Top 70 Louis Zamperini Quotes (2024 Update)

1. “Never give up, no matter what.”

— Louis Zamperini

2. “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

3. “If I can take it, I can make it.”

— Louis Zamperini

4. “I’d made it this far and refused to give up because all my life I had always finished the race.”

— Louis Zamperini

5. “One moment of pain is worth a lifetime of glory.”

— Louis Zamperini

6. “However dark the night, however dim our hopes, the light will always follow darkness.”

— Louis Zamperini

7. “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

8. “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

9. “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

10. “I was raised to face any challenge.”

— Louis Zamperini

11. “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

12. “For what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?”

— Louis Zamperini

13. “That’s one thing you learn in sports. You don’t give up; you fight to the finish.”

— Louis Zamperini

14. “You have to reach deep within yourself to see if you are willing to make the sacrifices.”

— Louis Zamperini

15. “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

16. “God knew my needs and took care accordingly.”

— Louis Zamperini

17. “To live, a man needs food, water, and a sharp mind.”

— Louis Zamperini

18. “Even at my age, I’m trying to improve. Never give up, no matter what. Even if you get last place – finish.”

— Louis Zamperini

19. “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

20. “The world, we’d discovered, doesn’t love you like your family loves you.”

— Louis Zamperini

21. “Self-esteem can’t win you a race if you’re not in shape.”

— Louis Zamperini

22. “God has given me so much. He expects so much out of me.”

— Louis Zamperini

23. “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

24. “The best way to meet any challenge is to be prepared for it.”

— Louis Zamperini

25. “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

26. “Every soldier should learn survival on land, sea, and in the air.”

— Louis Zamperini

27. “If you try to stand alone, you’re going to fall. The Lord says, ‘Cast all your cares upon me’ – in other words, lean your entire weight on me – ’and I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness.”

— Louis Zamperini

28. “Many people reject Christ because they feel they can’t live a Christian life. Well, nobody can live a Christian life – without help.” I thought when you accepted Christ you had to be perfect, but he said, “Christ has promised to help you. He said, ‘I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness. If you have problems in life, cast all your cares on me, for I care for you.”

— Louis Zamperini

29. “Isn’t one minute of pain worth a lifetime of glory?”

— Louis Zamperini

30. “When there’s no further hope, men always look up.”

— Louis Zamperini

31. “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

32. “You only have one life. You should never be too busy to save it.”

— Louis Zamperini

33. “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

34. “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

35. “Your mind is everything. It’s like a muscle. You must exercise it or it will atrophy – just like a muscle.”

— Louis Zamperini

36. “Hope is incomplete and ongoing. Faith is the substance of things hoped for and is complete.”

— Louis Zamperini

37. “I was a rotten kid. My excitement came from seeing what I could get away with.”

— Louis Zamperini

38. “My forgiveness was so authentic and total that I looked forward to seeing each of them. I longed to look into their eyes and say not only “I forgive you,” but to tell them of the greatest event of forgiveness the world has ever known when Christ on the Cross, and at the peak of his agony, could say of his executioners, “Forgive them father, for they know not what they do.”

— Louis Zamperini

39. “You should make your life count right up to the last minute.”

— Louis Zamperini

40. “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us,” and I sat straight up in my seat. How had he known what was in my mind? Then he said, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

— Louis Zamperini

41. “I wasn’t reaching for glory at Naoetsu. I just wouldn’t give the Bird the satisfaction of destroying my dignity. Don’t let anyone take yours away, either.”

— Louis Zamperini

42. “I decided then that while I’d continue telling my story to whoever would listen. Rather than preach I’d just plant the seed, live an impeccable life so people could see the difference in me, and let God grant the increase. It was all in His hands now – as it had always been.”

— Louis Zamperini

43. “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

44. “To whom much has been given, much is expected.”

— Louis Zamperini

45. “I wonder what they’d do if they knew the truth about my high life and my low life and all the demons in between.”

— Louis Zamperini

46. “I ended up in the Army Air Corps in the Pacific, operating out of Ayuka field in Hawaii.”

— Louis Zamperini

47. “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

48. “I had taken the Bird’s daily beatings at Omori, and then at Naoetsu. I had to. I never complained. I just got knocked down, bled, got up, got knocked down, bled, got up. I expected it. I wouldn’t let it get me down. Sometimes it took me two days to recover, but I always had a positive attitude. Steely, but positive. No way would he break me.”

— Louis Zamperini

49. “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

50. “Positive self-esteem must be preceded by self-respect. To get self-respect you have to do something good.”

— Louis Zamperini