Eric Blehm > Quotes

“Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming, ‘Wow … what a ride.’ ” Billy liked it so much he jotted it down in”
― Eric Blehm, Fearless: The Heroic Story of One Navy SEAL's Sacrifice in the Hunt for Osama Bin Laden and the Unwavering Devotion of the Woman Who Loved Him

“In any case, perhaps the quest for data to support our actions gets overemphasized. After all, our emotions distinguish us. Art and poetry and music are from and to the human heart, as is, for many, our relationship with the land.' ~ Randy Morgenson”
― Eric Blehm, The Last Season

“The least I owe these mountains is a body. - Randy Morgenson”
― Eric Blehm, The Last Season

“Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming, ‘Wow … what a ride.’ ”
― Eric Blehm, Fearless: The Heroic Story of One Navy SEAL's Sacrifice in the Hunt for Osama Bin Laden and the Unwavering Devotion of the Woman Who Loved Him

“You gotta do what you gotta do, and when you’re done, you’ll be stronger.”
― Eric Blehm, Fearless: The Heroic Story of One Navy SEAL's Sacrifice in the Hunt for Osama Bin Laden and the Unwavering Devotion of the Woman Who Loved Him

“Modest, conventional expectations weren't enough to lure Adam Brown away from the power of drug addiction that ensnared him. Instead, the college dropout already in his mid-twenties found only the big, near-impossible dream of being a Navy SEAL captivating enough to consistently draw him to different choices.”
― Eric Blehm, Fearless: The Undaunted Courage and Ultimate Sacrifice of Navy SEAL Team SIX Operator Adam Brown

“Don’t ever put your life on the line for something you don’t believe in.”
― Eric Blehm, The Only Thing Worth Dying For: How Eleven Green Berets Forged a New Afghanistan

“His supervisor, a well-liked ranger by the name of Dick McLaren, gave Randy a line of advice to which he would adhere for the rest of his career: 'The best way to teach the public isn't with a citation, it's with communication.”
― Eric Blehm, The Last Season

“...[A]s you read opinions and history in school about 2004... I want you to know... that going to this war was right. No matter what you hear 20 years from now by elite media and historians, things get distorted... Just like Vietnam, I fear OIF (Operation Iraqi Freedom) will be abused in the same way. Just as you hear more about American soldiers in Vietnam raping women and children and shooting unarmed men, today the media is focused about this detainee debacle for two weeks solid, in contrast to American Soldiers being dragged in the streets and dismembered, which was covered for less than 72 hours. I am part of the Special Operations Forces elite... We are harder than anyone at these detention centers and let me tell you, we treat these guys with the utmost professionalism. We do not hit them, we don't humiliate them or cause them any bodily harm for the purpose of entertainment. As a Christian, one assumes great compassion... This is WAR and treated very seriously. People are being killed and it is our job to get information... The humanity in me wants me to warm them, tell them their family is okay, feed them, and even embrace them in a loving way... Most, even in my stature, feel the same way. This is the American Soldier.”
― Eric Blehm, Fearless: The Undaunted Courage and Ultimate Sacrifice of Navy Seal Team Six Operator Adam Brown

“It’s a fucked-up war when you are more worried about fighting your chain of command than the actual enemy.”
― Eric Blehm, The Only Thing Worth Dying For: How Eleven Green Berets Forged a New Afghanistan

“May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view… where storms come and go as lightning clangs upon the high crags where something strange and more beautiful and more full of wonder than your deepest dreams waits for you… beyond the next turning of the canyon walls. —Edward Abbey, “Benediction”
― Eric Blehm, The Last Season

“Well, horses take a lot of work, they’re dirty animals, so every weekend he puts on his waders, goes out in the barn, and shovels the manure, and the dirty hay, and puts the new hay in, and feeds the horses, and cleans up their piss. It’s not a good job. It’s miserable, but someone has to shovel the shit so the family can enjoy what they have. That is how he framed it for me. ‘You shovel the shit so your family, so the United States, can have what we have and live the way we do.’ ”
― Eric Blehm, Fearless: The Heroic Story of One Navy SEAL's Sacrifice in the Hunt for Osama Bin Laden and the Unwavering Devotion of the Woman Who Loved Him

“the Afghans were well aware of what happened in Iraq during the Gulf War, when the Shiites and Kurds believed the leaflets the Americans dropped urging them to rise up against Saddam Hussein. They did, and the Americans did not come. Saddam’s forces had retaliated by massacring the insurgents. “The Afghans in the south fear the same fate—they need to be assured”
― Eric Blehm, The Only Thing Worth Dying For: How Eleven Green Berets Forged a New Afghanistan

