Evel Knievel Quotations

I decided to fly through the air and live in the sunlight and enjoy life as much as I could.

But you come to a point in your life when you can't pull the trigger anymore.

It's easy to be famous today. People pay a million dollars to be recognized, but nobody cares about them. They cared about me because I did things other men were afraid to do. That's why my fans identified with me. They were mostly working-class.

You are the master of your own ship, pal. There are lots of people who fall into troubled waters and don't have the guts or the knowledge or the ability to make it to shore. They have nobody to blame but themselves.

Those extreme-sports kids today are good, but they have it easy. Try falling off of a motorcycle going 70 or 80 miles per hour on asphalt. Believe me, nothing equals it.

I like to help kids, work with kids in detention homes. Don't tell a kid what's right and wrong. He knows what's right and wrong. Find out what his attitude and his aptitude are; try to help him where he wants to go.

If there is a heaven, I don't know anything else I can do to get there - and neither do you.

Women are the root of all evil. I ought to know. I'm Evel.

Riding a motorcycle on today's highways, you have to ride in a very defensive manner. You have to be a good rider and you have to have both hands and both feet on the controls at all times.

I love the feeling of the fresh air on my face and the wind blowing through my hair.

If you don't know about pain and trouble, you're in sad shape. They make you appreciate life.

If you fall during your life, it doesn't matter. You're never a failure as long as you try to get up.

Anybody can jump a motorcycle. The trouble begins when you try to land it

You'd think a guy who has broken 35 bones in his body would have a high pain threshold, but mine is pretty low. I got hit in the shin with a golf ball once and it almost brought tears to my eyes. I've had broken bones that didn't hurt as bad.

I learned one thing from jumping motorcycles that was of great value on the golf course, the putting green especially: Whatever you do, don't come up short.

The most important thing in life is, if you have a dream, I mean a real good dream, follow it.

You come to a point in your life when you really don't care what people think about you, you just care what you think about yourself.

I think if you have ability and talent in one way, you have it in all ways. I'm not a jack of all trades; I'm a master of many. I don't feel there is anything I can't do if I want to.

My life has been being a daredevil. I am Evel Knievel. I am a daredevil.

In the old days they, the promoters, wanted more and more from me. They wanted me to jump or spill my blood and break my bones. Every time they wanted me to jump further, and further, and further. Hell, they thought my bike had wings.

Kids come up to me all the time and say, 'Once I was going through a really bad time, and I saw you crash and get up, and it inspired me.'

You can't forbid children to do things that are available to them at every turn. God told Eve, 'Don't give the apple to Adam,' and look what happened. It's in our nature to want the things we see.

A motorcycle coming down from 30 feet at 70 mph gives you a terrible jolt.

When you're mad at someone, it's probably best not to break his arm with a baseball bat.

I wish there was such a thing as reincarnation.

There are a lot of myths about my injuries. They say I have broken every bone in my body. Not true. But I have broken 35 bones. I had surgery 14 times to pin and plate. I shattered my pelvis. I forget all of the things that have broke.

If I'm out trailriding, I have a favorite motorcycle. Riding on the road, I've got a favorite. If I'm jumping, I have a favorite, and if I'm racing, I have a favorite.

I can still crack a safe with one hand tied behind my back. I'm not proud of it. But I was always against society.

Unless we do things in this country to slow down our population, slow down our birth control, provide better water for people, provide power for people, we're gonna find out that the next wars are not going to be fought over diamonds, gold and political things.

The Internal Revenue Service is more ruthless than the Gestapo. Abolish the IRS! Stamp out organized crime!

I'm better than P. T. Barnum and Colonel Parker put together.

You know, I had a couple hundred jumps in my career, and I made most of them, but the ones they show over and over are the ones when I crashed.

I guess I'm like any other concerned father, except that nobody else's son guns a cycle over 17 pickups without holding on to the handlebars.

I did everything by the seat of my pants. That's why I got hurt so much.

I think these shows with the young kids doing these jumps, doing these fantastic back flips, I think they're absolutely great. They did what I never did.

Prison was tough on me. I saw people in prison that made me ashamed I was a human being. Some make Qaddafi and Idi Amin look like Sunday-school teachers.

I want to be the first. If they'd let me go to the moon, I'd crawl all the way to Cape Kennedy just to do it. I'd like to go to the moon, but I don't want to be the second man to go there.

I don't have any problems in life, just situations.

Harley-Davidson is the finest company in the world.

I foresee the Chinese ruling the world. What are you going to do to stop it? No president of the United States will ever have enough power to stop the Chinese when they want to take over the world.

I always knew how to draw a crowd.

I know that I'm very lucky to be alive. For 35 or 40 years I've spilt my blood and broke my bones and spent years in hospitals.

This is a year and a few months after the transplant. Before I had it my doctors told me that it would be the biggest thing that I ever had to face and believe me, when they take your liver out of ya and put another one in it's like replacing a football in your stomach.

I thought I was bulletproof or Superman there for a while. I thought I'd never run out of nerve. Never.

I created Evel Knievel, and then he sort of got away from me.

The finest compliment you can pay a man is that his word was as good as gold.

