My Favorite Maxims

By John Wooden

Happiness begins where selfishness ends.

The best way to improve the team is to improve ourself.

Ability may get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there.

I will get ready and then, perhaps, my chance will come.

If I am through learning, I am through.

If you do not have the time to do it right, when will you find the time to do it over?

The man who is afraid to risk failure seldom has to face success.

Don’t let yesterday take up too much of today.

Time spent getting even would be better spent trying to get ahead.

It is what you learn after you know it all that counts.

Goals achieved with little effort are seldom worthwhile or lasting.

What is right is more important than who is right.

Tell the truth. That way you don’t have to remember a story.

Although there is no progress without change, not all change is progress.

If we magnified blessings as much as we magnify disappointments, we would all be much happier.

The worst thing you can do for those you love is the things they could and should do
for themselves. (Abraham Lincoln)

It is one of the most beautiful compensations of this life that no man can sincerely help another without helping himself. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

Do not permit what you cannot do to interfere with what you can do.

Be more concerned with your character than with your reputation. Character is what you really are;
reputation is merely what you are perceived to be.

Love is the greatest of all words in our language.

Much can be accomplished by teamwork when no one is concerned about who gets credit.

Never make excuses. Your friends don’t need them and your foes won’t believe them.

Be slow to criticize and quick to commend.

Be more concerned with what you can do for others than what others can do for you. You’ll be surprised at the results.
Don’t permit fear of failure to prevent effort.

We are all imperfect and will fail on occasions, but fear of failure is the greatest failure of all.

Being average means you are as close to the bottom as you are to the top.

The time to make friends is before you need them.

Nothing can give you greater joy than doing something for another.

You cannot live a perfect day without doing something for another without thought of something in return.

Do not mistake activity for achievement.

The more concerned we become over the things we can’t control, the less we will do with the things we can control
Forget favors given; remember those received.

Make each day your masterpiece.

Acquire peace of mind by making the effort to become the best of which you are capable.