Quotes by "Joe Paterno"

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

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.

Coaches have got to be given rank within the university so that you can't fire a coach unless you go through an academic committee, just as you would with a professor. If coaches are to have any stability and security, they need to be treated like an English professor.

We shall act with good intentions, but at times we will be wrong. When we are, let us admit it and try to right the situation.

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

My thing was play as hard as you can, don't be stupid, pay attention to details, and have enough guts in the clutch that you're not afraid to make a play. Some things I thought were important for a young man to know.

Mostly I want to talk positive; I wanna talk about a bunch of great kids that I coached and made me look good and the university that I've seen grow from a cow college, which it was, only 12,000 people, and when I came here, we weren't at Pennsylvania State University, we were at Penn State College.

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

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

What is a coach? We are teachers. Educators. We have the same obligations as all teachers, except we probably have more influence over young people than anybody but their families. And, in a lot of cases, more than their families.

I don't think it's fair to 12-, 13- and 14-year-olds to say 'Show us you're a winner right now!' Winning isn't everything. I'll never buy that thing that if a boy loses a football game, he's a loser in life.

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

Here, I have an opportunity to affect the lives of a lot of young people - and not just on my football team. I'm not kidding myself that that would be true at the professional level.

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

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

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

I'm not as concerned about me. What's happened to me has been great. I got five great kids. Seventeen grandchildren.

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