The business of survival is predominantly a mental game. The body will not survive without the mind, and many times the flesh will give up far ahead of its time when the spirit has capsized.
Keeping your head in the game mentally, emotionally and spiritually is essential if you want to achieve a good outcome in a survival situation, from a short, sharp emergency to a prolonged and grueling scenario that stretches on for months or years with no end in sight.
To that end, I have gathered and commented on 60 quotes that are entirely relevant to the business of survival. Among them you will find aphorisms, proverbs, witticisms, sobering reflections and touching observations on all the inchoate elements that are so important to the task, and process, of survival.
The factors that these quotes about survival touch on is much of the time the raw stuff of humanity, things you can’t go take a class for, pick up at the gun shop or pile into your cart at the grocery store.
It is my hope that by reflecting on these quotes you’ll learn a little something about yourself, advantages and disadvantages you have, things you need to improve, or things you can count on. I hope they will lend you grace in times of trouble and fortitude in your time of need.
Now, let’s get on to the list!
“It is not the situation which makes the man, but the man who makes the situation.”
Frederick William Robertson
This quote from Frederick William Robertson is a great reminder that you should not be a spectator in any event, but an actor, a participant.
To those who lack the willpower or the capability, things and events just happen to them, around them, and they are buffeted to and fro because of it.
A good prepper should always be ready to influence events however they can to attain their objectives, even if that influence is minor at best.
“If quick, I survive. If not quick, I am lost. This is “death.”
Sun Tzu
One of the incomparable masters of military strategy, Sun Tzu’s words and wisdom concerning the proper approach to positioning, pacing, and other intangibles have found themselves well-suited to boardroom battles and other team endeavors throughout the ages.
This quote reminds us that so often speed is the key absolute in any conflict, even when the conflict is man versus nature. When the time comes to act, you must do so with the best possible speed. A moment’s hesitation could mean death.
“We cannot stop natural disasters but we can arm ourselves with knowledge: So many lives wouldn’t have to be lost if there was enough disaster preparedness.”
Petra Nemcova
A grim reminder of reality. Much of the time survival will depend on knowing what to do, how to do it and being able to do it.
This, more than most other quotes on this, list could serve as a prepper’s creed. Especially when you are facing events that are so much larger than yourself, and otherwise completely unstoppable your best defense is to be prepared materially and physically.
“You don’t drown by falling in the water; you drown by staying there.”
Edwin Louis Cole
Edwin Lewis Cole reminds us with this quote that factors that create lethal conditions are not necessarily in and of themselves lethal. Survival is often a matter of perspective, and improving upon your circumstances.
Just like water itself is not deadly until you stay beneath the surface too long, you might find yourself in other conditions that afford you some time to affect self-rescue. When things get bad, don’t mope about it: start fixing it!
“Anger is only one letter short of danger.”
Eleanor Roosevelt
Former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt reminds us to keep our tempers in check during risky situations.
Anger is, after all, missing only one letter to become danger, and many of the worst decisions or assessments we will make occur when we are upset. No matter what is happening around you keep your bearing and stay cool!
“Don’t limit yourself, discover new areas of expertise”
Sunday Adelaja
With this quote we are reminded to push ourselves beyond what we are already good at, or where we think our limitations are.
One “curse” of prepping competency is that we become comfortable there and also grow to enjoy it because we are recognized as competent. This stifles growth. Leave behind your known limitations, self-imposed or not, and chart new and unknown areas of expertise.
“How we handle pressure will determine whether we stand or break.”
Ed Hinson
You had better believe you’ll be under pressure in any sort of emergency or survival situation at work the name. Your own life and limbs, as well as the lives of people you care about will be at stake.
So much of the time those who keep their heads will live, while those who panic, freeze or otherwise freak-out will die, and not much else matters.
“Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.”
Lucius Annaeus Seneca
With this quote the inimitable Seneca reminds us that endurance is as simple as continuing to live in the face of misery, fear and prolonged agony is itself a worthwhile act of courage.
There is no telling how bad things could really get, and it is best if you begin fortifying yourself for the unthinkable so that you are better able to face it should it occur.
“Life is a storm, my young friend. You will bask in the sunlight one moment, be shattered on the rocks the next. What makes you a man is what you do when that storm comes. You must look into that storm and shout as you did in Rome. Do your worst, for I will do mine!”
