* Self-Defense Quotations (Quotes at Davar Web Site) 02/17/2011-08/04/2013
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By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.
#[Benjamin Franklin] (1706-1790)
There is no safety for honest men, but by believing all possible evil of evil men,
and by acting with promptitude, decision, and steadiness on that belief.
#[Edmund Burke] (1729–1797)
Laws that forbid the carrying of arms... only disarm those who are neither inclined
nor determined to commit crimes. Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and
better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than prevent homicides,
for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed one.
#[Cesare Beccaria] (1738-1794)
"Essay on Crimes and Punishments", 1764
Your mind-set is your primary weapon.
#[Jeff Cooper] (1920-2006)
Anyone who is aware of his environment knows that the peril of physical assault
does exist, and that it exists everywhere and at all times.
#[Jeff Cooper] (1920-2006)
"Principles of Personal Defense", 1989
It is true that a victim who fights back may suffer for it, but one who does not
almost certainly will suffer for it.
#[Jeff Cooper] (1920-2006)
"Principles of Personal Defense", 1989
The one who fights back retains his dignity and his self-respect.
#[Jeff Cooper] (1920-2006)
"Principles of Personal Defense", 1989
Any man who is a man may not, in honor, submit to threats or violence. But many
men who are not cowards are simply unprepared for the fact of human savagery.
#[Jeff Cooper] (1920-2006)
"Principles of Personal Defense", 1989
Know what is behind you, and pay particular attention to anything out of place.
#[Jeff Cooper] (1920-2006)
1. Alertness, "Principles of Personal Defense", 1989
The one who anticipates the action wins. The one who does not, loses.
#[Jeff Cooper] (1920-2006)
1. Alertness, "Principles of Personal Defense", 1989
Observe your cat. It is difficult to surprise him. Why? Naturally his superior
hearing is part of the answer, but not all of it. He moves well, using his senses
fully. He is not preoccupied with irrelevancies. He's not thinking about his job
or his image or his income tax. He is putting first things first, principally his
physical security. Do likewise.
#[Jeff Cooper] (1920-2006)
1. Alertness, "Principles of Personal Defense", 1989
Anyone who appears to be triggered out of watchfulness and into action by your
appearance must be explained.
@Anyone observing you carefully must be explained.
@Anyone whose behavior seems to be geared to yours must be explained.
@If the explanation does not satisfy you, be ready to take appropriate defensive
action.
#[Jeff Cooper] (1920-2006)
1. Alertness, "Principles of Personal Defense", 1989
Use your eyes. Do not enter unfamiliar areas that you cannot observe first.
Make it a practice to swing wide around corners, use window glass for rearward
visibility, and get something solid behind you when you pause.
#[Jeff Cooper] (1920-2006)
1. Alertness, "Principles of Personal Defense", 1989
No sensible person ever opens the door of his house without knowing who is
knocking.
#[Jeff Cooper] (1920-2006)
1. Alertness, "Principles of Personal Defense", 1989
The essential thing is to bear always in mind that trouble can appear at any time.
@Be aware. Be ready. Be alert.
#[Jeff Cooper] (1920-2006)
1. Alertness, "Principles of Personal Defense", 1989
The specific course you decide upon is, within certain parameters, less important
than the vigor with which you execute it.
#[Jeff Cooper] (1920-2006)
2. Decisiveness, "Principles of Personal Defense", 1989
The proper course of action, when under attack, is usually to counterattack.
#[Jeff Cooper] (1920-2006)
2. Decisiveness, "Principles of Personal Defense", 1989
"What would I do if?.." By thinking tactically, we can more easily arrive at
correct tactical solutions, and practice -- even theoretical practice -- tends
to produce confidence in our solutions which, in turn, makes it easier for us,
and thus quicker, to reach a decision.
