Monthly Archive: May 2021

COACHES HOT SEAT > 2021 > May

Coaches Hot Seat Quotes of the Day – Monday, May 31, 2021 – Omar Bradley

May 31, 2021

“Bravery is the capacity to perform properly even when scared half to death.”

And

“Leadership is intangible, and therefore no weapon ever designed can replace it.”

And

“Set your course by the stars, not by the lights of every passing ship.”

And

“This is as true in everyday life as it is in battle: we are given one life and the decision is ours whether to wait for circumstances to make up our mind, or whether to act, and in acting, to live.”

And

“Dependability, integrity, the characteristic of never knowingly doing anything wrong, that you would never cheat anyone, that you would give everybody a fair deal. Character is a sort of an all-inclusive thing. If a man has character, everyone has confidence in him. Soldiers must have confidence in their leader.”

And

“We have men of science, too few men of God. We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount. The world has achieved brilliance without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living. If we continue to develop our technology without wisdom or prudence, our servant may prove to be our executioner.”

And

“Wars can be prevented just as surely as they can be provoked, and we who fail to prevent them, must share the guilt for the dead.”

And

“The way to win an atomic war is to make certain it never starts.”

And

“With the monstrous weapons man already has, humanity is in danger of being trapped in this world by its moral adolescents.”

And

Military hero, courageous in battle, and gentle in spirit, friend of the common soldier, General of the Army, first Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he embodies the best of the American military tradition with dignity, humanity, and honor. Gerald Ford, remarks upon presenting Bradley with the Presidential Medal of Freedom (10 January 1977)

And

An Armistice Day Address

By General Omar N. Bradley
Boston, Massachusetts
November 10, 1948

“TOMORROW is our day of conscience. For although it is a monument to victory, it is also a symbol of failure. Just as it honors the dead, so must it humble the living.

Armistice Day is a constant reminder that we won a war and lost a peace.

It is both a tribute and an indictment: A tribute to the men who died that their neighbors might live without fear of aggression. An indictment of those who lived and forfeited their chance for peace.

Therefore, while Armistice Day is a day for pride, it is for pride in the achievements of others—humility in our own.

Neither remorse nor logic can hide the fact that our armistice ended in failure. Not until the armistice myth exploded in the blast of a Stuka bomb did we learn that the winning of wars does not in itself make peace. And not until Pearl Harbor did we learn that non-involvement in peace means certain involvement in war.
We paid grievously for those faults of the past in deaths, disaster, and dollars.

It was a penalty we knowingly chose to risk. We made the choice when we defaulted on our task in creating and safeguarding a peace.

It is no longer possible to shield ourselves with arms alone against the ordeal of attack. For modern war visits destruction on the victor and the vanquished alike. Our only complete assurance of surviving World War III is to halt it before it starts.

For that reason we clearly have no choice but to face the challenge of these strained times. To ignore the danger of aggression is simply to invite it. It must never again be said of the American people: Once more we won a war; once more we lost a peace. If we do we shall doom our children to a struggle that may take their lives.

ARMED forces can wage wars but they cannot make peace. For there is a wide chasm between war and peace—a chasm that can only be bridged by good will, discussion, compromise, and agreement. In 1945 while still bleeding from the wounds of aggression, the nations of this world met in San Francisco to build that span from war to peace. For three years—first hopefully, then guardedly, now fearfully—free nations have labored to complete that bridge. Yet again and again they have been obstructed by a nation whose ambitions thrive best on tension, whose leaders are scornful of peace except on their own impossible terms.

The unity with which we started that structure has been riddled by fear and suspicion. In place of agreement we are wrangling dangerously over the body of that very nation whose aggression had caused us to seek each other as allies and friends.

Only three years after our soldiers first clasped hands over the Elbe, this great wartime ally has spurned friendship with recrimination, it has clenched its fists and skulked in conspiracy behind it secretive borders.

As a result today we are neither at peace nor war. Instead we are engaged in this contest of tension, seeking agreement with those who disdain it, rearming, and struggling for peace.

