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Laird Hamilton is a famous surfer, inventor, and entrepreneur.
Most people know of him through surfing where he is always challenging the norm.
And this is why I love reading Laird Hamilton quotes.
His outlook on life and challenging yourself to be your best is one we all should strive to have.
If we could approach our daily lives like he does, we would see massive change and improvement in all aspects of our lives.
Here are my favorite Laird Hamilton quotes of all time.
I’ve also included a short video on him surfing Teahupoo, which was the beginning of tow in big wave surfing.
56 Powerful Laird Hamilton Quotes
Laird Hamilton On Life
#1. “Death comes in many different forms, and some of it really gets to you. It shapes you. It opens your eyes. And you see how it makes every second of life precious.” – Laird Hamilton
#2. “Fortunately, I was given an incredible foundation from my independent mother. She showed me what was possible from a strong, loving woman.” – Laird Hamilton
#3. “You have to decide what level you want to participate in your children’s lives. The more you do, the better your relationship is going to be. You have to listen to your instincts. You know when it’s time to lay down the law.” – Laird Hamilton
#4. “For me, that’s why we’re here. To live the fullest life. To feel everything, every gift that being human brings to us. To do everything we can do, to feel everything we can. If we can do that, then we’ve lived. That’s a life.” – Laird Hamilton
#5. “In all successful relationships, the man respects the woman and it takes a special guy to handle a successful woman. You have to be confident in who you are and what you do.” – Laird Hamilton
#6. “Life is for living.” – Laird Hamilton
#7. “Most men need their wives to need them, and I’ve seen that lead to their downfall.” – Laird Hamilton
#8. “I think the key to happiness is maximizing each day. So if you’re unhappy, here’s a simple prescription. Live harder.” – Laird Hamilton
#9. “The idea is to become an old wizard. To live a long and fruitful life and have family and be healthy and enjoy the ride. And speaking of the ride, why not let it rip, at least a little bit? Everyone I know who’s really stoked about getting out of bed in the morning does that to some extent.” – Laird Hamilton
- Read now: Click here for 150 positive life quotes
#10. “Travel’s the great educator, especially for the girls. You can’t put a value on it.” – Laird Hamilton
#11. “What we’ve been given is precious. It’s majestic in its smallest details and its largest manifestations. Anyone not humbled by the power of the ocean should take a good, long look at a fifty foot wave. If you don’t have respect for a wave, it’s only a matter of time before the ocean teaches you to get some. We’re all equal before the wave.” – Laird Hamilton
Laird Hamilton On Fear
#12. “Do not be afraid of death. Be afraid of the half lived life!” – Laird Hamilton
#13. “Don’t be afraid to really use your imagination. Let it run wild. It’s one of the most powerful tools you’ve got.” – Laird Hamilton
#14. “Fear is a natural response. Without it, we wouldn’t survive.” – Laird Hamilton
#15. “The flip side of fear is commitment. You can spend your life fence sitting because you’re frightened of something bad that might happen, or you can launch yourself into it with all your conviction and all your intelligence.” – Laird Hamilton
#16. “I know that if I scare myself once a day, I’m a better person.” – Laird Hamilton
#17. “Meet up with your fears. If you’re afraid of sharks, go learn all about sharks. Get into the water with one.” – Laird Hamilton
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#18. “Fear is an unbelievable motivator.” – Laird Hamilton
#19. “I don’t want to not live because of my fear of what could happen.” – Laird Hamilton
Motivational Laird Hamilton Quotes
#20. “If you just get out of your own way, it is amazing what will come to you.” – Laird Hamilton
#21. “Just because people are doing extraordinary things doesn’t mean they’re not ordinary people.” – Laird Hamilton
#22. “Make sure your dreams are bigger than your memories.” – Laird Hamilton
#23. “Quitting is easy. Daring to triumph is hard.” – Laird Hamilton
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#24. “Face reality. And the irony is that when you do turn and face the problem, you’ll get past it far easier than if you run away.” – Laird Hamilton
#25. “Make sure your worst enemy doesn’t live between your own two ears.” – Laird Hamilton
#26. “When it comes to setting goals, I think people often underestimate themselves. The good news is that if you really put your mind to something, you can go farther than you think.” – Laird Hamilton
#27. “If you cultivate something in your mind, you give it a life. It’s really that simple.” – Laird Hamilton
#28. “To find your passion, you have to look inward. If you look outward, all you’ll see is what other people are doing. You’re not other people.” – Laird Hamilton
#29. “We are our own worst inhibitors.” – Laird Hamilton
#30. “You can run, swim, dive, fly. You are amazing. You have untapped potential in you that would blow your mind.” – Laird Hamilton
Laird Hamilton On Health
#31. “All training does is get us back what we lost when we stopped having to hunt down our food. Our bodies are built for it already.” – Laird Hamilton
#32. “Exercising underwater also creates tremendous benefits by challenging your body in ways you can’t on dry land.” – Laird Hamilton
#33. “Train to be useful, not to be pumped or ripped.” – Laird Hamilton
