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Laurence Gonzales QUOTES

Laurence Gonzales QUOTES

1 " Survival is the celebration of choosing life over death. We know we're going to die. We all die. But survival is saying: perhaps not today. In that sense, survivors don't defeat death, they come to terms with it. "

― Laurence Gonzales , Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why

2 " He saw at least a dozen people still in their seats. Their clothes were torn or blown or burned from their bodies, “completely naked in front, missing limbs, missing faces, some breathing, some moaning, and others just deader than a door nail. "

― Laurence Gonzales , Flight 232: A Story of Disaster and Survival

3 " Joan Wernick said she took two lessons from the crash. “You’re going to die when you’re supposed to die. "

― Laurence Gonzales , Flight 232: A Story of Disaster and Survival

4 " Finally, I will never forget stopping near a lovely young girl still strapped to her seat, breathing slightly. Her blouse was white, her slacks were blue. At the end of the trousers were two snow-white ankle bones where her feet used to be. I had never seen the whiteness of bones that are freshly exposed like that. "

― Laurence Gonzales , Flight 232: A Story of Disaster and Survival

5 " As he walked along the runway, he came upon a United Airlines pilot. “He tried to sit up,” Martz said. “I saw a huge triangular hole in his forehead and I told him to just lie still and that help was on the way, but it was too late for him. "

― Laurence Gonzales , Flight 232: A Story of Disaster and Survival

6 " Everyone who dies out there dies of confusion. "

― Laurence Gonzales , Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why

7 " To deal with reality you must first recognize it as such. "

― Laurence Gonzales , Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why

8 " But what is the way forward? I know what it isn't. It's not, as we once believed, plenty to eat and a home with all the modern conveniences. It's not a 2,000-mile-long wall to keep Mexicans out or more accurate weapons to kill them. It's not a better low-fat meal or a faster computer speed. It's not a deodorant, a car, a soft drink, a skin cream. The way forward is found on a path through the wilderness of the head and heart---reason and emotion. Thinking, knowing, understanding. "

― Laurence Gonzales , Everyday Survival: Why Smart People Do Stupid Things

9 " The word 'experienced' often refers to someone who's gotten away with doing the wrong thing more frequently than you have. "

― Laurence Gonzales , Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why

10 " On the occasion of every accident that befalls you, remember to turn to yourself and inquire what power you have for turning it to use. "

― Laurence Gonzales , Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why

11 " What does brace mean, anyway? Brace. Such an odd word. It comes from the Latin brachium, meaning arm. It means, as its heart, to embrace. It was a hug. A hug good-bye. "

― Laurence Gonzales , Flight 232: A Story of Disaster and Survival

12 " Bureaucracies force us to practice nonsense. And if you rehearse nonsense, you may one day find yourself the victim of it. "

― Laurence Gonzales , Everyday Survival: Why Smart People Do Stupid Things

13 " Knowledge of the sort you need does not begin with information, it begins with experience and perception. But there is a dark and twisty road from experience and perception to correct action. "

― Laurence Gonzales , Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why

14 " We don't understand the power of nature and the world because we don't live with it. Our environment is designed to sustain us. We are the domestic pets of a human zoo called civilization. "

― Laurence Gonzales , Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why

15 " The sun beams are always there. The trick is in seeing them. "

― Laurence Gonzales , Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why

16 " The summit is not the only place on the mountain. "

― Laurence Gonzales

17 " The world we imagine seems as real as the ones we’ve experienced. We suffuse the model with the emotional values of past realities. And in the thrall of that vision (call it “the plan,” writ large), we go forth and take action. If things don’t go according to the plan, revising such a robust model may be difficult. In an environment that has high objective hazards, the longer it takes to dislodge the imagined world in favor of the real one, the greater the risk. In nature, adaptation is important; the plan is not. It’s a Zen thing. We must plan. But we must be able to let go of the plan, too. "

― Laurence Gonzales , Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why

18 " To survive, you must develop secondary emotions that function in a strategic balance with reason. "

― Laurence Gonzales , Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why

19 " To lose everything at such a glorious eternity is far sweeter than to win by plodding through a cautious, painless, featureless life. "

― Laurence Gonzales , Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why

20 " I am constantly surrounded by a display of natural wonders...It is beauty surrounded by ugly fear. I write in my log that it's a view of heaven from a seat in hell. (survivor after 53 days at sea) "

― Laurence Gonzales , Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why