Scott Hamilton Quotes

#1. Adversity, and perseverance and all these things can shape you. They can give you a value and a self-esteem that is priceless.

Scott Hamilton

#2. I don't think most teachers realize how much impact they have.

Scott Hamilton

#3. I graduated a the top of my class in the '84 Olympic Games; I won a gold medal.

Scott Hamilton

#4. The only handicap in life is a bad attitude.

Scott Hamilton

#5. When you're expected to win and you have the press saying that you are going to win the Olympic gold medal, and you're the only sure thing in the Olympics, it can undermine your confidence.

Scott Hamilton

#6. I just try to touch people's hearts in a way through skating, so they're not just witnessing a performance, they're feeling a performance and they're a part of it.

Scott Hamilton

#7. Refined indifference is a sports psychology precept: train like there's no tomorrow and then accept whatever happens. Once you step on the field realize that whatever is meant to be is meant to be.

Scott Hamilton

#8. Without strength and courage it's really hard to perform at the highest levels of international figure skating, because you're alone on the ice and you only have seven minutes over two nights to prove yourself.

Scott Hamilton

#9. The only disability in life is a bad attitude.

Scott Hamilton

#10. Memories just get richer with time.

Scott Hamilton

#11. Always try to maintain complete tolerance and always make an effort to give people more than they expect.

Scott Hamilton

#12. Receiving both the Coretta Scott King - Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement and the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award suggests I have succeeded, at least in terms of my own goals, in my intent to make art that moves children.

Jerry Pinkney

#13. From the fall of October, 1980 to March, 1984 I never lost a competition.

Scott Hamilton

#14. The high road is always respected. Honesty and integrity are always rewarded.

Scott Hamilton

#15. Most other competitions are individual achievements, but the Olympic Games is something that belongs to everybody.

Scott Hamilton

#16. And the fact that I liked to show off and be the center of attention really lends itself to figure skating very well.

Scott Hamilton

#17. Rationality is not one of this industry's attributes.

Scott Hamilton

#18. I started skating and I kind of liked it because I could run circles around the guys that wouldn't pick me to play baseball.

Scott Hamilton

#19. Male figure skating is different than female figure skating; we're not America's sweetheart.

Scott Hamilton

#20. Half of figure skating is opinion, convincing judges.

Scott Hamilton

#21. I'm very accessible. I don't get into this ego thing.

Scott Hamilton

#22. That's what makes the Ryder Cup in golf so much better than the Masters or the U.S. Open. To be a part of something that is not about personal achievement, but about representing everyone and sharing it with the whole country, it's wonderful.

Scott Hamilton

#23. 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

#24. But I never really thought that I would be extraordinarily successful at skating, it's just something that happened, you know.

Scott Hamilton

#25. Each movement is only learned after you've perfected the one before it.

Scott Hamilton

#26. Fame is a very confusing thing, because you are recognized by a lot of people that you've never seen before, and they're at a great advantage.

Scott Hamilton

#27. Everything that I've ever been able to accomplish in skating and in life has come out of adversity and perseverance.

Scott Hamilton

#28. And so figure skating was a great vehicle for me to kind of be competitive at something, without having to be big.

Scott Hamilton

#29. I was more interested in skating and the girls and traveling than I was in calculus.

Scott Hamilton

#30. I didn't want to be the sissy figure skater, you know.

Scott Hamilton

#31. 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

#32. What was really funny is that as I got older all those guys who called me a sissy in junior high school wanted me to be their best friend because they wanted to meet all the girls that I knew in figure skating.

Scott Hamilton

#33. I had a ninth grade teacher who told me I was much smarter and much better than I was allowing myself to be.

Scott Hamilton

#34. 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

#35. When you turn professional, you become an entertainer, and like every other entertainer, you don't want to get a bad review.

Scott Hamilton

#36. So as an amateur Olympic competitor I loved criticism, because it made me better. But now as a professional I don't really know how to channel it or where to take it, so I don't take it quite as well.

Scott Hamilton

#37. A bad attitude is the only true handicap.

Scott Hamilton

#38. The Olympics in '80 was phenomenal. It was my favorite memory of all competitive events, because it was brand new and it was exciting.

Scott Hamilton

#39. 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

#40. Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson hated each other so much. But that hate that they had for each other did not come before the love of their country.

David Scott

#41. I was nine-years-old when I first put on skates.

Scott Hamilton