Greitens Quotes & Sayings

Humility leads to an open mind and a forgiving heart. — Eric Greitens

Practice builds habits. Our habits are our character. When it comes to virtue, practice makes a very great difference - or rather, all the difference. — Eric Greitens

Virtues that are not practiced die. Resilience that is not practiced weakens. — Eric Greitens

Accept that you are imperfect and always will be. Your quest is not to perfect yourself, but to better your imperfect self. — Eric Greitens

It's less about choosing an adventure and more about choosing a path with purpose. — Eric Greitens

What happens to us becomes part of us. Resilient people do not bounce back from hard experiences; they find healthy ways to integrate them into their lives. In — Eric Greitens

I was worried that all the corners of the earth had been explored, all the great battles fought. The famous people on TV were athletes and actresses and singers. What did they stand for? I wondered: Had the time for heroes passed? — Eric Greitens

To begin where you are, you have to be where you are. This — Eric Greitens

In the name of "force protection," the military often rolls up windows, builds walls, and points rifles at the outside world. The best force protection, however, is to be surrounded by friends and allies. — Eric Greitens

If you're a real frogman," he said, "then every time a woman leaves your side, she'll feel better about herself." ... The message felt similar to what Earl had taught: being strong meant being able to do good, to lift up and protect those whose lives you touched. — Eric Greitens

When all I thought about was my own pain and how the world had dealt me an unfair hand, I became weaker. When I thought of the needs of my team, my friends, I became stronger. We often think that our friends help us when we are weak. And they do. But it's also true that we become strong when we have friends to be strong for. — Eric Greitens

These moments of immersion, of engagement, of clear focus - moments that can last for hours, occasionally days - are some of the best times of our lives. — Eric Greitens

Mother Teresa's missionaries were able to embrace people - complete with all sorts of weaknesses, failures, foibles, strengths, and faiths - and work with them wholeheartedly. The sisters lived their entire lives in faith, but to me, it seemed that they needed to whisper barely a word about their theology because the integrity of their work said everything. After spending time in a place of such care and love, I came to understand that when we see self-righteousness it is often an expression of self-doubt and self-hatred. In a place where people are able to accept themselves, love themselves, and know that they are loved, there is no need to criticize or compare, cajole or convince. The sisters concentrated, instead, on loving their neighbors. — Eric Greitens

But it's also a human tendency - and a pronounced tendency in America - to become enamored of our tools and lose sight of their place. Think about a couple of the basic functions of any community: educating children and policing the streets. Today we spend huge effort and millions of dollars to bring more technology into the classroom, when the great majority of students in the great majority of circumstances can learn almost all of what they need to know with a supportive family, a pencil, some paper, good books, and a great teacher. The schools that produced Shakespeare and Jefferson and Darwin had some writing materials, some printed books - and that was it. — Eric Greitens

Eric Hoffer, studied the reasons why people voluntarily give away responsibility and join mass movements and mobs. One quote he collected came from a young German who explained that he joined the Nazi party to be "free from freedom. — Eric Greitens

People always ask me, "What kind of people make it through Hell Week?" I don't really have an answer to that. I do know
generally
who won't make it through Hell Week. The weightlifting meatheads who think the size of their biceps indicates their strength: they usually fail. The kids covered in tattoos announcing to the world how tough they are: they usually fail. The preening leaders who don't want to be dirty: they usually fail. The "me first, look at me, I'm the best" former athletes who've always been told they're stars: they usually fail. The blowhards who have a thousand stories about what they're going to do but a thin record of what they've actually done: they usually fail. The whiners, the "this is not fair" guys: they usually fail. — Eric Greitens

If you're growing, you're likely failing. If you're not failing, you're likely not growing. — Eric Greitens

Take care of your people is one of the principle lessons of military leadership. If we take care of our people on deployment, why should that change when we come home? — Eric Greitens

If you start with humility, you see every person as your teacher. — Eric Greitens

The best definition I have ever heard of a vocation is that it's the place where your great joy meets the world's great need. We need all of you to find your vocation. To develop your joys, your passions, and to match them to the world's great needs. — Eric Greitens

One of the reasons you are suffering right now is precisely because the purpose of your struggle is unclear. What are you working toward? What are you fighting for? Who are you going to be? — Eric Greitens

