Best 39 quotes of Joe Paterno on MyQuotes

A hard-fought, well-fought, hairline-close game is as classical in sports as tragedy is in the theater. Victory is contained within defeat, and defeat is contained within victory. That's the way it is in the best of games. What counts in sports is not the victory, but the magnificence of the struggle.

All coaches are thinking men, or else they wouldn't survive.

Believe deep down in your heart that you're destined to do great things.

Besides pride, loyalty, discipline, heart, and mind, confidence is the key to all the locks.

Connfidence, excellence becomes a reality.

Don't just stand back and play the way you're coached. A great player must rise to the occasion and turn the game around on his own.

Everybody likes to win. It sure beats the devil out of losing.

Failure is not getting beat. Failure is when you don't do a good job preparing.

I had a great bunch of kids. They all hung with us. The coaching staff hung with us. And we played tough every game. If you've got kids that want to play and react to you, it's fun. I'm having a good time.

In hindsight, I wish I had done more.

I stayed on the track I wanted to stay on. I don’t think I deviated from what I’m all about and what I thought was important. Whether you want to call that a legacy, or whatever you want to call it.

I still haven't gotten that little something out of my system that I'm still not a kid going to a football game. I'm excited.

Its the name on the front of the jersey that matters most, not the one on the back.

Losing a game is heartbreaking. Losing your sense of excellence or worth is a tragedy.

My father said about money: 'You have to have some. But you don't have to have all of it. Just be honest with yourself.'

My name, I have spent my whole life trying to make that name mean something. And now it's gone.

Publicity is like poison; it doesn't hurt unless you swallow it.

Right now I'm trying to figure out what I'm gonna do, 'cause I don't want to sit around on my backside all day. If I'm gonna do that I'll be a newspaper reporter.

SMU: 'It's unbelievable to think that kind of corruption came right from the top of the power structure. The NCAA did what it had to do' in canceling SMU's 1988 football season.

Some things I thought were important for a young man to know.

Sport is a product of human culture. America seems to need football at this state of our social development. When you get ninety million people watching a single game on television, it ... shows you that people need something to identify with.

Success and excellence are not the same. Excellence grows within a person, is largely within that person's control, and its meaning lasts. Success is measured externally, by comparison to others, is often outside our control, and is perishable.

The minute you think you've got it made, disaster is just around the corner.

There has to be some self-denial.

The will to win is important, but the will to prepare is vital.

They ask me what I'd like written about me when I'm gone. I hope they write I made Penn State a better place, not just that I was a good football coach.

Today, you've got a decision to make. You're gonna get better or you're gonna get worse, but you're not gonna stay the same. Which will it be?

To teach an academic subject is certainly not easy, but compared to coaching, it is. We can say two plus two is four to every kid and be sure that we are right. But in coaching, we have to literally get to the soul of the people we are dealing with.

We need people who influence their peers and who cannot be detoured from their convictions by peers who do not have the courage to have any convictions.

We play with enthusiasm and recklessness. We aren't afraid to lose. If we win, great; but win or lose, it is the competition that gives us pleasure.

What counts in sports is not the victory, but the magnificence of the struggle.

When a kid plays football before he attends a class, something is wrong.

When a team outgrows individual performance and learns team confidence, excellence becomes a reality.

You can't have a great university without a great library.

You have to perform at a consistently higher level than others. That's the mark of a true professional.

You must relate athletic experiences to life.

You need to play with supreme confidence, or else you'll lose again, and then losing becomes a habit.

You're only as happy as your least happy child.

There are many people, particularly in sports, who think that success and excellence are the same thing. They are not the same thing. Excellence is something that is lasting and dependable and largely within a person's control. In contrast, success is perishable and is often outside our control. If you strive for excellence, you will probably be successful eventually. People who put excellence in the first place have the patience to end up with success. An additional burden for the victim of the success mentality is that he is threatened by the success of others and he resents real excellence. In contrast, the person that is fascinated by quality is excited when he sees it in others.