Quotes / Living Is More than Surviving

"According to our new arrival
Life is more than mere survival
We just may live the good life yet."

— Theme song to Mr. Belvedere

Captain McCrea: Out there is our home! Home, AUTO! And it's in trouble. I can't just sit here and do nothing. That's all I've ever done! That's all anyone in this blasted ship has ever done! Nothing!
AUTO: On the Axiom, you will survive.

Captain McCrea: I don't want to survive! I want to LIVE!

— WALL•E

"I struggled for a long time with survivin', and no matter what, you keep finding something to fight for."

— Joel, The Last of Us

"An old English judge once said: 'Necessitous men are not free men.' Liberty requires opportunity to make a living — a living decent according to the standard of the time, a living which gives man not only enough to live by, but something to live for."

— Franklin D. Roosevelt, Democratic National Convention acceptance speech, June 27, 1936

There was a time once when I was desperate just to stay alive, and didn’t even have the luxury to have pride. However, a life without pride, is empty.

— Shiraori, So I'm a Spider, So What?

"To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all."

— Oscar Wilde

"We had no choice." Always "we had no choice." Those are our magic words. We repeat them to ourselves again and again. But you know... The magic never worked! The only thing we're left with is regret.

— Yuna, Final Fantasy X-2

What's the point?! All we do is dig so we can hide and hide so we can dig!

— Timon, The Lion King 1 ½

Eep: Dad, you have to stop worrying about us.
Grug: But it's my job to worry! It's my job to follow the rules.
Eep: The rules don't work out here.
Grug: They kept us alive.
Eep: That wasn't living! That was just..."Not Dying"! There's a difference!

— The Croods

"There's no point to living on by having to constantly fill the inside of your mouth with this muddy soup..."

— Jiba Ruu, Cooking With Wild Game

Zangetsu: Do you want to fight? Do you want to win? Or do you want to live? Which is it?

Ichigo: I want...to win. Fighting for its own sake is meaningless. Survival in itself is meaningless! I WANT TO WIN!

— Bleach

I think I'm alive!
Probably just breathin'

— Spiritualized, "I Think I'm in Love" from Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space.

Allison: I don't want to win, I just want to survive.

Incubus: Haha, wow, that's rich. Let me tell you a story real quick. You remind me of an old friend of mine. She, like you, was wrong. It's only about winning.

— Kill Six Billion Demons

"The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time."

— Jack London

When I ran I didn't feel like a runaway
When I escaped I didn't feel like I got away
There's more to living than only surviving
Maybe I'm not there, but I'm still trying

— The Offspring, "Staring at the Sun"

Caleb 1: Yo, we gotta get outta here right now, man. There's zombies everywhere!
Caleb 2: Wha- Huh?! You being serious?
Caleb 1: As we speak, there are zombies taking over the entire city. We gotta get somewhere safe before they find us here.
[He tosses Caleb 2 a weapon]
Caleb 2: So, what... this is a zombie apocalypse or something?
Caleb 1: Yeah, that's what it looks like. And I don't know how long we can-
[Caleb 2 tosses the weapon back and lies down on the floor]
Caleb 1: What are you doing?!
Caleb 2: Hmm? Oh, yeah, you can go ahead and count me out. I'm not doing it.
Caleb 1: ...You're "not doing it"?!
Caleb 2: Yeah. You can try the next house. I'm not interested. I'm alright.
Caleb 1: So you're not interested in your own survival?!
Caleb 2: No! I'm not! Alright? If I was interested in just "survival", I wouldn't want to live in a house! I'd probably be out in the wild somewhere, fighting bears for my food, already starving and struggling!
Caleb 1: Man...
Caleb 2: A life where my aspirations and daily goals are to "survive the day" is not the life for me!
Caleb 1: ...Damn.
Caleb 2: Yeah.
Caleb 1: You are- that is... That is a good point. Damn...
Caleb 2: I think so, too.
Caleb 1: But, uh... don't- don't you wanna- don't you wanna fight for that luxury? You're not- you're not gonna fight for it just 'cause it's hard? What, is that how you treat everything in life?!
Caleb 2: Hey, I didn't say a word about difficulty level. I'm saying that the current situation is completely undesirable, no matter how much effort you put into it.

— CalebCity, "In a Zombie apocalypse..."

It's easy to fall into the trap of avoidance. There's so much to distract yourself with, after all. When you only consume, you never have to worry about what to say, about how you come across, or any of that. But that way also lies the decay of the self. Your self is something that you develop in dialogue with others. If you have a tendency towards social withdrawal, you need situations that push you to react, to make decisions and position yourself. Else you will risk losing your voice and only realizing it when you find yourself needing to scream.

— Fawriel, in raocow's A2XT Gaiden advent video here

"Dudes, listen: our lives suck. Everyone's nerves are stretched to the max. I mean, we're lost an island, running from boars and monsters... freakin' polar bears! [...] Look, all I'm saying is, if we're stuck here, then just surviving is not gonna cut it. We need some kind of relief, you know. We need some way that we can... you know, have fun! That's right, fun. Otherwise, we're just gonna go crazy waiting for the next bad thing to happen."

— Hugo "Hurley" Reyes, Lost

Jarael: If you get involved, we'll be exposed again. Is that what you want?
Zayne Carrick: What I want is to make a difference. I want to have a life again.
Jarael: You do have a life. You have me. We have each other. Isn't that enough?
Zayne Carrick: We have nothing. Look at us. Living in the shadows that we have something to be ashamed of. What kind of existence is this? Living in fear. Hiding from an enemy that we can't even see. I can't do this anymore. I can't hide like this anymore.
Jarael: I know you can't, it's just… we've been away for so long. We've been on our own for so long. And we survived when so many others have not.
Zayne Carrick: Maybe, but for how much longer? And how can we expect things to change unless we do something about them?

— Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2: Episode VI: Knights and the Darkness Pt. I

"You and I don't live, Claire... We survive."

— The Mother, Opal

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