The Great Eight Quotes

“What's the point of doing anything if it's easy? It's so much more valuable when a challenge has to be overcome.”
― Scott Hamilton, The Great Eight: How to Be Happy Even When You Have Every Reason to Be Miserable

“Focus on building up others, and your own sense of self-worth will improve. Some call these random acts of human kindness. But the truth is, acting unselfishly is not random at all. Instead, it is a conscious, concerted effort to make the world better by making someone else's life better. The bonus: you will be happier by doing it.”
― Scott Hamilton, The Great Eight: How to Be Happy Even When You Have Every Reason to Be Miserable

“it doesn't matter what the challenge is -athletics, business, romance, health, academics, the arts- the rule for getting up is the same. you just get up!”
― Scott Hamilton, The Great Eight: How to Be Happy Even When You Have Every Reason to Be Miserable

“you always have to keep things fun. if you don't, no matter how many awards you win or how much money you make, you will never be happy.”
― Scott Hamilton, The Great Eight: How to Be Happy Even When You Have Every Reason to Be Miserable

“My job was to make sure that my pain was not visible to the audience. They came to escape their troubles, not to be drawn into my own pain.”
― Scott Hamilton, The Great Eight: How to Be Happy Even When You Have Every Reason to Be Miserable

“Some bad things are going to happen, but more great things are going to happen. If you tend to see more bad than good, then you have to build that positive muscle in your brain much like an athlete does certain muscles to execute a certain move.”
― Scott Hamilton, The Great Eight: How to Be Happy Even When You Have Every Reason to Be Miserable

“Each movement is only learned after you've perfected the one before it.”
― Scott Hamilton, The Great Eight: How to Be Happy Even When You Have Every Reason to Be Miserable

“I live every day knowing that today might be the day that my cancer returns. But rather than look at this as a horrific cross to bear, I call it my gift, a constant reminder of just how lucky I am to be healthy and alive. After all, what is joy without sorrow? What is success without failure? What is a win without a loss? What is health without illness? You have to experience each if you are to appreciate the other. There is always going to be suffering. It's how you look at your suffering, how you deal with it, that will define you.”
― Scott Hamilton, The Great Eight: How to Be Happy Even When You Have Every Reason to Be Miserable

“From that day on, I looked at what I believed to be "curses" as blessings, and I now realize that the ability to do so makes one a champion more than landing a perfect triple lutz does.”
― Scott Hamilton, The Great Eight: How to Be Happy Even When You Have Every Reason to Be Miserable

“I learned that once you take advantage of the opportunity to learn and experience and open yourself to a new way of living, you can't wait to do it again and do it better and find new ways of feeling that again and again and again.”
― Scott Hamilton, The Great Eight: How to Be Happy Even When You Have Every Reason to Be Miserable