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If you are looking for motivation without any fluff, look no further than David Goggins.
I first learned about the man when he did an interview on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast.
Listening to him discuss his experience with Navy SEALs training, his outlook on life, and his exercise regimen made me want to be a better person.
Below are 75 of the best David Goggins quotes for you to enjoy.
75 Amazing David Goggins Quotes
David Goggins Motivational Quotes
#1. “Everything in life is a mind game! Whenever we get swept under by life’s dramas, large and small, we are forgetting that no matter how bad the pain gets, no matter how harrowing the torture, all bad things end.” – David Goggins
#2. “Motivation is crap. Motivation comes and goes. When you’re driven, whatever is in front of you will get destroyed.” – David Goggins
#3. “You are stopping you. You are giving up instead of getting hard.”– David Goggins
#4. “When you think that you are done, you’re only 40% into what your body’s capable of doing. That’s just the limits that we put on ourselves.” – David Goggins
#5. “Be more than motivated, be more than driven, become literally obsessed to the point where people think you’re f*cking nuts.” – David Goggins
#6. “We’re either getting better or we’re getting worse.” – David Goggins
#7. “You’re gonna fail, you’re gonna be in your head, and you’re gonna be saying I’m not good enough. It’s about how you overcome that.” – David Goggins
#8. “Pain unlocks a secret doorway in the mind, one that leads to both peak performance, and beautiful silence.” – David Goggins
#9. “We live in a world where a lot of people need goals, motivation, and a lot of other words to get started. It’s just a big excuse to not get started.” – David Goggins
#10. “Suffering is a test. That’s all it is. Suffering is the true test of life.” – David Goggins
#11. “I understand the temptation to sell short, but I also know that impulse is driven by your mind’s desire for comfort, and it’s not telling you the truth. It’s your identity trying to find sanctuary, not help you grow. It’s looking for status quo, not reaching for greatness.” – David Goggins
#12. “It’s easier to accept the fact that you’re just not good enough. We all have a lot more than we think we have.” – David Goggins
#13. “A warrior is a guy that goes ‘I’m here again today. I’ll be here again tomorrow and the next day.’ It’s a person who puts no limit on what’s possible.” – David Goggins
#14. “I don’t stop when I’m tired. I stop when I’m done.” – David Goggins
#15. “The reason it’s important to push hardest when you want to quit the most is because it helps you callous your mind. It’s the same reason why you have to do your best work when you are the least motivated. That’s why I loved PT in BUD/S and why I still love it today. Physical challenges strengthen my mind so I’m ready for whatever life throws at me, and it will do the same for you.” – David Goggins
#16. “No one is going to come help you. No one’s coming to save you.” – David Goggins
#17. “Teach yourself that it isn’t OK to take the easy way out. Make sure you are bothered by the things you set out to do but did not complete or make time for in the day.” – David Goggins
#18. “If you ever tell me that I can’t do something, I’m going to let you know, in some way, that I am going to do it.” – David Goggins
#19. “You are giving up instead of getting hard! Tell the truth about the real reasons for your limitations and you will turn that negativity, which is real, into jet fuel. Those odds stacked against you will become a damn runway!” – David Goggins
#20. “Denial is the ultimate comfort zone.” – David Goggins
#21. “Even if you are hurting, never let your competition see the look of defeat or even vulnerability on your face.” – David Goggins
#22. “You can will yourself to do almost anything you want.” – David Goggins
#23. “You are in danger of living a life so comfortable and soft, that you will die without ever realizing your true potential.” – David Goggins
#24. “A lot of people put motivational quotes up on the wall and all they do is collect dust. Become what that quote says. Live it every day.” – David Goggins
#25. “You may lose the battle of the morning but don’t lose the war of the day.” – David Goggins
#26. “From then on, I brainwashed myself into craving discomfort. If it was raining, I would go run. Whenever it started snowing, my mind would say, ‘Get your f*cking running shoes on.’ Sometimes I wussed out and had to deal with it at the Accountability Mirror. But facing that mirror, facing myself, motivated me to fight through uncomfortable experiences, and, as a result, I became tougher. And being tough and resilient helped me meet my goals.” – David Goggins
David Goggins Inspirational Quotes
#27. “Always be willing to embrace ignorance, because that is the only way to expand your body of knowledge and body of work. It’s the only way to expand your mind.” – David Goggins
#28. “We are all great. No matter if you think you’re dumb, fat, been bullied, we all have greatness. You gotta find the courage. It’s going to be hard work, discipline, and the non-cognitive skills like hard work, dedication, and sacrifice, will set you apart.” – David Goggins
#29. “We have the ability to go in such a space, if you’re willing to suffer, and I mean suffer, your brain and body once connected together, can do anything.” – David Goggins
#30. “Before you open your mouth and criticize someone, think about how you would feel if you were the person you were criticizing.” – David Goggins
#31. “Be true to whoever or whatever you are and wear it like a badge of honor. Fit in with one person and one person only, yourself.” – David Goggins
