Personal Effects Quotes

“Don't expect wisdom at the moment of death.”
― Robert A. Jensen, Personal Effects: What Recovering the Dead Teaches Me About Caring for the Living

“The ability to keep going even when things look bleak, when you feel beaten, and to fight off the sense of loss and despair. Whatever the reason. The will to survive might just get you through a disaster that claims scores of other lives.”
― Robert A. Jensen, Personal Effects: What Recovering the Dead Teaches Me About Caring for the Living

“If I could distill this into a formula for weathering disasters, it would be this: prepare, pay attention, then act, or react, as the situation demands.”
― Robert A. Jensen, Personal Effects: What Recovering the Dead Teaches Me About Caring for the Living

“Because beyond ensuring that a body has a name, dignity is one of the only things you can actually offer the dead.”
― Robert A. Jensen, Personal Effects: What Recovering the Dead Teaches Me About Caring for the Living

“Being honest does not detract from the loss or the incredible value these people have: it simply prevents the pain, mistrust, and anger that follows when the truth comes out.”
― Robert A. Jensen, Personal Effects: What Recovering the Dead Teaches Me About Caring for the Living

“People can forget when times are easy that bad things sometimes just happen, or they start to believe that bad things only happen to bad people, people who somehow brought it upon themselves.”
― Robert A. Jensen, Personal Effects: What Recovering the Dead Teaches Me About Caring for the Living

“Flags, like bodies, are powerful symbols.”
― Robert A. Jensen, Personal Effects: What Recovering the Dead Teaches Me About Caring for the Living