Bear Grylls Quotes

My faith isn’t very churchy, it’s a pretty personal, intimate thing and has been a huge source of strength in moments of life and death.

I’ve fallen down crevasses, been bitten by snakes, been knocked unconscious, had various limbs broken and once, a heavy camera came plunging down which very nearly decapitated me.

I am not fearless. I get scared plenty. But I have also learned how to channel that emotion to sharpen me.

It’s unresolved conflict in my life that I have a lovely family and a risky job.

Life’s full of lots of dream-stealers always telling you you need to do something more sensible. I think it doesn’t matter what your dream is, just fight the dream-stealers and hold onto it.

How you speak about others speaks loudest about yourself.

For me, my training is a key part of my work as so often my life has depended on being able to move fast and haul myself up and out of something fast!

Life has taught me to be very cautious of a man with a dream, especially a man who has teetered on the edge of life. It gives a fire and recklessness inside that is hard to quantify.

I joined the Army at 19 as a soldier and spent about four and a half years with them. Then I broke my back in a freefall parachuting accident and spent a year in rehabilitation back in the U.K.

The line between life or death is determined by what we are willing to do.

Accidents on big mountains happen when people’s ambitions cloud their good judgment. Good climbing is about climbing with heart and with instinct, not ambition and pride.

I loved climbing because of the freedom, and having time and space. I remember coming off Everest for the last time, thinking of Dad and wishing that he could have seen what I saw. He would have loved it.

The appeal of the wild for me is its unpredictability. You have to develop an awareness, react fast, be resourceful and come up with a plan and act on it.

You can’t live someone else’s expectations in life. It’s a recipe for disaster.

My favorite moments? Where it’s all going swimmingly, the sun’s out and I’ve got a fire going and a nice snake on the barbecue.

That feeling when you’re so cold you’d give anything to be warm – I’ve had it before, literally huddled around a candle flame on an ice sheet.

I train five days a week hard – but it is short and sharp – 30 to 40 minutes of functional and pretty dynamic body-strength circuits, then I do a good yoga session on the sixth day, then I rest.

You’re not human if you don’t feel fear. But I’ve learnt to treat fear as an emotion that sharpens me. It’s there to give me that edge for what I have to do.

I find skydiving really hard. I broke my back while skydiving when I was in the military, and for 18 months all my nightmares were about falling.

If you risk nothing you gain nothing

The SAS Reserve tends to be made up of former paratroopers and commandos who still want a challenge, but it is open to civilians.

To me, adventure has always been to me the connections and bounds you create with people when you’re there. And you can have that anywhere.

Look, sometimes, no matter how hard you try, sometimes you need a bit of luck.

I’ve seen extreme bravery from the least likely of people. Life is about the moments when it’s all gone wrong. That’s when we define ourselves.

Life is an adventure that is best lived boldly

But the wild is unpredictable, stuff does happen, and it’s always when you’re least expecting it.

The hardest thing about my job isn’t the snake bites or the crocodiles, it’s being away from my children. I have a really religious satellite phone call every day back to the boys, wherever we are, whatever time zone, to say goodnight.

Exercise helps my back. If I don’t exercise, that’s when it starts to hurt. The pain is a good motivator to run and exercise.

I have held healthy respects of bears along with assorted crocodiles, snakes and lots of other animals. You know, bears are dangerous, you have to be super careful.

Adventure should be 80 percent ‘I think this is manageable,’ but it’s good to have that last 20 percent where you’re right outside your comfort zone. Still safe, but outside your comfort zone.

I’ve eaten sheep’s eyes, the still hot meat from a zebra killed by a lion, and maggots which give you 70 calories to the ounce.

As a society, we’ve become terrified of failure, but you can’t grow without risking it.

You don’t need to go to the ends of the earth, you don’t need to climb Everest to have a great adventure, it’s invariably on our doorstep.

The rewards of the wild and the rewards of the survivor go to those who can dig deep, and, ultimately, to the guy who can stay alive.

Live a wild, generous full, exciting life – blessing those around you and seeing the good in all.

Dreams, though, are cheap, and the real task comes when you start putting in place the steps needed to make those dreams a reality.

You don’t often see Bear Grylls in a suit.

I come from a line of self-motivated, determined folk – not grand, not high society, but no-nonsense, family-minded go-getters.

As a young boy, scouting gave me a confidence and camaraderie that is hard to find in modern life.