Time can be for or against us.

It can be for us if diligence in our search for agreement equals the vigilance with which we prepare for a storm.

It can be against us if disillusionment weakens our faith in discussion—or if our vigilance corrodes while we wait.

Disillusionment is always the enemy of peace. And today—as after World War I —disillusionment can come from expecting too much, too easily, too soon. In our impatience we must never forget that fundamental differences have divided this world; they allow no swift, no cheap, no easy solutions.

While as a prudent people we must prepare ourselves to encounter what we may be unable to prevent, we nevertheless must never surrender ourselves to the certainty of that encounter.

For if we say there is no good in arguing with what must inevitably come, then we shall be left with no choice but to create a garrison state and empty our wealth into arms. The burden of long-term total preparedness for some indefinite but inevitable war could not help but crush the freedom we prize. It would leave the American people soft victims for bloodless aggression.

BOTH the East and the West today deprecate war. Yet because of its threatening gestures, its espousal of chaos, its secretive tactics, and its habits of force—one nation has caused the rest of the world to fear that it might recklessly resort to force rather that be blocked in its greater ambitions.

The American people have said both in their aid to Greece and in the reconstruction of Europe that any threat to freedom is a threat to our own lives. For we know that unless free peoples stand boldly and united against the forces of aggression, they may fall wretchedly, one by one, into the web of oppression.

It is fear of the brutal unprincipled use of force by reckless nations that might ignore the vast reserves of our defensive strength that has caused the American people to enlarge their air, naval, and ground arms.

Reluctant as we are to muster this costly strength, we must leave no chance for miscalculation in the mind of any aggressor.

Because in the United States it is the people who are sovereign, the Government is theirs to speak their voice and to voice their will, truthfully and without distortion.

We, the American people, can stand cleanly before the entire world and say plainly to any state:

“This Government will not assail you.

“You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressor.”

Since the origin of the American people, their chief trait has been the hatred of war. And yet these American people are ready to take up their arms against aggression and destroy if need be by their might any nation which would violate the peace of the world.

There can be no compromise with aggression anywhere in the world. For aggression multiplies—in rapid succession—disregard for the rights of man. Freedom when threatened anywhere is at once threatened everywhere.

NO MORE convincing an avowal of their peaceful intentions could have been made by the American people than by their offer to submit to United Nations the secret of the atom bomb. Our willingness to surrender this trump advantage that atomic energy might be used for the peaceful welfare of mankind splintered the contentions of those word-warmakers that our atom had been teamed with the dollar for imperialistic gain.

Yet because we asked adequate guarantees and freedom of world-wide inspection by the community of nations itself, our offer was declined and the atom has been recruited into this present contest of nerves. To those people who contend that secrecy and medieval sovereignty are more precious than a system of atomic control, I can only reply that it is a cheap price to pay for peace.

The atom bomb is far more than a military weapon. It may—as Bernard Baruch once said—contain the choice between the quick and the dead. We dare not forget that the advantage in atomic warfare lies with aggression and surprise. If we become engaged in an atom bomb race, we may simply lull ourselves to sleep behind an atomic stockpile. The way to win an atomic war is to make certain it never starts.

WITH the monstrous weapons man already has, humanity is in danger of being trapped in this world by its moral adolescents. Our knowledge of science has clearly outstripped our capacity to control it. We have many men of science; too few men of God. We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount. Man is stumbling blindly through a spiritual darkness while toying with the precarious secrets of life and death. The world has achieved brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living.

This is our twentieth century’s claim to distinction and to progress.

IN OUR concentration on the tactics of strength and resourcefulness which have been used in the contest for blockaded Berlin, we must not forget that we are also engaged in a long-range conflict of ideas. Democracy can withstand ideological attacks if democracy will provide earnestly and liberally for the welfare of its people. To defend democracy against attack, men must value freedom. And to value freedom they must benefit by it in happier and more secure lives for their wives and their children.