Alexander Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo
Alexander Dumas speaking through Edmond Dantes in The Count of Monte Cristo reminds us that you will have ups and downs in life, and sometimes everything good can seemingly be snatched away in an instant.
But when that comes, what separates the groupies from the rock stars is what you do about it and how you conduct yourself in the face of adversity. When trouble comes, remind yourself that you are the boss!
“Feelings are not supposed to be logical. Dangerous is the man who has rationalized his emotions.”
David Borenstein
Thinking clearly is difficult in the best of times, and frankly most people don’t know how to think at all. Instead, they rely on their feelings and interpret that as thinking.
Making decisions based on emotions instead of cold, dependable logic should be avoided when you are trying to minimize harm in an emergency situation.
“This is the test of your manhood: How much is there left in you after you have lost everything outside of yourself?”
Orison Swett Marden
Another question that reminds us that the real stuff of endurance can only be tested in the darkest possible situation.
You should ask yourself now and consider carefully how well you would fare if you lost all of your equipment, all of your supplies, even all of the people that you were working so hard to protect?
Could you keep going? Would you keep going?
“By perseverance the snail reached the ark.”
Charles Spurgeon
Charles Spurgeon, often called “The prince of preachers”, reminds us in his inimitable way that forward progress is often so slow and so monotonous that it can hardly be noticed to have occurred at all.
But occur it does, and by contemplating the snail’s voyage to reach the ark before the drowning of the world we might better fortify ourselves for tedious, slow work when we are impatient.
“Like many highly educated people, I didn’t have much in the way of actual skills.”
J. Maarten Troost
A tongue in cheek self-jab, this observation reminds us that we must put our education to the test through application because without doing so we won’t have any actual skills to call upon. Knowledge alone is not enough!
“Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate, and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand.”
General Colin Powell
When trying to lead a frightened group of people with their own ideas, fears and reservations the best leaders will somehow know exactly how to distill down the most essential elements of the task at hand to an easily digestible idea with an accompanying plan.
This serves as a sort of “lightning rod” to tie the efforts of the group together into unified action. Colin Powell summed this up perfectly.
“No one can tell what goes on in between the person you were and the person you become. No one can chart that blue and lonely section of hell. There are no maps of the change. You just come out the other side. Or you don’t.”
Stephen King, The Stand
People who have lived through major crises and prolonged threatening events come out the other side changed. That’s all there is to it, and even if they won’t articulate as much to you it is also apparent to everyone around them who knew them prior to the event.
Author Stephen King hit the nail on the head with this passage. What happens “in-between” is something of a mystery; call it trauma, call it hardening, whatever you will. Understand that you and the relationships you have will be changed beyond recall on the back side.
“There are two questions a man must ask himself: The first is ‘Where am I going?’ and the second is ‘Who will go with me?’ If you ever get these questions in the wrong order you are in trouble.”
Sam Keen
Sam King reminds us succinctly that having your priorities in order concerning both leadership and your plan for dealing with an emergency is imperative.
You need to know where you are going and who is going with you under what circumstances, and he is very much correct when he asserts that if you ever ask yourself who you are taking and where you are going (in that order) you’ve got a problem because you likely have not thought it through well enough!
“Pressure is something you feel when you don’t know what the hell you are doing.”
Peyton Manning
One of my favorite quotes. People who truly feel pressure starting to get to them are only acknowledging something they already know, but didn’t voice to themselves: They don’t know what they are doing!
When you know what you are doing and when you have done it before, time and time again, you won’t feel any pressure, just a heightened sense of things.
“How many times had those awful words – “I know what I’m doing” – been uttered throughout history as prelude to disaster?”
Christopher Buckley
Before you become so sure that you know what you are doing, you need to be real damn sure that you know what you are doing! False confidence or an inflated sense of one’s own abilities is the fast track to disaster when the chips are down.
This is a touchy thing. It is tough to know for certain how you will fare until the final test. The best advice I can give you is to train so hard that a live event feels easy.
“We do not admire the man of timid peace. We admire the man who embodies victorious effort; the man who never wrongs his neighbor, who is prompt to help a friend, but who has those virile qualities necessary to win in the stern strife of actual life.”
Theodore Roosevelt
Once again Theodore Roosevelt, the patron saint of manliness and outdoor pursuits, reminds us that there is more to prepping than being a cloistered hermit who is waiting for the starting gun to go off.
