Jeff Cooper Quotes about Self Defense

Your mind-set is your primary weapon

Your physical safety is up to you, as it really always has been.

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.

The best personal defense is an explosive counterattack.

Under any sort of attack, keep cool. And if you must shoot, shoot with precision.

Anyone who willfully and maliciously attacks another without sufficient cause jeopardize the lives of others.

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.

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.

On the very instant that we know that our assailant intends us serious physical harm, we must work just as fast as we can.

The proper course of action, when under attack, is usually to counterattack.

Speed is the absolute essence of any form of combat

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.

Aggressiveness carries with it an incalculable moral edge in any combat, offensive or defensive.

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.

Therefore, if you are attacked, retaliate instantly. Be sudden. Be quick. Speed is your salvation.