130+ Survival Quotes To Keep You Motivated

Sometimes we are faced with situations that feel difficult to survive.

For these times, we have got a list of survival quotes to motivate you. You can share these survival quotes with your friends to inspire and motivate them too, as after all the best saying in life is one which motivates you.

You can read one of these survival quotes every day to feel motivated, or check out our inner strength quotes and warrior quotes for more inspiring survivor quotes.

Survival Of The Fittest Quotes

Some survival of the fittest quotes about the animal kingdom and beyond are listed below.

1. “It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.”

― Leon C. Megginson.

2. “Survivors aren't always the strongest; sometimes they're the smartest, but more often simply the luckiest.”

― Carrie Ryan, ‘The Dark And Hollow Places’.

3. “There were sharks before there were dinosaurs, and the reason sharks are still in the ocean is that nothing is better at being a shark than a shark.”

― Eliot Peper, ‘Bandwidth’.

4. “Weak prey didn’t live long. It was the law of the jungle.”

― Jina S. Bazzar, ‘Heir Of Ashes’.

5. “Only the strong will remain, all the weak will be consumed by fire.”

― Bangambiki Habyarimana, ‘Pearls Of Eternity’.

6. “There's no such thing as survival of the fittest. Survival of the most adequate, maybe.”

― Peter Watts, ‘Blindsight’

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

― Israelmore Ayivor

8. “This survival of the fittest implies multiplication of the fittest.”

― Herbert Spencer, ‘The Principles Of Biology’.

9. “A declining institution often experiences survival of the unfittest.”

- John McCarthy.

Strong Survival Quotes

Some strong survival quotes are given below.

10. “You have to be self-reliant and strong to survive in this town.”

- Joan Crawford.

11. “If I were dropped out of a plane into the ocean and told the nearest land was a thousand miles away, I'd still swim. And I'd despise the one who gave up.”

- Abraham Maslow.

12. “When you fight for survival, you don’t think much; you just do. If you think too much, you sink.”

– Frank Lowy.

13. “Your fear is 100% dependent on you for its survival.”

— Steve Maraboli.

14. “We are survival machines - robot vehicles blindly programmed to preserve the selfish molecules known as genes.”

- Richard Dawkins.

15. “Survival is the ability to swim in strange water.”    

- Frank Herbert.

16. “In spite of everything that was done to me and my race, in spite of the adversity and the bitter moments, again we rise.”

- Maya Angelou.

17. “Fear is always there; it's a survival instinct. You just need to know how to manage it.”

- Jimmy Chin.

18. “We each survive in our own way.”

— Sarah J. Maas.

19. “Self-preservation is the first principle of our nature.”    

- Alexander Hamilton.

20. “We don't even know how strong we are until we are forced to bring that hidden strength forward... The human capacity for survival and renewal is awesome.”

- Isabel Allende.

The Best Survival Quotes

A list of the best survival quotes is given below. These are some of the best sayings in life.

21. “One can survive everything, nowadays, except death, and live down everything except a good reputation.”

- Oscar Wilde.

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

- Wendell Berry.

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

– Andrew Young.

24. “Connections with other people affect not only the quality of our lives but also our survival.”

– Dean Ornish.

25. “We are driven by five genetic needs: survival, love and belonging, power, freedom, and fun.”

- William Glasser.

26. “Luck is a very thin wire between survival and disaster, and not many people can keep their balance on it.”

- Hunter S. Thompson.

27. “Survival... is an infinite capacity for suspicion.”    

- John Le Carre.

28. “If you have a particular faith or religion, that is good. But you can survive without it.”

- Dalai Lama.

29. "Once you say you're going to settle for second, that's what happens to you in life."

-John F. Kennedy.

30. “The condition of man... is a condition of war of everyone against everyone.”

- Thomas Hobbes.

31. “Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive.”

- Dalai Lama.

32. “The key to the survival of liberty in the modern world is the embrace of multiple identities.”

- Timothy Garton Ash.

33. “We need to look for water. Water, water, water, water.”

- Cody Lundin.

34. “Survival can be summed up in three words - never give up. That's the heart of it really. Just keep trying.”

- Bear Grylls.

Popular Quotes About Survival

Some popular survival quotes are given below. These quotes will leave you feeling really powerful.

35. “The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness and the power of contemplation rather than upon mere survival.”

- Aristotle.

36. “All societies on the verge of death are masculine. A society can survive with only one man; no society will survive a shortage of women.”

- Germaine Greer.

37. “Life has a certain flavor for those who have fought and risked all that the sheltered and protected can never experience.”

- John Stuart Mill.

38. “The more we exploit nature, the more our options are reduced, until we have only one: to fight for survival.”

