“Good, better, best. Never let it rest. Until your good is better and your better is best.” —Tim Duncan

“Good, better, best. Never let it rest. Until your good is better and your better is best.”

Tim Duncan professional basketball player

Motivation

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Your Comments

Dianne from NY APRIL 19, 2024
I am from the Caribbean and I was taught these lines in school in the 1970’s at about eight (8) years old. But it was taught to me as a poem or limerick and it seemed to have had more lines that this, but I just can’t seem to remember them all.

TMB from North Carolina FEBRUARY 28, 2024
I used to tell my students this every day! And I still do!

Hitseh from Goa AUGUST 4, 2021
It is very good song

Tony Parker from Paris, France JUNE 30, 2021
This is such a great saying. Easy to remember and a great reminder for each day.

Anonymous JUNE 17, 2021
Inspiring

Pat from UK DECEMBER 20, 2020
My teacher taught our class of Primary 1 in Ghana in the 70s. But the second line was “May I never rest”.

Gary from Arizona MARCH 2, 2020
My high school baseball coach repeated this quote often to his players. Every young man who played for Marvin McCollum in Hamilton, Ohio heard this quote and remember it to this day.

Anonymous MAY 13, 2019
I learned this quote from my grandfather willie Bentley in 1959. He learned it from his grandfather in 1901

Cody MARCH 1, 2018
survive, thrive

Myriah from BC, Canada JANUARY 28, 2017
My Gr.7 math teacher made us recite this quote everyday. It has stuck with me for 38 years.

Richard from Hartlepool, England SEPTEMBER 1, 2016
This quote was spoken/written about by St. Jerome who lived between 347 and 420AD. He is responsible for many more fine quotes, a very learned man.

Evita from Alabama NOVEMBER 29, 2015
Also, we learned it as, "until your good becomes your better, and your better becomes your best".

Evita from Alabama NOVEMBER 29, 2015
I was born in 1986 and I learned this quote in elementary school.

Janet from Silver Spring, MD JULY 25, 2014
I also learned this in elementary school in the 1960's. Apparently the quote is by St. Jerome, although in that version the last "your" is omitted. I like the version with the last "your" the best.

FNP from North Carolina JULY 24, 2014
I remember learning this quote in about the 5th grade in the early 50's. Our teacher taught it to us.

M. Werner from Oconto, WI MAY 15, 2013
As a baby boomer born in 1948,this quote was always in recited to me by my father whenever I got a report card. He always wanted to see improvement. This became my mantra to students in my Art classes during my 37 year teaching career.

R Easter from Chester, VA MARCH 2, 2013
This is not an original quote of Tim Duncan. I remember knowing it all of my life. I never had to learn it, but just knew it because it was quoted often. I was born in 1953, therefore the quote is MUCH older than Tim Duncan.

Janice L. from Federick, Maryland FEBRUARY 9, 2012
This was one of my great grandfather's favorite sayings to his students. He taught school from 1872 until his death in 1924.

Valerie N from Rapid City, SD DECEMBER 3, 2010
My dad said this to me all my life -- starting in the 1950s. Somehow I don't think this can be attributed to a basketball player born in 1976. Good quote, though!

Laura W from Indiana DECEMBER 2, 2010
This quote is much older than Tim Duncan. (My mother used to repeat it to me when I was growing up.) A brief search shows that the original author was most likely St. Jerome (circa the 4th or 5th century).

Virginia P. from SC DECEMBER 1, 2010
Adlai Stevenson used this quote years before Tim Duncan's Mother shared it with him. My own mother quoted this line to me back in the late 50's/early 60's.