Throughout this period of tension in which we live, the American people must demonstrate conclusively to all other peoples of the world that democracy not only guarantees man’s human freedom but that it guarantees his economic dignity and progress as well. To practice freedom and make it work, we must cherish the individual; we must provide him the opportunities for reward and impress upon him the responsibilities a free man bears to the society in which he lives.”

Wikipedia Page: Omar Bradley

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Coaches Hot Seat Quotes of the Day – Sunday, May 30, 2021 – Tom Clancy

May 29, 2021

“America is the most inventive country in the world because everybody has access to information.”

And

“Fighting wars is not so much about killing people as it is about finding things out. The more you know, the more likely you are to win a battle.”

And

“I was one of the first generations to watch television. TV exposes people to news, to information, to knowledge, to entertainment. How is it bad?”

And

“I’ve made up stuff that’s turned out to be real, that’s the spooky part.”

And

“In the Soviet Union it was illegal to take a photograph of a train station. Look what happened to them. They tried to classify everything.”

And

“It’s not right to say that our loss in Vietnam turned out to be a gain. But lessons were learned. And they were the right lessons.”

And

“Life is about learning; when you stop learning, you die.”

And

“Man is a creature of hope and invention, both of which belie the idea that things cannot be changed.”

And

“No matter what you or anyone else does, there will be someone who says that there’s something bad about it.”

And

“Nothing is as real as a dream. The world can change around you, but your dream will not. Responsibilities need not erase it. Duties need not obscure it. Because the dream is within you, no one can take it away.”

And

“People live longer today than they ever have. They live happier lives, have more knowledge, more information. All this is the result of communications technology. How is any of that bad?”

And

“Probably what pushed the Russians over the edge was SDI. They realized they couldn’t beat us.”

And

“Show me an elitist, and I’ll show you a loser.”

And

“The control of information is something the elite always does, particularly in a despotic form of government. Information, knowledge, is power. If you can control information, you can control people.”

And

“The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense.”

And

“The good old days are now.”

And

“The human condition today is better than it’s ever been, and technology is one of the reasons for that.”

And

“The U.S. Military is us. There is no truer representation of a country than the people that it sends into the field to fight for it. The people who wear our uniform and carry our rifles into combat are our kids, and our job is to support them, because they’re protecting us.”

And

“There are two kinds of people: the ones who need to be told and the ones who figure it out all by themselves.”

And

“There used to be this country called the Soviet Union; it’s not there anymore. Our technology was better than theirs.”

And

“There was a time when nails were high-tech. There was a time when people had to be told how to use a telephone. Technology is just a tool. People use tools to improve their lives.”

And

“Whenever somebody comes up with a good idea, there’s somebody else who has never had a good idea in his life who stands up and says, Oh, you can’t do that.”

Wikipedia:  Tom Clancy

www.tomclancy.com

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Coaches Hot Seat Quotes of the Day – Saturday, May 29, 2021 – John McEnroe

May 29, 2021

“I think it’s the mark of a great player to be confident in tough situations.”

And

“The important thing is to learn a lesson every time you lose.  Life is a learning process and you have to try to learn what’s best for you.  Let me tell you, life is not fun when you’re banging your head against a brick wall all the time.”

And

“What is the single most important quality in a tennis champion?  I would have to say desire, staying in there and winning matches when you are not playing that well.”

And

“I’ll let the racket do the talking.”

And

“I’d like to think I could have and should have won more, but that’s not the point. And I was at the point where I was playing great tennis in the mid 80s – the type of tennis people hadn’t seen before – and I was very proud of that.”

And

“If, in a few months, I’m only number 8 or number 10 in the world, I’ll have to look at what off-the-court work I can do. I will need to do something if I want to be number 1.”

And

“Everybody loves success, but they hate successful people”

Wikipedia Page:  John McEnroe

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Coaches Hot Seat Quotes of the Day – Friday, May 28, 2021 – Billie Jean King

May 28, 2021

“A champion is afraid of losing. Everyone else is afraid of winning.”

