Eric Greitens
Of course fear does not automatically lead to courage. Injury does not necessarily lead to insight. Hardship will not automatically make us better. Pain can break us or make us wiser. Suffering can destroy us or make us stronger. Fear can cripple us, or it can make us more courageous. It is resilience that makes the difference.Collection: Courage
In failure, children learn how to struggle with adversity and how to confront fear. By reflecting on failure, children begin to see how to correct themselves and then try again with better results.Collection: Failure
I've never been in politics before, but even in the brief time that I've been running for governor, I've been exposed to some of the worst people I've ever known. Liars, cowards, sociopaths.Collection: Politics
Both Sheena and I are working parents, and we know how hard it is to balance work and parenting.Collection: Parenting
The U.S. military may well be the best-integrated large institution on the planet. You have people from every corner of the country, every ethnic background, every walk of life, and we all come together to serve.
Everyone needs resilience. It's a virtue essential to growth and essential to happiness.
Right to work doesn't eliminate unions. It makes them more responsible and accountable to their members on the front lines.
We have a culture of political corruption in Jefferson City. We have corrupt politicians, well-paid lobbyists and special-interest insiders taking the state in the wrong direction.
Like the plague, opioids kill the young, the old, the healthy, the sick, the virtuous and the sinful.
I'm running for Governor because we need a political outsider to move Missouri forward.
To be very clear, I have completely ruled out state funding for stadiums.
We are not going to use money from the people of the state of Missouri for what I believe is corporate welfare. We've got far too many core priorities of government that have to be invested in.
We are fighting to bring more jobs to the people of Missouri.
Children who know that they have something to offer others will learn that they can shape the world around them for the better.
Your children should know that you're always there for them, and that they can call on you when needed. But give them the opportunity to learn to solve their own problems.
Our firefighters, they show up every day to fight fires. If, God forbid, there's a situation where they have to fight cancer, they shouldn't have to fight bureaucrats to get the care they deserve.
The fact is, Missouri's budget is broken. For decades, insiders, special interests, lobbyists and prior politicians have made a mess of our budget.
I don't think that we need to raise tuition on our students. I don't think that our students should be made to pay for the mistakes of our past politicians and the promises they made.
We need a modern government that allows people to do more on-line instead of making them wait in line.
Missourians are a hardworking people. They want good, quality jobs.
Trial lawyers can sue people in the state of Missouri, and because of how broken the system is, if they win just one dollar for their client, they still get paid huge legal fees. For too long in this state, trial lawyers have picked our people's pockets.
If you want to start or grow a business in the state of Missouri and hire more people with good jobs, I will be your friend and ally.
I know the pride of carrying our nation's flag abroad - and I have felt the grief of burying too many friends beneath that flag at home.
Our state's world famous motto, 'Show me,' reminds us that Missourians don't much value big talk.
In Missouri, we built the steamships that plied the Mississippi. It was people of Missouri who believed that a human being could fly across the Atlantic Ocean alone. And it was Missourians who built the capsule in which an American first orbited the earth.
Sometimes the purpose of our opponents is to be our teachers.
When people have jobs in a thriving economy, it solves a lot of problems.
When I was in Iraq and Afghanistan, I never once turned to someone before a raid on a house and said, 'Hey, man, are you a Democrat or a Republican?'
I came to see that it wasn't enough just to care about people. You also had to build systems in which you could ensure that there are results and accountability.
The world needs many more humanitarians than it needs warriors, but there can be none of the former without enough of the latter.
The fact is, I was elected governor of the state of Missouri to bring more jobs to the state of Missouri.
For too long, Missouri has been run by career politicians, owned by corrupt consultants, high-paid lobbyists and special interests.
We need to make sure we're making a distinction between violent felons who are in this country illegally and children who were brought here through no fault of their own, who have grown up here in America.
Anyone who is willing to take a bullet for this country, anyone who is willing to serve in uniform, should at the end of their military service be given an opportunity to become an American citizen.
We need to protect every life and that we need to defend the lives of the unborn.
When you have law-abiding citizens who are actively ready to protect themselves and their family, that reduces crime.
You don't reduce crime by taking away guns from law-abiding citizens.
Resilience is distinct from mere survival, and more than mere endurance. Resilience is often endurance with direction.
So Hell Week is considered to be the hardest week of the hardest military training in the world. It is a week of continuous military training during which most classes sleep for a total of two to five hours over the course of the entire week.
Ask yourself, how can I learn from the people around me. Often, your mentors are already in your life; you just haven't yet found a way to learn from them.
Tort reform is important. We need to prevent trial lawyers from killing good jobs.
What matters is what you do. And this runs counter to what a lot of the culture teaches people about putting feelings first. By contrast, resilient people focus not on what they intend, but on what they achieve.
The best way to honor the legacy of a person who's passed is to find a way to support the living.
Every entrepreneur has to deal with hardship, but if we're tough enough and thoughtful enough, we can find a way to make hard things make us better.
Teach your children early not to pass the blame or make excuses, but to take responsibility for their actions.
People know if you care about them. How do you show people that you care? By caring for them. By putting their needs first. By sacrificing for them. By serving them. Do that, and you'll build a great team.
The mistake that I made was that I was engaged in a consensual relationship with a woman who was not my wife. That is a mistake for which I am very sorry.
I'm very confident that God has a way of bringing good from difficulty.
God has a way of helping you to move through suffering and actually become stronger.
One of the things that I've found in everything that I've done: People want leaders to create a sense of direction and to lead and to act.