Lou Holtz quotes:

I was born January 6, 1937, eight years after Wall Street crashed and two years before John Steinbeck published The Grapes of Wrath, his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about the plight of a family during the Great Depression.

I'm proud to be part of the Dr. Pepper Scholarship Giveaway. It's a great program that gives me the chance to brighten the day for some lucky college students with free tuition.

At home I have a copy of the April 21, 1986, issue of 'Sports Illustrated.' I'm on the cover with the blurb, 'Can Lou Do It?' I'd just arrived at Notre Dame, and with spring football underway, I was the focal point of that week's coverage.

Virtually nothing is impossible in this world if you just put your mind to it and maintain a positive attitude.

I believe in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

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.

God answers prayers, but he doesn't always answer it your way.

Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.

The problem with having a sense of humor is often that people you use it on aren't in a very good mood.

If you look at the history of Notre Dame, if you hire a coach who's been successful at another college program, they're going to be ultra successful at Notre Dame because the talent will always be there.

I do know this: God does answer your prayers, but it's not always in the way you expect. God knows what's best for us, though, so there's no need to worry when things don't go how we originally wanted them to go.

In the nineties, everybody wants to talk about their rights and privileges. Twenty-five years ago, people talked about their obligations and responsibilities.

I've followed Notre Dame football since 1946, when I listened on the radio and Johnny Lujack tackled Doc Blanchard in the open field to preserve a 0-0 tie.

The University of Notre Dame does not redshirt, and I endorse that policy completely. I am very much in favor of redshirting, but not at Notre Dame. But there's no doubt about it. It puts us at a huge disadvantage.

Our cellar home had a kitchen and a combination bedroom and half bath, which meant we had a sink next to the bed. We had no refrigerator, no shower or tub, and no privacy. My parents shared the bedroom with my sister and me.

I used to pray that God would make me a great athlete, and He never did.

When I left the University of Notre Dame, I honestly felt I would never coach again.

My first assistant-coaching job in football was at William & Mary in 1961.

In the successful organization, no detail is too small to escape close attention.

My philosophy in life is, Decide what you want to do. You have to have something to hope for.

My first assistant-coaching job in football was at William & Mary in 1961. The pay wasn't much, so to get $300 more per year, I agreed to coach the golf team. I didn't even know how to keep score, and really, my main job was not to wreck the van on the way to tournaments.

The Sisters of Notre Dame at St. Aloysius Grade School influenced my life tremendously. This was due to the fact that they encouraged you always to make sure that God is the focus of your life, and they didn't allow you to do anything except to the very best of your ability.

Sacrifice, discipline and prayer are essential. We gain strength through God's word. We receive grace from the sacrament. And when we fumble due to sin - and it's gonna happen - confession puts us back on the field.

When I die, and people realize that I will not be resurrected in three days, they will forget me. That is the way it should be.

As a coach, one thing that used to frustrate me was one player would make a bad decision, and that's all you would read about in the papers all over the country. We have so many athletes do so many wonderful things for other people, and you never read about it.

I look at athletes in all sports and try to picture what kind of football player they'd be, what position they'd play and so on.

I just have an enthusiasm for life.

We were at a beach one summer, and I had a bathing suit on. My wife looked at me and said: 'Boy, you are skinny, aren't you?' I said: 'Honey, I'd like to remind you that it was minor defects like this that kept me from getting a better wife.'

I think that everybody needs four things in life. Everybody needs something to do regardless of age. Everybody needs someone to love. Everybody needs something to hope for, and, of course, everybody needs someone to believe in.

I think that we have opportunities all around us - sometimes we just don't recognize them.

When people need love and understanding and support the most is when they deserve it the least.

I can't believe that God put us on this earth to be ordinary.

Had I been a great athlete, I'm not sure I would have even gone into coaching. I may have turned out feeling that my life ended when my athletic career ended, as happens so many times with various athletes.

ESPN is a great organization to work for.

I think life is a matter of choices and that wherever we are, good or bad, is because of choices we make.

For victory in life, we've got to keep focused on the goal, and the goal is Heaven.

No matter what happens on the field, getting an education makes you a winner.

I give opinions, not advice.

You'll never get ahead of anyone as long as you try to get even with him.

The key to winning is choosing to do God's will and loving others with all you've got.

Do right. Do your best. Treat others as you want to be treated.

If you burn your neighbors house down, it doesn't make your house look any better.

We can all be successful and make money, but when we die, that ends. But when you are significant is when you help other people be successful. That lasts many a lifetime.

The man who complains about the way the ball bounces is likely the one who dropped it.

Football coaches don't have real problems.

It is a fine thing to have ability, but the ability to discover ability in others is the true test.

I'll assure you this: I will have nothing to do with politics.

I believe that having a spiritual life is so important in everybody's life.

Don't tell your problems to people: eighty percent don't care; and the other twenty percent are glad you have them.

Winners embrace hard work. They love the discipline of it, the trade-off they're making to win. Losers, on the other hand, see it as punishment. And that's the difference.

I don't drink water, haven't drank water in 40 years.

We have an obligation to help people that cannot help themselves. The mentally retarded, the physically retarded, et cetera.

Successful people will always tell you you can do something. It's the people who have never accomplished anything who will always discourage you from trying to achieve excellent things.

See, winners embrace hard work.

I believe - we all pay taxes. I'm happy to pay it, but I hate to have it abused, money wasted, no accountability. That's going to bother you.

Remember this. Bear Bryant retired at age 69, and he died 28 days after he stopped coaching. If you don't have something, and a purpose in your life, you're gonna die.