#32. “We all need small sparks, small accomplishments in our lives to fuel the big ones. Think of your small accomplishments as kindling. When you want a bonfire, you don’t start by lighting a big log. You collect some witch’s hair, a small pile of hay or some dry, dead grass. You light that, and then add small sticks and bigger sticks before you feed your tree stump into the blaze. Because it’s the small sparks, which start small fires, that eventually build enough heat to burn the whole f*cking forest down.” – David Goggins
#33. “The only person who was going to turn my life around was me. The only way I could get turned around was to put myself through the worst things possible that a human being could ever endure.” – David Goggins
#34. “It’s possible to transcend anything that doesn’t kill you.” – David Goggins
#35. “The things that we decide to run from are the truth. When you make excuses, you’re running from the truth.” – David Goggins
#36. “By the time I graduated, I knew that the confidence I’d managed to develop didn’t come from a perfect family or God-given talent. It came from personal accountability which brought me self respect, and self respect will always light a way forward.” – David Goggins
#37. “If you want to be one of the few to defy those trends in our ever-softening society, you will have to be willing to go to war with yourself and create a whole new identity, which requires an open mind.” – David Goggins
#38. “You gotta start your journey. It may suck, but eventually you will come out the other side on top.” – David Goggins
#39. “If you’re not physically and mentally prepared for what life is going to throw at you, then you’re just going to crumble, And then, you’re no good to nobody.” – David Goggins
#40. “Take time to take inventory of your life. Look in the mirror and hold yourself accountable.” – David Goggins
#41. “You know that my refrigerator is never full, and it never will be because I live a mission-driven life, always on the hunt for the next challenge. That mindset is the reason I broke that record, finished Badwater, became a SEAL, rocked Ranger School, and on down the list. In my mind I’m that racehorse always chasing a carrot I’ll never catch, forever trying to prove myself to myself. And when you live that way and attain a goal, success feels anti-climactic.” – David Goggins
#42. “No matter who you are, who your parents are or were, where you live, what you do for a living, or how much money you have, you’re probably living at about 40 percent of your true capability.” – David Goggins
#43. “The Buddha famously said that life is suffering. I’m not a Buddhist, but I know what he meant and so do you. To exist in this world, we must contend with humiliation, broken dreams, sadness, and loss.” – David Goggins
#44. “Thicken your skin. Become more of a human being. Don’t be afraid of the reflection in the mirror.” – David Goggins
#45. “Life isn’t always about doing the things we like to do. It’s about doing things we have to do.” – David Goggins
#46. “People take classes on self-help, mental toughness, breathing control. The only way to get tougher is to put yourself in hellacious situations.” – David Goggins
#47. “It’s about what we do with opportunities revoked or presented to us that determine how a story ends.” – David Goggins
David Goggins On Success And Failing
#48. “You have to build calluses on your brain just like how you build calluses on your hands. Callus your mind through pain and suffering.” – David Goggins
#49. “In order for me to be the person that I wanted to become, I saw myself as the weakest person that God ever created. I wanted to change that into being the hardest man ever created.” – David Goggins
#50. “But you don’t have to let your doubt into the cockpit! You can tolerate doubt as a backseat driver, but if you put doubt in the pilot’s seat, defeat is guaranteed. Remembering that you’ve been through difficulties before and have always survived to fight again shifts the conversation in your head. It will allow you to control and manage doubt, and keep you focused on taking each and every step necessary to achieve the task at hand.” – David Goggins
#51. “Success is based off of your willingness to work your ass off no matter what obstacles are in your way.” – David Goggins
#52. “It’s easier to accept the fact that you’re just not good enough. We all have a lot more than we think we have.” – David Goggins
#53. “No matter what avenue I choose, I want to be the very best. And, the very best may not be #1, but the very best may be ‘Did I leave everything inside of me out there?'” – David Goggins
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#54. “Most of this generation quits the second they get talked to. It’s so easy to be great nowadays because most people are just weak. If you have any mental toughness, any fraction of self-discipline, the ability to not want to do it, but still do it, you’ll be successful.” – David Goggins
#55. “In the military we always say we don’t rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training.” – David Goggins
#56. “The human body can withstand and accomplish a hell of a lot more than most of us think possible, and that it all begins and ends in the mind.” – David Goggins
#57. “You will never learn from people if you always tap dance around the truth.” – David Goggins
#58. “I’m a big believer of doing something that sucks every single day of your life. I believe it’s a key component into strengthening your mind.” – David Goggins
#59. “It’s a lot more than mind over matter. It takes relentless self discipline to schedule suffering into your day, every day.” – David Goggins
