Joe Paterno Quotes

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

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?

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

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

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.

Keep hustling, something good will happen.

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

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

In hindsight, I wish I had done more.

Success without honor is an unseasoned dish; it will satisfy your hunger, but it won't taste good.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

If I had to do it over again, I'd probably play the game the same way.

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

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.

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

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.

Success is best measured by the achiever.

There's never been a greater game than football.

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

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

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.

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

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.

You must relate athletic experiences to life.

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

The kids that were the victims ... I think we all ought to say a prayer for them.

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

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

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.'

There has to be some self-denial.

Connfidence, excellence becomes a reality.

I've had a wonderful experience here at Penn State.

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