Azar Nafisi Quotes

As long as hope remains and meaning is preserved, the possibility of overcoming oppression stays alive.

I surprise myself that I'm not dead in the gutter somewhere, surprised that I haven't given up.

When people tell you you're on the brink of death, you've got to dig pretty deep to get it together.

Persevere and preserve yourselves for better circumstances.

If you're actually talking to someone who's been through a disastrous number of years, that only means one thing: They survived it.

Tough times don't last, but tough people do. And I've been through some tough times, and I know a lot of people can recall tough times, and maybe are going through some tough times right now, but they don't last.

I'm a survivor - a living example of what people can go through and survive.

No matter how bad things get you got to go on living, even if it kills you.

When will the day come that our dignity will be fully restored, when the purpose of our lives will no longer be merely to survive until the sun rises tomorrow!

A lot of tragedy can befall us, but there's always something else; there's always hope.

Hope is the only bee that makes honey without flowers.

Once all struggle is grasped, miracles are possible.

I have a child to feed and a spirit that can't be crushed, so I'm able to move ahead.

I tell people that the best thing that can ever happen to you is getting fired, and you can either sink or swim, and I swam like hell. The reason why I swam the way I swam was because there was nothing else for me.

I cannot, will not, withhold from my young readers the harsh realities of human hunger and suffering and loss, but neither will I neglect to plant that stubborn seed of hope that has enabled our race to outlast wars and famines and the destruction of death.

‎Life is a shipwreck, but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats.

To a freedom fighter hope is what a lifebelt is to a swimmer - a guarantee that one will keep afloat and free from danger.

Yes it's difficult. Yes it's horrible. Yes it's the worst thing that has ever happen in my whole life. But I just can't give up.

"No," he says, taking us both in. "No, no, no. You've come farther than most people on this planet will in their lifetimes. You've overcome obstacles and dangers and things that should've killed you. You've outrun an army and a madman and deadly illness and seen things most people will never see. How do you think you could have possibly come this far if you didn't have hope?"

In spite of the problems he was having he was going on with his life. There are thousands who don’t or won’t or can’t and plenty of them aren’t in prison either.

No matter what the statistics say there is always a way.

Bad things happen, but you can still live.

We've got to live, no matter how many skies have fallen.

If we had time and no money, living by our wits, what story would you tell?

I think one of the first things to go as people's lives start to go down is their dreams. Dreams should be the last thing to go - dreams are the things you go down with. If you're left clinging to a piece of driftwood in the middle of the ocean, I'd put on it the word dreams.