Often, your mentors are already in your life; you just haven't yet found a way to learn from them. — Eric Greitens

Energy, curiosity, and wonder are not products of age. They're byproducts of what we do. — Eric Greitens

As a leader, you have to have the humility to understand that your power is limited. — Eric Greitens

The point is to read in a way that leads to better thinking, and to think in a way that leads to better living. — Eric Greitens

If you respected someone, then you had to ask something of them. — Eric Greitens

Resilience is the virtue that enables people to move through hardship and become better. No one escapes pain, fear, and suffering. Yet from pain can come wisdom, from fear can come courage, from suffering can come strength - if we have the virtue of resilience. — Eric Greitens

One of his co-workers told me one time when I was about 20 years old, "I like your dad. He hates me, but the thing about your old man is that he hates everyone the same." I've — Eric Greitens

In the midst of hardship and fear, suffering and difficulty, the person who's built the habit of focus harnesses tremendous power. — Eric Greitens

We learn who we are and where we come from, what is right and what is wrong, from hearing and telling stories - something — Eric Greitens

If people can live through genocide and retain compassion, if they can take strength in pain, if they are able, still, to laugh, then certainly we can learn something from them. — Eric Greitens

Interahamwe and became a murderer. The stories they told were straightforward: — Eric Greitens

Readiness is a form of humility, spurred by a recognition of how little we can know or control. Hardship is unavoidable. Resilient people recognize this reality. Then they prepare themselves for it, seeking to meet it as best they can, on their own terms. — Eric Greitens

You can't say there shouldn't be poisonous serpents - that's the way life is. But in the field of action, if you see a poisonous serpent about to bite somebody, you kill it. That's not saying no to the serpent. That's saying no to that situation. So let's accept what must be accepted, without letting our acceptance justify inaction. — Eric Greitens

When we're struggling, we don't need a book in our hands. We need the right words in our minds. When things are tough, a mantra does more good than a manifesto. — Eric Greitens

For many people in the Western world, freedom is limited not so much by what others do to us, but by what we cannot do for ourselves. Walker, — Eric Greitens

Defeat is real. It is also temporary. We have to understand both. Faced for what it is, absorbed and met without self-deception, defeat can offer wisdom and motivation. Begin even though you know that you will suffer failure and defeat along the way. — Eric Greitens

It's not enough to fight for a better world; we also have to live lives worth fighting for. — Eric Greitens

The first step to building resilience is to take responsibility for who you are and for your life. If you're not willing to do that, stop wasting your time reading this letter. The essence of responsibility is the acceptance of the consequences - good and bad - of your actions. — Eric Greitens

Resilience is cultivated not so that we can perform well in a single instance, but so that we can live a full and flourishing life. — Eric Greitens

Alone, human beings can feel hunger. Alone, we can feel cold. Alone, we can feel pain. To feel poor, however, is something we do only in comparison to others. — Eric Greitens

Virtue is not about what you deny yourself, but what you make of yourself. — Eric Greitens

Earl rarely used the word, but his whole system of teaching and his whole way of living was built around the concept of honor. You honored God by using your time wisely, and you honored your fellow man by treating him with respect. You honored your teacher by calling him "sir," and he honored his students by challenging them to face pain and become stronger. Earl had come to associate charity with pain, and he believed that love did its deepest work when applied to a wound. — Eric Greitens

All of this wisdom belongs to us. It doesn't belong to experts or professional scholars or people who spend their days reading books. It belongs to any one of us who is willing to go out and get it. — Eric Greitens

Please, dear Lord, don't let me f*** up. - ALAN SHEPARD, first American in space, seconds before liftoff — Eric Greitens

Prayer cannot bring water to parched fields, or mend a broken bridge, or rebuild a ruined city; but prayer can water an arid soul, mend a broken heart and rebuild a weakened will. — Eric Greitens

Don't do this for me - do this with me. A leader earns devotion by showing devotion. — Eric Greitens

What usually matters in your life is not the magical moment, but the quality of your daily practice. — Eric Greitens

Failure and pain and hardship have the meaning we choose to give them. — Eric Greitens