#[Jeff Cooper] (1920-2006)
2. Decisiveness, "Principles of Personal Defense", 1989
When under attack, it is necessary to evaluate the situation and to decide
instantly upon a proper course of action, to be carried out immediately with
all the force you can bring to bear. He who hesitates is indeed lost. Do not
soliloquize. Do not delay. Be decisive.
#[Jeff Cooper] (1920-2006)
2. Decisiveness, "Principles of Personal Defense", 1989
The best personal defense is an explosive counterattack.
#[Jeff Cooper] (1920-2006)
3. Aggressiveness, "Principles of Personal Defense", 1989
Aggressiveness carries with it an incalculable moral edge in any
combat, offensive or defensive.
#[Jeff Cooper] (1920-2006)
3. Aggressiveness, "Principles of Personal Defense", 1989
Never assume that simply having a gun makes you a marksman. You are no more armed
because you are wearing a pistol than you are a musician because you own a guitar.
#[Jeff Cooper] (1920-2006)
3. Aggressiveness, "Principles of Personal Defense", 1989
Now how do we cultivate an aggressive response? I think the answer is indignation...
@Your response, if attacked, must not be fear, it must be anger.
#[Jeff Cooper] (1920-2006)
3. Aggressiveness, "Principles of Personal Defense", 1989
If it is ever your misfortune to be attacked, alertness will have given you a
little warning, decisiveness will have given you a proper course to pursue, and
if that course is to counterattack, carry it out with everything you've got! Be
indignant. Be angry. Be aggressive.
#[Jeff Cooper] (1920-2006)
3. Aggressiveness, "Principles of Personal Defense", 1989
Speed is the absolute essence of any form of combat.
#[Jeff Cooper] (1920-2006)
4. Speed, "Principles of Personal Defense", 1989
On the very instant that we know that our assailant intends us serious
physical harm, we must work just as fast as we can.
#[Jeff Cooper] (1920-2006)
4. Speed, "Principles of Personal Defense", 1989
The perfect fight is one that is over before the loser really understands what
is going on. The perfect defense is a counterattack that succeeds before the
assailant discovers that he has bitten off more than he can chew.
#[Jeff Cooper] (1920-2006)
4. Speed, "Principles of Personal Defense", 1989
Therefore, if you are attacked, retaliate instantly. Be sudden. Be quick.
Speed is your salvation.
#[Jeff Cooper] (1920-2006)
4. Speed, "Principles of Personal Defense", 1989
Anger, as long as it is controlled anger, is no obstacle to efficiency.
Self-control is one thing the sociopath does not usually possess. Use
yours to his undoing.
#[Jeff Cooper] (1920-2006)
5. Coolness, "Principles of Personal Defense", 1989
It's a matter of will. If you know that you can keep your head, and that
you must keep your head, you probably will keep your head.
#[Jeff Cooper] (1920-2006)
5. Coolness, "Principles of Personal Defense", 1989
Under any sort of attack, keep cool. And if you must shoot, shoot with
precision.
#[Jeff Cooper] (1920-2006)
5. Coolness, "Principles of Personal Defense", 1989
Anyone who willfully and maliciously attacks another without sufficient cause
deserves no consideration.
#[Jeff Cooper] (1920-2006)
6. Ruthlessness, "Principles of Personal Defense", 1989
We are fully justified in valuing the life and person of an intended victim more
highly than the life of a pernicious assailant. The attacker must be stopped.
At once and completely.
#[Jeff Cooper] (1920-2006)
6. Ruthlessness, "Principles of Personal Defense", 1989
Let your attacker worry about his life. Don't hold back. Strike no more
after he is incapable of further action, but see that he is stopped.
#[Jeff Cooper] (1920-2006)
6. Ruthlessness, "Principles of Personal Defense", 1989
What you do to prevent further felonious assault, as long as the felon is still
capable of action, is justified.
#[Jeff Cooper] (1920-2006)
6. Ruthlessness, "Principles of Personal Defense", 1989
An armed man, especially if he is armed with a firearm, is dangerous as long as
he is conscious. Take no chances. Put him out.
