Jeff Cooper Quotes

Generals don't panic; then the troops never panic.

My father taught me, in boxing, that when you - particularly when you get hit in the face for the first time - you're going to panic. That instead of panicking, just accept it. Stay calm. And any time anybody hits you, they always leave themselves open to be hit.

Sayles could pull a performance out of a dog. I'm serious. He was just amazing. The world could fall apart and he remained on neutral.

When I was doing 'Generation Kill' in Africa I worked with five really super-trained Navy SEALs who taught us all these moves like how to disarm people: if there's a bar fight and someone's got a chair or there's someone with a gun behind our head, how to disable them and take them down in a swift move.

I work best when there is adversity: I seem to get calmer the more the fur is flying.

The academic mind, as we know, is sometimes capable of assuming an aggressive attitude. The official mind, on the contrary, is and has to be, expert in the art of self- defense.

I've always said I learned to defend myself from an opponent coming for a hard hit. Tricks are part of my repertoire; I use them to try to get past my opponents, but the objective is always to score goals.

I'm good in an emergency.

Weapons training, how to clear a room - all that stuff is imprinted into me.

While hitting one must guard ... In order to hit with effect, the enemy must be taken off his guard.

When you fight, if it is a real fight, use every tool that you have, use your whole body. Use your fists, your legs, your fingers, your head if you have to, and hit them in every vulnerable spot, the balls, the eyes etc. to win.

I may venture to say, loosely, that in Judo there is a sort of counter for every twist, wrench, pull, push or bend. Only the Judo expert does not oppose such movements at all. No, he yields to them. But he does much more than yield to them. He aids them with a wicked sleight that causes the assailant to put out his own shoulder, to fracture his own arm, or in a desparate case, even to break his own neck or back.

The best personal defense is an explosive counterattack.

HB-Shizzle's gonna be honest with ya, okay. To hit these bad boys, you have to have pinpoint accuracy.

I learned to shoot more accurately because my teachers held the targets.

You want to know my definition of gun control? Being able to stand there at 25 meters and put two rounds in the same hole. That's gun control.

I wish to God she had had an M-4 in her office.

I'm not a panic guy. I don't do that. Can't. When you're a leader, you can never panic, no matter what's happening. The building could be falling down. Fire could be going all places. Somebody has to make a decision on how to get out.

In times of crisis, it is of the utmost importance that one does not lose her head. Marie Antoinette

The big rules of knife fighting are (a) do not try it at home, and (b) the whole point is never, ever use the blade. It is there to distract your opponent. While he stares at the gleaming steel, you kick his balls to kingdom come--he's all yours. Just a tip!

The better I shoot, the less I have to maneuver.

I hold the gun out from my body, my arms straight, just as Four taught me, when that was his only name. I used a gun like this to defend my father and brother from simulation-bound Dauntless. I used it to stop Eric from shooting Tobias in the head. It is not inherently evil. It is just a tool.

I come to you with only Karate, Empty Hands. I have no weapons, but should I be forced to defend myself, my principles or my honor, should it be a matter of life or death, of right or wrong, then here are my weapons, Karate, my Empty Hands.

I don't know - too much about Robert Williams tactics, but if he was trying to defend himself, he was within his God-given rights and within - and he was also within his natural right, because first law of nature is self-preservation.

There was a tale he had read once, long ago, as a small boy: the story of a traveler who had slipped down a cliff, with man-eating tigers above him and a lethal fall below him, who managed to stop his fall halfway down the side of the cliff, holding on for dear life. There was a clump of strawberries beside him, and certain death above him and below. What should he do? went the question. And the reply was, Eat the strawberries. The story had never made sense to him as a boy. It did now.