Why Resilience? Of all the virtues we can learn, no trait is more useful, more essential for survival, and more likely to improve the quality of life than the ability to transform adversity into an enjoyable challenge. - MIHALY CSIKSZENTMIHALYI Walker, — Eric Greitens

Excuses are incompatible with excellence. The — Eric Greitens

It was foolish to cast someone as a saint just because they had suffered. — Eric Greitens

I begin with humility, I act with humility, I end with humility. Humility leads to clarity. Humility leads to an open mind and a forgiving heart. With an open mind and a forgiving heart, I see every person as superior to me in some way; with every person as my teacher, I grow in wisdom. As I grow in wisdom, humility becomes ever more my guide. I begin with humility, I act with humility, I end with humility. — Eric Greitens

Wise people could sometimes be dumb. — Eric Greitens

You don't have a choice about being an alcoholic. But you do get to choose what kind of alcoholic you're going to be: the kind who lets his addiction define his life, or the kind whose life is too rich and purposeful to be defined by addiction. — Eric Greitens

I had been given the greatest gift an education could provide: I had a better idea of what it meant to live a good life — Eric Greitens

FEARLESS is a vivid account of one man's journey from all-American boy to all-American hero. Blehm's writing takes you beyond the battlefield and right to the heart of the personal battles, sacrifices, and triumphs of one of America's elite warriors. Anyone looking for an inspiring story of inner strength and courage will be richly rewarded by this book. — Eric Greitens

Whatever my limited knowledge, I tried to make up for it with energy. — Eric Greitens

Great calamity met with great spirit can create great strength. — Eric Greitens

Friends challenge the flaws in our thinking and the flaws in our character. When they do that, they make us better. Good friends hold us to a higher standard when we are ready to make an excuse for ourselves. Friends sympathize with our pain, but they stop us from wallowing in it. Friends point out our blind spots, and they do so not with vindictiveness or cruelty, but out of honesty, love, and a desire that we live the fullest and best life possible. — Eric Greitens

Someone else can put a thought in your head. But an insight is something you have to earn on your own. — Eric Greitens

Arrogance is the armor worn by hollow men, — Eric Greitens

First, many critics are cowards. Not only do they snipe at lives that they are unwilling to live themselves, but they'll mouth off for years and never once have the courage to sit down with you, face to face, and tell you what they think. If you let them direct what you do, you are turning your life over to cowards. Second, — Eric Greitens

When people have a shared commitment, differences and disagreements don't disappear, but they can be seen in a new light. — Eric Greitens

Any nation that draws too great a distinction between its scholars and its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools. — Eric Greitens

Start with this: not all pain matters. There are people whose attention is consistently drawn away from their purpose and toward their pain, like a moth to a light. Such people, who pay attention to every annoyance and obstacle in their way, are usually unsuccessful in their endeavors. In extreme cases they are mentally ill. A healthy person, a flourishing person, learns to move past a lot of annoyance and a good deal of pain. — Eric Greitens

We should be, in part, beginners for our entire lives. Beginning anew refreshes the habit of learning. — Eric Greitens

So let's accept what must be accepted, without letting our acceptance justify inaction. Don't — Eric Greitens

You have enemies? Why, it is the story of every man who has done a great deed or created a new idea. It is the cloud which thunders around everything that shines. Fame must have enemies, as light must have gnats. - VICTOR HUGO — Eric Greitens

We begin by accepting that we have problems, that we're miles away from perfect. But some people take this too far: they turn acceptance of the world into an excuse for passivity in the face of their own failings, and even in the face of evil. Yes, you have to accept some unpleasant, upsetting, tragic facts about life. But you also have to accept your responsibility to act in the world. — Eric Greitens

Just as any work can be made into a miserable bore, any vocation can be a source of joy — Eric Greitens

The best experts and the best mentors have flexible minds. — Eric Greitens

Death is like the sun. It infuses every part of our lives, but it doesn't make sense to stare at it. — Eric Greitens

And it's often in those battles that we are most alive: it's on the frontlines of our lives that we earn wisdom, create joy, forge friendships, discover happiness, find love, and do purposeful work. If you want to win any meaningful kind of victory, you'll have to fight for it. — Eric Greitens

Excellence is renewed through deliberate practice, day in and day out. — Eric Greitens

