Elizabeth Smart Quotes

For me, my awakening came when I was kidnapped.

My biggest fear ever is to be involved in a plane crash, so when that happened... well, I'm just thankful to be alive. I'm just grateful to be here at all.

The people got daily worse from the cold and the bad water, and they must all have perished if they had not discovered the port about the time they did.

When they first grabbed us, yeah, it terrified, but they calmed me down.

At first, I didn't want to accept that I had been abducted. I kept thinking, 'Next week, I'll be freed.'

Growing up in a trailer, you think everything you get is good. I always thought it was a gift from God, because some people are out here struggling and on the street. We had warmth. We had clothes. We had a roof over our head.

It's hard to see blessings in a violent culture

Since being a prisoner was a definite improvement over being dead, which was what she thought was going to happen when the Loundergs had attacked, Suzy was quite cheerful.

Unless you're completely exploded, there's always something to be grateful for.

I pull the sleeping bag up to his chin and kiss his forehead, not for the audience, but for me. Because I'm so grateful that he's here, not dead by the stream as I'd thought. So glad I don't have to face Cato alone.

Ladies and gentlemen, after what I've been through, I am happy just to be wearing clothes that open in the front.

This wasn't the first time I'd woken up as a captive. It wasn't even the second. I so needed to reevaluate my life choices.

Bad things happen, but you can still live.

The world was collapsing, and the only thing that really mattered to me was that she was alive.

I seen the worst of the worst. I deserve every blessing I receive I'm from the dirt.

I learned to live many years ago. Something really, really bad happened to me, something that changed my life in ways that, if I had my druthers, it would never have been changed at all. What I learned from it is that today seems to be the hardest lesson of all. I learned to love the journey, not the destination. I learned that it is not a dress rehearsal, and that today is the only guarantee you get. I learned to look at all the good in the world and to try to give some of it back because I believed in it completely and utterly.

As the son of Holocaust survivors, this is life - you're put in a corner, and you have to get out. I believe that you can always get out.

Coming from prison, you're more appreciative. Somebody gives you a bottle of water, you're like, "Thank you." Because that water means something. It might not be too good. It might not even be drinkable, but you know, you gotta do what you gotta do.

After all this, what happened? What happened was that, as soon as I had the slightest chance of a place to hide in, I crept into it and hid. Well, sometimes it's a fine day isn't it? Sometimes the skies are blue. Sometimes the air is light, easy to breathe. And there is always tomorrow.

We got off at the next exit, quietly, and, switching drivers, we walked in front of the car. We met and I held him, my hands balled into tight fists around his shoulders, and he wrapped his short arms around me and squeezed tight, so that I felt the heaves of his chest as we realized over and over again that we were still alive. I realized it in waves and we held on to each other crying and I thought, 'God we must look so lame,' but it doesn't matter when you have just now realized, all the time later, that you are still alive.

Looking back, I feel like I was really young, and at the time I didn't think that I was that young. It was extremely traumatic and awful and horrible. At the same time, it turned out for the best. I'm glad that I'm not there. I'm glad that it didn't happen when I was 50. I'm glad I didn't have kids. And I got that out of the way. Hopefully. Like, that's probably not going to happen again.

We wake up and are grateful for the day. Not taking away from the pain, because the pain will be there. But you live on.

Hope and faith. You have to have hope and faith... Long ways to go. Grateful to survive. I's frustrating. Mentally hard. Hard work. I'm trying. Trying so hard to get better. Regain what I've lost... I will get stronger. I will return.

The man watched him. Real life is pretty bad? What do you think? Well, I think we're still here. A lot of bad things have happened but we're still here. Yeah. You don't think that's so great. It's okay.