Survival quotes
1.1K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change, that lives within the means available and works co-operatively against common threats."
"Survival is your strength not your shame."
"The color of your skin is your uniform in this ultimate battle for the survival of the West."
"There is little value in insuring the survival of our nation if our traditions do not survive with it. And there is very grave danger that an announced need for increased security will be seized upon by those anxious to expand its meaning to the very limits of official censorship and concealment."
"Humor is one of the best ingredients of survival."
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Browse quotes that often appear alongside survival — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
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"We are living in an historic moment. We are each called to take part in a great transformation. Our survival as a species is threatened by global warming, economic meltdown, and an ever-increasing gap between rich and poor. Yet these threats offer an opportunity to awaken as an interconnected and beloved community."
"I’ve seen the nations rise and fall. I’ve heard their stories, heard them all, but love’s the only engine of survival."
"I have never known a patient to portray his parents more negatively than he actually experienced them in childhood but always more positively--because idealization of his parents was essential for his survival."
"The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness and the power of contemplation rather than upon mere survival."
"The mind is essentially a survival machine. Attack and defense against other minds, gathering, storing, and analyzing information - this is what it is good at, but it is not at all creative. All true artists, whether they know it or not, create from a place of no-mind, from inner stillness."
"Cancer got me over unimportant fears, like getting old."
"The History of every major Galactic Civilization tends to pass through three distinct and recognizable phases, those of Survival, Inquiry and Sophistication, otherwise known as the How, Why, and Where phases. For instance, the first phase is characterized by the question 'How can we eat?' the second by the question 'Why do we eat?' and the third by the question 'Where shall we have lunch?"
"Change is the healthiest way to survive."
"It takes a variety of strategies and initiatives to address this pandemic. It's about life and death and the survival of humanity."
"When sustainability is viewed as being a matter of survival for your business, I believe you can create massive change."
"Humanity will ever seek but never attain perfection. Let us at least survive and go on trying."
"Life comes from physical survival; but the good life comes from what we care about."
"Our inability to think beyond our own species, or to be able to co-habit with other life forms in what is patently a massive collaborative quest for survival, is surely a malady that pervades the human soul."
"No coward soul is mine."
"I am beginning to realize that "sanity" is no longer a value or an end in itself. The "sanity" of modern man is about as useful to him as the huge bulk and muscles of the dinosaur. If he were a little less sane, a little more doubtful, a little more aware of his absurdities and contradictions, perhaps there might be a possibility of his survival."
"The sum of the whole matter is this - our civilization cannot survive materially unless it be redeemed spiritually."
"It is with our entire past ... that we desire, will and act ... from this survival of the past it follows that consciousness cannot go through the same state twice. The circumstances may still be the same, but they will act no longer on the same person ... that is why our duration is irreversible."
"The labor movement was the principal force that transformed misery and despair into hope and progress. Out of its bold struggles, economic and social reform gave birth to unemployment insurance, old age pensions, government relief for the destitute, and, above all, new wage levels that meant not mere survival but a tolerable life."
"The First 40 hours of work per week are for survival. Everything after that is for success."
"A guru is one who tells you to throw away all the crutches that we have been made to believe are essential for our survival. He would ask you to walk, and he would say that if you fall, you will arise and walk."
