Quotes from Ingrid Betancourt

I was beginning to think that in life there might be some suffering that was worth enduring.

I already knew that I had the ability to free myself from hatred, and I viewed this as my most significant conquest.

I had not suffered enough to find the rage in my guts I needed to struggle to death for my freedom.

I no longer knew whether it was raindrops or my own tears that were flowing down my cheeks, and I hated to have to drag along this relic of a sniveling child.

I often think about her. One thing she said stayed with me, a dagger in my heart: "You know for me the most horrible thing of all is knowing that he will forget me." I lacked the presence of mind to tell her that it was impossible; she was simply unforgettable.

In this condition of the most devastating humiliation, I still possessed the most precious of liberties, that no-one could take away from me: that of deciding who I wanted to be.

Now I realized that life supplies us with everything we need for the journey. Everything I had acquired either actively or passively, everything I had learned either voluntarily or by osmosis, was coming back to me as the real riches of my life, even though I had lost everything.

Comprendía, entonces, que la vida nos da montones de provisiones para nuestras travesías por el desierto. Todo lo que había adquirido de manera activa o pasiva, todo lo que había aprendido voluntariamente o por osmosis, volvía a mí como las verdaderas riquezas de mi existencia, cuando lo había perdido todo.

There are things that are more important than life.

It is said that the compensation for the effort courage, tenacity, and endurance displayed during the journey was not happiness. Nor glory. What God offered as a reward was only rest.

He wasn't alive because he feared death. He was alive because he loved life.

He had to be okay. We had no choice.

But the Indians gesture touched me. It was nothing, but it was everthing. It took so little to mane a difference.

He who could hear my heart knew that I was crying out for help.

Mientras terminaba la correa que me había ayudado a comenzar,perdida en mis meditaciones, le agradecí en silencio por el tiempo que había dedicado a hablar conmigo, más que por el arte que me había transmitido, pues descubría que lo más valioso que tienen los demás para darnos es su tiempo. El tiempo al cual la muerte le da su valor.

Debía seguir caminando, seguir en movimiento, alejarme. Al amanecer volverían a iniciar la persecución. Mas en el calor de la acción me repetía «soy libre», y mi voz me hacía compañía

Yo lo sé, la resistencia, el coraje, la fuerza no son infinitas. Sólo te pedimos un poco más. Sólo un poco...

Aquella tarde, bajo la maldita lluvia, acurrucada sobre mi infortunio, entendí que sin duda podía ser como ellos.

The jungle is like a different planet — a world of shadows, bugs, jaguars, anacondas. But none of these animals did us as much harm as the humans.

Estas visiones, yo lo sabía, quedarían para siempre impresas en mi memoria, pero nunca tendrían eco en los recuerdos de los míos. Los buenos recuerdos son aquellos que vivimos con los que amamos, porque podemos evocarlos juntos.

Sometimes I'm fragile, sometimes too emotional, but I'm putting everything I can on my side to be a happy person.