150 Motivational Survival Quotes Celebrating the Human Spirit

By Nia Simone McLeod

Writer, Video Editor & Pop Culture Enthusiast

Updated November 14, 2023

The survival quotes below illustrate survival from many perspectives around the globe.

From surviving in business to surviving in the wilderness, the word “survival” has a different definition depending on the context.

What does survival mean to you?

At its simplest, Merriam-Webster defines “survival,” as ‘the act of living or continuing longer than another person or thing.’

Tell us your survival story in the comment section below.

What are the benefits of reading these survival quotes?

Basic survival centers on maintaining three fundamental factors: food, water, and shelter.

But often, survival is a deep-rooted and complex concept fueled by physical and mental strength.

Through the power of survival, many have trudged through dark times and found their light at the end of the tunnel.

This collection of inspiring quotes has captured experiences from:

survival instructors
motivational speakers
celebrities
everyday people who have survived crazy things

Inspirational survival quotes

1. “Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception.” – Carl Sagan

2. “Survival can be summed up in three words, never give up. That’s the heart of it really. Just keep trying.” – Bear Grylls

3. ”You know you are on the road to success if you would do your job, and not be paid for it.” – Oprah Winfrey

4. “Don’t let the fear of losing be greater than the excitement of winning.” – Robert Kiyosaki

Survival quotes about business

5. “The rules of survival never change, whether you’re in a desert or in an arena.” – Bear Grylls

6. “Adaptability and constant innovation is key to the survival of any company operating in a competitive market.” – Shiv Nadar

7. “Nobody talks of entrepreneurship as survival, but that’s exactly what it is and what nurtures creative thinking.” – Anita Roddick

8. “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

9. “Survivors aren’t always the strongest; sometimes they’re the smartest, but more often simply the luckiest.” – Carrie Ryan

10. “Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit.” – Conrad Hilton

11. “The important thing is not being afraid to take a chance. Remember, the greatest failure is to not try. Once you find something you love to do, be the best at doing it.” – Debbi Field

12. “The winners in life think constantly in terms of I can, I will, and I am. Losers, on the other hand, concentrate their waking thoughts on what they should have or would have done, or what they can’t do.” – Dennis Waitley

13. “It takes more than capital to swing business. You’ve got to have the A. I. D. degree to get by — Advertising, Initiative, and Dynamics.” – Ren Mulford Jr.

14. “Surviving a failure gives you more self-confidence. Failures are great learning tools.. but they must be kept to a minimum.” – Jeffrey Immelt

15. “People are definitely a company’s greatest asset. It doesn’t make any difference whether the product is cars or cosmetics. A company is only as good as the people it keeps.” – Mary Kay Ash

Survival quotes about perseverance.

16. “I am someone who always gets up again, even if there are setbacks. I have a survivor instinct. I’m not sure where it comes from, but probably from all the little things that make you into who you are.” – Heidi Klum

17. “We don’t even know how strong we are until we are forced to bring that hidden strength forward. In times of tragedy, of war, of necessity, people do amazing things. The human capacity for survival and renewal is awesome.” – Isabel Allende

18. “And while the law of competition may be sometimes hard for the individual, it is best for the race, because it ensures the survival of the fittest in every department.” – Andrew Carnegie

19. “The human being is very resourceful. When you fight for survival, you don’t think much; you just do. If you think too much, you sink.” – Frank Lowy

20. “In the animal kingdom, one of the keys to survival is to outwit your enemies. And when you’re surrounded by carnivores, one of the best strategies is to fade into the background and disappear.” – Neil deGrasse Tyson

21. “Self-interest is but the survival of the animal in us. Humanity only begins for man with self-surrender.” – Henri Frederic Amiel

22. “When you’re placed in a world where survival is the main focus, a lot of that other stuff, like wrongdoings in the past, become obsolete. You have to focus on the here and now.” – Alycia Debnam-Carey

23. “Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance.” – Samuel Johnson

24. “That kind of imagination is why we’re not dead.”― Rebecca McKinsey

25. “By perseverance the snail reached the ark.” – Charles Spurgeon

26. “Of all that is good, sublimity is supreme. Succeeding is the coming together of all that is beautiful. Furtherance is the agreement of all that is just. Perseverance is the foundation of all actions.” – Lao Tzu

27. “In the real world, all rests on perseverance.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

