Quotes About Resourcefulness

Necessity remains the mother of invention.

She had that brand of pragmatism that would find her the first brewing tea after Armageddon.

I then swept the crumbs into my palm and opened one of the empty drawers and poured them in. I was working on the theory that if I collected enough crumbs, eventually I could make my own Twix. It's good to have a purpose in life.

My partner and I escaped the chamber with nothing more than a ripped hem (Miss Holmes's), a sagging hairdo (Miss Holmes's), and a broken copper-heeled shoe (also Miss Holmes's).

She took her hatchet. She took flint and tinder. And like her mother she dug up her yams.

We go solo, my kinfolk and I, taking each day as an IKEA bookcase we build alone, sans instructions. The leftover pieces? We gobble them down, and sometimes it's the only thing we eat all day.

a rusty machete and a bag of almonds makes you a person of substance?

Three cheers for your rich interior life, may it serve you well come rent day.

Arrange whatever pieces come your way.

Geniusz to brak przystosowania.

I always keep some whiskey handy in case I see a snake...which I also keep handy.

Once, during Prohibition, I was forced to live for days on nothing but food and water.

Around the world-even in places where there is almost nothing, the rich, the beautiful, the talented, or the very clever can always get something; in fact, the best of whatever there is.

You take what you're given, whether it's the cornfields of the Midwest or the coal mines of West Virginia, and you make your fiction out of it. It's all you have. And somehow, wherever you are, it always seems to be enough.

He fishes well who uses a golden hook.

You planned as much as you could, then you tap-danced like mad.

Every airman was given a "Mae West" life vest,*3 but because some men stole the vests' carbon dioxide cartridges for use in carbonating drinks, some vests didn't inflate.

But desperation is the mother-in-law of invention.

They had no longboat, no firewood, and scant clothing.

When he was done, he wiped himself with a length of pitch-covered rope, and then

wine, hardtack, and water, to say nothing of the freshly caught sea elephants.

legitimately or not, he could sell it for enough to buy a small house; he could live off the proceeds

On the occasion of every accident that befalls you, remember to turn to yourself and inquire what power you have for turning it to use.

How could you blame Mia's parents for not understanding? They had been born in the wartime years; they'd been raised by parents who'd come of age in the Depression, who threw nothing out, not even moldy food. They were old enough to remember when rags became felt for the war effort, when cans and scrap metal could become bullets and cans of grease explosives. Practicality was baked into their bones. They wasted nothing, especially time.