Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by James Smythe

Quote by James Smythe

Work

The Machine

Browse quotes and source details for this work. more

Author

James Smythe

Browse famous quotes and profile details for James Smythe. more

You May Also Like

“I suppose the precise moment when death swoops in to snatch your soul isn't actually terrifying. The nanoseconds preceding it are like Final Destination 6 playing out at 120 frames per second. The Jeep hurtling down, me inside it, being tossed around violently, screaming, watching the freefall knowing that the gas tank has 60 gallons of petrol in it and seeing a protruding rock fifty metres ahead. Now that is cruel!”

InspirationalDeathHumourSurvivalMountainsNidhiesharmaTawangJunglesTrueaccountManvswild Strongwomen Survivor
Book:Invictus
Create image

“I had always hoped to die in my sleep with a peaceful look and a rose-tinted lip balm on, so the idea of having my mangled charred parts picked from a hundred mile radius was mortifying. That was no way to go if the Gods loved you, I reasoned. At thirteen, most of us beleived that we were loved. I did go home and write up that will, just in case they didn't”

InspirationalDeathHumourAdventureMountainsNidhiesharmaJunglesTrueaccountManvswild Strongwomen Survivor
Book:Invictus
Create image

“I’ve held on to those memories for the longest; never letting them go because it takes time – sometimes years – to truly understand how a childhood adventure can impact you. When I look back, I marvel at how surreal that day had been. It was the kind of misadventure one had only seen in the movies and in all those stories the protagonists were adults, some of whom did not make it. But we were just children, and this was happening to us. And this was as real as it could get. For years after, numerous existential questions raced through my head: Was God testing us? Were we handpicked for it? Was it preordained? Th en the fog started to lift and I saw it for what it was: a day in the jungle. Also, a day when everything went wrong. I’d read somewhere that adversity does not build character, it reveals it. We were tested, we were pushed to the limits of our physical and emotional endurance. We made it out alive, and it is important that this experience be shared.”

HopeAdventureNonfictionSurvival StoryNidhiesharmaTawangJunglesTrueaccountManvswild Strongwomen Survivor
Book:Invictus
Create image

“I’ve often wondered that if I could go back in time, would I make the same decisions? I think I would. After all, we all make bad decisions and some of them snowball into cataclysms far bigger than we could have imagined and beyond our control. We still make them because they are meant to be made; they are meant to reveal who we are, to aid us in our journeys …”

WisdomHopeAdventureSurvivalNonfictionHindsightTrue StoryNidhiesharmaTawang
Book:Invictus
Create image

“Growing up, I had three amazing dogs with distinct personalities. One of them was a randy mid-sized German spitz called Snoopy, father to countless puppies within a one- mile radius of our home in the cantonment. No lock could keep Snoopy in, no wall was too high. In the summer months, he slept besides his knell in the garden. His nocturnal rendezvous became the talk of town when he snuck into a fellow officer’s garden to sow his wild oats with Debbie the Doberman, who was twice his size. Snoopy was as unapologetic as my mother was embarrassed when the offi cer’s wife came home. She feared for Snoopy’s life, she told my mother diplomatically.”

AdventureMemoirNonfictionTrue StoryNidhiesharmaDogs Humour
Book:Invictus
Create image

“For five long minutes, the skies rumbled and poured, carpet-bombing the Jungle with spear-like drops. Puncturing the surface of the water with ferocity and purpose, those dark clouds were unrelenting. Unleashing their little warrior drops with the express purpose of drowning us. Cooking up a storm, relishing the deluge. Or perhaps the clouds were not at fault; maybe their delicate frame could no longer hold the water. Maybe the Jungle had conspired with Zeus and Indra.”

HopeNatureAdventureRainResilienceJungleSurvival StoryNidhiesharmaTawangManvswild Strongwomen Survivor
Book:Invictus
Create image