Surviving Quotes

“We just did an awesome job of not dying.”
― John Green, Let It Snow: Three Holiday Romances

“You need to spend time crawling alone through shadows to truly appreciate what it is to stand in the sun.”
― Shaun Hick

“The clock holds me nowhere. Nowhere. Nowhere. There is nothing else but now and the shifting depth of the night. I sit at a table alone smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee and listening and surviving. I should not be here or anywhere. I should not be breathing or taking space. I should not have been given this moment or anything else. I should not have this opportunity again to live. I do not deserve it or deserve anything yet it is here and I am here and I Have it all of it still. I won't have it again. This moment or this chance they are the same and they are mine if I choose them and I do. I want them. Now and as long as I can have them they are both precious and fleeting and gone in the blink of an eye don't waste them. A moment and an opportunity and a life, all in the unseen tick of a clock holding me nowhere. My heart is beating. The walls are pale and quiet. I am surviving. ”
― James Frey, A Million Little Pieces

“Don't play his game. Play yours.”
― Rachel Caine, Fall of Night

“What do your parents know, about surviving? ”
― Lemony Snicket, The End

“Fine," Connor tells him. "Think about stuff until your head explodes. But the only thing I want to think about is surviving to eighteen."

I find your shallowness both refreshing and disappointing at the same time. Do you think that means I need therapy?”
― Neal Shusterman, Unwind

“I had a long talk with my dear Fat Mary that night, because I had many questions. Could someone actually be beaten to death by such a nun? Did Mother Rufina, the new Superior, know that Sister Clotilda was so cruel? Who let her work with children? Could nuns go to hell?
Fat Mary told me she didn’t know the answers to my questions, but she reminded me that it was her role to take my worries and burdens and keep them for me until a time when I could understand them.”
― Maria Nhambu, Africa's Child

“Thriving. That's fighting... Surviving is barely getting by.”
― Jillian Michaels

“You were born a winner, a warrior, one who defied the odds by surviving the most gruesome battle of them all - the race to the egg. And now that you are a giant, why do you even doubt victory against smaller numbers and wider margins? The only walls that exist are those you have placed in your mind. And whatever obstacles you conceive, exist only because you have forgotten what you have already achieved.”
― Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem

“This is our purpose: to make as meaningful as possible this life that has been bestowed upon us . . . to live in such a way that we may be proud of ourselves, to act in such a way that some part of us lives on. This is our purpose: to make as meaningful as possible this life that has been bestowed upon us . . . to live in such a way that we may be proud of ourselves, to act in such a way that some part of us lives on.”
― Oswald Spengler

“There's a difference between living and just surviving. Do something you love, and find someone to love who loves that you love what you do.
It is really that simple.
And that hard.”
― John Connolly, The Infernals

“He leans in, resting his weathered hand on the bed. "Treat all the bad things like dreams, Kenzie. That way, no matter how scary or dark they get, you just have to survive until you wake up.”
― Victoria Schwab, The Unbound

“Is this some sort of test?"
"Everything that doesn't kill you is."
"Mind you," he added, "surviving doesn't always mean you passed.”
― Michelle Sagara West, Cast in Secret

“She looked up. "What I can't figure out is why the good things always end."
"Everything ends."
"Not some things. Not the bad things. They never go away."
"Yes, they do. If you let them, they go away. Not as fast as we'd like sometimes, but they end too. What doesn't end is the way we feel about each other. Even when you're all grown up and somewhere else, you can remember what a good time we had together. Even when you're in the middle of bad things and they never seem to be changing, you can remember me. And I'll remember you.”
― Torey Hayden, Torpedo Run / Banners Of Silk / My Left Foot / Trojan Treasure

“More than most, I know the pain of surviving.”
― Ann Aguirre, Aftermath

“Why wait? So precious is this life—this gift—this temporary blindness. Burn and drown and embrace the false dark, then grasp the unthinkable height of resulting joy. For in the end, in the light of truth when the flesh is cast off, there is nothing but this.”
― Jennifer DeLucy

“The best thing you can say to someone going through a tragic loss is not that

"It's going to be alright"

It is:
"Hold on tight because this is going to hurt like hell".”
― JohnA Passaro

“I certainly couldn't have survived my childhood without books. All that deprivation and pain--abuse, broken home, a runaway sister, a brother with cancer--the books allowed me to withstand. They sustained me. I read still, prolifically, with great passion, but never like I read in those days: in those days it was life or death.”
― Junot Díaz