“Everything has its beauty but not everyone sees it.” Randy not only saw beauty in the smallest things, but also was captivated by their smallest details. He decided to spend the following summer in the high country. He wanted to put his life on his back, not unlike John Muir, and hike the crest of the Sierra without a schedule. Unhurried. Unhindered.”
― Eric Blehm, The Last Season

“Tender Warrior,” Adam replied and showed John the cover. “You can read it; I’m almost done. Check this out,” he said, thumbing backward through the pages. “It was written by Stu Weber, a Vietnam veteran, Special Forces. He became a chaplain.”
― Eric Blehm, Fearless: The Heroic Story of One Navy SEAL's Sacrifice in the Hunt for Osama Bin Laden and the Unwavering Devotion of the Woman Who Loved Him

“All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible. —T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia)”
― Eric Blehm, The Only Thing Worth Dying For: How Eleven Green Berets Forged a New Afghanistan

“British General Andrew Skeen, who faced a similar military mission in 1939, wrote, “When planning a military expedition into Pashtun tribal areas, the first thing you must plan is your retreat. All expeditions into this area sooner or later end in retreat under fire.”
― Eric Blehm, The Only Thing Worth Dying For: How Eleven Green Berets Forged a New Afghanistan

“guess it’s like driving a car, you gotta watch out for the other guy! I”
― Eric Blehm, The Only Thing Worth Dying For: How Eleven Green Berets Forged a New Afghanistan

“On Killing”
― Eric Blehm, Fearless: The Heroic Story of One Navy SEAL's Sacrifice in the Hunt for Osama Bin Laden and the Unwavering Devotion of the Woman Who Loved Him

“In the wilderness, life is reduced to its essentials: food, shelter, water. A person can lose himself here, both figuratively and literally. With very little effort, one can escape almost everything and everyone associated with civilization.”
― Eric Blehm, The Last Season

“Limbaji grinned widely and reached for a stone. "But this is what different religions mean," he said, placing the stone on the ground. "God is for all men, he is always the same. There is only one. And all men finally go to the same God." He drew lines toward the stone in the dust. "But there are different roads.”
― Eric Blehm, The Last Season

“There’s a great deal of talk about loyalty from the bottom to the top. Loyalty from the top down is even more necessary and is much less prevalent.”
― Eric Blehm, The Only Thing Worth Dying For: How Eleven Green Berets Forged a New Afghanistan

“Back in civilization I begin the questioning,” wrote Randy. “What to do with life? What kind of life? In wilderness this ceases; the questions aren’t answered, they dissolve.”
― Eric Blehm, The Last Season

“Randy had even told the younger ranger, 'There's nothing s season in the backcountry can't cure.”
― Eric Blehm, The Last Season

“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom the emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand wrapped in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed. The insight into the mystery of life, coupled though it be with fear, has also given rise to religion. To know what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty, which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their most primitive forms—this knowledge, this feeling is at the center of religiousness.”
― Eric Blehm, The Last Season

“And he always stood up for the underdog--never realizing that because of his size he was one himself.”
― Eric Blehm, Fearless: The Undaunted Courage and Ultimate Sacrifice of Navy SEAL Team SIX Operator Adam Brown

“You go up into the mountains empty, even with no lunch, you come home full.”
― Eric Blehm, The Darkest White: A Mountain Legend and the Avalanche That Took Him – An Inspiring Biography of World Champion Snowboarder Craig Kelly and the 2003 Durrand Glacier Tragedy

“Things never stay just the same, any time. Change seems to be one of the few certainties in life. Just as well. But while we look forward eagerly to what is to come, we can thoughtfully appreciate the good that has been and what we have at the moment.” With”
― Eric Blehm, The Last Season

“It's braver and more honorable to turn back than to forge forward into uncertain terrain. Snowboarding is about living, not about dying.”
― Eric Blehm, The Darkest White: A Mountain Legend and the Avalanche That Took Him – An Inspiring Biography of World Champion Snowboarder Craig Kelly and the 2003 Durrand Glacier Tragedy

“Chicks dig me because I rarely wear underwear, and when I do, it’s usually something unusual.” Tending”
― Eric Blehm, The Only Thing Worth Dying For: How Eleven Green Berets Forged a New Afghanistan