“How do you know what it’s like to be stupid if you’ve never been smart?”

I’m an old man, and all my life I’ve said that Notre Dame should remain independent because it’s a national school.

Motivation is simple. You eliminate those who are not motivated.

After winning, most teams become individuals; most teams become complacent.

Twenty-five years ago, people talked about their obligations and responsibilities.

All my life, I’ve been trying to make a hole-in-one. The closest I’ve come is a bogey.

You aren’t going to find anybody that’s going to be successful without making a sacrifice and without perseverance.

To win a national championship, you’ve got to be a little lucky.

I have to admit, I sometimes wonder how much more successful I would have been as a coach had it not been for my spending summers on the golf course.

I truly believe the things Notre Dame stands for.

I do think coaches need to get away from the game more, though. It’s good for them.

My wife doesn’t even want to spend 2 hours with me.

The University of Notre Dame does not redshirt, and I endorse that policy completely.

I think everyone should experience defeat at least once during their career. You learn a lot from it.

If you’re bored with life – you don’t get up every morning with a burning desire to do things – you don’t have enough goals.

Nothing on this earth is standing still. It’s either growing or it’s dying. No matter if it’s a tree or a human being.

You don’t go to Notre Dame to learn something; you go to Notre Dame to be somebody.

What should I have known or written had I been a quiet, mercantile politician or a lord in waiting? A man must travel, and turmoil, or there is no existence.

I’ve always been interested in jobs in the NBA. But I’ve been in this for 20 years and it might be time to do something else.

As I travel through my country, people often ask me how it feels to have been imprisoned in my home -first for six years, then for 19 months.

One believes things because one has been conditioned to believe them.

I have never been carried around by a large boy, or laughed until my stomach hurt at the dinner table, or listened to the clamor of a hundred people all talking at once. Peace is restrained; this is free.

I’ve been second my whole life.

And remember this, that if you’ve been hated, you’ve also been loved.

I am not now That which I have been.