I was a rotten kid. My excitement came from seeing what I could get away with.
People tell me, “You’re such an optimist”. Am I an optimist? An optimist says the glass is half full. A pessimist says the glass is half empty. A survivalist is practical. He says, “Call it what you want, but just fill the glass.” I believe in filling the glass.
God knew my needs and took care accordingly.
That’s one thing you learn in sports. You don’t give up; you fight to the finish.
You have to reach deep within yourself to see if you are willing to make the sacrifices.
To live, a man needs food, water, and a sharp mind.
Pain is that last quarter of a mile. You feel it, but when you’re through racing, your whole body just feels elated. So the pain is worth it.
Never give up, no matter what.
Self-esteem can’t win you a race if you’re not in shape.
Even at my age, I’m trying to improve. Never give up, no matter what. Even if you get last place – finish.
The great commandment is that we preach the gospel to every creature, but neither God nor the Bible says anything about forcing it down people’s throats.
Every soldier should learn survival on land, sea, and in the air.
I was raised to face any challenge.
The race film had confirmed a dead heat. That was great. But even better, most of the New York press finally learned to spell my name correctly.
God has given me so much. He expects so much out of me.
I ended up in the Army Air Corps in the Pacific, operating out of Ayuka field in Hawaii.
People say, on the raft, you must have hallucinated. Baloney. We were sharper after 47 days than the day we started because our minds were empty of all the war and contamination; we had clean minds to fill with good thoughts. Every day we’d exercise our minds.
I’ve always been called Lucky Louie. It’s no mystery why.
The world, we’d discovered, doesn’t love you like your family loves you.
All I knew was that hate was so deadly as any poison and did no one any good. You had to control and eliminate it, if you could.