Quotes About Endurance

Nemo enim est tam senex qui se annum non putet posse vivere. (No one is so old as to think that he cannot live one more year.)

No power on earth, if it labours beneath the burden of fear, can possibly be strong enough to survive.

Quo usque tandem abutere, Catalina, patientia nostra?

For old age is respected only if it defends itself, maintains its rights, submits to no one, and rules over its domain until its last breath.

Quo usque tandem abutere, Catilina, patientia nostra? Quam diu etiam furor iste tuus nos eludet? Quem ad finem sese effrenata iactabit audacia? (When, O Catiline, do you mean to cease abusing our patience? How long is that madness of yours still to mock us? When is there to be an end of that unbridled audacity of yours, swaggering about as it does now?)

This shows how a man who practices exercise and self-control can preserve some of his original vigor even when he grows old.

Sometimes I arrive too early. I rush, and some people cling longer to life than expected.

Truly amazing, what people can get used to, as long as there are a few compensations.

There's something to be said for hunger: at least it lets you know you're still alive.

If I am good enough and quiet enough, perhaps after all they will let me go; but it's not easy being quiet and good, it's like hanging on to the edge of a bridge when you've already fallen over; you don't seem to be moving, just dangling there, and yet it is taking all your strength.

Genius is an infinite capacity for causing pain.

These things you did were like prayers; you did them and you hoped they would save you. And for the most part they did. Or something did; you could tell by the fact that you were still alive.

But who can remember pain, once it's over?

I intend to get out of here. It can't last forever. Others have thought such things, in bad times before this, and they were always right, they did get out one way or another, and it didn't last forever. Although for them it may have lasted all the forever they had.

And yes, I know it's you; and that is what we will come to, sooner or later, when it's even darker than It is now, when the snow is colder, when it's darkest and coldest and candles are no longer any use to us and the visibility is zero: Yes. It's still you. It's still you.

Nolite te bastardes carborundorum (Don't Let the Bastards Grind You Down)

She who weeps when the sun's in sky, Will never pile the platter high.

Humanity is so adaptable [...] Truly amazing, what people can get used to, as long as there are a few compensations.

I knelt to examine the floor, and there it was, in tiny writing, quite fresh it seemed, scratched with a pin or maybe just a fingernail, in the corner where the darkest shadow fell: Nolite te bastardes carborundorum.

But why bother about the end of the world? It's the end of the world every day, for someone. Time rises and rises, and when it reaches the level of your eyes you drown.

But what is a memorial, when you come right down to it, but a commemoration of wounds endured? Endured, and resented. Without memory, there can be no revenge.

In reduced circumstances the desire to live attaches itself to strange objects.

Torture is like dancing: I'm too old for it. Let the younger ones practice their bravery.

Thinking can hurt your chances, and I intend to last