Quotes About Survival

Every day you face battles—that is the reality for all creatures in their struggle to survive. But the greatest battle of all is with yourself—your weaknesses, your emotions, your lack of resolution in seeing things through to the end.

The survival of our earliest ancestors depended on their ability to communicate with one another well before the invention of language. They evolved new and complex emotions—joy, shame, gratitude, jealousy, resentment, et cetera. The signs of these emotions could be read immediately on their faces, communicating their moods quickly and effectively.

Nature has made up her mind that what cannot defend itself shall not be defended. RALPH WALDO EMERSON, 1803–1882

Animals arrived, liked the look of the place, took up their quarters, settled down, spread, and flourished. They didn't bother themselves about the past--they never do; they're too busy...And they don't bother about the future, either--the future when perhaps the people will move in again--for a time--as may very well be. The Wild Wood is pretty well populated by now; with all the usual lot, good, bad, and indifferent--I name no names. It takes all sorts to make a world.

You two were in a cave together?' said Miss Simpkins in horror. 'Yes,' said Kate, 'and it was very, very dark.

You needn't worry about me. I know enough to do what every man ought to do in wartime when he's watched and threatened by bullies. I conceal my feelings; lie whenever necessary; pretend to admire the rascals who've ruined our city and our country; cheer dolts, bullies and knaves and damn all wise temperate men!

War's always the same! Children starve, women suffer, men lose their fortunes or turn into beasts!

In case it's escaped your notice, that bastard has tried to kill me twice now. How about using your considerable power to track him down rather than trying to unravel my unremarkable past?

Ye are different, Emma. I doona need ye in order to survive. But surviving is no' the same as living. Or the same as feeling human again. I am alive when I'm with you. Ye feed my soul. (Angus MacKay)

The passengers huddled in their wet bedding, salt water streaming down the cabin walls, and prayed for deliverance.

It pleased God that he caught hold of the topsail halyards which hung overboard and ran out at length. Yet he held his hold (though he was sundry fathoms under water) till he was hauled up by the same rope to the brim of the water, and then with a boat hook and other means got into the ship again and his life saved.

A lot of times when I think I'm being self-sufficient, I'm really just learning to live without the things that I need.

Kabul is... a thousand tragedies per square mile.

Though there were moments of beauty, Mariam knew for the most part that life had been unkind to her.

And that, ...is the story of our country, one invasion after another...Macedonians. Saddanians. Arabs. Mongols. Now the Soviets. But we're like those walls up there. Battered, and nothing pretty to look at, but still standing.

I've read that if an avalanche buries you and you're lying there underneath all that snow, you can't tell which way is up or down. You want to dig yourself out but pick the wrong way, and you dig yourself to your own demise.

Zindagi migzara (life goes on)

People learned to live with the most unimaginable things.

Joseph shall return to Canaan, grieve not, Hovels shall turn to rose gardens, grieve not. If a flood should arrive, to drown all that's alive, Noah is your guide in the typhoon's eye, grieve not.

I wanted to tell them that, in Kabul, we snapped a tree branch and used it as a credit card. Hassan and I would take the wooden stick to the bread maker. He'd carve notches on our stick with his knife, one notch for each loaf of naan he'd pull for us from the tandoor's roaring flames. At the end of the month, my father paid him for the number of notches on the stick. That was it. No questions. No ID.

In Kabul, hot running water had been like fathers, a rare commodity.

You know the old bit, he said. You're on a deserted island. You can have five books. Which do you choose? I never thought I'd actually have to.

I just think these people, everything they've been through, we should respect them... By 'we', I mean people like Timur and me. The lucky ones, the ones who weren't here when the place was getting bombed to hell. We're not like these people. We shouldn't pretend we are. The stories these people have to tell, we're not entitled to them... I'm rambling.

Zendagi migzara, we say, life goes on.