Nathaniel Philbrick Quotes

My books always focus on the response of the characters to extreme events. As dark as they get, they are ultimately positive, uplifting books about children who take control of their lives and overcome great adversaries. I think that is why they have been so popular.

If you know that life is basically going to be horrendously difficult, at best, and all but unlivable at worst, or possibly even unlivable, do you go on? And the choice to go on is the only thing that I think can be called hope. Because if hope isn't forced to encounter the worst possibility, then it's a lie.

There are times you can't really see or even feel how sweet life can be. Hopefully its mountains will be higher than its valleys are deep. I know things that are broken can be fixed. Take the punch if you have to, hit the canvas and then get up again. Life is worth it.

When I wrote 'Fight Song,' I was in a particular low point. I needed to remind myself to not give up, that I still believed in myself and that I still had fight left.

I know that in life there will be sickness, devastation, disappointments, heartache - it's a given. What's not a given is the way you choose to get through it all. If you look hard enough, you can always find the bright side.

When I said the city would be stronger, I didn't know that. I just hoped it. There are parts of you that say, 'Maybe we're not going to get through this.' You don't listen to them.

Whatever you're going through in your life, don't ever give up.

There's so many things that life is, and no matter how many breakthroughs, trials will exist and we're going to get through it. Just be strong.

Tough times never last, but tough people do.

After every storm the sun will smile; for every problem there is a solution, and the soul's indefeasible duty is to be of good cheer.

I beg you take courage; the brave soul can mend even disaster.

One who never turned his back but marched breast forward, never doubted clouds would break, Never dreamed, though right were worsted, wrong would triumph, Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better, sleep to wake.

What I would say to anybody facing any life challenge or disease is that that is courage - to choose life, to keep looking at what's good.

I went through an extremely trying ordeal, but I never forgot the world outside was a beautiful place.

The depth of darkness to which you can descend and still live is an exact measure of the height to which you can aspire to reach.

Never be discouraged. If I were sunk in the lowest pits of Nova Scotia, with the Rocky Mountains piled on me, I would hang on, exercise faith, and keep up good courage, and I would come out on top.

I think it's the human spirit inside of all of us that has an enormous capacity to survive.

Even in the hardest circumstances, dreams can give you the courage to live, and I hope I can share that message with children in need.

I am in the world feeling my way to light 'amid the encircling gloom.'

I've seen too much in life to give up.

But I believe we must not allow feelings of defeat to take root in our hearts.

There are so many beautiful things that are a part of the world, and I've always looked at life that way; I've always tried to put on a smile and a brave front, not just for my kids but in my own life and all the difficulties that I've gone through.

Courage is not the absence of despair; it is, rather, the capacity to move ahead in spite of despair.

No one is perfect in this world, and we all have our battles, but it's the way we get back on our feet and turn it around that really counts.

Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith.