Quotes About Survival

To be afraid of a survivable thing was irrational.

When your instinct tells you something's wrong, then something's wrong. Always listen to your gut. It's what will save you from getting shoved into the back of some thug's car.

great war leaves a country with three armies: an army of cripples, an army of mourners, and an army of thieves." And

14. 61 horas (61 Hours)

It was very common then. It was a bad time, and a bad area. We found that out, later. Either our guide didn't know, or didn't care. We found out that there were more than twenty people killed on that route in a year. For fun. Some of them in horrible ways. Raoul was lucky, just to be shot. Some of them, their screams could be heard for miles, across the desert, in the darkness. Some of the girls were carried away and never seen again.

The cell was very dark. I could just about see a bunk bed, a sink and a john.

from The Art of War by Sun-tzu: To fail to take the battle to the enemy when your back is to the wall is to perish.

So there you have it: Nature is a rotten mess. But that's only the beginning. If you take your eyes off it for one second, it will kill you. Thorns, insects, fungus, worms, birds, reptiles, wild animals, raging rivers, bottomless ravines, dry deserts, snow, quicksand, tumbleweeds, sap, and mud. Rot, poison and death. That's Nature. It's a wonder you even step outside of your cabin, I said. My bravery exceeds my good sense, he said.

I fell, okay? Then clawed your way out like a bad zombie movie?

You can't kill history. You can't shoot it with a bullet and watch it recede into whatever lies outside of memory. History is tougher than that—if it's going to die, it has to die on its own

Writing after the Holocaust had destroyed a third of the world's Jews, Yiddish poet Kadia Molodowsky (1894–1975) addressed the "Chosen People" doctrine most poignantly: "O God of Mercy," she wrote, "For the time being / Choose another people.

Polish prisoner Dr. Wladislaw Dering performed castrations and ovariectomies ordered by his German masters as part of their insane program to find a way to sterilize the entire Jewish race.

Perhaps the bazaar looks disorganized to you, but it works for us. Perhaps Islam looks fanatical to you, but it provides us with the means to survive the harshness of this life and prepare us for a better life hereafter.

Johann Clement watched the blows fall. First there had been wild talk and then printed accusations and insinuations. Then came a boycott of Jewish business and professional people, then the public humiliations: beatings and beard pullings. Then came the night terror of the Brown Shirts. Then came the concentration camps. Gestapo, SS, SD, KRIPO, RSHA. Soon every family in Germany was under Nazi scrutiny, and the grip of tyranny tightened until the last croak of defiance strangled and died.

Habían arrancado el alambre de espino, las cámaras y los hornos crematorios habían desaparecido, pero los recuerdos no le abandonarían nunca.

Wladislaw Dering

El odio a los judíos es como una enfermedad incurable. Bajo determinadas condiciones democráticas, acaso no florezca bien. Bajo otras condiciones, es posible incluso que parezca que muere; pero jamás desaparece del todo, ni aun en el clima ideal.

Their pledge, in fact, came close to later communal farming ideas. The communal farm was not born of social or political idealism. It was based on the necessities of survival; there was no other way.

Tampoco era raro que hallasen algún niño de pecho oculto entre la ropa, y entonces lo guardaban para la «ducha siguiente».

El mayor problema de Birkenau era la dificultad para desembarazarse de los cadáveres. Al principio los llevaban directamente desde las cámaras de gas a grandes zanjas donde los cubrían con cal. Pero el hedor era insoportable.

It was said that a crow flying over Berlin would have to carry his own provisions.

Paleolithic humans migrated often, and, like my teenagers, they followed the food.

Our species had to engage in complex cooperative behavior in order to survive in the wild, and—as I keep reminding my teenage children—pointing and grunting get you only so far.

My father had drawn number 3,004 in a death lottery in which German precision trumped Nazi brutality.