Poems & Quotes

Quotes by Louis Zamperini

-"The one who forgives never brings up the past to that person's face. When you forgive, it's like it never happened. True forgiveness is complete and total."

-"Someone who doesn't make the (Olympic) team might weep and collapse. In my day no one fell on the track and cried like a baby. We lost gracefully. And when someone won, he didn't act like he'd just become king of the world, either. Athletes in my day were simply humble in our victory. I believe we were more mature then...Maybe it's because the media puts so much pressure on athletes; maybe it's also the money. In my day we competed for the love of the sport...In my day we patted the guy who beat us on the back, wished him well, and that was it."

-"I'd made it this far and refused to give up because all my life I had always finished the race."

-"All I want to tell young people is that you're not going to be anything in life unless you learn to commit to a goal. You have to reach deep within yourself to see if you are willing to make the sacrifices."

-"Yet a part of you still believes you can fight and survive no matter what your mind knows. It's not so strange. Where there's still life, there's still hope. What happens is up to God."

-"I think the hardest thing in life is to forgive. Hate is self destructive. If you hate somebody, you're not hurting the person you hate, you're hurting yourself. It's a healing, actually, it's a real healing...forgiveness."

-"The great commandment is that we preach the gospel to every creature, but neither God nor the Bible says anything about forcing it down people's throats."

-"God knew my needs and took care accordingly."

-"The world, we'd discovered, doesn't love you like your family loves you."

-"One moment of pain is worth a lifetime of glory."

-"I was raised to face any challenge."

-"(after asking Christ into his heart) I waited. And then, true to His promise, He came into my heart and my life. The moment was more than remarkable; it was the most realistic experience I'd ever had. I'm not sure what I expected; perhaps my life or my sins or a great white light would flash before my eyes; perhaps I'd feel a shock like being hit by a bolt of lightning. Instead, I felt no tremendous sensation, just a weightlessness and an enveloping calm that let me know that Christ had come into my heart."

-"To live, a man needs food, water, and a sharp mind."

-"It was all in His hands now - as it had always been."

-"The Bible speaks of the Word of God as added. Sometimes it's planted by the wayside, and nothing grows there. Sometimes it's sown among the thorns and represents the person who makes the decision an then goes back to his old life of bars and chasing women or whatever. A third seed is sown among the rocks. There's sand and dirt between the rocks, and when it rains you'll see a stalk of green coming up. But on the first day with sunshine it wilts because there is no room for roots. The fourth seed is planted on fertile soil, and finally it takes hold and has a chance to grow and live. That's what happened to me."

-"(On surviving on the raft for 47 days) We had truly made it on a wing and prayer."

-"God has given me so much. He expects so much out of me."

-"All I knew was that hate was so deadly as any poison and did no one any good. You had to control and eliminate it, if you could."

-"I've always been called Lucky Louie. It's no mystery why."

-"The race film had confirmed a dead heat. That was great. But even better, most of the New York press finally learned to spell my name correctly."

-"Don't be afraid to make mistakes; they are just the stepping-stones to success."

-"You only have one life. You should never be too busy to save it."

-"Isn't one minute of pain worth a lifetime of glory?"

-"People tell me, "You're such an optimist." Am I an optimist? An optimist says the glass is half full. A pessimist says the glass is half empty. A survivalist is practical. He says, "Call it what you want, but just fill the glass." I believe in filling the glass.

-"If you cling to the axe you're grinding, eventually you'll only hurt yourself."

-"Louie in his early eighties. "I think my skateboarding shakes up a few people. Some stop their cars to be sure their eyes aren't deceiving them."