Survival Sayings and Quotes

Sometimes you don’t know what you are made of until faced with a dire situation to overcome. Celebrate your resilience with the collection of wise and insightful survival quotes below.

Surviving means being born over and over again. Erica Jong
Only the strong survive. Namibian Proverb
Rule of survival: Pack your own parachute. T.L. Hakala
Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival. Winston Churchill
We shall draw from the heart of suffering itself the means of inspiration and survival. Winston Churchill
Survival is triumph enough. Harry Crews
Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive. Dalai Lama
It takes but one positive thought when given a chance to survive and thrive to overpower an entire army of negative thoughts. Robert H. Schuller
Confront them with annihilation, and they will then survive; plunge them into a deadly situation, and they will then live. When people fall into danger, they are then able to strive for victory. Sun Tzu
Every man is wise when attacked by a mad dog; fewer when pursued by a mad woman; only the wisest survive when attacked by a mad notion. Robertson Davies
Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind. Bruce Lee
Hunger, love, pain, fear are some of those inner forces which rule the individual's instinct for self preservation. Albert Einstein
Self-preservation, nature's first great law, all the creatures, except man, doth awe. Andrew Marvell
We are survival machines -- robot vehicles blindly programmed to preserve the selfish molecules known as genes. Richard Dawkins
Survival is the ability to swim in strange water. Frank Herbert
Survival often feels like an indignity. Guillermo Del Toro
In the greater part of humankind there resides an instinct for survival. It is this which can clutch at straws and effect a rescue from them. It is this which can, now and then, outwit fate. Tanith Lee
Survival ... is an infinite capacity for suspicion. John Le Carre
When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on. Franklin D. Roosevelt
What does not kill us makes us stronger. Friedrich Nietzsche
There's a difference between surviving and living. Gene Roddenberry
I think that adaptation is the key to survival. Cooperation and symbiosis. John Wyndham
Life is cruelty. We all feed on each other, exploit each other in some way to survive. John Wyndham
Survival is not about certain death, it is about keeping your head down. John Ridley
There is more to life than survival. John Maclean
Surviving is not relevant. Living is. We want to live. Gabe Ibáñez
The Pilgrims were born to help us in our heroic quest for survival. Now they build our homes, drive our cars, and wipe our asses when we get old. I have no idea what we're going to do next. Gabe Ibáñez
Why does the Doctor always survive? Because he always assumes he's going to win. He always knows there's a way to survive. He just has to go and find it. Steven Moffat
If the Earth dies, you die. If you die, the Earth survives. There are only a handful of planets in the cosmos that are capable of supporting complex life. David Scarpa
Only the strong survive, you gotta be strong, you gotta hold on. Chris Hegedus