#[Jeff Cooper] (1920-2006)
6. Ruthlessness, "Principles of Personal Defense", 1989
If you must use your hands, use them with all the strength you possess...
@If you choose to strike, by all means strike hard.
#[Jeff Cooper] (1920-2006)
6. Ruthlessness, "Principles of Personal Defense", 1989
Don't try to be fancy. Shoot for the center of mass. The world is full of decent
people. Criminals we can do without.
#[Jeff Cooper] (1920-2006)
6. Ruthlessness, "Principles of Personal Defense", 1989
If violent crime is to be curbed, it is only the intended victim who can do it.
The felon does not fear the police, and he fears neither judge nor jury.
Therefore what he must be taught to fear is his victim.
#[Jeff Cooper] (1920-2006)
6. Ruthlessness, "Principles of Personal Defense", 1989
If a felon attacks you and lives, he will reasonably conclude that he can do it
again. By submitting to him, you not only imperil your own life, but you
jeopardize the lives of others.
#[Jeff Cooper] (1920-2006)
6. Ruthlessness, "Principles of Personal Defense", 1989
If you find yourself under lethal attack don't be kind. Be harsh. Be tough.
Be ruthless.
#[Jeff Cooper] (1920-2006)
6. Ruthlessness, "Principles of Personal Defense", 1989
By doing what our assailant least expects us to do, we may throw him completely off.
@ ... what he usually least suspects is instant, violent counterattack, so the
principle of aggressiveness is closely tied to threat of surprise.
#[Jeff Cooper] (1920-2006)
7. Surprise, "Principles of Personal Defense", 1989
The criminal does not expect his prey to fight back. May he never choose you,
but, if he does, surprise him.
#[Jeff Cooper] (1920-2006)
7. Surprise, "Principles of Personal Defense", 1989
Your physical safety is up to you, as it really always has been.
#[Jeff Cooper] (1920-2006)
A Final Word, "Principles of Personal Defense", 1989
It is high time for society to stop worrying about the criminal, and to let the
criminal start worrying about society. And by "society" I mean you.
#[Jeff Cooper] (1920-2006)
A Final Word, "Principles of Personal Defense", 1989
At that time the Third Tokugawa Shogun Iemitsu had a favorite little monkey.
The monkey was very quick. One day Iemitsu let his attending retainers strike at
it, but no one could hit it. Iemitsu ordered Yagyu, his Sword Master, to do the
same, but it was so agile that not even Yagyu could hit it. @"As its movement is
as agile as lightning the only person who can strike it would be Takuan Osho of
the Tokaiji temple," Yagyu told Iemitsu, who immediately sent a messenger to
fetch Takuan.
@"Osho, try to strike that monkey."
@Osho glared at it on Iemitsu's lap and then took out his nyoi (his priest's
staff). He was about to strike the monkey when it immediately cried out and prostrated
itself before Osho, as if begging for mercy. Iemitsu and his attendants were amazed
at his skill and praised Takuan. Whereupon Takuan laughed loudly and said:
@"This is nothing. As long as Lord Yagyu and the other Lords worried in case they
might strike the Shogun if they missed the monkey sitting on his lap, their stroke
lacked spirit. Because I intended to strike even the lap of the Shogun, the monkey
felt my spirit and must have been frightened by it."
@When you strike, just strike. Nothing else should be in your mind.
#Nobuko Hirose
The Invincible Spirit, "Immovable Wisdom", 1992
The way to reason with a predator is to make it aware that it can live in a cage,
or it can die, but it can no longer prey upon us.
#[Massad Ayoob] (Born 1948)
Interview, 2005
The religious fanatic who practices terrorism cannot be reasoned with, because
there is nothing you can threaten him with, and no alternative you can offer him
that is more palatable than his genuine belief that if he dies fighting you, he
will be greatly rewarded in afterlife. Only swift and extreme force can stop him.
#[Massad Ayoob] (Born 1948)
Interview, 2005
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