Top 50 Evel Knievel Quotes (2024 Update)

1. “I am a lucky, lucky person.”

— Evel Knievel

2. “I’m not a jack of all trades; I’m a master of many. I don’t feel there is anything I can’t do if I want to.”

— Evel Knievel

3. “A man can fall many times in life, but he’s never a failure until he refuses to get back up.”

— Evel Knievel

4. “Bones heal, pain is temporary, and chicks dig scars.”

— Evel Knievel

5. “Anybody can jump a motorcycle. The trouble begins when you try to land it.”

— Evel Knievel

6. “Risk is good. Not properly managing your risk is a dangerous leap.”

— Evel Knievel

7. “Where there is little risk, there is little reward.”

— Evel Knievel

8. “I love the feeling of the fresh air on my face and the wind blowing through my hair.”

— Evel Knievel

9. “I don’t have any problems in life, just situations.”

— Evel Knievel

10. “I decided to fly through the air and live in the sunlight and enjoy life as much as I could.”

— Evel Knievel

11. “You’re never a failure until you fail to get up.”

— Evel Knievel

12. “Harley-Davidson is the finest company in the world.”

— Evel Knievel

13. “The finest compliment you can pay a man is that his word was as good as gold.”

— Evel Knievel

14. “You come to a point in your life when you really don’t care what people think about you, you just care what you think about yourself.”

— Evel Knievel

15. “All my life people have been waiting around to watch me die.”

— Evel Knievel

16. “If you don’t know about pain and trouble, you’re in sad shape. They make you appreciate life.”

— Evel Knievel

17. “When you’re mad at someone, it’s probably best not to break his arm with a baseball bat.”

— Evel Knievel

18. “No prince, no king, no president has ever lived a better life than I have!”

— Evel Knievel

19. “You’d think a guy who has broken 35 bones in his body would have a high pain threshold, but mine is pretty low. I got hit in the shin with a golf ball once and it almost brought tears to my eyes. I’ve had broken bones that didn’t hurt as bad.”

— Evel Knievel

20. “I can say the Lord’s prayer in 10 seconds.”

— Evel Knievel

21. “But you come to a point in your life when you can’t pull the trigger anymore.”

— Evel Knievel

22. “Riding a motorcycle on today’s highways, you have to ride in a very defensive manner. You have to be a good rider and you have to have both hands and both feet on the controls at all times.”

— Evel Knievel

23. “I foresee the Chinese ruling the world. What are you going to do to stop it? No president of the United States will ever have enough power to stop the Chinese when they want to take over the world.”

— Evel Knievel

24. “I know guys in my hometown that drive by feel and sound.”

— Evel Knievel

25. “I’ve been in a treatment center for drinkin’. I stayed for two days, then escaped.”

— Evel Knievel

26. “I guess I thought I was Elvis Presley but I’ll tell ya something. All Elvis did was stand on a stage and play a guitar. He never fell off on that pavement at no 80 mph.”

— Evel Knievel

27. “I would always rather be in the arena fighting than be a spectator.”

— Evel Knievel

28. “If you fall during your life it doesn’t matter because you’re never a failure if you try to get up.”

— Evel Knievel

29. “If a guy hasn’t got any gamble in him- he isn’t worth a crap.”

— Evel Knievel

30. “I went through life big-bang-banda-boom-bada-boom.”

— Evel Knievel

31. “There are a lot of myths about my injuries. They say I have broken every bone in my body. Not true. But I have broken 35 bones. I had surgery 14 times to pin and plate. I shattered my pelvis. I forget all of the things that have broke.”

— Evel Knievel

32. “I recently have had a full hip replacement and a liver transplant, and I’m getting used to the medication.”

— Evel Knievel

33. “My own judgment of how the world is gonna end is that there will be a country led by a madman that will build a nuclear bomb with so much force, so much power, that it will be dropped somewhere on the face of this earth and that the earth will lose its place.”

— Evel Knievel

34. “People pay a million dollars to be recognized, but nobody cares about them. They cared about me because I did things other men were afraid to do. That’s why my fans identified with me.”

— Evel Knievel

35. “I did everything by the seat of my pants. That’s why I got hurt so much.”

— Evel Knievel

36. “Kids come up to me all the time and say, ‘Once I was going through a really bad time, and I saw you crash and get up, and it inspired me.’”

— Evel Knievel

37. “I know that I’m very lucky to be alive. For 35 or 40 years I’ve spilt my blood and broke my bones and spent years in hospitals.”

— Evel Knievel

38. “In the old days they, the promoters, wanted more and more from me. They wanted me to jump or spill my blood and break my bones. Every time they wanted me to jump further, and further, and further. Hell, they thought my bike had wings.”

— Evel Knievel

39. “If you look at the Bible almost everything that was predicted, maybe everything, has come to pass.”

— Evel Knievel

40. “I created Evel Knievel, and then he sort of got away from me.”

— Evel Knievel

41. “When I hit that pavement at 70 or 80 mph those suits just ripped.”

— Evel Knievel

42. “I really think we should pass a law in every state, I don’t care whether it takes the independence away from an old person or not. You shouldn’t be driving a car if you’re over the age of 80. Maybe even less than that.”

— Evel Knievel

43. “I’ve always lived by the creed that you’re never a failure in life when you fall as long as you try and get up.”

— Evel Knievel

44. “The Harley’s got a little too much torque when it comes to jumping.”

— Evel Knievel

45. “I guess I’m like any other concerned father, except that nobody else’s son guns a cycle over 17 pickups without holding on to the handlebars.”

— Evel Knievel

46. “I always knew how to draw a crowd.”

— Evel Knievel

47. “I think through education, belief in God, and good engineering, our children become a lot better at what they’re doing than we did, and that starts with the very first sign of life on the face of this earth.”

— Evel Knievel

48. “I thought I was bulletproof or Superman there for a while. I thought I’d never run out of nerve. Never.”

— Evel Knievel

49. “Unless we do things in this country to slow down our population, slow down our birth control, provide better water for people, provide power for people, we’re gonna find out that the next wars are not going to be fought over diamonds, gold and political things.”

— Evel Knievel

50. “I think I coulda landed on a dime. I really do.”

— Evel Knievel