Zamperini Quotes & Sayings

People say, on the raft, you must have hallucinated. Baloney. We were sharper after 47 days than the day we started because our minds were empty of all the war and contamination; we had clean minds to fill with good thoughts. Every day we'd exercise our minds. — Louis Zamperini

Sometimes what we see as a loss turns out in the end to be a gain, and sometimes a gain is a loss. I try not to be too swift to pass judgment on any situation, preferring instead to be patient and take the long view because I believe that in the end all things work together for good. — Louis Zamperini

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. — Louis Zamperini

However dark the night, however dim our hopes, the light will always follow darkness. — Louis Zamperini

To live, a man needs food, water, and a sharp mind. — Louis Zamperini

I was a rotten kid. My excitement came from seeing what I could get away with. — Louis Zamperini

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. — Louis Zamperini

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. — Louis Zamperini

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. — Louis Zamperini

You only have one life. You should never be too busy to save it. — Louis Zamperini

I've got to say that is - the highest emotion of the human experience is going down in a plane knowing your going to die! — Louis Zamperini

I couldn't speak English. I'm in kindergarten, and the only reason I got through to first grade is because I cheated. — Louis Zamperini

To persevere, I think, is important for everybody. Don't give up, don't give in. There's always an answer to everything. — Louis Zamperini

God knew my needs and took care accordingly. — Louis Zamperini

All I did was pray to God, every day. In prison camp, the main prayer was, 'Get me home alive, God, and I'll seek you and serve you.' I came home, got wrapped up in the celebration, and forgot about the hundreds of promises I'd made to God. — Louis Zamperini

Positive self-esteem must be preceded by self-respect. To get self-respect you have to do something good. — Louis Zamperini

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

If you hate somebody, it's like a boomerang that misses its target and comes back and hits you in the head. The one who hates is the one who hurts. — Louis Zamperini

I've always been called Lucky Louie. It's no mystery why. — 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. — Louis Zamperini

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. — Louis Zamperini

If I can take it, I can make it. — Louis Zamperini

I believe everybody in the world should try to help somebody else. Let's say half the people in the world are successful. If they help the other half, hey, you've got no problem. — Louis Zamperini

God has given me so much. He expects so much out of me. — Louis Zamperini

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. — Louis Zamperini

I've accepted Christ as my Savior. — Louis Zamperini

You should make your life count right up to the last minute. — Louis Zamperini

His old riot of black hair was now a translucent scrim of white, but his blue eyes still threw sparks. — Laura Hillenbrand

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

If you can take it, you can make it. — Louis Zamperini

(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. — Louis Zamperini

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. — Louis Zamperini

Louie's mother, Louise, took a different tack. Louie was a copy of herself, right down to the vivid blue eyes. When pushed, she shoved; sold a bad cut of meat, she'd march down to the butcher, frying pan in hand. Loving mischief, she spread icing over a cardboard box and presented it as a birthday cake to a neighbor, who promptly got the knife stuck. When Pete told her he'd drink his castor oil if she gave him an empty candy box. "You only asked for the box, honey," she said with a smile. "That's all I got." And she understood Louie's restiveness. One Halloween, she dressed as a boy and raced around town trick-or-treating with Louie and Pete. A gang of kids, thinking she was one of the local toughs, tackled her and tried to steal her pants. Little Louise Zamperini, mother of four, was deep in the melee when the cops picked her up for brawling. — Laura Hillenbrand

The world, we'd discovered, doesn't love you like your family loves you. — Louis Zamperini

ALL HE COULD SEE, IN EVERY DIRECTION, WAS WATER. It was June 23, 1943. Somewhere on the endless expanse of the Pacific Ocean, Army Air Forces bombardier and Olympic runner Louie Zamperini lay across a small raft, drifting westward. Slumped alongside him was a sergeant, one of his plane's gunners. On a separate raft, tethered to the first, lay another crewman, a gash zigzagging across his forehead. Their bodies, burned by the sun and stained yellow from the raft dye, had winnowed down to skeletons. Sharks glided in lazy loops around them, dragging their backs along the rafts, waiting. — Laura Hillenbrand

Zamperini looked toward his crewmates. They were too weak — Laura Hillenbrand

Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, so I took Him at His word, begged for His pardon, and asked Jesus to come into my life. — Louis Zamperini

I'll be an easier subject than Seabiscuit, because I can talk." Louis Zamperini to Laura Hillenbrand. — Laura Hillenbrand

A month earlier, twenty-six-year-old Zamperini had been one of the greatest runners in the world, expected by many to be the first to break the four-minute mile, one of the most celebrated barriers in sport. Now his Olympian's body had wasted to less than one hundred pounds and his famous legs could no longer lift him. Almost everyone outside of his family had given him up for dead. — Laura Hillenbrand

It was all in His hands now - as it had always been. — Louis Zamperini

I was raised to face any challenge. — Louis Zamperini

Even at my age, I'm trying to improve. Never give up, no matter what. Even if you get last place - finish. — Louis Zamperini

Everyone needs that support-even if at first you don't think you do. Look around. See who's on your side and in your corner. You don't have to go it alone. — Louis Zamperini

When you're on a raft, you pray like in a foxhole. — Louis Zamperini

Self-esteem can't win you a race if you're not in shape. — Louis Zamperini

This was the first time God had crossed my mind in over a year, and again only in my moment of absolute hopelessness. I'd done the same on the raft and in the prison camps when I'd promised God my life should he let me survive. Had I kept my promise? No. And this time, instead of promises, I had only anger and complaints and blame. But I didn't blame myself; I blamed God. Maybe he was listening, maybe not, but even if, as I sometimes suspected, God watched over me, I couldn't blame him for cutting me loose this time. — Louis Zamperini

One moment of pain is worth a lifetime of glory. — Louis Zamperini

From the moment that Watanabe locked eyes with Louie Zamperini, an officer, a famous Olympian, and a man for whom defiance was second nature, no man obsessed him more. — Laura Hillenbrand

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. — Louis Zamperini

Never give up, no matter what. — Louis Zamperini

I think as a human being, as a mother, as someone who works internationally, I needed desperately to know a man like Louis Zamperini in my life, to know that there is hope. — Angelina Jolie

That's one thing you learn in sports. You don't give up; you fight to the finish. — Louis Zamperini

Every soldier should learn survival on land, sea, and in the air. — Louis Zamperini

Pain is that last quarter of a mile. You feel it, but when you're through racing, your whole body just feels elated. So the pain is worth it. — Louis Zamperini

I didn't know it then, but my persistence, perseverance, and unwillingness to accept defeat when things looked all but hopeless were part of the very character traits I would need to make it through World War II alive. — Louis Zamperini

I ended up in the Army Air Corps in the Pacific, operating out of Ayuka field in Hawaii. — Louis Zamperini

I knew then that I would not turn back. I'd struggled to come this far, and I would commit myself to whatever happened next. — Louis Zamperini

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

The great lesson of my life is perseverance. Never give up. It's like my brother said, "Isn't one minute of pain worth a lifetime of glory? — Louis Zamperini

'Unbroken' was published as a help to society. — Louis Zamperini

At that moment, something shifted sweetly inside him. It was forgiveness, beautiful and effortless and complete. For Louie Zamperini, the war was over. — Laura Hillenbrand

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. — Louis Zamperini

Hope is incomplete and ongoing. Faith is the substance of things hoped for and is complete. — Louis Zamperini