David Goggins is a retired Navy SEAL and ultramarathon runner. This collection gathers his own words from published interviews. — David Goggins: How to Build Immense Inner Strength (Huberman Lab).

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Top Quotes from David Goggins

  1. On a nice comfortable place: David Goggins: "Most people live in this nice, comfortable place that makes them feel really good; the temperature in the house is 72 degrees, they’ve got a refrigerator full of food." — How a Navy SEAL Became the Hardest Man on Earth (Next Big Idea Club, conversation with Michael Gervais; his answers).
  2. On leaving your comfort zone: David Goggins: "You have to take yourself out of your comfort zone." — How a Navy SEAL Became the Hardest Man on Earth (Next Big Idea Club, conversation with Michael Gervais; his answers).
  3. On quitting what matters: David Goggins: "You can have everything you want in life, but when you quit something that is meaningful to you, you will be haunted by it." — David Goggins Wrote the Game Plan for Peak Performance (Outside; his quoted answers).
  4. On needing nothing but your breath: David Goggins: "I started realizing that you need nothing but the breath in your lungs to become great." — How a Navy SEAL Became the Hardest Man on Earth (Next Big Idea Club, conversation with Michael Gervais; his answers).
  5. On mindset as the great equalizer: David Goggins: "Mindset is the great equalizer. I came from nothing special." — David Goggins Wrote the Game Plan for Peak Performance (Outside; his quoted answers).
  1. On earning peace: David Goggins: "Peace is what I was searching for, but I had to suffer." — How a Navy SEAL Became the Hardest Man on Earth (Next Big Idea Club, conversation with Michael Gervais; his answers).
  2. On a daily routine: David Goggins: "My daily routine is: I run, I go to the gym, and I stretch for about two, three hours." — David Goggins Wrote the Game Plan for Peak Performance (Outside; his quoted answers).
  3. On pain and discomfort: David Goggins: "It’s like we feel pain, discomfort, suffering, all those words that we hate to say because we’re in this happy, peaceful world we live in now." — Transcript of David Goggins on Joe Rogan Podcast #1080 (via The Singju Post; his turns; machine-generated).
  4. On callusing the mind: David Goggins: "And I started callusing my mind at this point in my life." — Transcript of David Goggins on Joe Rogan Podcast #1080 (via The Singju Post; his turns; machine-generated).
  5. On friction: David Goggins: "Friction is growth." — David Goggins: How to Build Immense Inner Strength (Huberman Lab; transcript under human review; his turns).
  6. On quick fixes: David Goggins: "I don’t believe in all these quick fixes." — David Goggins Wrote the Game Plan for Peak Performance (Outside; his quoted answers).
  1. On the real conversation: David Goggins: "We don't have enough of these conversations about the real conversation that every human being is having." — David Goggins: How to Build Immense Inner Strength (Huberman Lab; transcript under human review; his turns).
  2. On changing his thinking process: David Goggins: "I had to change my thinking process, and basically the accountability mirror is what did it." — Rich Roll and David Goggins (The Tim Ferriss Show #630 transcript, his turns).
  3. On the accountability mirror: David Goggins: "I started holding myself accountable for everything I was afraid of or I lied about or I cheated on or whatever because I had to develop a core value of myself." — How a Navy SEAL Became the Hardest Man on Earth (Next Big Idea Club, conversation with Michael Gervais; his answers).
  4. On the best conversation: David Goggins: "The best conversation you are going to have in your entire life is the one you have with yourself." — How a Navy SEAL Became the Hardest Man on Earth (Next Big Idea Club, conversation with Michael Gervais; his answers).
  5. On looking in the mirror: David Goggins: "I became who I am today because I looked at myself in the mirror and said, “Hey, you are acting this way, you are not real smart, you are this, you are that.” I gave myself who I was." — How a Navy SEAL Became the Hardest Man on Earth (Next Big Idea Club, conversation with Michael Gervais; his answers).
  6. On vulnerability: David Goggins: "For me, I'm going to teach you how to be vulnerable because that's the only way you fix yourself." — David Goggins: How to Build Immense Inner Strength (Huberman Lab; transcript under human review; his turns).
  1. On the word discipline: David Goggins: "I wish there was a different word besides discipline. Discipline sounds too easy." — David Goggins Wrote the Game Plan for Peak Performance (Outside; his quoted answers).
  2. On finding the time: David Goggins: "If you want it, you will find time in your life to do it." — Rich Roll and David Goggins (The Tim Ferriss Show #630 transcript, his turns).
  3. On motivation: David Goggins: "Motivation is crap, motivation comes and goes." — How a Navy SEAL Became the Hardest Man on Earth (Next Big Idea Club, conversation with Michael Gervais; his answers).
  4. On starting with nobody: David Goggins: "I need this time right here for me to be the best I can be because this journey started without anybody." — David Goggins: How to Build Immense Inner Strength (Huberman Lab; transcript under human review; his turns).
