“You cannot be a hero without being a coward.”

“At a time when many men were cowards, he was a true hero to the West.”

“You cannot have power for good without having power for evil too. Even mother's milk nourishes murderers as well as heroes.”

“There's no shame in fear. But understand this - the coward is ruled by fear, while the hero rides it like a wild stallion.”

“Without being able to be armed you cannot be a real citizen.”

“At 20, reflecting on Cus D'Amato: "Cus was my father but he was more than a father. You can have a father and what does it mean?—it doesn't really mean anything. Cus was my backbone…. He did everything for my best interest…. We'd spend all our time together, talk about things that, later on, would come back to me. Like about character, and courage. Like the hero and the coward: that 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.”

“A sober man may become a drunkard through being a coward. A brave man may become a coward through being a drunkard.”

“The truth is a snare: you cannot have it, without being caught. You cannot have the truth in such a way that you catch it, but only in such a way that it catches you.”

“Hatred is the coward's revenge for being intimidated.”

“Fighting is like champagne. It goes to the heads of cowards as quickly as of heroes. Any fool can be brave on a battlefield when it's be brave or else be killed.”