Gene Tunney Quotes

“To enjoy the glow of good health, you must exercise.”

— Gene Tunney

“Exercise should be regarded as tribute to the heart.”

— Gene Tunney

“If all human lives depended upon their usefulness - as might be judged by certain standards - there would be a sudden and terrific mortality in the world.”

— Gene Tunney

“Fat is one of the chief enemies of the heart because it has to be plentifully supplied with blood and thus needlessly increases the pumping load that the heart must sustain.”

— Gene Tunney

“A concave chest means that your diaphragm is sagging.”

— Gene Tunney

“The man who has allowed his body to deteriorate cuts a pitiful figure - chest collapsed, stomach protruding.”

— Gene Tunney

“In youth, we get plenty of exercise through games and running around, but as middle life approaches, we settle down, literally and figuratively.”

— Gene Tunney

“The way to know about championship quality is to learn from champions, and that I did; studying them with professional purpose during my time in the ring and from habitual interest afterward.”

— Gene Tunney

“A boxer's diet should be low in fat and high in proteins and sugar. Therefore you should eat plenty of lean meat, milk, leafy vegetables, and fresh fruit and ice cream for sugar.”

— Gene Tunney

“Never eat less than four hours before boxing. Then eat only lightly.”

— Gene Tunney

“Handball, swimming, running, jumping, basketball, and boxing were as much a part of me as breathing.”

— Gene Tunney

“Normally, I could hit hard enough, as anyone who studied my fights might have known. But the impression was that I was essentially defensive, the very reverse of a killer, the prize fighter who read books, even Shakespeare.”

— Gene Tunney

“Upon awakening in the morning, I wondered if the proceedings of the night before had been a dream. It was hard to believe that I was the world's heavyweight champion.”

— Gene Tunney

“My own ambition in the ring had always been skillful boxing, speed and defense - on the order of Mike Gibbons.”

— Gene Tunney

Though I was not a belligerent kid, I do not think I ever passed up a good opportunity to fight.

— Gene Tunney

“One half-conscious thought was burned in my mind: stay on your feet.”

— Gene Tunney

“As a West Side kid fooling around with boxing gloves, I had been, for some reason of temperament, more interested in dodging a blow than in striking one.”

— Gene Tunney

“A boxer must exercise and develop every part of his body.”

— Gene Tunney

“Ever since boyhood I've made a religion of keeping in shape by regular, conscientious exercise.”

— Gene Tunney

“I did six years of planning to win the championship from Jack Dempsey.”

— Gene Tunney

“The greatest fighter I ever saw”

— Gene Tunney

“I've seen Dempsey fight and I was impressed with his lack of knowledge.”

— Gene Tunney

Many complain of a chronic weariness that sleep will not banish. Their trouble is that too little blood is pumped through the body per minute; this sluggishness, permitting poisonous waste matter to accumulate in every cell, clogs the channels of energy.

— Gene Tunney

“But I do say that, if you will regularly devote 15 minutes a day, preferably before breakfast, for 60 days to the simple set of exercises that I devised for conditioning men in the navy, I guarantee that you will enjoy increased physical buoyancy and mental vigor.”

— Gene Tunney