Quotessence
Home / Topics / Staying Alive Quotes

Staying Alive Quotes

Browse 221 quotes about Staying Alive.

Related topics

IfsWantTryingPeopleThinkingLongDiesKnowsNeedsSaidFeelsImportantMenWayWorldGivingHardHumansStoriesSometimesYearsFightingHeartI CanReasonCareChanceEnoughFirstsHelpingLifeMatterMeanPersonsSurvival

Staying Alive Quotes

“Each new thing he encountered in life impelled him in a direction that fully convinced him of its rightness, but then the next new thing loomed up and impelled him in the opposite direction, which also felt right. There was no controlling narrative: he seemed to himself a purely reactive pinball in a game whose only object was to stay alive for staying alive's sake.”

NextGamesFeltAliveObjectsOppositesSakeConvincedNarrativeStayingNew ThingsStaying AlivePinball
Author:Jonathan Franzen
Create image

“So I kept reading, just to stay alive. In fact, I'd read two or three books at the same time, so I wouldn't finish one without being in the middle of another -- anything to stop me from falling into the big, gaping void. You see, books fill the empty spaces. If I'm waiting for a bus, or am eating alone, I can always rely on a book to keep me company. Sometimes I think I like them even more than people. People will let you down in life. They'll disappoint you and hurt you and betray you. But not books. They're better than life.”

PeopleIfsThinkingI CanTwoBookSometimesFactsBigsFallThreeReadingWaitingHurtSpaceCompanyAliveMiddleEatingEmptyRelyBusVoidBetrayDisappointStaying AliveEmpty SpaceEating Alone
Book:How I Paid for College: A Tale of Sex, Theft, Friendship and Musical Theater (reissued)
Create image

“I was sitting at home and had a profound experience. I experienced, in all of my Being, that someday I was going to die, and it wouldn't be like it had been happening, almost dying but somehow staying alive, but I would just die! And two things would happen right before I died: I would regret my entire life; I would want to live it over again. This terrified me. The thought that I would live my entire life, look at it and realize I blew it forced me to do something with my life.”

WantLooksTwoHomeHappensDiesRealizingAliveDyingRegretHappeningsSittingDiedProfoundTwo ThingsSomedayStayingTerrifiedStaying AliveAlmost Dying
Author:Hubert Selby, Jr.
Create image

“As a survival-happy species, our successes are calculated in the number of years we have extended our lives, with the reduction of suffering being only incidental to this aim. To stay alive under almost any circumstances is a sickness with us. Nothing could be more unhealthy than to “watch one’s health” as a means of stalling death. The lengths we will go as procrastinators of that last gasp only demonstrate a morbid dread of that event. By contrast, our fear of suffering is deficient.”

YearsMeanLastsSufferingNumbersWatchesOur LivesAliveEventsCircumstancesSurvivalAimSpeciesSicknessLengthContrastDreadReductionUnhealthyStaying AliveMorbidProcrastinatorStalling
Author:Thomas Ligotti
Create image

“I was just trying to stay alive, looking for ways to find you, hoping you hadn't left me behind." "Never," I say. "Not never." He looks back up at me. "I'd never leave you neither." "You promise?" "Cross my heart, hope to die," he says, grinning shyly. "I promise, too," I say and I smile at him. "I ain't never leaving you, Todd Hewitt, not never again.”

WayTryingLooksHeartDiesLeftBehindsAliveMy HeartPromiseCrossesLeavingI PromiseStaying AliveI SmileGrinning
Author:Patrick Ness
Create image

“You're scaring me," Jack's voice finally cut through, and I opened my eyes, barely able to see him. "okay, good, yes, breathe. Breathing helps one stay alive,I've found.What on earth is so bad about a stupid school saying no?" "My life"-I gasped-"is over.It's over. Everything." He frowned dubiously. "Who would want to go to a place called Georgetown, anyhow? Ridiculous. Now,I could understand your devastation if it had a distinguished name like, say, Jacktown, but as it is,you're overreacting. Why do you want to go to more school? I went once for a few hours and nearly lost my mind.”

IfsWantMindHelpingEyeAbleSchoolEarthFoundNamesLostVoiceHoursCuttingAliveStupidOkayBreatheRidiculousBreathingOver ItDistinguishedSaying NoStaying AliveDevastationLost My MindGeorgetown
Author:Kiersten White
Create image

“Like a wild animal, the soul is tough, resilient, resourceful, savvy, and self-sufficient: it knows how to survive in hard places. I learned about these qualities during my bouts with depression. In that deadly darkness, the faculties I had always depended on collapsed. My intellect was useless; my emotions were dead; my will was impotent; my ego was shattered. But from time to time, deep in the thickets of my inner wilderness, I could sense the presence of something that knew how to stay alive even when the rest of me wanted to die. That something was my tough and tenacious soul.”

KnowsSoulSelfHardWantedDiesAnimalEmotionQualityDarknessKnow HowAliveEgoToughIntellectUselessSufficientWildernessFacultyShatteredResilientStaying AliveWild AnimalSelf SufficientSavvyTenaciousResourcefulThicketsWanted To Die
Book:A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey Toward an Undivided Life
Create image

“In the eulogy by the graveside, I told everyone how my sister and I used to sing to each other on our birthday. I told them that, when I thought of my sister, I could still hear her laughter, sense her optimism, and feel her faith. I told them that my sister was the kindest person I;ve ever known, and that the world was a sadder place without her in it. And finally, I told them to remember my sister with a smile, like I did, for even though she was being buried near my parents, the best parts of her would always stay alive, deep within our hearts.”

WorldFeelsHeartPersonsStillsRememberUsedParentKnownAliveLaughterOptimismBuriedMy SisterEulogyStaying AliveDeep Within
Author:Nicholas Sparks
Create image

“The child thinks of growing old as an almost obscene calamity, which for some mysterious reason will never happen to itself. All who have passed the age of thirty are joyless grotesques, endlessly fussing about things of no importance and staying alive without, so far as the child can see, having anything to live for. Only child life is real life.”

ThinkingChildrenRealReasonHappensAgeLife IsAliveGrowingYouthImportanceReal LifeMysteriousThirtyStayingCalamityGrowing OldStaying AliveObsceneOnly ChildFussing
Book:The Collected Non-Fiction
Create image

“Josh wanted to be the one to break the color barrier. When the Dodgers signed Jackie Robinson he knew it was over for him. He wasn't going to make the big leagues, and he also knew that because of his health and his bad knees his career with the Grays was about over. He didn't know what to do with himself. They say a man can't die of a broken heart, and I guess that's true. But I'll tell you this, all of this sure lessened Josh's will to keep going, to keep fighting to stay alive.”

KnowsMenHeartBigsWantedDiesFightingCareersBreakAliveColorBrokenBaseballKneesLeagueBarriersKeep GoingStaying AliveJackieJoshDodgers
Author:Ted Page
Create image

“I guess I realize that I don't want to die. I don't want to live either, but-there really isn't anything in-between. Depression is about as close as you get to somewhere between dead and alive, and it's the worst. But since the tendency toward inertia means that it's easier for me to stay alive than die, I guess that's how it's going to be, so I guess I should try to be happy.”

WantShouldTryingMeanDiesRealizingAliveWorstEasierTendenciesSuicidalWanting To DieInertiaStaying AliveTrying To Be Happy
Book:Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America
Create image