We should be vigorous, and bold but at the same time outgoing and friendly, quick to help our neighbors and friends. The going will undoubtedly be tough, but we should never be quick to turn our backs on our fellows.
“Adventures are only interesting once you’ve lived to see the end of them. Before that, they are nothing but fear, and being too cold or too hot or too wet or too hungry, and getting hurt.”
Holly Lisle
There’s a lot of wisdom in this quote. On the one hand, those who seek adventure will never truly find it, or appreciate it, until the harrowing, perilous and disturbing events that they are going through have finished and been given time to “marinate”. Only then it becomes an adventure.
Adventures are cool, but the stuff that adventures are made of are decidedly not. If you ever find yourself wishing for something to happen so you can get a little excitement in your life and you can play the hero, check yourself.
“Mankind is resilient: the atrocities that horrified us a week ago become acceptable tomorrow.”
Joseph Heller
It is surprising, the things you can get used to. What at first seems so horrible, so unexplainable, and so painful can, with time, become just another facet of life.
This quirk of humanity allows us to adapt to a wide variety of circumstances and events, and it never fails that you’ll see the evidence of life going on in the aftermath of major catastrophes. It is bittersweet, but ultimately hopeful, and useful.
“The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.”
William James
That constricting, claustrophobic feeling that stress induces in high stakes situations will only ever hurt you. Pressure is a funny thing, as pressure can turn a lump of coal into a flawless diamond or a normal person into a total basket case.
If you don’t want to be the latter, you must shepherd your thoughts, actively, in a stressful situation. Focus on problem solving, not all the other many things that could happen to you or go wrong.
“Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.”
George Bernard Shaw
The worst mistake we can ever make is counting on something we fervently believed was true, but turned out not to be, in a crisis. This could be our own assessments, a person we thought we could count on or even our own understanding of our abilities.
We must never let our own egos turn into hubris that will surely seal our fates later, and at the same time we must always keep our guard up against people who devotedly believe something that is false.
“Every artist was first an amateur.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Everybody started somewhere. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. When I first got started learning about prepping and all of the skills that are attendant to it I was very self-conscious because I was no good at it, any of it! I know lots of other people feel the same way.
Don’t give in to that feeling of inadequacy when you are just getting started with prepping or learning a new skill. Here, one day in the not too distant future, you’ll be an artist at that task, too.
“One cannot answer for his courage when he has never been in danger.”
Francois de La Rochefoucauld, Maxims
Courage can only be measured when it is tested. You cannot talk about it, cannot fake it and cannot counterfeit it. Courage is active, and can only be displayed when it is most required.
Before you are so sure that yourself or someone else you are counting on will not quail in a dangerous situation, ask yourself if you or they have passed the test. You won’t know for certain unless it is so.
“You can buy an expensive violin, but you can’t buy 10 years of practice.”
Neeraj Agnihotri
This quote is near and dear to me. More than most others on this list it applies particularly to the current breed of American prepper.
Many preppers, but Americans in particular, are notorious for wanting to replace skill and experience with high-tech, top of the line gear, thinking they can somehow “buy” their way into competency and capability. It just isn’t so, like the most expensive violin in the world won’t produce a symphony in the hands of a duffer.
“There are five dangerous faults which may affect a general: (1) Recklessness, which leads to destruction; (2) cowardice, which leads to capture; (3) a hasty temper, which can be provoked by insults; (4) a delicacy of honor which is sensitive to shame; (5) over-solicitude for his men, which exposes him to worry and trouble.”
Sun Tzu, The Art of War
More great advice from Sun Tzu that we can apply to our own endeavors. A prepper should never be reckless, but at the same time be willing to take necessary risks.
They should not be quick to anger or too quick into action, and should not be swayed by the insults and agitation of those they are trying to lead out of trouble. Lastly, you cannot allow sentimentality for the people you care about to taint your otherwise sound judgment.
“Things aren’t scary. People are scared.”
Chris Hadfield
Astronaut Chris Hadfield reminds us that, strictly speaking, events and circumstances are not scary. They just are, and the most dangerous set of circumstances in the world- from a crashing plane to the ever hungry void of deep space- are not inherently terrifying.
These events are just terrifying to the people exposed to them! It is a bit of a cosmic outlook, but one that can help you keep things in perspective. You need only to manage yourself to manage danger.
“How strange it (the earthquake) must all have seemed to them, here where they lived so safely always! They thought such a dreadful thing could happen to others, but not to them. That is the way!”