28. “Perseverance is failing 19 times and succeeding the 20th.” – Julie Andrews

Survival quotes about the environment

29. “The more we exploit nature, The more our options are reduced, until we have only one: to fight for survival.” – Mo Udall

30. “Sustainability is the key to our survival on this planet and will also determine success on all levels.” – Shari Arison

31. “It angers me when sustainability gets used as a buzzword. For 90 percent of the world, sustainability is a matter of survival.” – Cameron Sinclair

32. “Earth is abundant with plentiful resources. Our practice of rationing resources through monetary control is no longer relevant and is counterproductive to our survival.” – Jacque Fresco

33. “Every creature is better alive than dead, men and moose and pine trees, and he who understands it aright will rather preserve its life than destroy it.” – Henry David Thoreau

34. “By polluting clear water with slime you will never find good drinking water.” – Aeschylus

35. “They claim this mother of ours, the Earth, for their own use, and fence their neighbors away from her, and deface her with their buildings and their refuse.” – Sitting Bull

36. “Raising awareness on the most pressing environmental issues of our time is more important than ever.” – Leonardo DiCaprio

37. “We are using resources as if we had two planets, not one. There can be no ‘plan B’ because there is no ‘planet B.’” – Ban Ki-moon

Survival quotes on what it means to survive

38. “Be happy – if you’re not even happy, what’s so good about surviving?” – Tom Stoppard

39. “Humor is one of the best ingredients of survival.” – Aung San Suu Kyi

40. “Escapism is survival to me.” – Johnny Depp

41. “Keeping an active mind has been vital to my survival, as has been maintaining a sense of humor.” – Stephen Hawking

42. “Survival is not about being fearless. It’s about making a decision, getting on and doing it, because I want to see my kids again, or whatever the reason might be.” – Bear Grylls

43. “Living in a small town, one of the keys to survival was your imagination.” – Nick Nolte

44. “To cherish what remains of the Earth and to foster its renewal is our only legitimate hope of survival.” – Wendell Berry

45. “Survival is nothing more than recovery.” – Dianne Feinstein

46. “In the kind of world we have today, transformation of humanity might well be our only real hope for survival.” – Stanislav Grof

47. “Survival is a privilege which entails obligations. I am forever asking myself what I can do for those who have not survived.” – Simon Wiesenthal

48. “Survival, in the cool economics of biology, means simply the persistence of one’s own genes in the generations to follow.” – Lewis Thomas

49. “In a world where change is inevitable and continuous, the need to achieve that change without violence is essential for survival.” – Andrew Young

Survival quotes to motivate you

50. “It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” – Charles Darwin

51. “Temper us in fire, and we grow stronger. When we suffer, we survive.” – Cassandra Clare

52. “We each survive in our own way.” – Sarah J. Maas

53. “People will do amazing things to ensure their survival.” – Patricia Briggs

54. “If we truly trust no one, we cannot survive.” – Megan Whalen Turner

55. “The secret of survival is a defective imagination.”― John Banville

56. “Survival justifies any means.”― Toba Beta

57. “We do not live to think, but, on the contrary, we think in order that we may succeed in surviving.” – José Ortega y Gasset

58. “We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if mankind is to survive.”― Albert Einstein

59. “We cannot survive if we are entirely isolated. History tells us we must engage with the outside world.” – Paolo Bacigalupi

60. “Don’t just survive while waiting for someone’s revolution to clear your head.”― Hakim Bey

More survival quotes and sayings

61. “Survival is not just a physical thing. It’s a constant mental affair.” – Parvathy

62. “Survival is the second law of life. The first is that we are all one.” – Joseph Campbell

63. “Peace is the one condition of survival in this nuclear age.” – Adlai Stevenson

64. “Life comes from physical survival, but the good life comes from what we care about.” – Rollo May

65. “The ability to delude yourself may be an important survival tool.” – Jane Wagner

66. “Survival is triumph enough.” – Harry Crews

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

68. “That survival instinct, that will to live, that need to get back to life again, is more powerful than any consideration of taste, decency, politeness, manners, civility. Anything. It’s such a powerful force.” – Danny Boyle

69. “Just remember: Surviving is the best revenge, no matter what the disaster has been.” – Joan Rivers

70. “People are all vulnerable in so many different ways. We go into survival mode a lot of times.” – Malin Akerman

