Jim Valvano Quotes

Who cares about great marks left behind? We have one life... just one. Our life. We have nothing else.

I'm not one of these people who likes to do as little as possible. I really do feel the hot breath of time on the back of my neck these days. And there are certain things I want to do before my time is up.

I know that one day I'm going to die. I want to accomplish as much as I can before I do.

I am only here on this earth for a short period of time, like the rest of the country and citizens, and I want the time that I spend here on earth to matter.

No matter how much funding I get, I'm always thinking, 'This is temporary. This is fragile. It could all end tomorrow, and how am I going to make today worth it? If this is my last day in the lab, what can I do so that I can walk out of here saying, 'That was a good day?''

We're all worm bait waiting to happen. It's what you do while you wait that matters.

We don't beat the reaper by living longer, we beat the reaper by living well and living fully.

Live, so you do not have to look back and say: 'God, how I have wasted my life.'

Every man dies. Not every man really lives.

If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn't brood. I'd type a little faster.

I would like, before I die, to see the changes I've always fought for being made. If not, my life will have been worth nothing.

Let us endeavor so to live so that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.

Live so that when the final summons comes you will leave something more behind you than an epitaph on a tombstone or an obituary in a newspaper.

I do say things that I think will shock people. But I don't do things to shock people. I'm not trying to be the next Tupac, but I don't know how long I'm going to be on this planet. So while I'm here, I might as well make the most of it.

The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.

What I try to get physically healthy people to understand is that they're going to die someday. There is no way out. And dying isn't failure, but not living is, so make use of your time. Don't keeping waiting.

If you were going to die soon and had only one phone call you could make, who would you call and what would you say? And why are you waiting?

We're all going to die. While I'm still here, I want to make a difference.

We only live once, and how would you want to be remembered? I have kids. I have, due to my job, a probably higher responsibility to do good things in my life. But also, since I was a kid, I love doing things out of context, helping friends, being different, being a special kind of man is important for me.

Life is short. I'm 47 years old. I've got 10 years to go where I can be the best I can be. I want those 10 years to be precious, not like before, cranking two or three movies a year. I've made a ton of movies in my life, but so what?

To do what you wanna do, to leave a mark - in a way that you think is important and lasting - that's a life well-lived.

Every man dies. Not every man lives.

Life is short, the art long.

Life is busy. There are daily concerns and obligations that have to be met, and to take time to think about how precious and special a human life is that you only get one, and that every wasted minute is lost. You can't get it back.

Oh, how precious is time, and how it pains me to see it slide away, while I do so little to any good purpose.