William Dean Howells
Another intensely relevant quote for preppers. As the saying goes, good luck covers both bad decisions and bad tactics, and just because an event may be rare does not mean we should not be prepared for it!
Peace, security, and safety can lull even the most cautious and alert into complacency. Don’t let that happen to you! Keep your “edge” sharp!
“But oh, the perils of leadership in a species so anxious to be told what to do. How little they knew of what they created by their demands. Leaders made mistakes. And those mistakes, amplified by the numbers who followed without questioning, moved inevitably toward great disasters.”
Frank Herbert
Here, author Frank Herbert provides us a cautionary warning about following anyone in particular, and especially so-called “experts”.
When a mass of people invest their hopes and trust in a leader, and that leader sets the group on the wrong path, the sheer inertia that is built up behind them can become incredibly destructive once that sudden stop occurs.
No matter who you throw your lot in with, be prepared to “pull the handle”, and get off when you’re better sense tells you to.
“Don’t think there are no crocodiles because the water is calm.”
Malayan proverb
This old Mayan proverb is an elegant warning about letting your guard down, or assuming a place is safe just because it looks tranquil. Tranquility can conceal many dangers. You must ever be alert for unexpected threats.
“Civilization comes at a cost of manliness. It comes at a cost of wildness, of risk, of strife. It comes at a cost of strength, of courage, of mastery. It comes at a cost of honor. Increased civilization exacts a toll of virility, forcing manliness into further redoubts of vicariousness and abstraction.”
Jack Donovan
Masculinity writer Jack Donovan here identifies one of the subtlest and perhaps the most insidious trade-offs inherent to living a nice, civilized life in a prosperous, developed country. It will sharpen your sensitivity to danger, cost you the virile strength of constant effort, and blunt your courage.
With genuine risks, challenges and trials to overcome becoming vanishingly rare for the modern man, and modern preppers, it is correspondingly more difficult to keep alive the virtues and values we must have if we want to prosper in times of trouble.
“Talent you have naturally. Skill is only developed by hours and hours and hours of beating on your craft.”
Will Smith
Here, actor Will Smith reminds us that talent may be fine but there is no substitute for skill, real skill, a trait that comes only after a long, arduous and grueling effort at the task. If you want to be good, really good, you must put in the effort. Nothing else will substitute!
“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
We can find many parallels for our survival objectives strewn throughout the animal kingdom, and this quote from Neil deGrasse Tyson reminds us that much of the time there will always be bigger, deadlier or more plentiful threats, threats we cannot hope to overcome by strength or even by guile. Sometimes, you just have to hide and hope the danger passes you buy.
“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.”
Leon C. Megginson
One vital survival trait that is rarely talked about is the ability to adapt, to change. Changing circumstances are a certainty, completely inevitable.
It is in your best interest if you are able to quickly and readily adapt to them. Some things you won’t be able to change, so you must change to face them.
“Some people don’t like change, but you need to embrace change if the alternative is disaster.”
Elon Musk
A concept so precious it is worth quoting twice, this time one from visionary billionaire Elon Musk. In certain trying, desperate circumstances you must recognize that change is required and then implement it as quickly as possible.
Trying too hard to resist could mean your death. This should remind readers to sharpen their powers of perception and assessment so that they may make this critical distinction.
“I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.”
Mark Twain
Mark Twain, boy he is one of a kind. His pithy musings and aphorisms have captivated generations, and we are better for it.
Here, preppers can let this notion serve as a calling to properly educate themselves in the business of survival, not just pound the books on it. We are all guilty of it, I know I am, but learning to survive is not just scrolling through article after article on survival websites. Ahem…
“The strong survive, but the courageous triumph.”
Michael Scott, The Warlock
This passage serves as a reminder that there is a difference between surviving and conquering adversity. Survival is exactly what it says on the tin: merely a continuation of life. But you can survive and still perish, if you know what I mean.
Truly conquering adversity requires grit, fire in the belly and an indomitable will. If life is going to be worth living after the event is over you must be willing and able to conquer what you are facing.
“Fear is a part of life. It’s a warning mechanism. That’s all. It tells you when there’s danger around. Its job is to help you survive. Not cripple you into being unable to do it.”
Jim Butcher, Dead Beat
Great advice from author Jim Butcher, here. Fear is not a signal that you should stop functioning or stop putting in work. Fear is a sensor, a warning signal and nothing more.