“The energy it took to exit mother’s womb is the same force required to manifest a dream...a different kind of struggle. Push, push, push!”
― T.F. Hodge, From Within I Rise: Spiritual Triumph over Death and Conscious Encounters with "The Divine Presence"

“If surviving and passing on one’s genes is the whole point, then animals do it much better. And they do it without cribbing. We humans, however, find it difficult to even survive. We crib a lot. We are bogged down by our thoughts.”
― Abhaidev, The Meaninglessness of Meaning

“At times I've struggled to feel seen, to have my history feel seen, to have where I come from feel seen because I 'turned out great.' But that doesn't meant that I Am Fine. I am working every day, tirelessly, like you wouldn't believe, on being fine, f**king finally, can we get this over with, I'm so tired and I just want to travel and eat and smile and move through the world with a semblance of peace.”
― Lane Moore, How to Be Alone: If You Want To, and Even If You Don't

“What did you want to be when you grew up?' I ask, just to keep the conversation going.

'Alive.' He shrugs.

Well, that's... something.”
― Rebecca Yarros, Fourth Wing

“Perhaps to burn is the most basic
Purification there is.
Time said: You must transform to survive.
We said: Not over our dead body.
What can we call a country that destroys
Itself just because it can?
A nation that would char
Rather than change?
Our only word for this is
Home.”
― Amanda Gorman, Call Us What We Carry: Poems

“It means the feeling that you’re not so much living your life as just trying to push through it won’t last forever. Someday you’ll be able to breathe”
― Mackenzi Lee, The Nobleman's Guide to Scandal and Shipwrecks

“We eat only to survive, forgetting that healthy eating is the key to survival.”
― John Joclebs Bassey, Night of a Thousand Thoughts

“The skin sheds so finely we don't even notice it, but it's always renewing itself. You know what this means?" I asked and looked up to smile encouragingly at her face.

"Wh-what?" she breathed. I had her complete attention.

"It means that in a month or two, all your skin will have never known an unwanted touch. The skin that remembers the mansion will be completely gone," I answered, hoping it would help remind her that she'd always be her own person. Unowned. "These hands will only have touched what you chose to touch."

~Keyon from The Dragon Knight and the Coveted.”
― Asha Nyr

“Lifting from Depression


In the state of depression
feeling miserable, a statement undermining
all the potential harms when
self-worth knocking no mercy found,
hopelessness shadowing the self-worth
finding the false identity, absence from feeling
the way to feel.
Once depression sinking to the deepest state
of oppressing state, risking life
to mark the fault answer to end everything.


The depressed mood clouding the thinking mind,
impairing the judgement looking at life,
depressed mood, a desperate cry in mental despair,
when the reality of life is much brighter
than the state of depressing mood.
The reality of life is a hopeful life.


False sense of hopelessness,
a correctable state of the mind when do you
realized this? Disconfirming the strong false belief
of hopelessness is a way to go.
Depressed state of the mind can be lifted
with psychiatric care and psychotherapeutic help.
An early call to psychiatrist is the way to help,
and the loved ones offer emotional support
a good way to help, receiving help
the answer to redefining the state of the mind.


When adequate help arrives lifting from depression,
the depressed dark cloud lifted
from the state of depressed mind and you can clearly
see and move forward with what is in front of you.
Life backs into the living force,
keep on moving at will, living a full life
with life moving forward with all at will.
by Tina Leung: I Face Forward poem”
― Tina Leung, I Face Forward

“Creating a Safe Space


Surround yourself with all the positive things,
being in the environment that embraces you.
Doing the things to create peace.
Doing the things to allow you to have peace.
Doing the things that are
good for you.
good for others,
good for nature,
good for all.
Being with those who grant you peace.
Being with supportive people who
want you to be safe and well.
A safe space is a free space
to share with all those who care.

by Tina Leung: I Face Forward poem”
― Tina Leung, I Face Forward

“I smiled. 'I win.'

'It's not about winning, Poppy.'

'It's not?' I lowered the dagger, stepping back.

'It's about surviving.'

'Isn't that winning, though?'

He shot me a sidelong glance as he dragged his arm over his forehead. 'I suppose you can look at it that way, but it's never a game.'

'I know that.' ... 'But if it were a game, I still would've won.”
― Jennifer L. Armentrout, From Blood and Ash

“Every empath must ultimately face a life-defining choice: survive or thrive.”
― Anthon St. Maarten