I think the hardest thing in life is to forgive. Hate is self destructive. If you hate somebody, you’re not hurting the person you hate, you’re hurting yourself. It’s a healing, actually, it’s a real healing…forgiveness.

I’d made it this far and refused to give up because all my life I had always finished the race.

To persevere, I think, is important for everybody. Don’t give up, don’t give in. There’s always an answer to everything.

However dark the night, however dim our hopes, the light will always follow darkness.

All I want to tell young people is that you’re not going to be anything in life unless you learn to commit to a goal. You have to reach deep within yourself to see if you are willing to make the sacrifices.

People tell me, “You’re such an optimist”. Am I an optimist? An optimist says the glass is half full. A pessimist says the glass is half empty. A survivalist is practical. He says, “Call it what you want, but just fill the glass.” I believe in filling the glass.

If I can take it, I can make it.

Yet a part of you still believes you can fight and survive no matter what your mind knows. It’s not so strange. Where there’s still life, there’s still hope. What happens is up to God.

The one who forgives never brings up the past to that person’s face. When you forgive, it’s like it never happened. True forgiveness is complete and total.

That’s one thing you learn in sports. You don’t give up; you fight to the finish.

Pain is that last quarter of a mile. You feel it, but when you’re through racing, your whole body just feels elated. So the pain is worth it.

You have to reach deep within yourself to see if you are willing to make the sacrifices.

Never give up, no matter what.

Even at my age, I’m trying to improve. Never give up, no matter what. Even if you get last place – finish.

Someone who doesn’t make the (Olympic) team might weep and collapse. In my day no one fell on the track and cried like a baby. We lost gracefully. And when someone won, he didn’t act like he’d just become king of the world, either. Athletes in my day were simply humble in our victory. I believe we were more mature then…Maybe it’s because the media puts so much pressure on athletes; maybe it’s also the money. In my day we competed for the love of the sport…In my day we patted the guy who beat us on the back, wished him well, and that was it.

To live, a man needs food, water, and a sharp mind.

God knew my needs and took care accordingly.

I was a rotten kid. My excitement came from seeing what I could get away with.

Self-esteem can’t win you a race if you’re not in shape.

People say, on the raft, you must have hallucinated. Baloney. We were sharper after 47 days than the day we started because our minds were empty of all the war and contamination; we had clean minds to fill with good thoughts. Every day we’d exercise our minds.

The world, we’d discovered, doesn’t love you like your family loves you.

If you can take it, you can make it.

The great commandment is that we preach the gospel to every creature, but neither God nor the Bible says anything about forcing it down people’s throats.

All I knew was that hate was so deadly as any poison and did no one any good. You had to control and eliminate it, if you could.

I was raised to face any challenge.

I’ve always been called Lucky Louie. It’s no mystery why.

Every soldier should learn survival on land, sea, and in the air.

God has given me so much. He expects so much out of me.

The race film had confirmed a dead heat. That was great. But even better, most of the New York press finally learned to spell my name correctly.

I ended up in the Army Air Corps in the Pacific, operating out of Ayuka field in Hawaii.