#60. “This one’s for the unusual motherf*ckers in this world. A lot of people think that once they reach a certain level of status, respect, or success, that they’ve made it in life. I’m here to tell you that you always have to find more. Greatness is not something that if you meet it once it stays with you forever. That shit evaporates like a flash of oil in a hot pan.” – David Goggins
#61. “To those people who say ‘I’m good’, you ain’t good man, you ain’t never (expletive) arrived. That’s just my mentality. You may have more than I do, but you’ve never (expletive) arrived.” – David Goggins
#62. “Don’t get mad at others because life is kicking your ass.” – David Goggins
#63. “We live in a world with a lot of insecure, jealous people. Some of them are our best friends. They are blood relatives. Failure terrifies them. So does our success. Because when we transcend what we once thought possible, push our limits, and become more, our light reflects off all the walls they’ve built up around them. Your light enables them to see the contours of their own prison, their own self-limitations. But if they are truly the great people you always believed them to be, their jealousy will evolve, and soon their imagination might hop its fence, and it will be their turn to change for the better.” – David Goggins
#64. “Don’t limit expectations of yourself and settle for anything less than what you are truly capable of achieving.” – David Goggins
#65. “You want to be uncommon amongst uncommon people. Period.” – David Goggins
#66. “When you fall down, focus on the solution, not the problem. You might quit or fail 100 times. Keep that clear picture of where you want to be.” – David Goggins
Best David Goggins Quotes
#67. “A lot of us don’t know about another world that exists for us because it’s on the other side of suffering. That’s the real growth in life.” – David Goggins
#68. “But visualization isn’t simply about daydreaming of some trophy ceremony, real or metaphorical. You must also visualize the challenges that are likely to arise and determine how you will attack those problems when they do. That way you can be as prepared as possible on the journey.” – David Goggins
#69. “I thought I’d solved a problem when really I was creating new ones by taking the path of least resistance.” – David Goggins
#70. “It won’t always go your way, so you can’t get trapped in this idea that just because you’ve imagined a possibility for yourself that you somehow deserve it. Your entitled mind is dead weight. Cut it loose. Don’t focus on what you think you deserve. Take aim on what you are willing to earn!” – David Goggins
#71. “Anyone who is of sound mind and body can sit down and think of twenty things in their life that could have gone differently. Where maybe they didn’t get a fair shake and where they took the path of least resistance. If you’re one of the few who acknowledge that, want to callous those wounds, and strengthen your character, it’s up to you to go back through your past and make peace with yourself by facing those incidents and all of your negative influences, and accepting them as weak spots in your own character. Only when you identify and accept your weaknesses will you finally stop running from your past. Then those incidents can be used more efficiently as fuel to become better and grow stronger.” – David Goggins
#72. “Only you can master your mind, which is what it takes to live a bold life filled with accomplishments most people consider beyond their capability.” – David Goggins
#73. “As humans, we’re reading books everyday to try to figure out how to be someone else. What we don’t do is go inside, turn ourselves inside out, and read our own story. You have to look inside to find out what you really want.” – David Goggins
#74. “Our culture has become hooked on the quick-fix, the life hack, efficiency. Everyone is on the hunt for that simple action algorithm that nets maximum profit with the least amount of effort. There’s no denying this attitude may get you some of the trappings of success, if you’re lucky, but it will not lead to a calloused mind or self-mastery. If you want to master the mind and remove your governor, you’ll have to become addicted to hard work. Because passion and obsession, even talent, are only useful tools if you have the work ethic to back them up.” – David Goggins
#75. “Every morning in our lives, we have a choice to make. You have the choice to stay in bed and say ‘Forget it, I’m not going to work out today.’ or ‘Forget it, I’m not going to work hard today.’ That’s your choice that you make every single day of your life. Make the right decision.” – David Goggins
Final Thoughts
There are the best David Goggins sayings.
As I mentioned in the beginning, he is a raw motivational speaker that doesn’t sugar coats things.
This can turn some people off, but for others, it is exactly what they need to get moving and become a better person.
If you’ve found these saying inspiring and you want from David Goggins, check out his book, Can’t Hurt Me.
You can buy it on Amazon by clicking here or using the link below.
Jon Dulin is the passionate leader of Unfinished Success, a personal development website that inspires people to take control of their own lives and reach their full potential. His commitment to helping others achieve greatness shines through in everything he does. He’s an unstoppable force with lots of wisdom, creativity, and enthusiasm – all focused on helping others build a better future. Jon enjoys writing articles about productivity, goal setting, self-development, and mindset. He also uses quotes and affirmations to help motivate and inspire himself. You can learn more about him on his About page.