Survival Quotes To Keep You Going

71. “It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.” ― Leon C. Megginson

72. “The fittest person survives! The fighting man succeeds! He who Fights to Fit, will Survive to Succeed!” ― Israelmore Ayivor

73. “You have to be self-reliant and strong to survive in this town.” — Joan Crawford

74. “Your fear is 100% dependent on you for its survival.” — Steve Maraboli

75. “Survival is the ability to swim in strange water.” — Frank Herbert

76. “Fear is always there; it’s a survival instinct. You just need to know how to manage it.” — Jimmy Chin

77. “One can survive everything, nowadays, except death, and live down everything except a good reputation.” — Oscar Wilde

78. “Luck is a very thin wire between survival and disaster, and not many people can keep their balance on it.” — Hunter S. Thompson.

79. “Survival… is an infinite capacity for suspicion.” — John Le Carre

80. “The key to the survival of liberty in the modern world is the embrace of multiple identities.” — Timothy Garton Ash

Survival Quotes To Inspire The Survivor In You

81. “A survivor is someone who was once a victim like you and through time and healing was able to move forward.” — Karen Williams

82. “I used to tell myself – boy, if you can survive this, you can survive anything at all.” — Tom Lichtenberg

83. “A survivor is a person who do not waiver, this is a person that is mature, and a keeper.” — Janice E. Holliman

84. “I have learned to live, forgive, and love, moving past being a survivor. Living as a survivor is living each day with one foot in the past.” — Holly Peckskamp

85. “I define a survivor as one who goes through a number of trials, beats the odds of endurance, and emerges victoriously to talk about their experiences. If that is what a survivor is, perhaps I do qualify.” — Susan Kaye Behm

86. “Being a survivor, then, is making peace with the catastrophe and it’s wake.” — Thomas L. Underwood

87. “The truth is that being a survivor often simply comes down to being alive. Being your own star witness to the ending that is always inside you. And being considerate to all those who came before.” — Mark Yakich

88. “A survivor is someone who lives over and beyond the trauma of their abuse. It communicates the hope of moving beyond the pain of the past and is an attempt to shape a new narrative and tell a new story.” — Anne Miller

89. “Each loss is an occasion to remember that survival is a gift.” — Harriet McBryde Johnson

90. “Being a survivor, however, implies persistence and recovery, despite the abuse that has occurred.” — Vernon R. Wiehe

Survival Quotes To Get You Through Difficult Situations

91. “Scars are not signs of weakness, they are signs of survival and endurance.” ― Rodney A. Winters

92. “Credibility is a basic survival tool.” ― Rebecca Solnit

93. “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

94. “Survival is my only hope. Success is my only revenge.” — Patricia Cornwell

95. “I survived that, I’m still surviving it, but bring it on. Better me than you.” ― Carrie Fisher

96. “Part of surviving is being able to move on.” ― Alexandra Bracken

97. “Resilience is distinct from mere survival, and more than mere endurance. Resilience is often endurance with direction.” ― Eric Greitens

98. “Survival requires movement.” ― Bear Grylls

99. “I’m a survivor – a living example of what people can go through and survive.” ― Elizabeth Taylor

100. “In the end, what matters is this: I survived.” ― Gail Honeyman

Survival Quotes That Will Make You Adapt to Change

101. “In any survival situation, you need to weigh the risk and the reward.” ― Joe Teti

102. “All survival situations revolve around a host of variables…Always adapt, think positive, and move forward.” ― Cody Lundin

103. “There is nothing wrong with having competitive instincts. They are survival instincts.” ― Pat Summitt

104. “Survival is both an exalted privilege and a painful burden.” ― Gerda Weissmann Klein

105. “Survival lies in sanity, and sanity lies in paying attention…the capacity for delight is the gift of paying attention.” ― Julia Cameron

106. “Life is an instinct for growth, for survival, for the accumulation of forces, for power.” ― Friedrich Nietzsche

107. “The path to survival was to never give up on the small things.” ― Richard Flanagan

108. “This survival of the fittest implies multiplication of the fittest.” ― Herbert Spencer

109. Change is the healthiest way to survive.” ― Karl Lagerfeld

110. “Survival is your strength, not your shame.” ― T. S. Eliot

Survival Quotes To Encourage You

111. “Survivors can’t always choose their methods.” ― Patricia Briggs

112. “If you truly want to be respected by people you love, you must prove to them that you can survive without them.” ― Michael Bassey Johnson