When I was in third grade
the age of many of the boys here
my parents had debated whether or not to buy me a pair of [special soccer shoes] ... Here in Bolivia most of the kids played in bare feet, and they had as much fun as we ever had. Alone, human beings can feel hunger. Alone, we can feel cold. Alone, we can feel pain. To feel poor, however, is something that we do only in comparison to others. I took off my shoes. — Eric Greitens

The world needs many more humanitarians than it needs warriors, but there can be none of the former without enough of the latter. — Eric Greitens

I thought of Pericles' speech to the families of the Athenian war dead, in which he said, What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others. — Eric Greitens

Hall, you should have died. Do pushups for being alive." Greg Hall knocked out twenty happy pushups and yelled, "Hooyah for being alive. — Eric Greitens

Fortune will play her hand. And when she stands between us and flourishing, all we can do is live our best life. One — Eric Greitens

Yet the basic fact remains: we live in a world marked by violence, and if we want to protect others, we sometimes have to be willing to fight. — Eric Greitens

Our relations seemed poor to me, and I wasn't surprised that the US intelligence picture in the Horn of Africa was weak. Much of what I read consisted of recycled news headlines repackaged as intelligence. Real, valuable intelligence only came from real people, yet we hadn't done much to meet and work with the people. — Eric Greitens

I find myself praying more when things are harder. I also find myself drinking water more when I am thirsty, and eating more when I am hungry, and sleeping more when I am tired. And I've finally begun to accept that if I pray more when I am troubled, that's just as natural. — Eric Greitens

An unwillingness to endure the hardship of a depressed time keeps us from the possibility of capturing the wisdom and strength and joy that can exist on the other side. There is a season to be sad. Painful things hurt. Allow yourself to be hurt. — Eric Greitens

Five variables go into training or practice of any kind: frequency, intensity, duration, recovery, and reflection. — Eric Greitens

Clarity of purpose creates perspective. — Eric Greitens

Today, in a culture that should know enough to be forgiving of human weakness, we often fail to remember that people are not great all the time. People practice greatness. They perform with greatness. People practice courage. They perform with courage. And then, one day, they don't. This does not make them cowards. It makes them human. — Eric Greitens

Remember that deciding is not doing, and wanting is not choosing.
Transformation will take place not because of what you decide you
want, but because of what you choose to do. — Eric Greitens

Some people try to live a life without criticism by shrinking themselves. They try to make themselves invisible. And you know what happens then? It's not just that they diminish themselves, fail to live their best lives, and squander their time. All of that happens, of course. But you know what else happens? People criticize them for being invisible. — Eric Greitens

storytelling is not just a way to remember what happened; it's a way to understand what happened. — Eric Greitens

You can put off the life you want to live until you wake up to find that it's too late. — Eric Greitens

If you can fix something that needs to be fixed, go ahead and fix it. But real leadership is most often needed where simple solutions have already been tried and have failed. When things are hard, sometimes the best thing you can do is to drown what's wrong in a sea of what's right. — Eric Greitens

Savor the flashes of wonder that light your life, — Eric Greitens

Beware the person who seeks to lead and has not suffered, who claims responsibility on the grounds of a spotless record. — Eric Greitens

Some people are made stronger by suffering. Others are defeated. The difference is resilience. — Eric Greitens

There were a number of definitions of courage, but now I was seeing it in its simplest form: you do what has to be done day after day, and you never quit. — Eric Greitens

Teams that are moved by great purpose become tighter still when things are tough. — Eric Greitens

Those who are excellent at their work have learned to comfortably coexist with failure. The excellent fail more often than the mediocre. They begin more. They attempt more. They attack more. Mastery lives quietly atop a mountain of mistakes. — Eric Greitens

A veteran who comes home from war is returning from one of the most intense experiences a human being can have. Even if he was not under fire every day, he woke up every morning as part of a team. He started every day with a purpose, and a mission that mattered to those around him. — Eric Greitens

Self-respect isn't something a teacher or a coach or a government can hand you. Self-respect grows through self-created success: not because we've been told we're good, but when we know we're good. Not everyone gets a trophy, because not every performance merits celebration. If we want our children to have a shot at resilience, they must learn what failure means. If they don't learn that lesson from loving parents and coaches and teachers, life will teach it to them in a far harsher way. — Eric Greitens