Brin-Jonathan Butler Quotes

Identifying and overcoming natural fear is one of the pleasing struggles intrinsic to climbing.

I've been booed in Holland and in Uruguay - as a professional footballer, you need to have thick skin and just get used to it.

When you're onstage and you know you're bombing, that's very, very scary. Because you know you gotta keep going - you're bombing, but you can't stop. And you know that half an hour from now, you're still gonna be bombing. It takes a thick skin.

I don't look at football as a violent, barbaric sport. It's a very spiritual sport, especially for someone facing the challenges during a game: the fear of failure, the fear of getting too big an ego, of making a mistake and everybody criticizing you.

I'm a great admirer of Primo Levi's work. It's always mind-boggling, the idea of how much pain people can endure and still come back from the edge with a sense of humor, with this tremendous animal desire we have to get on with life.

Ridicule is a weak weapon when pointed at a strong mind; but common people are cowards and dread an empty laugh.

I felt really sorry for Oliver Kahn. Up to that point he had made lots of saves for the German team. Of course he could have caught the ball but it just happened. It was bad luck. In that situation, you need to be very strong psychologically to carry on.

Our priests and presidents, our surgeons and lawyers, our educators and newscasters need worry less about satisfying the demands of their discipline than the demands of good showmanship.

It's so reassuring to have a woman heroine who triumphs with more than just what she has on the outside... who has more to offer the world than just a pretty picture.

The difference between winning and losing is always a mental one.

It's a hard life as a professional cricketer. It's not as easy as everyone makes out. To survive you need a tough hide.

I think the biggest part of my game that's underestimated is the mental part of it.

You might be tough, but you can only be so tough for so long, you know what I mean? The brain can only take so much damage. The body can only take so much damage.

The twenty minutes or more we spend inside the ring, that's the fun part. It's the rest of our lives that's the real battle - the ruthless backstage politics, the constant traveling, the endless mental and physical aches and pains.

Most men, I think, wonder about their courage. How would they act in combat? Under torture?

What the SEAL teams do, what our training does, is it chips away the outer that layer and shows you what you're capable of and not capable of.

We've always been told to pretend as if we're not afraid.

The Special Ops community has always been about mental toughness.

Everyone works so hard on their game and on their body. Most of the time, it comes down to who is more relaxed mentally; on the court while playing and off the court.

People perceive actresses in a different manner when they are portrayed glamorously. I don't want that to happen with me.

By climbing mountains we were not learning how big we were. We were finding out how breakable, how weak and how full of fear we are.

The way I dig in to push myself through mountain climbs is totally psychological. I'm not designed to do that stuff. It's mind over matter.

You play the game a certain way, and people think your personality off the field should be just as electrifying. That's not the case.

I'm the type of fighter who has never made an excuse. I fought with a broken rib, broken leg.

Honestly, it's hard to play with a lot of intensity night after night.