When you feel fear, you need to ratchet up your awareness and attention to detail, but you have to keep going in spite of it.
“Even in its darkest passages, the heart is unconquerable. It is important that the body survives, but it is more meaningful that the human spirit prevails.”
Dave Pelzer, A Child Called “It”
Dave Peltzer is an author and a survivor of unspeakable abuse inflicted during his childhood. This quote is wisdom that can only be earned the hard way.
No matter what happens, no matter what you are going through, and no matter how broken you are physically you cannot let the light in your heart go out. Only then will you perish. So long as your spirit persists, you can go on.
“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
Winston Churchill, the Bulldog of Britain, reminds us that there is no substitute for winning when the chips are down. No matter how hard it is, no matter what it costs you, you have to win if you are going to survive.
This certainly applies to any direct lethal threat against you from humans or animals, but also to more intangible circumstances where your objectives must be achieved under penalty of death.
“A man’s got to have a code, a creed to live by, no matter his job.”
John Wayne
The Duke was one of a kind, and here he reminds us that whatever else you have going on you must have a code, your own internal fixed point of virtue against which you will orient yourself and your interactions in the world.
This is especially important anytime the conventional rule of law is shaky or suspended.
“The world is not dangerous because of those who do harm but because of those who look at it without doing anything.”
Albert Einstein
I imagine Albert Einstein would be rolling in his grave if he was party to our bystander culture today.
Anytime something bad is happening, from a fist fight to a terrorist attack to a current, active natural disaster you’ll see way too many people standing around gawking, filming with smartphones and generally waiting to get waylaid.
They are not merely taking their lives into their own hands. By abdicating a position of usefulness more harm will be done. Inaction has a cost.
“Be calm and strong and patient. Meet failure and disappointment with courage. Rise superior to the trials of life, and never give in to hopelessness or despair. In danger, in adversity, cling to your principles and ideals.”
William Osler
William Osler tells us to have grit in an elegant way. We should all be calm, strong and patient, not agitated, weak and anxious.
We will certainly fail or stumble at some point along the way and we should meet these failures with courage, rising again. We will not know the meaning of hopelessness, and in times of great turmoil we will ever cling to our values.
“When seconds count, the cops are just minutes away.”
Clint Smith
Clint Smith is one of the oldest, best and best-respected trainers, and the firearms world and his musings and aphorisms have become the stuff of legend, salty though they may be.
Here Clint reminds us that when seconds count in a fight police will only be minutes away, far too long to help us get out of a jam.
I myself have said many times that preppers must become their own first-responders. Clint has long known that, and by now you should know it, too.
“There are no dangerous weapons; there are only dangerous men.”
Robert A. Heinlein
Another gear-centric post for those who carry weapons in defense. The sharpest knife, the best gun are merely tools. The weapon by itself is nothing, does nothing.
Only in the hands of a trained, motivated and capable wielder does the weapon become dangerous and only them because it is an extension of the will of the wielder.
“Safety is something that happens between your ears, not something you hold in your hands.”
Jeff Cooper
The godfather and creator of the modern technique of the pistol, Jeff Cooper, here warns against what I have grown to call “rabbit’s foot syndrome” among daily carriers of pistols.
Some folks think that having the gun is enough all by itself. They don’t need to train, and they don’t need to practice.
This is foolhardy. Relying on the gun alone without the skill to employ it is akin to relying on a lucky charm: the rabbit’s foot. These folks should be reminded that the rabbit’s foot didn’t work for the rabbit, in the end!
“Man often becomes what he believes himself to be. If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is possible that I may end by really becoming incapable of doing it. On the contrary, if I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning.”
Mahatma Gandhi
Thoughts become words and words become actions. Actions become your reality. Ergo, it is imperative that you strangle negative self-talk before it can fester in your mind.
No matter what you are facing and how overwhelming it seems, remind yourself that there are many people who have done what you are about to do before, for millennia. Visualize a positive outcome, and only allow yourself thoughts of confidence and competency.
“Human stupidity: the ultimate global disaster.”
Marty Rubin
Sometimes you just gotta call it like you see it. How many lives have been lost, how many kingdoms laid to waste and how much treasure has been squandered over sheer, simple human stupidity?
How many cataclysms even now lay waiting in the dark because of man’s folly? There’s probably no way to calculate it, and honestly we should be glad of it if we want to get any sleep at night.