I have my tombstone already. A tombstone company in the East gave it to me when I jumped Snake Canyon. My plot is in Montana.

My failures had a lot to do with my fame. I created Evel Knievel, and then he sort of got away from me.

You can't say you're going to jump the Grand Canyon and then jump some other canyon.

People pay a million dollars to be recognized, but nobody cares about them. They cared about me because I did things other men were afraid to do. That's why my fans identified with me.

God made us. He's in charge of everything, right? If He didn't like us, why didn't he change us?

I am a guy who is first of all a businessman. I'm not a stunt man. I'm not a daredevil. I'm - I'm an explorer.

I can't keep track of my hospital time. It all sort of blurs together.

I know guys in my hometown that drive by feel and sound.

Titanic Thompson and Amarillo Slim would have run from a game with Marty Stanovich. Marty could really play, and he didn't cheat.

I don't know what in the world happened. I don't know if it was the power of the prayer or God himself, but it just reached out, either while I was driving or walking down the sidewalk or sleeping, and it just - the power of God in Jesus just grabbed me... All of a sudden, I just believed in Jesus Christ. I did, I believed in him!

My grandpa got me a set of Wilson clubs, Sam Snead models, when I was 12. Many years later, when I'd become well known, I got to know Sam, and we played a lot of golf together.

I really think we should pass a law in every state, I don't care whether it takes the independence away from an old person or not. You shouldn't be driving a car if you're over the age of 80. Maybe even less than that.

My own judgment of how the world is gonna end is that there will be a country led by a madman that will build a nuclear bomb with so much force, so much power, that it will be dropped somewhere on the face of this earth and that the earth will lose its place.

I am not, never have been, and never will be a politician. But I want to tell you the United States has always been proud of having the support of the United Kingdom, of keeping Britain in Europe. We need Britain in Europe.

I've always been concerned about kids - not just my own three, but all kids - what kind of an image I'm providing for them, what kind of inspiration. I don't know now. Maybe I'm leading them down the path to self-destruction.

I think through education, belief in God, and good engineering, our children become a lot better at what they're doing than we did, and that starts with the very first sign of life on the face of this earth.

I recently have had a full hip replacement and a liver transplant, and I'm getting used to the medication.

I've been in a treatment center for drinkin'. I stayed for two days, then escaped.

I guess I thought I was Elvis Presley but I'll tell ya something. All Elvis did was stand on a stage and play a guitar. He never fell off on that pavement at no 80 mph.

The saddest thing is when a guy is paying so much attention to the world and everything going by that he can't take the time for his own mother.

All my life people have been waiting around to watch me die.

You can be famous for a lot of things. You can be a Nobel-prize winner. You can be the fattest guy in the world.

I always wanted to live to about 70. I thought that'd be a good age,

I play golf five days a week. I find that if I play seven days a week, I get stale.

I'm not only the best-known daredevil on the face of the earth, I'm the oldest.

Nothing's worse than a guy who loses fair and square and then whines about it.

Sometimes I keep a car for only a week or two. I like the newest and the flashiest.

The Harley's got a little too much torque when it comes to jumping.

There's just no stopping me. I went through life big-bang-banda-boom-bada-boom.

When I hit that pavement at 70 or 80 mph those suits just ripped.

I think I coulda landed on a dime. I really do.

If you look at the Bible almost everything that was predicted, maybe everything, has come to pass.

Breaks your heart when your son doesn't love you.

I went through high school, but I didn't graduate.

My wife and I, we like to ride where there's not much traffic.

The other thing I wanted but never got to do had something to do with Liz Taylor but she's getting a little old and a little fat.

We are awaiting a donor of a liver that will be a suitable match for my blood type, O positive, the most common type in this nation.

Buddy puts his nose to the ground and gets things done. He came up the hard way, and nobody gave anything to him. I have lots of respect for him for that.

Well, I ride just a couple times a week.

I've been asked to do a TV reality show where I'd pick the greatest daredevil in the world. I'm giving it some serious thought, too.

I can say the Lord's prayer in 10 seconds.

I've always lived by the creed that you're never a failure in life when you fall as long as you try and get up.

If it is possible, it is done. If it is impossible... it will be done.

I am a lucky, lucky person.

I'm not a stunt man. I'm not a dare devil...I'm an explorer.

No prince, no king, no president has ever lived a better life than I have!

I went through life big-bang-banda-boom-bada-boom.

You're never a failure until you fail to get up.

You can't ask a guy like me why [I performed]. I really wanted to fly through the air. I was a daredevil, a performer. I loved the thrill, the money, the whole macho thing. All those things made me Evel Knievel. Sure, I was scared. You gotta be an ass not to be scared. But I beat the hell out of death.

She (my ex-wife) wanted me to stop being Evel Knievel. I am who I am. I'm not going to change. I'll settle down the day they put me in a six-foot pine box.

Risk is good. Not properly managing your risk is a dangerous leap.

I would always rather be in the arena fighting than be a spectator.

If you fall during your life it doesn't matter because you're never a failure if you try to get up.

I'm not a jack of all trades; I'm a master of many. I don't feel there is anything I can't do if I want to.