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Success is peace of mind attained only through self-satisfaction and knowing you’ve made the effort, do the best of what you’re capable.

— John Wooden Interview on Charlie Rose (2000)

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Success

More quotes by John Wooden

You can’t live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you.

They Call Me Coach (1972)

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

Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections on and Off the Court (1997)

The main ingredient of stardom, is the rest of the team.

They Call Me Coach (1972)

Failure is not fatal but failure to change might be.

Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections on and Off the Court (1997)

A player who makes a team great is more valuable than a great player. Losing yourself for the group, for the good of the group — that’s teamwork.

IBM Linux Commercial: The Prodigy (2003)

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We spend our lives fighting to get people very slightly more stupid than ourselves to accept truths that the great men have always known.

Doris Lessing The Golden Notebook (1962)

To rank the effort above the prize may be called love.

Confucius

Greatness by nature includes a power, but not a will to power.

Martin Buber Between Man and Man (1965)

The weak shows his strength and hides his weaknesses; the magnificent exhibits his weaknesses like ornaments.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms (2010)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: John Wooden (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.