And

“Be bold. If you’re going to make an error, make a doozy, and don’t be afraid to hit the ball.”

And

“Champions keep playing until they get it right.”

And

“I didn’t really care if I had a coach that much, me personally, because I was brought up to think for myself.”

And

“I have a lot to say, and if I’m not No. 1, I can’t say it.”

And

“I like entrepreneurial people; I like people who take risks.”

And

“I think self-awareness is probably the most important thing towards being a champion.”

And

“I will tell you King’s First Law of Recognition: You never get it when you want it, and then when it comes, you get too much.”

And

“No one changes the world who isn’t obsessed.”

And

“Sports teaches you character, it teaches you to play by the rules, it teaches you to know what it feels like to win and lose-it teaches you about life.”

And

“The main thing is to care. Care very hard, even if it is only a game you are playing.”

And

“Victory is fleeting. Losing is forever.”

Wikipedia:  Billie Jean King

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Coaches Hot Seat Quotes of the Day – Thursday, May 27, 2021 – William Tecumseh Sherman

May 27, 2021

“An Army is a collection of armed men obliged to obey one man. Every change in the rules which impairs the principle weakens the army.”

And

“An army to be useful must be a unit, and out of this has grown the saying, attributed to Napoleon, but doubtless spoken before the days of Alexander, that an army with an inefficient commander was better than one with two able heads.”

And

“Courage – a perfect sensibility of the measure of danger, and a mental willingness to endure it.”

And

“I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, for vengeance, for desolation. War is hell.”

And

“I hate newspapermen. They come into camp and pick up their camp rumors and print them as facts. I regard them as spies, which, in truth, they are.”

And

“If I had my choice I would kill every reporter in the world but I am sure we would be getting reports from hell before breakfast.”

And

“I make up my opinions from facts and reasoning, and not to suit any body but myself. If people don’t like my opinions, it makes little difference as I don’t solicit their opinions or votes.”

And

“In our Country… one class of men makes war and leaves another to fight it out.”

And

“It’s a disagreeable thing to be whipped.”

And

“My aim, then, was to whip the rebels, to humble their pride, to follow them to their inmost recesses, and make them fear and dread us. Fear is the beginning of wisdom.”

And

“If nominated, I will not run; if elected, I will not serve.”

And

“I think I understand what military fame is; to be killed on the field of battle and have your name misspelled in the newspapers.”

And

“War is cruelty. There is no use trying to reform it. The crueler it is, the sooner it will be over.”

And

“Every attempt to make war easy and safe will result in humiliation and disaster.”

And

“Grant stood by me when I was crazy, and I stood by him when he was drunk, and now we stand by each other.”

And

“War is the remedy that our enemies have chosen, and I say let us give them all they want.”

And

“I know I had no hand in making this war, and I know I will make more sacrifices today than any of you to secure peace.”

And

“There will soon come an armed contest between capital and labor. They will oppose each other, not with words and arguments, but with shot and shell, gun-powder and cannon. The better classes are tired of the insane howling of the lower strata and they mean to stop them.”

And

“There is many a boy here today who looks on war as all glory, but, boys, it is all hell.”

And

“I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah.”

And

“If the people raise a great howl against my barbarity and cruelty, I will answer that war is war, and not popularity seeking.”

Wikipedia: William Tecumseh Sherman

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Coaches Hot Seat Quotes of the Day – Wednesday, May 26, 2021 – George Lucas

May 26, 2021

“A lot of people like to do certain things, but they’re not that good at it. Keep going through the things that you like to do, until you find something that you actually seem to be extremely good at. It can be anything.”

And

“Everybody has talent, it’s just a matter of moving around until you’ve discovered what it is.”

And

“Part of the issue of achievement is to be able to set realistic goals, but that’s one of the hardest things to do because you don’t always know exactly where you’re going, and you shouldn’t.”

And

“Star Wars” is fun, its exciting, its inspirational, and people respond to that. It’s what they want.”