– Mo Udall.

39. “We need art. We've been telling stories since the beginning. As human beings, we need it for our survival.”

- Lili Taylor.

40. “Look in the mirror, and don't be tempted to equate transient domination with either intrinsic superiority or prospects for extended survival.”

- Stephen Jay Gould.

41. “College is the reward for surviving high school. Most people have great fun stories from college and nightmare stories from high school.”

– Judd Apatow.

42. “It goes without saying that when survival is threatened, struggles erupt between peoples, and unfortunate wars between nations result.”

- Hideki Tojo.

43. “Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.”

- C. S. Lewis.

Inspirational Survival Quotes

A list of the most inspirational survival quotes is given below. These quotes might inspire you to live as the best version of yourself for as long as you can.

44. “You were scared, but you still got here; don’t forget that.”

— T.B. LaBerge, ‘Unwritten Letters To You’.

45. “Spending practically every minute of your day on pure survival is an absolutely boring life.”

- Samuel R. Delany.

46. “Be happy - if you're not even happy, what's so good about surviving?”

- Tom Stoppard.

47. "The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus."

- Bruce Lee.

48. "Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced."

- Soren Kierkegaard.

49. "Be content to act, and leave the talking to others."

- Baltasar.

50. “The only thing that matters in the end is your own survival. It's what humans and cockroaches are best at.”

- Susan Ee.

51. “Life comes from physical survival; but the good life comes from what we care about.”

- Rollo May.

52. “We are respecting our parents' wishes... They didn't want to shelter us from the world's treacheries. They wanted us to survive them.”

― Lemony Snicket, ‘The End’.

53. “Every day I run scared. That's the only way I can stay ahead.”

- John H. Johnson.

54. “Peace is the one condition of survival in this nuclear age.”  

- Adlai Stevenson.

55. “War is a survival among us from savage times and affects now chiefly the boyish and unthinking element of the nation.”

- Percival Lowell.

56. “The ability to adapt to change will make your life easier, no matter what lies ahead.”    

- Sean Brodrick.

57. “Survival is not just a physical thing. It's a constant mental affair.”

- Parvathy.

Motivational Survival Quotes

A list of survival quotes to motivate you is given below.

58. “I’m not saying that everything is survivable. Just that everything except the last thing is.”

— John Green, ‘Paper Towns’.

59. “Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival.”

- W. Edwards Deming.

60. “Every day there's something to survive.”

- Pat Benatar.

61. “One thing you have to realize from now on is that it doesn't matter if this is a dream or not. Survival depends on what you do, not what you think.”

- Rebecca Mckinsey.

62. “To survive, it is often necessary to fight, and to fight, you have to dirty yourself.”    

- George Orwell.

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

- Bear Grylls.

64. “If we truly trust no one, we cannot survive.”

― Megan Whalen Turner, ‘The King Of Attolia’.

65. “If my survival caused another to perish, then death would be sweeter and more beloved.”

- Khalil Gibran.

66. "If you're going through hell, keep going."

- Winston Churchill.

67. "Don't take life too seriously. You'll never get out of it alive."

- Elbert Hubbard.

68. “If you live among wolves, you have to act like a wolf.”    

- Nikita Khrushchev.

69. "All progress takes place outside the comfort zone."

- Michael John Bobak.

70. “We shall draw from the heart of suffering itself the means of inspiration and survival.”

- Winston Churchill.

71. “Extraordinary people survive under the most terrible circumstances and they become more extraordinary because of it.”

― Robertson Davies.

72. “At such moments, you realize that you and the other are, in fact, one. It's a big realization. Survival is the second law of life. The first is that we are all one.”

- Joseph Campbell.

73. “Survival protocol says follow water out, and that's exactly what we're going to do.”

- Joe Teti.

74. “The meaning of life is not simply to exist, to survive, but to move ahead, to go up, to achieve, to conquer.”

- Arnold Schwarzenegger.

75. “Only the strong survive”

- Namibian Wisdom.

Powerful Survival Quotes About Strength

Some survival quotes about strength are given below. These quotes will ignite a will to survive within you.

76. “My heroes are the ones who survived doing it wrong, who made mistakes, but recovered from them.”

- Bono.

77. “Doesn’t the fight for survival also justify swindle and theft? In self-defense, anything goes.”

– Imelda Marcos.

78. “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.

79. “We're all put to the test... but it never comes in the form or at the point we would prefer, does it?”

― David Mamet.

80. “I survived that, I’m still surviving it, but bring it on. Better me than you.”

– Carrie Fisher.

81. “The man who goes afoot, prepared to camp anywhere and in any weather, is the most independent fellow on earth.”

- Horace Kephart.

