Wayne Gretzky quotes: knowledge from “The Great One.”
“Only one thing is ever guaranteed: that is that you will definitely not achieve the goal if you don’t take the shot.”
“Not doing it is certainly the best way to not getting it.”
“Your friends, family, and kids have to understand, that’s your priority. It’s the only way you can be successful.”
“Procrastination is one of the most common and deadliest of diseases and its toll on success and happiness is heavy.”
“No matter who you are, we’re creatures of habit. The better your habits are, the better they will be in pressure situations.”
“It’s easier to lose than to win.”
“When you win, say nothing; when you lose, say less.”
“Competitive spirit is still at a premium. The more you win, the better you play, the more money you make, so they all have that in mind.”
“I’m not a big risk-taker. I just like to keep my money in the bank. I stay away from things I don’t know anything about.”
“The one thing I’ve learned in my lifetime is you don’t know everything. People who think they do… those are the people who get themselves in trouble.”
“The day I stop giving is the day I stop receiving. The day I stop learning is the day I stop growing.”
“If you surround yourself with quality people and great friends, the sky’s the limit.”
“People in general want to build somebody up and then try to knock them down. They always root for the underdog.”
“It doesn’t matter what I think. It doesn’t matter what other people think.”
“Most people marry their mother. I married my father.”
“Thankfully, in my youth, I had the best financial advisor a son could ask for: my dad Walter. When I got that first signing bonus in 1978, dad took my check, announced, ‘This is what we’re going to do,’ and bought an annuity with it.”
“Parenting and grandparenting to me are basically the same. You have the same love for your grandchild as you do your children. I think the biggest thing of all is to have that unconditional love for your children, which you naturally have.”
“When I think of how different the world is today from the way it was when my grandparents were growing up, it seems as though just about anything that feels permanent could change beyond all recognition over all that time.”
“Hockey is a unique sport in the sense that you need each and every guy helping each other and pulling in the same direction to be successful.”
“I think that from the time you start playing sports as a child you see that your responsibility to your team is to play the best that you can play as an individual – and yet, not take anything away from being part of a team.”
“A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be.”
“The highest compliment that you can pay me is to say that I work hard every day, that I never dog it. Everything I did in hockey, I worked for.”
“When I was five and playing against 11-year-olds – who were bigger, stronger, faster – I just had to figure out a way to play with them. I wasn’t naturally-gifted in terms of size and speed; everything I did in hockey I worked for, and that’s the way I’ll be as a coach.”
“There’s no perfect coach in the world. Coaches are human, too. Mistakes are made. But, fundamentally, if you’re sound, you eliminate as many mistakes as possible.”
“I think the greatest thing about playing, obviously, is winning – and you can’t replace that experience with anything.”
“But behind every big play, there’s a guy who grew up dreaming of making that big play. He’s got a story, and he was inspired by someone else’s.”
“The only way a kid is going to practice is if it’s total fun for him. And it was for me.”
“I think sports for kids is the greatest thing in the world because it teaches you how to share, about winning and losing and pressure. But I don’t think you should force your kid to become a professional athlete.”
“I get a lot of parents coming up to me, telling me they are grooming their kids to be professional athletes. I’m really against that. I think it’s a great life, and yeah, you can lead them in that direction. I think a lot of parents live their lives through the kids. Because they didn’t make it, they want their kids to make it. It puts a lot of undue pressure on the kids.”
“But at a young age – 12 or 13, 14, 15 – just play and enjoy it. Learn what it’s like to be around your teammates – the highs of winning and the lows of losing. Just enjoy it.”
“I have absolutely no complaints about my life. But people think I got handed everything, all this kind of fell in my lap, that I was just God-gifted with all this talent. I wanted people to realize it’s a lot tougher than just waking up one day and you’re in the NHL. I can remember hockey. It was my life, my passion. It’s what I love the most.”
“I don’t play a lot. Once you retire from the greatest sport in the world, the best players in the world, it’s tough to go and play pickup hockey.”
“The most interesting thing is that as a professional athlete at the age of 38 or 39, we are considered to be old and in the real world you would just be hitting your stride at age 38 or 39. You can’t just retire at the age of 40 years old and play golf every day. I tried it for one year and you quickly found out it’s nice to be active. There is a short life span as a professional athlete. If you can keep playing and participating, play for as long as you can.”
“It’s no different than anybody else – you have to get up, you have to work, and you have to put in the time.”
“Maybe it wasn’t the talent the Lord gave me; maybe it was the passion.”
“It’s just amazing how many companies suddenly want you to hold up their products after you’ve held up the Stanley Cup. Lifting the Stanley Cup for the first time… there’s nothing like it. It’s the greatest story. In my era, they used to say you couldn’t be a superstar without winning one. I remember thinking when I lifted it: ‘Now they can’t say that about me.'”
“There’s nothing in my life that I can do that’s going to give me that same high of lifting the Stanley Cup. But, when the clothing line is doing well, or when a new wine comes out and wins a gold medal for something, you go, ‘Wow, that’s pretty cool.'”
“Listen, everything I have in my life is because of the NHL and because of hockey, and I love the game and I loved every minute of being a player, I loved coaching, I loved being involved in the NHL.”
“I feel really good and I feel blessed that I’m still healthy.”
Related: Cristiano Ronaldo quotes.