And

“Whatever has happened in my quest for innovation has been part of my quest for immaculate reality.”

And

“When you are a beginning film maker you are desperate to survive. The most important thing in the end is survival and being able to get to your next picture.”

And

“Working hard is very important. You’re not going to get anywhere without working extremely hard.”

And

“You simply have to put one foot in front of the other and keep going. Put blinders on and plow right ahead.”

And

“Dreams are extremely important. You can’t do it unless you can imagine it.”

And

“Luke, there is no try, there is either do or not do.”

And

“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.”

And

“In my experience, there’s no such thing as luck.”

And

“You sort of see these recurring themes where a democracy turns itself into a dictatorship, and it always seems to happen kind of in the same way, with the same kinds of issues, and threats from the outside, needing more control. A democratic body, a senate, not being able to function properly because everybody’s squabbling, there’s corruption.”

And

“Being in Washington is more fictional than being in Hollywood.”

And

“Don’t avoid the cliches – they are cliches because they work!”

And

Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

“Yoda: Ready are you? What know you of ready? For eight hundred years have I trained Jedi. My own counsel will I keep on who is to be trained. A Jedi must have the deepest commitment, the most serious mind. This one a long time have I watched. All his life has he looked away… to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was. Hmm? What he was doing. Hmph. Adventure. Heh. Excitement. Heh. A Jedi craves not these things. You are reckless.”

And

“[Luke has seen a vision of Han, Leia and Chewie being tortured in Cloud City]
Luke: I saw – I saw a city in the clouds.
Yoda: [nods] Friends you have there.
Luke: They were in pain…
Yoda: It is the future you see.
Luke: The future?
[pause]
Luke: Will they die?
Yoda: [closes his eyes for a moment] Difficult to see. Always in motion is the future.
Luke: I’ve got to go to them.
Yoda: Decide you must, how to serve them best. If you leave now, help them you could; but you would destroy all for which they have fought, and suffered.”

And

“C-3PO: Sir, the possibility of successfully navigating an asteroid field is approximately 3,720 to 1.
Han Solo: Never tell me the odds. “

And

“[Luke can’t levitate his X-Wing out of the bog] 

Luke: I can’t. It’s too big.
Yoda: Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you? Hmm? Hmm. And well you should not. For my ally is the Force, and a powerful ally it is. Life creates it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us and binds us. Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter. You must feel the Force around you; here, between you, me, the tree, the rock, everywhere, yes. Even between the land and the ship.”

And

“Yoda: I am wondering, why are you here?
Luke: I’m looking for someone.
Yoda: Looking? Found someone, you have, I would say, hmmm?
Luke: Right…
Yoda: Help you I can. Yes, mmmm.
Luke: I don’t think so. I’m looking for a great warrior.
Yoda: Ohhh. Great warrior.
[laughs and shakes his head]
Yoda: Wars not make one great.”

And

“Luke: All right, I’ll give it a try.
Yoda: No. Try not. Do… or do not. There is no try.

And

“[Using the Force, Yoda effortlessly frees the X-Wing from the bog]
Luke: I don’t, I don’t believe it.
Yoda: That is why you fail.”

And

“Yoda: Yes, run! Yes, a Jedi’s strength flows from the Force. But beware of the dark side. Anger, fear, aggression; the dark side of the Force are they. Easily they flow, quick to join you in a fight. If once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you it will, as it did Obi-Wan’s apprentice.
Luke: Vader… Is the dark side stronger?
Yoda: No, no, no. Quicker, easier, more seductive.
Luke: But how am I to know the good side from the bad?
Yoda: You will know… when you are calm, at peace, passive. A Jedi uses the Force for knowledge and defense, NEVER for attack.
Luke: But tell my why I can’t…
Yoda: No, no! There is no “why””

And

“Luke: I won’t fail you. I’m not afraid.
Yoda: You will be. You… will… be.”