82. “If you have to lie, cheat, steal, obstruct and bully to get your point across, it must not be a point capable of surviving on its own merits.”

– Steven Weber.

83. “Nothing is better for self-esteem than survival.”

― Martha Gellhorn, ‘Travels With Myself And Another’.

84. “The strong survive, but the courageous triumph.”

- Michael Scott.

85. “Survival is nothing more than recovery.”    

- Dianne Feinstein.

Survival Quotes About Business

Found below are some of the best survival quotes about business.

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

– Anita Roddick.

87. “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.

88. “Credibility is a basic survival tool.”

– Rebecca Solnit.

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

– Conrad Hilton.

90. “The ability to delude yourself may be an important survival tool.”    

- Jane Wagner.

91. “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.

92. “Survival is the continuation of life or existence in the presence of or despite unusually difficult conditions.”    

- Rainer Stahlberg.

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

– Shiv Nadar.

94. “When sustainability is viewed as being a matter of survival for your business, I believe you can create massive change.”

- Cameron Sinclair.

Survival Quotes To Make You Tough

Some survival quotes to make you tough and help with surviving hard times are given below.

95. “They tried to bury us. They didn’t know we were seeds.”

— Dinos Christianopoulos.

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

– Stephen Hawking.

97. "You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it."

- Margaret Thatcher.

98. “Surviving means being born over and over again.”    

- Erica Jong.

99. “Rule of survival: Pack your own parachute."    

- T.L. Hakala.

100. “Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.”

― Lucius Annaeus Seneca.

101. “But in the end one needs more courage to live than to kill himself.”

― Albert Camus.

102. “It has yet to be proven that intelligence has any survival value.”

— Arthur C. Clarke.

103. “There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning.”

- Thornton Wilder.

104. “The human race's prospects of survival were considerably better when we were defenceless against tigers than they are today when we have become defenceless against ourselves.”

- Arnold J. Toynbee.

105. “Survival is triumph enough.”    

- Harry Crews.

106. “To save a life is a real and beautiful thing. To make a home for the homeless, yes, it is a thing that must be good; whatever the world may say, it cannot be wrong.”

- Vincent Van Gogh

107. “There's a difference between surviving and living.”    

- Gene Roddenberry.

108. “At this crucial time in our lives, when everything is so desperate, when every day is a matter of survival, I don't think you can help but be involved.”

- Nina Simone.

109. “The faster you can signal for rescue, the faster you get out of that situation.”

- Joseph Teti.

110. “Bad things happen. And the human brain is especially adept at making sure that we keep track of these events. This is an adaptive mechanism important for survival.”

- David Perlmutter.

111. “Resilience is distinct from mere survival, and more than mere endurance. Resilience is often endurance with direction.”

- Eric Greitens.

The Best Deep Quotes For Survivors

These are some of the best quotes for survivors about the will to survive and more.

112. “Survival my only hope. Success my only revenge.”

— Patricia Cornwell, ‘Postmortem’.

113. “I'm a survivor - a living example of what people can go through and survive.”

- Elizabeth Taylor.

114. “Survivors can't always choose their methods.”

- Patricia Briggs.

115. “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.

116. "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."

- Thomas Edison.

117. “It was the bumblebee and the butterfly who survived, not the dinosaur.”

- Meridel Le Sueur.

118. “Survival requires movement.”

– Bear Grylls.

119. “Through humor, you can soften some of the worst blows that life delivers. And once you find laughter, no matter how painful your situation might be, you can survive it.”

- Bill Cosby.

120. "I've failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed."

-Michael Jordan.

121. “Pain is temporary, quitting lasts forever.”

– Bear Grylls.

122. “Anyone worth knowing breaks once. Once. No shame, no foul if you survive it. You did.”

― Karen Marie Moning, ‘Bloodfever’.

123. “A scar does not form on the dying. A scar means, I survived.”

― Chris Cleave, ‘Little Bee’.

124. “In the end, what matters is this: I survived.”

― Gail Honeyman, ‘Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine’.

125. “Direct and easy communications — freedom of speech in all forms and in its broadest sense — has become vital to the very survival of a civilized humanity.”

- Walt Disney.

126. “Part of surviving is being able to move on.”

- Alexandra Bracken.

127. “Learning to walk again is not the hard part of survival; learning to live again is.”

- Brandon J. Wolf.

128. “My own survival required me to counterbalance interesting with invisible.”

― Rachel Hartman, ‘Seraphina’.

129. “Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception."

- Carl Sagan.

130. “Scars are not signs of weakness, they are signs of survival and endurance.”

― Rodney A. Winters.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly quotes for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for 130+ survival quotes to keep you motivated, then why not take a look at these when life gets tough quotes or you got this quotes for more?