Ishmael Beah Quotes

Quotes about:

• In the sky there are always answers and explanations for everything: every pain, every suffering, joy and confusion.

  Ishmael Beah

  Pain, Sky, Confusion

  51 Copy quote

• My squad is my family, my gun is my provider, and protector, and my rule is to kill or be killed.

  Ishmael Beah

  Gun, Squad, My Family

  17 Copy quote

• We all find joy and radiance and a reason to move on even in the most dire of circumstances. Even in chaos and madness, theres still a beauty that comes from just the vibrancy of another human spirit.

  Ishmael Beah

  Moving, Joy, Radiance

  16 Copy quote

• I joined the army to avenge the deaths of my family and to survive, but I've come to learn that if I am going to take revenge, in that process I will kill another person whose family will want revenge; then revenge and revenge and revenge will never come to an end.

  Ishmael Beah

  Revenge, Army, Insightful

  Ishmael Beah (2007). “A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier”, p.199, Macmillan

  15 Copy quote

• ...children have the resilience to outlive their sufferings, if given a chance.

  Ishmael Beah

  Children, Resilience, Suffering

  Ishmael Beah (2007). “A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier”, p.4, Macmillan

  7 Copy quote

• My childhood had gone by without my knowing, and it seemed as if my heart had frozen.

  Ishmael Beah

  Heart, Knowing, Childhood

  Ishmael Beah (2007). “A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier”, p.126, Macmillan

  19 Copy quote

• This is one of the consequences of the civil war. People stop trusting each other, and every stranger becomes an enemy.

  Ishmael Beah

  War, Trusting Each Other, People

  Ishmael Beah (2007). “A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier”, p.37, Macmillan

  14 Copy quote

• I believe in having a more open mind and including others who don't share your faith and having dialogue with them. And just having a pure heart and being a good person can bring you closer to God. Because once you believe in one particular religion fully and not others, that requires you to start disliking people who don't share your views.

  Ishmael Beah

  Believe, Heart, Views

  56 Copy quote

• When I was young, my father used to say, ‘If you are alive, there is hope for a better day and something good to happen. If there is nothing good left in the destiny of a person, he or she will die.’ I thought about these words during my journey, and they kept me moving even when I didn’t know where I was going. Those words became the vehicle that drove my spirit forward and made it stay alive.

  Ishmael Beah

  Father, Moving, Journey

  Ishmael Beah (2007). “A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier”, p.54, Sarah Crichton Books

  13 Copy quote

• Some people tried to hurt us to protect themselves, their family and communities...This was one of the consequences of civil war. People stopped trusting each other, and every stranger became an enemy. Even people who knew you became extremely careful about how they related or spoke to you.

  Ishmael Beah

  Hurt, War, Trusting Each Other

  20 Copy quote

• We must strive to be like the moon

  Ishmael Beah

  Moon, Strive

  20 Copy quote

• A lot of people, when they say forgive and forget, they think you completely wash your brain out and forget everything. That is not the concept. What I think is you forgive and you forget so you can transform your experiences, not necessarily forget them but transform them, so that they dont haunt you or handicap you or kill you.

  Ishmael Beah

  Thinking, Forget Everything, People

  10 Copy quote

• Some nights the sky wept stars that quickly floated and disappeared into the darkness before our wishes could meet them.

  Ishmael Beah

  Stars, Night, Sky

  Ishmael Beah (2007). “A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier”, p.80, Macmillan

  19 Copy quote

• Whenever I speak at the United Nations, UNICEF or elsewhere to raise awareness of the continual and rampant recruitment of children in wars around the world, I come to realize that I still do not fully understand how I could have possibly survived the civil war in my country, Sierra Leone.

  Ishmael Beah

  Country, Children, War

  11 Copy quote

• I am always quiet so that I know what to say when I must speak.

  Ishmael Beah

  Quiet, Speak, Knows

  Ishmael Beah (2014). “Radiance of Tomorrow: A Novel”, p.104, Macmillan

  10 Copy quote

• This days one must be careful to avoid awakening the pain of another.

  Ishmael Beah

  Pain, Awakening, Be Careful

  Ishmael Beah (2014). “Radiance of Tomorrow: A Novel”, p.18, Macmillan

  10 Copy quote

• How many more times do we have to come to terms with death before we find safety?" he asked. He waited a few minutes, but the three of us didn't say anything. He continued: "Every time people come at us with the intention of killing us, I close my eyes and wait for death. Even though I am still alive, I feel like each time I accept death, part of me dies. Very soon I will completely die and all that will be left is my empty body walking with you. It will be quieter than I am.

  Ishmael Beah

  Eye, People, Safety

  Ishmael Beah (2007). “A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier”, p.70, Macmillan

  12 Copy quote

• ONE OF THE UNSETTLING THINGS about my journey, mentally, physically, and emotionally, was that I wasn’t sure when or where it was going to end.

  Ishmael Beah

  Journey, Ends, My Journey

  Ishmael Beah (2007). “A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier”, p.69, Macmillan

  9 Copy quote

• I get a chance to observe the moon now, I still see those same images I saw when I was six, and it pleases me to know that that part of my childhood is still embedded in me.

  Ishmael Beah

  Moon, Please Me, Childhood

  Ishmael Beah (2007). “A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier”, p.17, Macmillan

  4 Copy quote

• We must live in the radiance of tomorrow, as our ancestors have suggested in their tales. For what is yet to come tomorrow has possibilities, and we must think of it, the simplest glimpse of that possibility of goodness. That will be our strength. That has always been our strength.

  Ishmael Beah

  Thinking, Glimpse, Radiance

  "The Brilliance of Ishmael Beah" by Nina Sankovitch, www.huffingtonpost.com. January 28, 2014.

  7 Copy quote

• I lay in my bed night after night staring at the ceiling and thinking, Why have I survived the war? Why was I the last person in my immediate family to be alive? I didn’t know.

  Ishmael Beah

  War, Night, Thinking

  Ishmael Beah (2007). “A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier”, p.179, Macmillan

  8 Copy quote

• As a kid in Africa, you were so connected to nature itself because you went farming, watched the moon out at night, observed how the sky was different, and how the birds chanted different songs in the evening and the morning.

  Ishmael Beah

  Song, Morning, Kids

  6 Copy quote

• For many observers, a child who has known nothing but war, a child for whom the Kalashnikov is the only way to make a living and for whom the bush is the most welcoming community, is a child lost forever for peace and development. I contest this view. For the sake of these children, it is essential to prove that another life is possible.

  Ishmael Beah

  Children, War, Views

  "Memoirs of a Boy Soldier author takes on UN role". www.theguardian.com. November 22, 2007.

  9 Copy quote

• I was still hesitant to let myself let go, because I still believed in the fragility of happiness.

  Ishmael Beah

  Letting Go, Fragility, Stills

  Ishmael Beah (2007). “A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier”, p.173, Macmillan

  5 Copy quote

• I guess what I'd like to say is that people in Sierra Leone are human beings, just like Americans. They want to send their kids to school; they want to live in peace; they want to have their basic rights of life just like everyone else. I think we all owe an obligation to support people who want to do that.

  Ishmael Beah

  School, Kids, Thinking

  4 Copy quote

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