Don’t be scared to dream big, and don’t be afraid to be close to people. And never give up! It’s the tenacious not the talented that win.

Our fate is determined by how far we are prepared to push ourselves to stay alive – the decisions we make to survive. We must do whatever it takes to endure and make it through alive.

I think viewers quite like it when I’m suffering or eating or drinking something horrible or really up against it in some quicksand or whatever.

Nobody wants to end up super rich and famous – but divorced. I’m always clear on that and try to stay on the right side of the line.

As for my diet, I try to eat lean, clean and healthy – nothing too surprising. And I avoid too much meat or dairy because they slow you down.

Survival is not about being fearless. It’s about making a decision, getting on and doing it, because I want to see my kids again, or whatever the reason might be.

I try and eat really healthy when I’m home, but I certainly don’t eat worms and snakes.

Make a little time to be quiet by yourself every day and just be.

All my life the only thing I’ve been good at has been climbing and throwing myself off big things.

I’m terrified of walking into a room full of people. Sitting down at a dinner table with 15 strangers brings me out in a sweat.

I’ve had so many injuries in my life that it’s ridiculous.

When I’m filming, survival requires movement. You need your energy, and you’ve got to eat the bad stuff, and survival food is rarely pretty, but you kind of do it. I get in that zone, and I eat the nasty stuff, but I’m not like that when I’m back home.

When I’m in ‘Man vs. Wild’ mode, it’s not pleasure. Every sensor is firing and I’m on reserve power all the time and I’m digging deep – and that’s the magic of it as well, and that’s raw and it’s great.

Christianity is not about religion. It’s about faith, about being held, about being forgiven. It’s about finding joy and finding home.

Change the way you use your time, and you change your life.

Is your ego small enough, and your backbone strong enough, to raise others up high on your shoulders?

Weather can kill you so fast. The first priority of survival is getting protection from the extreme weather.

Sometimes it’s hard for us to believe, really believe, that God cares and wants good things for us and doesn’t just want us to go off and give everything up and become missionaries in Burundi.

Our dreams are just wishes, if we never follow them through with action. And in life, you have got to be able to light your own fire.

Well, wolves will pretty rarely hunt. You’re vulnerable if you’re on your own or injured. But for lone wolves, get up high, show them that you’re not injured, face ’em off, be authoritarian with it, and look ’em in the eye.

The special forces gave me the self-confidence to do some extraordinary things in my life. Climbing Everest then cemented my belief in myself.

Survival can be summed up in three words – never give up. That’s the heart of it really. Just keep trying.

I do see a lot of the hard end of ecology, and my feeling is that we live on a super-exciting planet but a super-fragile one.

The truth is, I need 10 lifetimes to scratch the surface of the things I’d love to do.

You only get one chance at life and you have to grab it boldly.

In the British Special Air Service, combat fitness is all about running.

I exercise about 40 minutes a day, and I’ll run one day and do circuit training the next day. I live in an area where there are brilliant hills and mountains, so I get a good hill run with my dog. At home, I’ll do the circuit training with old weights, along with pull-ups in the trees and that sort of stuff.

Some of the greatest survivors have been women. Look at the courage so many women have shown after surviving earthquakes in the rubble for days on end.

Survival requires us to leave our prejudices at home. It’s about doing whatever it takes – and ultimately those with the biggest heart will win.

You can’t become a decent horseman until you fall off and get up again, a good number of times. There’s life in a nutshell.

I don’t like expeditions where it is a total lottery whether you live or die. You have to keep those sort of good luck cards for rare occasions!

I was christened Edward. My sister gave me the name Bear when I was a week old and it has stuck.

I’ve never really had a TV career. I’ve been a soldier and a climber.

I always wanted to be Robin Hood or John the Baptist when I was growing up.

A man’s pride can be his downfall, and he needs to learn when to turn to others for support and guidance.

I love Ray Mears. He’s brilliant. He’s so rude about me in the press, it’s outrageous!

Faith is personal if it’s to be real.

I was always brought up to have a cup of tea at halfway up a rock face.

There’s no magic to running far or climbing Everest. Endurance is mental strength. It’s all about heart.

A wise man knows; learn from others, never get complacent and know where the classic old dangers come from.

I always had a really natural faith as a kid. Where I knew God existed and it felt very free and pretty wild and natural, and it wasn’t religious.

I think it’s fun running with dogs. They’re always so fit and fast.

There is no feeling like coming home after danger.