Eric Greitens Quotes

Basic SEAL training is six months of long, torturous runs in the soft sand, midnight swims in the cold water off San Diego, obstacles courses, unending calisthenics, days without sleep and always being cold, wet and miserable.

Basic training is horrible. It's dirty, and it's ugly. But you learn it's not just about you. It makes you part of a team, which helps you to survive.

What they really do during boot camp above all else is they create conditions of extreme stress - whether through sleep deprivation or the cold and muddy weather or just noise or whatever it is - and you have to make decisions, not just for yourself, but for the Marines you're supposed to be leading at any given moment.

Like it or not, Jesse Ventura is a Navy SEAL. He did the pushups and put up with the cold water, just like the rest of us.

As soldiers in Israel's army, one of the most grueling training regimens we had to endure was a long march while carrying a comrade on a stretcher.

To me, basic SEAL training was a lifetime of challenges crammed into six months.

The guys who don't make it through SEAL training are the Rambo wannabes. If you cannot work in a team format but also function autonomously, you won't last for very long.

When you're in Ranger School, it sucks. You're not eating; you're not sleeping. You're marching miles - for months at a time. It's horrible.

I have done a lot greater things than 'Survivor.' Going through SEAL training was much harder than 'Survivor.'

I went to a military school between the ages of six and 12 and later into the air force. You learn discipline and strength of character.

You find sprinters testing other sprinters' mental capability. But these are my good friends on the track. I don't think we need to do that.

I go out there and get my eyes gouged, my nose busted, my body slammed. I love the pain of the game.

The best part about the movie, and everybody seems to rave about it, is the boot camp part.

We devote our entire lives to becoming good ball players. We take batting practice until our hands bleed.

I don't love football the way I once loved the game. I don't look at it as fun anymore, and it definitely used to be fun. A lot of the fun has been taken away from it, I guess, because you go through so much on the field and off the field.

There's nothing like being a soldier for confidence or learning your limits or enduring utter humiliation.

Quit now? They'll have to cut the uniform off me. I'm going out for another 300. They couldn't be any harder to get than the first 300.

The army teaches boys to think like men.

Boot camp sucks - SEAL training sucks - but you know what? That's what makes you good.

A different type of human has to play that sport. Hockey players keep fighting - nobody cares what's wrong with you, as long as you have one foot to skate on, you keep playing.

It's like I learned in the military: the officers always ate last. When you're responsible for people, that's how it should be.

If you play NFL football, you play football, these are the consequences. There's choices and consequences in life for everything. There's consequences if you play football.

Young men often seek tests and trials, and to me, BUD/S training - basic underwater demolition/SEAL - seemed like the ultimate test.

Being a person of the armed forces is not easy. Performing it is also not easy. There is a sense of discipline and body language that you need to have throughout.

Folks who blithely disregard the benefits of football likely haven't played or are being intellectually dishonest. The game, perhaps more than any other, requires absolute dedication and teamwork. Yes, I ultimately quit, and if I ever have a son, he won't play, but I'll always cherish the lessons I learned from football.