Mason Cooley Quotes

The '80s made up for all the abuse I took during the '70s. I outlived all my critics. By the time I retired, everybody saw me as a venerable institution. Things do change.

There is nothing as sweet as a comeback, when you are down and out, about to lose, and out of time.

When you taste super-success after tasting super-failure, there is huge relief.

When you come back on top after you've fallen, it's a better story.

A lot of fighters are counted out after a loss, and it's really what you do afterward that offers an explanation to your career.

Heartbreaks, disappointments and even our own weaknesses can serve as stepping-stones to the second half of life transformation. Failings are the foundation for growth. Those who have fallen, failed or 'gone down' are the only ones who understand 'up.'

We need to teach the highly educated man that it is not a disgrace to fail and that he must analyze every failure to find its cause. He must learn how to fail intelligently, for failing is one of the greatest arts in the world.

You cannot measure a man by his failures. You must know what use he makes of them. What did they mean to him. What did he get out of them.

There's nothing as exciting as a comeback - seeing someone with dreams, watching them fail, and then getting a second chance.

What is there to be afraid of? The worst thing that can happen is you fail. So what? I failed at a lot of things. My first record was horrible.

Do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again.

But I look at failure as education. In that respect, I am so well-educated.

If you watch the history of baseball, teams come back, and sometimes they could have come back, but they give in or give up.

If I wasn't a champion, I'd still be in jail. That makes me try very hard.

In the game of life, it's a good idea to have a few early losses, which relieves you of the pressure of trying to maintain an undefeated season.

Nothing is cooler and more attractive than a big comeback, and that'll be me.

Some of us can be examples about going ahead and growing, and some of us, unfortunately, don't make it there, and end up being examples because they had to die. I hit rock bottom, but thank God my bottom wasn't death.

I could have easily gone down the wrong path and dropped out of school, but I was given a second chance.

I have had unsuccessful films, but I learned a lot from those films. I give my failures as much importance as my success.

At 49, I can say something I never would have said when I was a player, that I'm a better person because of my failures and disgraces.

I like to think that even if we make some really bad choices and go down some bad paths, we'll eventually emerge from it.

People wrote me off, but I believed in myself. I got the confidence back, and it grew and grew. I won my first major and my last at the place that changed my life.

I came out the box and for seven years I had a huge career. And then it's done, it's dumped. But I ain't gone, and I refuse to be gone.

'Showgirls' was a critical point in my life. I had my head handed to me. At 21 years old, I had to find my self-esteem again. It was a very hard time.

If you learn from defeat, you haven't really lost.