Quotes from Louis Zamperini

It was all in His hands now - as it had always been.

don't be afraid to make mistakes; they are just the stepping-stones to success.

I've always been called Lucky Louie. It's no mystery why.

God has given me so much. He expects so much out of me.

On surviving on the raft for 47 days) We had truly made it on a wing and prayer.

All I knew was that hate was so deadly as any poison and did no one any good. You had to control and eliminate it, if you could.

The great lesson of my life is perseverance. Never give up. It's like my brother said, "Isn't one minute of pain worth a lifetime of glory?

People tell me, "You're such an optimist." Am I an optimist? An optimist says the glass is half full. A pessimist says the glass is half empty. A survivalist is practical. He says, "Call it what you want, but just fill the glass." I believe in filling the glass. —LOUIS SILVIE ZAMPERINI

Everyone needs that support-even if at first you don't think you do. Look around. See who's on your side and in your corner. You don't have to go it alone.

The race film had confirmed a dead heat. That was great. But even better, most of the New York press finally learned to spell my name correctly.

you're not going to be anything in life unless you learn to commit to a goal. You have to reach deep within yourself to see if you are willing to make the sacrifices. Your dreams won't always come true, but you'll never know if you don't try. Either way, you will always discover so much of value along the way because you'll always run into problems—or as I call them, challenges.

I believe everybody in the world should try to help somebody else. Let's say half the people in the world are successful. If they help the other half, hey, you've got no problem.

Your mind is everything. It's like a muscle. You must exercise it or it will atrophy—just like a muscle.

Sometimes what we see as a loss turns out in the end to be a gain, and sometimes a gain is a loss. I try not to be too swift to pass judgment on any situation, preferring instead to be patient and take the long view because I believe that in the end all things work together for good.

If you can take it, you can make it

Isn't one minute of pain worth a lifetime of glory?

as the Bible says, a smooth sea never made a good sailor. I believe that to this day.

Hope is incomplete and ongoing. Faith is the substance of things hoped for and is complete.

I didn't know it then, but my persistence, perseverance, and unwillingness to accept defeat when things looked all but hopeless were part of the very character traits I would need to make it through World War II alive.

What I've learned is that the more you help people, the longer you live. The good feelings are a healing process.

But I couldn't give up hope. Not my style. I would do what I had to do to survive. From that moment until the end of the war, when we were freed, I would really come to understand the meaning of "Don't give up, don't give in.

You should make your life count right up to the last minute.

The Olympic Spirit is like the wind. You don't see it coming or going but you hear its voice. You feel the power of its presence. You enjoy the results of its passing. And then it becomes a memory, an echo of days of glory.

The best way to meet any challenge is to be prepared for it.