The real challenge is not simply to survive. Hell, anyone can do that. It’s to survive as yourself, undiminished.
—Elia Kazan
At the end of his life, Ezra Pound observed to a friend: "Nothing really matters, does it?" Today I understand this. At the end, or close to the end, or closer to the end than the beginning, the value of what we once thought mattered is lost to us. Even survival, once so important, money, food, family, country, accomplishment, recognition, fame, even: Pound was right. He once said to Allen Ginsberg: "At seventy I realized that instead of being a lunatic, I was a moron."
—Doris Grumbach
In our struggle to restrain the violence and contain the damage, we tend to forget that the human capacity for aggression is more than a monstrous defect, that it is also a crucial survival tool.
—Katherine Dunn
I figure when my husband comes home from work, if the kids are still alive, then I've done my job.
—Roseanne Barr
There is always the need to carry on.
—Marjory Stoneman Douglas
We never stop investigating. We are never satisfied that we know enough to get by. Every question we answer leads on to another question. This has become the greatest survival trick of our species.
—Desmond Morris
Self-preservation is the first law of nature.
—Samuel Butler
I think that when enough time has passed, when you've survived that which you didn't imagine you could, there's a dignity in that. Something you can own. A pride in knowing the pain made you stronger. The pain made you fight to succeed. Someday, when I'm living my dreams, I'm going to think of all the things that broke my heart and I'm going to be thankful for them.
—Mia Sheridan in Kyland
I was watching my friends live around me, but I wasn't living. I was getting by. Making it day to day.
—Abbi Glines in Hold On Tight
Here's the thing about broken hearts: You can always survive them. Always. No matter how deep the hurt, the capacity to heal and move on is even stronger.
—Susan Wiggs in Summer At Willow Lake
You can live without anything you weren't born with, and you can make it through on even half of that.
—Gloria Naylor
I always wanted to be the last guy on Earth, just to see if all those women were lying to me.
—Ronnie Shakes
The thing about surviving something truly tragic is that it changes your expectations forever. You make do with very little. You're grateful for crumbs. You make the best of small mercies. You endure large trials. You understand that life owes you nothing. You expect nothing, and when something wonderful happens, you don't trust it.
—Katy Regnery