Survival Sayings and Quotes

Sometimes you don’t know what you are made of until faced with a dire situation to overcome. Celebrate your resilience with the collection of wise and insightful survival quotes below.

A man, as a general rule, owes very little to what he is born with, a man is what he makes himself. Alexander Graham Bell
Nobody is stronger, nobody is weaker than someone who came back. There is nothing you can do to such a person because whatever you could do is less than what has already been done to him. We have already paid the price. Elie Wiesel
In spite of everything that was done to me and my race, in spite of the adversity and the bitter moments, again we rise. Maya Angelou
In a mad world, only the mad are sane. Akiro Kurosawa
Peace is the one condition of survival in this nuclear age. Adlai Stevenson
All I'm trying to do is not join my ancestral spirits just yet. Joshua Nkomo
Hunger, love, pain, fear are some of those inner forces which rule the individual's instinct for self preservation. Albert Einstein
If you live among wolves you have to act like a wolf. Nikita Khrushchev
To survive it is often necessary to fight and to fight you have to dirty yourself. George Orwell
Once one determines that he or she has a mission in life, that's it's not going to be accomplished without a great deal of pain, and that the rewards in the end may not outweigh the pain --if you recognize historically that always happens, then when it comes, you survive it. Richard M. Nixon
Man can live about forty days without food, about three days without water, about eight minutes without air, but only for one second without hope. Charles Darwin
Survival is nothing more than recovery. Dianne Feinstein
The ability to delude yourself may be an important survival tool. Jane Wagner
Through humor, you can soften some of the worst blows that life delivers. And once you find laughter, no matter how painful your situation might be, you can survive it. Bill Cosby
In a world where change is inevitable and continuous, the need to achieve that change without violence is essential for survival. Andrew Young
For Harmony. A chance at life. To fight on other days. Janet Morris
The consciousness of being deemed dead, is next to the presumable unpleasantness of being so in reality. One feels like his own ghost unlawfully tenanting a defunct carcass. Herman Melville
Nature's stern discipline enjoins mutual help at least as often as warfare. The fittest may also be the gentlest. Theodosius Dobzhansky
The faster you can signal for rescue, the faster you get out of that situation. Joseph Teti
You don't know if you're going to be rescued in a day or a month; gotta prepare for the long haul; gotta make the place your home. Matt Graham
The man who goes afoot, prepared to camp anywhere and in any weather, is the most independent fellow on earth. Horace Kephart
Perhaps catastrophe is the natural human environment, and even though we spend a good deal of energy trying to get away from it, we are programmed for survival amid catastrophe. Germaine Greer
Tis the last rose of summer Left blooming alone; All her lovely companions Are faded and gone. Thomas More
Every day I run scared. That's the only way I can stay ahead. John H. Johnson
The condition of man... is a condition of war of everyone against everyone. Thomas Hobbes
And while the law of competition may be sometimes hard for the individual, it is best for the race, because it ensures the survival of the fittest in every department. Andrew Carnegie
It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but rather the one most adaptable to change. Clarence Darrow
Resilience is the maintenance of high levels of positive affect and well-being in the face of adversity. It is not that resilient individuals never experience negative affect, but rather that the negative affect does not persist. Richard J. Davidson
Self-preservation is the first principle of our nature. Alexander Hamilton
In truth, we exist and survive, not because of the ego, but in spite of it. David R. Hawkins