Cus D'Amato Quotes

• Fear is the greatest obstacle to learning. But fear is your best friend. Fear is like fire. If you learn to control it, you let it work for you. If you don’t learn to control it, it’ll destroy you and everything around you.

  Cus D'Amato

  Fire, Obstacles, Your Best Friend

  261 Copy quote

• The hero and the coward both feel the same thing, but the hero uses his fear, projects it onto his opponent, while the coward runs. It's the same thing, fear, but it's what you do with it that matters.

  Cus D'Amato

  Running, Motivational Sports, Attitude

  226 Copy quote

• Greatness is not a measure of how great you are but how great others came to be because of you

  Cus D'Amato

  Greatness, Because Of You

  199 Copy quote

• No matter what anyone says, no matter the excuse or explanation, whatever a person does in the end is what he intended to do all along.

  Cus D'Amato

  Doe, Matter, Excuse

  205 Copy quote

• A boy comes to me with a spark of interest. I feed the spark and it becomes a flame. I feed the flame and it becomes a fire. I feed the fire and it becomes a roaring blaze.

  Cus D'Amato

  Sports, Boys, Fire

  242 Copy quote

• To see a man beaten not by a better opponent but by himself is a tragedy.

  Cus D'Amato

  Sports, Men, Boxing

  173 Copy quote

• Fear is like fire. You can make it work for you: it can warm you in the winter, cook your food when you're hungry, give you light when you are in the dark, and produce energy. Let it go out of control and it can hurt you, even kill you... Fear is a friend of exceptional people... You must understand fear so you can manipulate it.

  Cus D'Amato

  Sports, Hurt, Winter

  "Teddy Atlas' powerful motivation speech - A Song of Fear and Fire" by Carlos Alejandrino, www.mixedmartialarts.com. February 09, 2017.

  158 Copy quote

• Losers are winners who quit,...even if you lose...you still win...if you don't quit.

  Cus D'Amato

  Winning, Quitting, Loser

  148 Copy quote

• I tell my kids, what is the difference between a hero and a coward? What is the difference between being yellow and being brave? No difference. Only what you do. They both feel the same. They both fear dying and getting hurt. The man who is yellow refuses to face up to what he's got to face. The hero is more disciplined and he fights those feelings off and he does what he has to do. But they both feel the same, the hero and the coward. People who watch you judge you on what you do, not how you fee.

  Cus D'Amato

  Hurt, Hero, Kids

  178 Copy quote

• When two men step into the ring, one and only one deserves to win. When you step into the ring, you gotta know you deserve to win. You gotta know destiny owes you victory , cause you trained harder than your opponent. You sparred harder. You ran farther.

  Cus D'Amato

  Destiny, Men, Winning

  171 Copy quote

• I believe nature's a lot smarter than anyone thinks. During the course of a man's life he develops a lot of pleasures and people he cares about. Then nature takes them away one by one. It's her way of preparing you for death.

  Cus D'Amato

  Believe, Men, Thinking

  126 Copy quote

• Boxing is a contest of character and ingenuity. The boxer with more will, determination, desire, and intelligence is always the one who comes out the victor.

  Cus D'Amato

  Determination, Character, Boxing

  108 Copy quote

• There is no difference between a hero and a coward in what they feel. It’s what they do that makes them different. The hero and the coward feel exactly the same, but you have to have the discipline to do what a hero does and to keep yourself from doing what the coward does.

  Cus D'Amato

  Hero, Differences, Discipline

  144 Copy quote

• Heroes and cowards feel exactly the same fear. Heroes just react to it differently.

  Cus D'Amato

  Hero, Coward, Feels

  114 Copy quote

• When you get hit that's when you've got to be calm. A professional fighter has to learn how to hit and not get hit, and at the same time be exciting. That's what professional boxing is about. You've got to be clever, you've got to be smart, and not get hit, and when you're able to do this, you're a fighter.

  Cus D'Amato

  Clever, Smart, Boxing

  117 Copy quote

• If you can hit your opponent with two punches, you don't hit him with one. Get off with some bad intentions in there. Believe in yourself. A guy can feel it if you don't believe in yourself. Set your mind to make yourself do it.

  Cus D'Amato

  Believe, Two, Boxing

  111 Copy quote

• Emotions, particularly anger, are like fire. They can cook your food and keep you warm, or they can burn your house down.

  Cus D'Amato

  Fire, House, Emotion

  100 Copy quote

• There are very few new things in this world, very few. That's why people that are young, if they're smart, try to profit from the experience of an older guy so they won't have to go through all the pain and suffering. But a certain amount of pain and suffer is good, because it makes a person think they've learned.

  Cus D'Amato

  Pain, Smart, Thinking

  86 Copy quote

• Every fighter that ever lived had fear. A boy comes to me and tells me that he's not afraid, if I believed him I'd say he's a liar or there's something wrong with him. I'd send him to a doctor to find out what the hell's the matter with him, because this is not a normal reaction. The fighter that's gone into the ring and hasn't experienced fear is either a liar or a psychopath.

  Cus D'Amato

  Liars, Boys, Doctors

  103 Copy quote

• The punch that knocks a man out is the punch that he doesn't see.

  Cus D'Amato

  Fighting, Men

  73 Copy quote

• There is no such thing as a natural puncher. There is a natural aptitude for punching and that is different. Nobody is born the best. You have to practice and train to become the best.

  Cus D'Amato

  Practice, Boxing, Different

  71 Copy quote

• Many people who have been around boxing all those years never had a champion, certainly a heavyweight champion....For that to happen in one's lifetime is so improbable. I got Floyd Patterson, then, here, at the age of 76, I was fortunate to come in contact with this young man who has, in my opinion, all the requirements to be a champion that I believe he's going to be, maybe the best that ever lived.

  Cus D'Amato

  Believe, Men, Years

  114 Copy quote

• The hero and the coward both feel exactly the same fear, only the hero confronts his fear and converts it into fire.

  Cus D'Amato

  Hero, Fire, Preparation

  17 Copy quote

• I never teach until I've spoken to the fighter. I have to first determine his emotional state, get his background, to find out what I have to do, how many layers I have to keep peeling off so that I get to the core of the person so that he can recognize, as well as I, what is there.

  Cus D'Amato

  Emotional, Boxing, Layers

  71 Copy quote

• People who are born round don't die square.

  Cus D'Amato

  Squares, People, Boxing

  51 Copy quote

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