Give me a blackboard. I can stop anything on a blackboard.

All you need is something to say, and a burning desire to say it... it doesn't matter where your hands are.

If he's got golf clubs in his truck or a camper in his driveway, I don't hire him.

Teamwork is the foundation of success. The three universal questions that an individual asks of his coach, player, employee, employer are: Can I trust you? Are you committed to excellence? And, do you care about me?

Do what's right! Do the best you can and treat others the way you want to be treated because they will ask three questions: (1) Can I trust you? (2) Are you committed? (3) Do you care about me as a person?

People eyeing you as a potential leader tend to ask three questions: Are you committed? Do you care about me? Can I trust you?

You've got to have great athletes to win, I don't care who the coach is. You can't win without good athletes but you can lose with them. This is where coaching makes the difference.

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

No one has ever drowned in sweat.

You're never as good as everyone tells you when you win, and you're never as bad as they say when you lose.

Absolutely. There are a 1000 better coaches in the cities, but I'm the best in the country.

A lifetime contract for a coach means if you're ahead in the third quarter and moving the ball, they can't fire you.

On this team, we're all united in a common goal: to keep my job.

After landing his invasion forces on the shores of some country, the sixteenth-century Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes would immediately burn his own boats. He was sending his army a message: "We can't turn back. Either we succeed here or we die here." Excuses were not an option.

You don't go to Notre Dame to learn something, you go to Notre Dame to be somebody.

When all is said and done, more is said than done.

You must have dreams and goals if you are ever going to achieve anything in this world.

All an agent is going to do is buy things for a player, damage his eligibility, and make the player dependent on them.

Coaching is nothing more than eliminating mistakes before you get fired.

It's the extra effort after you have done your best that creates victory.

It's always better to face the truth, no matter how uncomfortable, than to continue coddling a lie.

Build your empire on the firm foundation of the fundamentals.

We are not going to win because you have a new head coach, any more than you are going to fix a flat tire by changing the driver. We will win the minute all of us get rid of excuses as to why we can't win and stop wallowing in self-pity.

What's important now? - To evaluate the past, focus on the future, and tell you what you have to do in the present

All winning teams are goal-oriented. Teams like these win consistently because everyone connected with them concentrates on specific objectives. They go about their business with blinders on; nothing will distract them from achieving their aims.

How you respond to the challenge in the second half will determine what you become after the game, whether you are a winner or a loser.

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

You will never be indecisive if you know your purpose.

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

It's a better view if you're standing up than if you're laying down.

Your neighbors will make judgments about you based on how your lawn and house look, and people who see you passing will judge you based on how clean you keep your car. It's not always fair, but it has always been true. Appearances matter, so make yours a good one.

In golf, the player, coach and official are rolled into one, and they overlap completely. Golf really is the best microcosm of life - or at least the way life should be.

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

Never settle for second when first is available

I have no desire at all to become the winningest coach at Notre Dame. The record belongs to Knute Rockne or some other coach in the future.

Remember. Every day, some ordinary person does something extraordinary. Today, it's your turn.

Show me someone who has done something worthwhile, and I'll show you someone who has overcome adversity.

Don't be a spectator, don't let life pass you by.

Without self-discipline, success is impossible, period.

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

When the bank asks me about my assets, I include my friendship with Regis Philbin.

The answers to these questions will determine your success or failure. 1) Can people trust me to do what's right? 2) Am I committed to doing my best? 3) Do I care about other people and show it? If the answers to these questions are yes, there is no way you can fail.

If Tiger Woods had played football, he would have been a quarterback.

So many times people are afraid of competition, when it should bring out the best in us. We all have talents and abilities, so why be intimidated by other people's skills?

I never learn anything talking. I only learn things when I ask questions.

The way you motivate a football team is to eliminate the unmotivated ones.

I can't explain why a bride buys her wedding dress, whereas a groom rents his tux.

Winners and losers aren't born, they are the products of how they think

I'm so old, I don't buy green bananas any more.

It's not the load that breaks you down, it's the way you carry it.

I follow three rules: Do the right thing, do the best you can, and always show people you care.

At age nine, I got a paper route. Sixty-six papers had to be delivered to sixty-six families every day. I also had to collect thirty cents a week from each customer. I owed the paper twenty cents per customer per week, and got to keep the rest. When I didn't collect, the balance came out of my profit. My average income was six dollars a week.

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 could have watched more film, that's for sure. One advantage Joe Paterno had over me was that he didn't play golf.

If you made me the national commissioner of football, I'd tell you one thing that I would mandate. The second Saturday in September, we're going to have conference day. Everybody from the SEC plays a Big 12 team. Everybody from the Big Ten is going to play the ACC. Everybody from the Big East is going to play the Pac-10.

In football, it's the job of the player to play, the coach to coach, the official to officiate. Each guy is charged with upholding his end, nothing more. In golf, the player, coach and official are rolled into one, and they overlap completely. Golf really is the best microcosm of life - or at least the way life should be.

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

Life is ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you respond to it.

Notre Dame is the one school that has a national recruiting base, from Florida to Texas to California.

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

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

I truly believe the things Notre Dame stands for.

I don't think there's been anything in the game of football in my lifetime that has changed college football more than redshirting.

An agent won't help you get drafted higher, won't make you win more games, and won't make you faster or stronger.

I was raised a Catholic on both sides of the family. I went to a Catholic grade school and thought everybody in the country was Catholic, because that's all I ever was associated with.