Survivor Quotes

• It is better to suffer wrong than to do it.

  Samuel Johnson

  Suffering

  Samuel Johnson (1784). “The Rambler: In Four Volumes..”, p.147

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• When you live in the shadow of insanity, the appearance of another mind that thinks and talks as yours does is something close to a blessed event.

  Robert M. Pirsig

  Blessed, Thinking, Insanity

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• I'm a survivor - a living example of what people can go through and survive.

  Elizabeth Taylor

  Inspirational, People, Survival

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• You think maybe if you just work harder and faster, you can hold off the chaos, but then one day you’re changing a patio light bulb with a five-year life span and you realize how you’ll only be changing this light maybe ten more times before you’ll be dead.

  Chuck Palahniuk

  Thinking, Light, Years

  Chuck Palahniuk (2011). “Survivor: A Novel”, p.37, W. W. Norton & Company

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• Though I can't change what happened, I can choose how to react. And I don't want to spend the rest of my life being bitter and locked up.

  Tori Amos

  Want, Bitter, Locked Up

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• Give me life, give me pain, give me myself again.

  Tori Amos

  Life, Pain, Self

  Song: Little Earthquakes, Album: Little Earthquakes, 1992

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• Laughter is the evidence that we're still here, the proof that our tragedies will not define us forever. Laughter is the language of the survivor.

  Josh James

  Laughter, Forever, Tragedy

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• You can be a victim of cancer, or a survivor of cancer. It's a mindset.

  Dave Pelzer

  Cancer, Mindset, Victim

  "I was never about boo hoo hoo". Interview with Decca Aitkenhead, www.theguardian.com. June 25, 2008.

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• I have seen war. I have seen war on land and sea. I have seen blood running from the wounded. I have seen men coughing out their gassed lungs. I have seen the dead in the mud. I have seen cities destroyed. I have seen 200 limping, exhausted men come out of line—the survivors of a regiment of 1,000 that went forward 48 hours before. I have seen children starving. I have seen the agony of mothers and wives. I hate war.

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Mother, Running, Children

  Speech at Chautauqua, NY, 14 Aug. 1936, in Public Papers (1936) vol. 5, p. 289

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• A scar is a sign of strength. . .the sign of a survivor.

  Laurie Halse Anderson

  Scar

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• Being a survivor doesn't mean being strong - it's telling people when you need a meal or a ride, company, whatever. It's paying attention to heart wisdom, feelings, not living a role, but having a unique, authentic life, having something to contribute, finding time to love and laugh. All these things are qualities of survivors.

  Bernie Siegel

  Strong, Heart, Mean

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• I'm a survivor of life. I try to give the glory to God and appreciate what's happening to me.

  Mike Epps

  Appreciate, Giving, Trying

  FaceBook post by Mike Epps from Nov 02, 2014

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• One thing you who had secure or happy childhoods should understand about those of us who did not. We who control our feelings, who avoid conflicts at all costs, or seem to seek them. Who are hypersensitive, self-critical, compulsive, workaholic, and above all survivors. We are not that way from perversity, and we cannot just relax and let it go. We’ve learned to cope in ways you never had to.

  Piers Anthony

  Inspirational, Happy, Letting Go

  "Fractal Mode". Book by Piers Anthony, January, 1992.

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• Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.

  J. K. Rowling

  Inspiring, Happiness, Happy

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• For the survivor who chooses to testify, it is clear: his duty is to bear witness for the dead and for the living. He has no right to deprive future generations of a past that belongs to our collective memory. To forget would be not only dangerous but offensive; to forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time.

  Elie Wiesel

  Memories, Past, Collective Memory

  Elie Wiesel (2012). “Night”, p.14, Macmillan

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• In modern warfare there are no victors; there are only survivors.

  Lyndon B. Johnson

  War, Modern, Warfare

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• It's about realizing, painfully, you've kept that voice inside yourself, locked away from even yourself. And you step back and see that your jailer has changed faces. You realize you've become your own jailer.

  Tori Amos

  Voice, Faces, Steps

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• We have to stop arresting prostitutes and not arresting traffickers and pimps. It's absurd. We're arresting the victim or the survivor and not the oppressor.

  Gloria Steinem

  Pimp, Victim, Absurd

  Interview with Max Miller, bigthink.com. October 28, 2010.

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• The feat of surviving is directly related to the capacity of the survivor.

  Claire Cameron

  Capacity, Feats, Related

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• I am a survivor and not a victim. Life isn't perfect. When you get a knock, you have to get up, dust yourself down and get on with it.

  Patsy Kensit

  Dust, Perfect, Down And

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• It is important for people to know that no matter what lies in their past, they can overcome the dark side and press on the a brighter world.

  Dave Pelzer

  Lying, Dark, Past

  Dave Pelzer (1993). “A Child Called It: One Child's Courage to Survive”, p.166, Health Communications, Inc.

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• The time has come for those nations that rely on the force of nuclear armaments to respectfully heed the voices of peace-loving people, not least the atomic bomb survivors, to strive in good faith for nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, and to advance towards the complete abolishment of all such weapons.

  Iccho Itoh

  Nuclear Disarmament, Voice, People

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• You can get used to anything - haven't I already said that? Isn't that what all survivors say?

  Yann Martel

  Used, Said, Havens

  Yann Martel (2012). “Life Of Pi, Illustrated”, p.321, Canongate Books

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• Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.

  Thomas A. Edison

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

  "From Telegraph to Light Bulb with Thomas Edison". Book by Deborah Headstrom-Page, 2007.

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• Hi, I'm Bill. I'm a birth survivor.

  Bill Maher

  Bills, Birth

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