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.

Don't be too proud to take lessons. I'm not.

This is a game. That's all it is. It's not a war.

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

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

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.

When I want a long ball, I spin my hips faster.

A perfectly straight shot with a big club is a fluke.

He had a lot of talent, but didn't have much dedication, wasn't organized, didn't know how to learn, didn't know how to comprehend what he was doing, didn't try to learn how to get better.

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.

I think I fail a bit less than everyone else.

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

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.

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

Golf is a better game played downhill.

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

Concentration is a fine antidote to anxiety.

There isn't a flaw in his golf or his makeup. He will win more majors than Arnold Palmer and me combined. Somebody is going to dust my records. It might as well be Tiger, because he's such a great kid.

The game is meant to be fun.

It's hard not to play golf that's up to Jack Nicklaus standards when you are Jack Nicklaus.

He's going to be around a long, long time, if his body holds up. That's always a concern with a lot of players because of how much they play. A lot of guys can't handle it. But it looks like he can.

He has the finest, fundamentally sound golf swing I've ever seen.

The longer you play, the better chance the better player has of winning.

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

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.

Focus on remedies, not faults.

Through the years of experience I have found that air offers less resistance than dirt.

The older you get the stronger the wind gets and it's always in your face.

There are no maladies in my golf game. My golf game stinks.

A Nicklaus Design golf course is done by the guys in my company that I work with, that have been trained in my vision, and they do what they think I might do. They might come in the office and ask me questions and I'd certainly answer their questions, but I'm not involved in the site visits or anything else.

A big part of managing a golf course is managing your swing on the course. A lot of guys can go out and hit a golf ball, but they have no idea how to manage what they do with the ball. I've won as many golf tournaments hitting the ball badly as I have hitting the ball well.

All I ever wanted to do was play competitive golf against the best players in the world.

And, of course, I'm constantly energized by designing courses around the world.

But if I played well and prepared myself properly, then all I had to do was control myself and put myself in a position to win.

Crises are part of life. Everybody has to face them, and it doesn't make any difference what the crisis is.

Did you know there's probably more golf played in Iceland than most places in the world? They play 24 hours a day in the summertime and the northern part is warmer than the southern part.

Golf is game of respect and sportsmanship; we have to respect its traditions and its rules.

Golfers have a tendency to be very masochistic. They like to punish themselves for some reason. A lot of them like tough courses.

I can barely turn on my computer!

I couldn't control Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Tom Watson or Lee Trevino. The only person I could control was me. The only person I could prepare for events was me. And if I didn't play well, I didn't play well, and I wasn't going to compete.

I don't believe in luck. Not in golf, anyway. There are good bounces and bad bounces, sure, but the ball is round and so is the hole. If you find yourself in a position where you hope for luck to pull you through, you're in serious trouble.

I first saw Arnold Palmer when I was just a kid and he came to Columbus to play in a tournament. I watched him on the driving range hit balls that day. We went on to become great friends.

I had polio when I was 13. I started feeling stiff, my joints ached, and over a two-week period I lost my coordination and 20 pounds.

I learned early in my career, where you get so wrapped up and so excited, that all of a sudden you don't think. So I worked very hard to keep myself suppressed. And that's one of the reasons I wasn't gregarious with the gallery.

I like to catch fish and release them. I probably haven't killed a fish that I've caught in sport fishing for 20 years. No reason to kill it. You know, just take it and release it.

I love design in general, the creativity. Whether it is golf courses, my apparel line, ads we do or our business with AriZona, design is fun.

I might cook occasionally, but I'm not a good cook. That's not my passion.

I never worried about money, except that I knew that all I had to worry about was golf. As long as I could play, I was going to make money.

I think that Pebble Beach is my favorite golf course to go to. I think Augusta is my favorite place to go play golf.