We should do three things every day of our life. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is to think, we should spend some time in thought. And, number three is you should have your emotions moved to tears.
Jim ValvanoI'll also tell you that five hundred thousand people will die this year of cancer. And I'll also tell you that one in every four will be afflicted with this disease, and yet, somehow, we seem to have put it in a little bit of the background.
Jim ValvanoLife changes when you least expect it to. The future is uncertain. So, seize this day, seize this moment, and make the most of it.
Jim ValvanoWe have a very intelligent team. I've had clubs that when you tell a guy to go back door, he leaves the gym. Or you tell the team you're going to have a closed practice and eight guys don't show up.
Jim ValvanoAnd I'm going to work as hard as I can... for cancer research and hopefully, maybe, we'll have some cures and some breakthroughs. I'd like to think I'm going to fight my brains out to be back here again next year for the Arthur Ashe recipient. I want to give it next year!
Jim ValvanoWe need your help. I need your help. We need money for research. It may not save my life. It may save my children's life. It may save someone you love. And it's very important.
Jim ValvanoCancer can take away all of my physical abilities. It cannot touch my mind, it cannot touch my heart, and it cannot touch my soul.
Jim ValvanoNow I'm fighting cancer, everybody knows that. People ask me all the time about how you go through your life and how's your day, and nothing is changed for me.
Jim ValvanoA person really doesn't become whole, until he becomes a part of something that's bigger than himself.
Jim ValvanoI made a ridiculous statement when I first went to North Carolina State. I said I know basketball down there was like life or death. It was very wrong. It's more important.
Jim ValvanoThe difference between Namath and me is that when you make the money he makes, they say you're ruggedly handsome. When you make the money I make, they say you have a big nose. (On resembling Joe Namath)
Jim ValvanoIf you laugh, you think, and you cry, that's a full day. That's a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you're going to have something special.
Jim ValvanoCoaches are basically schizophrenic. We are pessimistic to the press and among fellow coaches, but to our team, we are the eternal optimists.
Jim ValvanoHow do you go from where you are to where you wanna be? And I think you have to have an enthusiasm for life. You have to have a dream, a goal. And you have to be willing to work for it.
Jim ValvanoNothing has ever been accomplished in any walk of life without enthusiasm, without motivation, and without perseverance.
Jim ValvanoBut try if you can to support, whether it's AIDS or the cancer foundation, so that someone else might survive, might prosper, and might actually be cured of this dreaded disease.
Jim ValvanoAre you saying that the assistant had the answers all along, he just wasn't telling anyone?
Jim ValvanoMy father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person, he believed in me.
Jim ValvanoIn every single day, in every walk of life, ordinary people do extraordinary things. Ordinary People accomplish Extraordinary things.
Jim ValvanoNow, I look at where I am now and I know what I wanna to do. What I would like to be able to do is to spend whatever time I have left and to give, and maybe some hope to others.
Jim ValvanoTime is very precious to me. I donโt know how much I have left, and I have some things that I would like to say. Hopefully, at the end, I will have said something that will be important to other people, too.
Jim ValvanoNo matter what business you're in, you can't run in place or someone will pass you by. It doesn't matter how many games you've won.
Jim ValvanoI can't tell you what an honor it is, to even be mentioned in the same breath with Arthur Ashe. This is something I certainly will treasure forever.
Jim Valvano