Also, let this quote serve as a reminder to not ascribe to malevolence any outcome which could be chalked up to idiocy.
“I feel the need to endanger myself every so often.”
Tim Daly
Tim Daly has said what we all feel from time to time. Sometimes we want to throw off the safety and certainty of modernity and run screaming into the woods or head off to the mountains without telling anyone where we are going.
Neither of those activities is truly advisable, but on the other hand it might be far safer to hone the survivor’s edge through metered doses of danger than to let it dull entirely through the remorseless march of the day in and day out rut.
“The man of thought who will not act is ineffective; the man of action who will not think is dangerous.”
Richard M. Nixon
Love him or hate him, Tricky Dick sure hit this one on the head. The best thinker in the world will not achieve his personal ends if he will not take action, whatever it is.
Likewise, the boldest, strongest and most competent man who acts without thinking is reckless, and a liability to himself and his fellows. The man of action has much to learn from the philosopher, and the philosopher too has much to learn from the man of action.
“Use your worry, but know when to leave it behind.”
Twyla Tharp
If there’s one disease that preppers are vulnerable to it is analysis paralysis. Whenever a threat is identified or a situation is unfolding it is easy to get sucked into a position of inactivity waiting on more information, better circumstances, the right tools, and so forth.
What this can end up doing is burning the most precious resource of all: time. Once you have lost the initiative in a survival situation, it is hard to get it back. It is fine to worry over things you must protect against, but the time will come when it is time to stop worrying and do.
“There’s no moral order as pure as this storm. There’s no moral order at all. There’s just this: can my violence conquer yours?”
The Warden, Shutter Island
Shutter Island was a wild movie, but this is not the time for a synopsis. Suffice it to say that the character of the warden, expertly portrayed (as always) by Ted Levine, intimates to another character that the conventional systems of morality will always depart in face of the one, true arbiter of continued existence: Violence.
When you are locked in a genuine fight for your life with another human or a beast, the only question the universe cares to ask is if your might, you’re force, can overcome that of your adversary. For your sake, the answer had better be “yes”.
“Humor is just another defense against the universe.”
Mel Brooks
Mel Brooks is a comedy legend, and with good reason. And the best comedians are often quite wise to the mysteries of human nature, and here Mel Brooks has codified one such observation.
The mechanism by which humor can fortify against misery and misfortune is unknown to this humble writer, but it is enough to know that it can.
Knowing when to laugh at your own misfortunes and allowing others to laugh at yours can be a powerful tool in a prepper’s arsenal.
“The leader has to be practical and a realist yet must talk the language of the visionary and the idealist.”
Eric Hoffer
To be a leader you must be fluent in two languages, two modes of thought. The brutal realities of leadership in dealing with problems must ever take center stage in a leader’s mind, but such things when voiced will often agitate, worry or dull the senses of those you are leading.
To speak with inspirational vigor in order to inspire those people being led is equally important.
“I beg you take courage; the brave soul can mend even disaster.”
Catherine the Great
It is hard to estimate what a difference might be made by keeping your wits about you and being brave during a time of crisis.
It might be the last thing you want to do, it might not even be something you feel capable of doing, but serving as the emotional “fixed point” for those around you can do much to reduce the severity of the situation, whatever it is. Take courage and be brave!
“Never tell the truth to people who are not worthy of it.”
Mark Twain
A great quote to close out with, once again from Mark Twain. If there is one thing most preppers are guilty of it is having poor or entirely absent personal and operational security. People will blab away to strangers and foes-in-waiting about their plans, their preps, their acquisitions, everything.
Like the old saying said, loose lips will indeed sink ships, and you could be “sunk” before you ever get started if the wrong person gets wind of your plans. Keep your mouth shut, and if you can’t, deliberately obfuscate everything to do with your prepping through use of clever deceptions.
Conclusion
There you have it. 60 stimulating quotes that can help get your noggin joggin’ about the business of prepping.
Some of these quotes might have made you laugh, others make you shiver and yet others make you reflect, but it is my sincere hope that they all let you take away a little something to help you along on your journey.
Tom Marlowe practically grew up with a gun in his hand, and has held all kinds of jobs in the gun industry: range safety, sales, instruction and consulting, Tom has the experience to help civilian shooters figure out what will work best for them.
Under pressure you never excel to the occasion, you sink to the lowest level of your training.