And

“Luke: There’s something not right here… I feel cold. Death.
Yoda: [points to a cave opening beneath a large tree] That place… is strong with the dark side of the Force. A domain of evil it is. In you must go.
Luke: What’s in there?
Yoda: Only what you take with you.”

Wikipedia:  George Lucas

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Coaches Hot Seat Quotes of the Day – Tuesday, May 25, 2021 – Henry James

May 25, 2021

“Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact.”

And

“Deep experience is never peaceful.”

And

“Do not mind anything that anyone tells you about anyone else. Judge everyone and everything for yourself.”

And

“If I were to live my life over again, I would be an American. I would steep myself in America, I would know no other land.”

And

“It is art that makes life, makes interest, makes importance… and I know of no substitute whatever for the force and beauty of its process.”

And

“Live all you can — it’s a mistake not to. It doesn’t so much matter what you do in particular, so long as you have your life. If you haven’t had that, what have you had?… What one loses one loses; make no mistake about that…The right time is any time that one is still so lucky as to have…. Live!”

And

“To criticize is to appreciate, to appropriate, to take intellectual possession, to establish in fine a relation with the criticized thing and to make it one’s own.”

And

“We work n the dark – we do what we can – we give what we have. Our doubt is our passion and our passion is our task. The rest is the madness of art.”

And

“True happiness, we are told, consists in getting out of one’s self; but the point is not only to get out — you must stay out; and to stay out you must have some absorbing errand.”

And

“A tradition is kept alive only by something being added to it.”

And

“To take what there is, and use it, without waiting forever in vain for the preconceived — to dig deep into the actual and get something out of that — this doubtless is the right way to live.”

And

“I think I don’t regret a single ‘excess’ of my responsive youth – I only regret, in my chilled age, certain occasions and possibilities I didn’t embrace.”

And

“The right time is any time that one is still so lucky as to have.”

And

“Ideas are, in truth, force.”

And

“Experience is never limited, and it is never complete; it is an immense sensibility, a kind of huge spider-web of the finest silken threads suspended in the chamber of consciousness, and catching every air-borne particle in its tissue.”

And

“Summer afternoon, summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language”

Wikipedia:  Henry James

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Coaches Hot Seat Quotes of the Day – Monday, May 24, 2021 – George Washington Carver

May 24, 2021

“Education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom.”

And

“How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in your life you will have been all of these.”

And

“When you do the common things in life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world.”

And

“Ninety-nine percent of the failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses.”

And

“No individual has any right to come into the world and go out of it without leaving something behind.”

And

“Since new developments are the products of a creative mind, we must therefore stimulate and encourage that type of mind in every way possible.”

And

“There is no short cut to achievement. Life requires thorough preparation – veneer isn’t worth anything.”

And

“Where there is no vision, there is no hope.”

Wikipedia: George Washington Carver

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Coaches Hot Seat Quotes of the Day – Sunday, May 23, 2021 – Jack Nicklaus

May 23, 2021

“If I had only one more round to play, I would choose to play it at Pebble Beach. I’ve loved this course from the first time I saw it. It’s possibly the best in the world.”

And

“A kid grows up a lot faster on the golf course. Golf teaches you how to behave.”

And

“Concentration is a fine antidote to anxiety.”

And

“Confidence is the most important single factor in this game, and no matter how great your natural talent, there is only one way to obtain and sustain it: work.”

And

“Don’t be too proud to take lessons. I’m not.”

And

“Focus on remedies, not faults.”

And

“How people keep correcting us when we are young! There is always some bad habit or other they tell us we ought to get over. Yet most bad habits are tools to help us
through life.”

And

“I like trying to win. That’s what golf is all about. “

And

“I’m a firm believer that in the theory that people only do their best at things they truly enjoy. It is difficult to excel at something you don’t enjoy.”

And

“My ability to concentrate and work toward that goal has been my greatest asset.”

And

“Professional golf is the only sport where, if you win 20% of the time, you’re the best.”

And

“Resolve never to quit, never to give up, no matter what the situation.”

