Quotes About Survival

I had rather face wild beasts and diseases than the perils of civilization." There is a proverb, which Tom was kind enough not to voice: be careful what you wish for. Unfortunately, not only did I get it, but so did those around me.

I stand and brush the tears from my eyes. The hen is gone, and the harp that was my mother's, and all of our gold; my husband is gone, too. The castle I shared with him is an empty shell now, robbed of everything that mattered—but I have one last use for

I'm sometimes amazed the human species survived to the present day, given the things we did to ourselves in the name of healing." p. 103, Elemental Imbalances

A man kills enough. A woman keeps on walking.

any moment now that sun would burst into a ball of flame, a furnace to stifle the heart of Petites Cendres, his soul felt blood-raw, liquefied deep down inside him, in a pale, cold sea where the need that gnawed at him would break your heart, a fire burnt out, his heart, that dog should not have been there on Esmeralda or Bahama Street, hunger tottering on all fours, night-prowling around the Porte du Baiser Saloon where he just would not stop living despite all odds

This anthology is a testament to American Indian consciousness continuing to circulate, regardless of past or present genocidal attempts, whether cerebral, endemic, systematic, or otherwise.

There was no justice, there was only life. And life she had.

One graduate student told me, "When the Apocalypse comes, you want to know an archaeologist, because we know how to make fire, catch food, and create hill forts," and I promptly added her to my address book. Knows how to make hill forts—who can say when that will come in handy?

One of the advantages of living in the Ice Age would be that there are not very many people around. You're constantly moving, and you have to live by your wits. You can't just have fifteen different kinds of tools, you can't carry them. And no villages—no village idiots. Imagine a world free of idiots!" Idiots, he liked to point out, "don't survive in environments with lions.

My goal isn't to make money, it's to try and survive and make a point.

The weak ones are there to justify the strong.

What doesn't kill you is gonna leave a scar.

After all, the fear is the thing which keep us alive, why do you want to get rid of it??

Some people are still alive only because they find being dead more boring than being alive.

The continuation of man's life is more attributable to his fear of death than it is to his desire to live. As a matter of fact, in countless cases, it is attributable to only the former.

All thinking things fear. Sentience, perhaps, is facing that fear and conquering it rather than succumbing. A tiger will drown in a tar pit, but a man who can clear his thoughts may survive.

The human body is robust. It can gather strength when it's in mortal danger.

like all other living creatures, I am the descendant of survivors, so the fear in my head is the voice of my ancestors whispering their accumulated wisdom.

Your fear ain't nothin but gum on the bottom of your shoe. The residue from some past experience is all it is. You can scrape the gum off or it can serve as a reminder of your testimony of survival.

I was sick of the body count that existed around my family. It seemed statistically that eventually the body count would include my family.

If you do not understand how finances are functioning, you are in a very precarious situation, at least concerning long-term survival.

If only the fit survive and if the fitter they are the longer they survive, then Volvox must have demonstrated its superb fitness more conclusively than any higher animal ever has.

Individual organisms are best thought of as adaptation-executers rather than as fitness-maximizers.

What don't kill me... Had better start running!