  5. On racing against himself: David Goggins: "It was always me against me." — Rich Roll and David Goggins (The Tim Ferriss Show #630 transcript, his turns).
  6. On a life so disciplined: David Goggins: "After a while, I lived a life so disciplined that every body that I once looked to, these fake characters, I built that as a man." — David Goggins: How to Build Immense Inner Strength (Huberman Lab; transcript under human review; his turns).
  1. On the path to winning: David Goggins: "I never talked about winning because I knew the path to winning was going to be years of failing first." — David Goggins: How to Build Immense Inner Strength (Huberman Lab; transcript under human review; his turns).
  2. On teaching yourself to fail first: David Goggins: "You better teach yourself how to fail first because if you sit in failure for too long, you will never come out of it." — David Goggins: How to Build Immense Inner Strength (Huberman Lab; transcript under human review; his turns).
  3. On judging what greatness takes: David Goggins: "The most frustrating thing in the world for me is when normal people judge a man like myself on what it really takes to extract greatness from nothing." — David Goggins: How to Build Immense Inner Strength (Huberman Lab; transcript under human review; his turns).
  4. On failing until you succeed: David Goggins: "And at twenty four years old, knowing when I’m fifty years old, I can reflect on this and think about what guy I never became, or I can totally just sack it up and fail and fail and fail until I succeed." — Transcript of David Goggins on Joe Rogan Podcast #1080 (via The Singju Post; his turns; machine-generated).
  5. On wanting to be smarter: David Goggins: "Scary to wake up every day and say, I'm stupid, but I'm going to figure out a way to be smarter versus saying, man, I just can't do that." — David Goggins: How to Build Immense Inner Strength (Huberman Lab; transcript under human review; his turns).
  1. On being put in a category: David Goggins: "So you water down my message by putting me in a category of I’m crazy, I’m a freak, whatever." — Rich Roll and David Goggins (The Tim Ferriss Show #630 transcript, his turns).
  2. On the genetic freak: David Goggins: "Right, and I’m not going to ever let anybody make themselves feel better by telling me that I was some genetic freak, I’m not going to make yourself feel better about that." — Rich Roll and David Goggins (The Tim Ferriss Show #630 transcript, his turns).
  3. On why he does it: David Goggins: "I do these things because maybe someone out there will understand me and get it and say, I can grow from this guy, and others just won't." — David Goggins: How to Build Immense Inner Strength (Huberman Lab; transcript under human review; his turns).
  4. On being scared to be great: David Goggins: "I didn’t want to jump out of an airplane, but I didn’t want to live knowing I was scared to be great." — How a Navy SEAL Became the Hardest Man on Earth (Next Big Idea Club, conversation with Michael Gervais; his answers).
  1. On life not being friendly: David Goggins: "Life is not friendly. Life is not you always being happy." — David Goggins Wrote the Game Plan for Peak Performance (Outside; his quoted answers).
  2. On life not being easy: David Goggins: "A lot of us think that we are just born and we live and then we die. No, it’s not that easy." — How a Navy SEAL Became the Hardest Man on Earth (Next Big Idea Club, conversation with Michael Gervais; his answers).
  3. On starting a journey: David Goggins: "It’s not about the accomplishments, it’s about starting a journey, and not getting off that path when it gets scary." — How a Navy SEAL Became the Hardest Man on Earth (Next Big Idea Club, conversation with Michael Gervais; his answers).
  4. On why people avoid building willpower: David Goggins: "Why most people don't want to do that and build that willpower is because it is scary." — David Goggins: How to Build Immense Inner Strength (Huberman Lab; transcript under human review; his turns).
  5. On reasons why people cannot: David Goggins: "A lot of people have reasons why they can’t." — David Goggins Wrote the Game Plan for Peak Performance (Outside; his quoted answers).
  6. On control of your life: David Goggins: "You have to believe that you have control of your life." — How a Navy SEAL Became the Hardest Man on Earth (Next Big Idea Club, conversation with Michael Gervais; his answers).
  7. On building something at twenty-four: David Goggins: "At 24 years old, I started building something that I didn't even know was going to be what it is now at 49." — David Goggins: How to Build Immense Inner Strength (Huberman Lab; transcript under human review; his turns).
  8. On blaming everybody: David Goggins: "I was blaming everybody for how I came up." — How a Navy SEAL Became the Hardest Man on Earth (Next Big Idea Club, conversation with Michael Gervais; his answers).

The vast majority of these quotes and learnings are derived from David Goggins' two books, which are the primary sources for his philosophy:

For ongoing insights and motivation, you can follow his official social media channels, which are linked on his website: