disraeli)

When plans are laid in advance, it is surprising how often the circumstances fit in with them.

I don't mind starting the season with a bunch of unknowns. I just don't want to finish the season with a bunch of them.

Don't speak unless you can improve on the silence.

When you win your food taste better and your girl looks prettier.

What you are thunders so loud I can't hear what you say.

Still waters run deep.

It is easy to tell a lie; but hard to tell only one lie.

There are times when nothing a man can say is nearly so powerful as saying nothing.

It is the shallow brook that babbles.

Excuses are the testimony of failure.

The biggest mistake you can make is to believe that you are working for someone else.

Never make the mistake of arguing with people whose opinions you don't respect.

Pity cost nothing and ain't worth nothing.

Make haste slowly.

If experience is that important, we'd never have anyone walking on the moon.

He that is cheated twice by the same man is an accomplice with the cheater.

There is no security in life, only opportunity.

The dog with the bone is always in danger.

When two men in a business always agree, one of them is unnecessary. (William Wrigley, Jr.)

Forgive your enemies but never forget their names. (John F. Kennedy)

True Grit is making a decision and standing by it, doing what must be done - for no moral man can have peace of mind if he leaves undone what he knows he should have done.

Practice does not make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect.

A man who makes a mistake and does not correct it is committing another.

A job done poorly stands as a witness against the man who did it.

If you are made in the right stuff, a hard fall results in a high bounce.

The best way to better our lot is to do a lot better.

Success demands a singleness of purpose.

It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog.

About all there is to success is making promises and keeping them.

No one can make you feel inferior without your sonsent.

Courage consists not in blindly overlooking danger, but in seeing it and conquering it.

The right angle to approach any problem is the Try-Angle.

The more I ask of myself, the more I find I have to give.

Our wildest dreams sometimes results in our greatest endeavors.


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