Quotations The Best Quotes About Survival

154 votes 44 voters 14.1k views 19 items

List Rules Must be a famous or well-known quote. Vote for the survival sayings that strongly resonate with you, and downvote any you didn't like.

A list of the best survival quotes and sayings, including the names of each speaker or author when available. This list is sorted by popularity, so only the most famous survival quotes are at the top. The authors of these historic survival quotes are displayed next to each quote, so if you see one you like be sure to check out other inspirational survival quotes from that same writer.

This list answers the questions, "What are the best quotes about survival?" and "What are inspirational survival quotes?"

This list includes notable survival quotes by various authors, writers, playwrights, speakers, politicians, athletes, poets, and more. Vote on your favorites so that the greatest survival quotes rise to the top, as the order of the list changes dynamically based on votes. Don't let your favorite survival sayings get to the bottom of the list.

list ordered by

1
18 3

"For Harmony. A chance at life. To fight on other days." Janet Morris, Chris Morris

2
17 3

"Survival has its own etiquette." Janet Morris, Chris Morris, Critias

3
15 3

"Keep your enemies at a distance, your partners close at hand." Janet Morris, Chris Morris

4
13 2

"Survival's the thing, isn't it?" Janet Morris, Chris Morris

5
12 2

"The only unfair fight is the one you lose." Janet Morris, Chris Morris

6
12 3

Proof of war, when it comes, always comes too late. Janet Morris

7
9 1

Haste breeds error; error breeds woe. Janet Morris

8
4 0

Survival, with honor, that outmoded and all-important word, is as difficult as ever and as all-important to a writer. Those who do not last are always more beloved since no one has to see them in their long, dull, unrelenting, no-quarter-given-and-no-quarter-received, fights that they make to do something as they believe it should be done before they die. Those who die or quit early and easy and with every good reason are preferred because they are understandable and human. Failure and well-disguised cowardice are more human and more beloved. Ernest Hemingway

9
4 1

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

10
3 0

To survive it is often necessary to fight and to fight you have to dirty yourself. George Orwell

11
4 2

Hunger, love, pain, fear are some of those inner forces which rule the individual's instinct for self preservation. Albert Einstein

12
2 0

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

13
2 1

The notion that one will not survive a particular catastrophe is, in general terms, a comfort since it is equivalent to abolishing the catastrophe. Iris Murdoch

14
2 1

Nature is indifferent to the survival of the human species, including Americans. Adlai Stevenson I

15
1 1

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 Nixon

16
0 0

The values by which we are to survive are not rules for just and unjust conduct, but are those deeper illuminations in whose light justice and injustice, good and evil, means and ends are seen in fearful sharpness of outline. Jacob Bronowski

17
0 0

A population weakened and exhausted by battling against so many obstacles -- whose needs are never satisfied and desires never fulfilled -- is vulnerable to manipulation and regimentation. The struggle for survival is, above all, an exercise that is hugely time-consuming, absorbing and debilitating. If you create these anti-conditions, your rule is guaranteed for a hundred years. Ryszard Kapuściński

18
2 3

I believe that all the survivors are mad. One time or another their madness will explode. You cannot absorb that much madness and not be influenced by it. That is why the children of survivors are so tragic. I see them in school. They don't know how Elie Wiesel

1 18 3 "For Harmony. A chance at life. To fight on other days." Janet Morris, Chris Morris

2 17 3 "Survival has its own etiquette." Janet Morris, Chris Morris, Critias

3 15 3 "Keep your enemies at a distance, your partners close at hand." Janet Morris, Chris Morris

4 13 2 "Survival's the thing, isn't it?" Janet Morris, Chris Morris

5 12 2 "The only unfair fight is the one you lose." Janet Morris, Chris Morris

6 12 3 Proof of war, when it comes, always comes too late. Janet Morris

7 9 1 Haste breeds error; error breeds woe. Janet Morris

9 4 1 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

10 3 0 To survive it is often necessary to fight and to fight you have to dirty yourself. George Orwell

11 4 2 Hunger, love, pain, fear are some of those inner forces which rule the individual's instinct for self preservation. Albert Einstein

12 2 0 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

13 2 1 The notion that one will not survive a particular catastrophe is, in general terms, a comfort since it is equivalent to abolishing the catastrophe. Iris Murdoch

14 2 1 Nature is indifferent to the survival of the human species, including Americans. Adlai Stevenson I

15 1 1 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 Nixon

16 0 0 The values by which we are to survive are not rules for just and unjust conduct, but are those deeper illuminations in whose light justice and injustice, good and evil, means and ends are seen in fearful sharpness of outline. Jacob Bronowski

18 2 3 I believe that all the survivors are mad. One time or another their madness will explode. You cannot absorb that much madness and not be influenced by it. That is why the children of survivors are so tragic. I see them in school. They don't know how Elie Wiesel

19 2 6 "History dressed up in the glow of love’s kiss turned grief into beauty." Aberjhani

not on the list? add item #20 List Rules: Must be a famous or well-known quote. Vote for the survival sayings that strongly resonate with you, and downvote any you didn't like.