“I don’t discuss basketball. I dictate basketball. I’m not interested in philosophy classes.”

They call me eccentric. They used to call me nuts. I haven’t changed.

I’m not saying that they were Einsteins; they were marginal students. But every ballplayer whoever touched me has moved up his station in life. And the players moved up my station.

Dean Meminger was quicker than 11:15 Mass at a seaside resort.

It’s a profession in which, the longer you stay, the closer you are to being fired.

Butch, you come from DeWitt Clinton. There are five thousand brothers in that school.

A box score does not properly represent the most important thing – team play. It shows some guy scoring 27 points, but it doesn’t show that my 27-point man let his guy score 30.

A team should be an extension of a coach’s personality. My teams are arrogant and obnoxious.

Most people zero in on their failures. I try to keep all my attention on a pyramid type philosophy rather than the averaging-down philosophy.

I don’t know why people question the academic training of an athlete.

You’re the best there. You’ve been all-city two years in a row. How bad can you be? You come with me and we’ll make nice music.

My rule was I wouldn’t recruit a kid if he had grass in front of his house.

Live every day as if it were Saturday night.

I’m an Einstein of the streets and an Oxford scholar of common sense.

I think everyone should go to college and get a degree and then spend six months as a bartender and six months as a cabdriver. Then they would really be educated.

Fifty percent of the doctors in this country graduated in the bottom half of their classes.

It’s so ridiculous to see a golfer with a one foot putt and everybody is saying “Shhh” and not moving a muscle.

Writing is just work-there’s no secret. If you dictate or use a pen or type or write with your toes-it’s still just work.

The important thing is fear should not control your actions. It should not dictate what you do.

Courage that comes from cultivating the habit of refusing to let fear dictate one’s actions, courage that could be described as ‘grace under pressure’ – grace which is renewed repeatedly in the face of harsh, unremitting pressure.

Fearlessness may be a gift, but perhaps most precious is courage from cultivating the habit of refusing to let fear dictate one’s actions.

“Duty, Honor, Country” – those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be. They are your rallying point to build courage when courage seems to fail, to regain faith when there seems to be little cause for faith, to create hope when hope becomes forlorn.

I’m at peace with myself. The main thing is not letting people dictate what I do or what I am.

History will dictate what my legacy is. And ‘maverick’ is fine, because I am.

The public one and the secret one, and you can dictate a sentence prepared by the political and security apparatuses that are behind this trial.