#34. “You eat garbage, you’re probably going to perform like garbage.” – Laird Hamilton
#35. “One of the main purposes of training is to build confidence, to put yourself through extraordinary paces so that nothing catches you unprepared.” – Laird Hamilton
#36. “People always ask me when they see me working out, ‘What are you training for?’ The answer is I’m training for life.” – Laird Hamilton
#37. “When you don’t use sugar in your diet, all of the sudden fruits are really sweet. Honey is really sweet. Your taste buds change. I’m not psycho never have anything sweet, because that takes too much energy. The stress on your body just isn’t worth it.” – Laird Hamilton
#38. “Make a point of practicing on your weak side until you don’t have one anymore.” – Laird Hamilton
#39. “When we’re not operating in life or death situations, a lot of times we tune out. If your sitting behind a desk all day, you don’t have to be hyperaware. But it’s important to exercise your instincts like you would a muscle. If you don’t try to tune into everything, like smell, hearing, sight, and vibration, you can get dull. And that might come back to haunt you when it matters most.” – Laird Hamilton
#40. “There’s so much stigma and weirdness around being older. Get over it and keep moving.” – Laird Hamilton
Laird Hamilton On Failing And Success
#41. “Getting things wrong is the fastest way to learn. That’s how we evolve. Playing at the edges of what we’re capable of. Stressing and testing. If I’m not falling into, onto, out of, or off of something, I’m not trying hard enough.” – Laird Hamilton
#42. “People don’t want to do new things if they think they’re going to be bad at them or people are going to laugh at them. You have to be willing to subject yourself to failure, to be bad, to fall on your head and do it again, and try stuff that you’ve never done in order to be the best you can be.” – Laird Hamilton
#43. “You need to keep challenging yourself. That’s the whole idea behind seeking out things you’re not good at. It forces your mind to engage.” – Laird Hamilton
#44. “Your mind has 100% power over your reality. Whatever you believe, that’s what you’re cultivating.” – Laird Hamilton
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#45. “When you make a mistake, the ocean gives you an instant reminder. You get punished. If golf clubs could shock you every time you hit the ball wrong, we’d probably learn how to play golf pretty well.” – Laird Hamilton
#46. “Your path is yours alone. And if it’s the path less traveled, that’s absolutely fine. The world doesn’t need more conformists. The world needs more people who create and question and search.” – Laird Hamilton
#47. “Wiping out is an underappreciated skill.” – Laird Hamilton
#48. “Yes the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, but life isn’t like that. Sometimes you have to go backward to get to a goal, or sideways, or around an impediment, the way a river flows around a mountain.” – Laird Hamilton
#49. “Everything comes down to attitude. You determine what yours is, and the external world will reflect it back.” – Laird Hamilton
#50. “There needs to be a reason to go, so you go deeper into whatever place you’re visiting to find those unforgettable experiences.” – Laird Hamilton
#51. “Surfing’s one of the few sports that you look ahead to see what’s behind.” – Laird Hamilton
Inspirational Laird Hamilton Quotes
#52. “A little adrenaline every day keeps the boredom away.” – Laird Hamilton
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#53. “Accepting and undertaking risk is how we evolved as a species. Just because we have evolved beyond needing to take this level of risk in our everyday lives doesn’t mean that those built in competencies just disappear.” – Laird Hamilton
#54. “For those searching for something more than just the norm. We lay it all down, including what others call sanity, for just a few moments on waves larger than life. We do this because we know there is still something greater than all of us. Something that inspires us spiritually. We start going downhill, when we stop taking risks.” – Laird Hamilton
#55. “If you can look at one of these waves and you don’t believe that there’s something greater than we are, then you’ve got some serious analyzing to do and you should go sit under a tree for a very long time.” – Laird Hamilton
#56. “The art is not in how you scale the heights. The art is in how you come down. Because there is always going to be a down somewhere in life. So when it happens, take a deep breath, heart wide open, senses on, and go.” – Laird Hamilton
Final Thoughts
There are my favorite inspirational sayings from Laird Hamilton.
As I said at the beginning, if you can take small steps each day to improve your mind, body, attitude and outlook, you will see major changes in every aspect of your life.
You don’t have to completely change today, but work on being just a little better each day, and in time, you will reap the rewards.
Jon Dulin is the passionate leader of Unfinished Success, a personal development website that inspires people to take control of their own lives and reach their full potential. His commitment to helping others achieve greatness shines through in everything he does. He’s an unstoppable force with lots of wisdom, creativity, and enthusiasm – all focused on helping others build a better future. Jon enjoys writing articles about productivity, goal setting, self-development, and mindset. He also uses quotes and affirmations to help motivate and inspire himself. You can learn more about him on his About page.