113. “Self-preservation is the first principle of our nature.” ― Alexander Hamilton

114. “Connections with other people affect not only the quality of our lives but also our survival.” ― Dean Ornish

115. “There’s no harm in hoping for the best as long as you’re prepared for the worst.” ― Stephen King

116. “We are driven by five genetic needs: survival, love and belonging, power, freedom, and fun.” ― William Glasser

117. “There are many ways to survive as there are survivors.” ― Amanda Robb

118. “A scar does not form on the dying. A scar means I survived.” ― Chris Cleave

119. “I fight on emotions. When I don’t fight on emotions, I don’t fight well. I fight on emotion, because I’m in for survival.” ― Tito Ortiz

120. “But in the end one needs more courage to live than to kill himself.” ― Albert Camus

Survival Quotes To Make It Easy to Adapt and Change

121. “Adaptability is the simple secret of survival.” — Jessica Hagedorn

122. “Wit and playfulness represent a desperately serious transcendence of evil. Humor is both a form of wisdom and a means of survival.” — Tom Robbins

123. “It’s important to know the past, but your survival depends on knowing the present.” — Jonathan Maberry

124. “I told her once I wasn’t good at anything. She told me survival is a talent.” — Susanna Kaysen

125. “Elective ignorance was a great survival skill, perhaps the greatest.” — Jonathan Franzen

126. “Survival starts by paying attention to what is close at hand and immediate. To look out with idle hope is tantamount to dreaming one’s life away.” — Yann Martel

127. “No matter what the odds, a man does not pin his last hope for survival on something and then expect that it will fail.” — Alfred Lansing

128. “Time is shortening. But every day that I challenge this cancer and survive is a victory for me.” — Ingrid Bergman

129. “Our passion for learning … is our tool for survival.” — Carl Sagan

130.”Compassion is not an option. It’s the key to our survival.” — Karen Armstrong

Survival Quotes To Help You Thrive

131. “I will survive / Oh, as long as I know how to / love I know I’ll stay alive / I’ve got all my life to live / I’ve got all my love to give / And I’ll survive.” ― Frederick Perren

132. “An important benefit to learning survival skills is it increases your self-confidence.” ― Jim Cobb

133. “The ability to adapt to change will make your life easier, no matter what lies ahead.” ― Sean Brodrick

134. “Looking to past events should give us hope, because human beings can and do survive events like those that are unfolding.” ― Bradley Garrett

135. “We living this til the day that we die / Survival of the fit only the strong survive.” ― Kejuan Waliek Muchita

136. “Always the same, fight for survival / Whatever we do today / Don’t make tomorrow the same / Fight for survival / Forget about yesterday.” ― John Farnham

137. “It is asserted from time that true survival is measured by a person’s capacity to stay put and prepared.” ― Larry Dean Olsen

138. “Survival is the continuation of life or existence in the presence of or despite unusually difficult conditions.” ― Rainer Stahlberg

139. “I think that adaptation is the key to survival. Cooperation and symbiosis.” ― John Wyndham

140. “No. I can survive well enough on my own— if given the proper reading material.” ― Sarah J. Maas

141. “My own survival required me to counterbalance interesting with invisible.” — Rachel Hartman

142. “You need to be hyper-aware because it’s your survival at stake.” — Jon Lee Anderson

143. “This generation has given up on growth. They’re just hoping for survival.” — Penelope Spheeris

144. “I do believe there’s a heaven. I do believe that God has given me the resilience and the survival skills to withstand the chiffon trenches.” — Andre Leon Talley

145. “Instead of working for the survival of the fittest, we should be working for the survival of the wittiest – then we can all die laughing.” — Lily Tomlin

146. “But we were all young once. It passes, like innocence and a sense of fair play. The only thing left in the end is a good instinct for survival.” — Laurell K. Hamilton

147. “Not everyone can stand up and be a hero, Princess. Some prefer to surrender to the inevitable and salve their consciences with the gift of survival.” — Tad Williams

148. “God’s grace will cover us like a cloak-enough to provide for survival but too thin to keep out all the cold.” — Neal A. Maxwell

149. “Fighting for survival in a shattered world… the truth is her only hope.” — Veronica Roth

150. “I am her tribute. Survival is my gift to her.” — Pittacus Lore