And

“Sometimes the biggest problem is in your head. You’ve got to believe you can play a shot instead of wondering where your next bad shot is coming from.”

And

“Success depends almost entirely on how effectively you learn to manage the game’s two ultimate adversaries: the course and yourself.”

And

“The game of golf is meant to be fun.”

And

“The two things that motivate me most are closely allied. They are failure and a desire for self-improvement.

By failure, I don’t necessarily mean getting beat, although that’s often the end result and in itself is a strong motivation to go to work. The kind of failing I’m talking about is failing to measure up to the standards I’ve set for myself personally. When that happens, I get an irresistible urge – almost a compulsion – to improve.
Whatever effort is necessary to prevent another failure, I just have to make it. Like now. Today.

Frankly, I believe this, more than anything else, is the reason I am where I am today. I’m not an easily satisfied person. Sure I take a lot of satisfaction in what I’ve achieved. But life doesn’t stand still. Every satisfaction wanes after a while, so if you’re like me you don’t sit around looking backwards. You try to move on, to look for something that gives you another satisfaction and, at the same time, hopefully adds a little more to your life.”Jack Nicklaus, Jack Nicklaus’ Playing Lessons, Chapter 1

And

“I never hit a shot, not even in practice, without having a very sharp, in-focus picture of it in my head. First I see the ball where I want it to finish, nice and white and sitting up high on the bright green grass. Then the scene quickly changes, and I see the ball going there: its path, trajectory, and shape, even its behavior on landing. Then there is a sort of fade-out, and the next scene shows me making the kind of swing that will turn the previous images into reality.”

And

“I like trying to win. That’s what golf is all about.”

And

Arnold Palmer, in 1962, after losing the U.S. Open to 22-year-old Nicklaus in a playoff: “Now that the big guy’s out of the cage, everybody better run for cover.”

And

Bobby Jones after watching Nicklaus win the 1965 Masters: “Nicklaus played a game with which I am not familiar.”

And

Author Rick Reilly: “He was not homespun like Sam Snead, funny like Lee Trevino. His pants didn’t need hitching like Palmer’s. Instead, he won over America with
pure, unbleached excellence.”

And

Chi Chi Rodriguez: “Jack Nicklaus is a legend in his spare time.”

And

Gene Sarazen: “I never thought anyone would ever put Hogan in the shadows, but he did.”

And

Tom Weiskopf: “Jack knew he was going to beat you. You knew Jack was going to beat you. And Jack knew that you knew that he was going to beat you.”

Wikipedia:  Jack Nicklaus

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Coaches Hot Seat Quotes of the Day – Saturday, May 22, 2021 – Sam Snead

May 22, 2021

“Correct one fault at a time. Concentrate on the one fault you want to overcome.”

And

“Forget your opponents; always play against par.

And

“Golf is played with the arms.”

And

“If a lot of people gripped a knife and fork the way they do a golf club, they’d starve to death.”

And

“Never let up. The more you can win by, the more doubts you put in the other players’ minds the next time out.”

And

“Nobody asked how you looked, just what you shot.”

And

“Of all the hazards, fear is the worst.”

And

“Practice puts brains in your muscles.”

And

“The greens are so fast I have to hold my putter over the ball and hit it with the shadow.”

And

“The mark of a great player is in his ability to come back. The great champions have all come back from defeat.”

And

“The only reason I ever played golf in the first place was so I could afford to hunt and fish.”

And

“To be consistently effective, you must put a certain distance between yourself and what happens to you on the golf course. This is not indifference, it’s detachment.”

And

“Thinking instead of acting is the number-one golf disease.”

And

“There is an old saying: If a man comes home with sand in his cuffs and cockleburs in his pants, don’t ask him what he shot.”

And

“The three things I fear most in golf are lightning, Ben Hogan and a downhill putt.”

And

“When I swing at a golf ball right, my mind is blank and my body is loose as a goose.”

Wikipedia Page:  Sam Snead

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