Out of the Silence Quotes

“They were only bodies, as fragile as our own, but for them a single blow had been enough to break the clay vessel. They were only bodies, pieces of firm and slightly pliable matter. The inner value of each one was no longer there, and in so many of the others still living, the contents of the vessels were slowly escaping through irreparable cracks.”
― Eduardo Strauch Urioste, Out of the Silence: After the Crash

“That capacity of the mind to embrace infinity, that path toward an authentic spirituality, is one of the most beautiful lessons that my life on the mountain left me with.”
― Eduardo Strauch Urioste, Out of the Silence: After the Crash

“You can’t know when fear is truly justified, but in any case, it is always lost energy,”
― Eduardo Strauch Urioste, Out of the Silence: After the Crash

“At heart, what I’m talking about is nothing more and nothing less than self-knowledge, which is the clearest expression of spirituality. It is good to know who we are, for everything that happens to us happens within us. It is only in silence, and in the tension of that silence, that we can start to look inside. If we look hard and deeply and quietly enough, the sublime moment arrives, the explosion of gratitude for life. This is what I have come to understand: although nothing is certain, anything is possible. Something beyond us protects us, and it is found in solitude . . . in observation . . . and in silence.”
― Eduardo Strauch Urioste, Out of the Silence: After the Crash

“I also felt fear when I was completely covered by snow in the avalanche, and death was once again only seconds away, but terror was followed by the sweet nostalgia for life and the pleasure of slipping away toward a mysterious and magnetic unknown.”
― Eduardo Strauch Urioste, Out of the Silence: After the Crash

“I didn’t seek God as an entity separate from myself. God was there, in my own self, in that limitless mind that contained everything.”
― Eduardo Strauch Urioste, Out of the Silence: After the Crash

“We are no longer insignificant beings facing the void as long as our emotions make us participants in that immensity.”
― Eduardo Strauch Urioste, Out of the Silence: After the Crash

“I find myself again in the magnificent backdrop of those powerful moments, which even then we knew we would never forget, and the little routines that I remember just as well: the daily work, efficient and organized; the ideas discussed quietly between us; the plans and backup plans, thinking about them over and over; the sudden attacks of fear and doubt; the praying of the rosary; the tears that were always one blink away but that I never allowed myself; the periods of surrender in the middle of despair; the laughter that followed a joke; renewed hope; the intense and unexpected states of spiritual fullness that started occurring more and more frequently.”
― Eduardo Strauch Urioste, Out of the Silence: After the Crash

“Nature could be violent or contrary, but it was never illogical.”
― Eduardo Strauch Urioste, Out of the Silence: After the Crash

“The foundation was created in memory of the events and the people involved with the crash in the Andes, and its mission is to encourage the essential values of the human spirit, to work toward creating change that will have a positive impact on society. The individual experiences of the survivors are very diverse, and each one of us is on his own path, but in his own way has contributed to raising awareness of what happens to people when they are forced to face extreme moments, and what the true values are that we sometimes lose sight of in the clamor of everyday life.”
― Eduardo Strauch Urioste, Out of the Silence: After the Crash

“My spirit expanded into a reality without limits and came back to me, enriched with a knowledge that was not intellectual. Not only did I feel part of the universe, but I seemed able to embrace it and live its fullness in every breath. I didn’t seek God as an entity separate from myself. God was there, in my own self, in that limitless mind that contained everything.”
― Eduardo Strauch Urioste, Out of the Silence: After the Crash

“In some way the extreme experience I had lived through had taught me that you should put in effort only where it really matters, in areas that help bring you closer to your fundamental values.”
― Eduardo Strauch Urioste, Out of the Silence: After the Crash

“You have trapped me here forever, and whatever happens, from now on a part of me will always remain here in your stillness.”
― Eduardo Strauch Urioste, Out of the Silence: After the Crash

“What did I learn about love in the silence of the mountain? That it is the most important thing in life. And that if it is not present in some form, no action, however right it may seem, makes any sense at all.”
― Eduardo Strauch Urioste, Out of the Silence: After the Crash

“And in both cases my fear was justified, but even so, it was useless.”
― Eduardo Strauch Urioste, Out of the Silence: After the Crash

“death was once again only seconds away, but terror was followed by the sweet nostalgia for life and the pleasure of slipping away toward a mysterious and magnetic unknown.”
― Eduardo Strauch Urioste, Out of the Silence: After the Crash

“Life seemed to be reminding us yet again that we are never completely safe and that risk is an integral part of life itself.”
― Eduardo Strauch Urioste, Out of the Silence: After the Crash

“The equilibrium returns, inevitably. The storm ceases, the rocks roll to a stop,”
― Eduardo Strauch Urioste, Out of the Silence: After the Crash

“We were intelligent beings in the midst of an inanimate world, and because of that it made us more aware of the human condition of being the conscious part of nature, the only one that permits a look at itself.”
― Eduardo Strauch Urioste, Out of the Silence: After the Crash

“I don’t know if I will get out of here alive, but even if I do, I will never be the same. You have trapped me here forever, and whatever happens, from now on a part of me will always remain here in your stillness.”
― Eduardo Strauch Urioste, Out of the Silence: After the Crash