Quotes About Resilience

Alas! The only flower known to have wings is the butterfly; all others stand helpless before the destroyer.

May we not die premature deaths; instead, may our troubles be limited to pangs of hunger. A man with life will find food to put in the stomach. If death doesn't kill the penis, it soon eats bearded meat.

that the Ukrainian choice is a choice between nonexistence and an existence that kills you, and that all of our hapless literature is merely a cry of someone pinned down by a beam in a building after an earthquake—I'm here! I'm still alive!—but, unfortunately, the rescue teams are taking their time and on your own—how the hell are you supposed to get out?

When something frightens them, they do not run but go to face it. They take up arms and go to the front. They are not afraid to live, and to die, too, if they have to: they already know that, too is a part of life.

Humanity also suffered; though, save in the regions near the seat of war, it was in general only the children and the old people who suffered greatly.

Det vonde drep du ikkje med øks.

That is why fiction existed, as a way to look at the world without being broken by it.

When he woke his conviction of failure was somehow less inevitable.

Have some faith in your government," Barnes told her. "We march stupidly into countries we don't understand; we sit back as our cities are decimated by natural disasters; and we let our schools go quietly to shit—despite these things, one thing we're pretty good at is finding people who don't want to be found.

this was why fiction existed, as a way to look at the world without being broken by it.

You should bury more than the dead. You should try harder. You should give up.

When it's this windy doesn't it seem impossible to grow old?

Sin embargo, conocí a muchos internados que supieron ser fieles a su dignidad humana hasta el mismo fin. Los nazis lograron degradarlos físicamente, pero no fueron capaces de rebajarlos moralmente. Gracias a estos pocos, no he perdido totalmente mi fe en la humanidad. Si en la misma jungla de Birkenau no todos fueron necesariamente inhumanos con sus hermanos hombres, indudablemente hay todavía esperanzas. Esta esperanza es la que me hace vivir.

So long had it been since we had eaten civilized provisions that we could not identify it. After much reflection I realized that it was simply bread spread with lard or grease.

One internee told me that he had been in their barrack while they waited for the trucks. The children were sitting on the floor, wide-eyed and silent. He asked one lad, "Well, how are you, Janeck?" With a thoughtful expression on his face, the child answered, "Everything is so bad here that it can only be better 'over there.' I am not afraid.

Olga Lengyel

The priests and nuns in the camp proved that they had real strength of character.

En alguna parte de la tierra, más allá de las alambradas de púas, los hombres libres se estrechaban la mano y levantaban sus vasos para desear a los demás un feliz Año Nuevo... Pero en Birkenau, las ratas estaban cebándose en la carne de los niños de Europa

They had found the courage to reject a life which no longer merited the name.

The Nordic Supermen knew how to profit from everything. Immense casks were used to gather the human grease which had melted down at high temperatures. It was not surprising that the camp soap had such a peculiar odor. Nor was it astonishing that the internees became suspicious at the sight of certain pieces of fat sausage!

Mis refugios más bellos,/ los lugares que se adaptan mejor a los colores últimos de mi alma, / están hechos de todo lo que los otros olvidaron.

People think they live more intensely than animals, than plants, and especially than things. Animals sense that they live more intensely than plants and things. Plants dream that they live more intensely than things. But things last, and this lasting is more alive than anything else.

Perhaps one could get used to it? Learn to live with it, just as people live in the cities of Auschwitz or Hiroshima, without ever thinking about what happened there in the past. They simply live their lives.

Come back to me. The world is terrible and it can kill you. Look at the earthquakes, the volcanic eruptions, the fires and the floods," He thundered from the rain clouds. "Oh, come on, I'll manage," man replied, and was gone.