Louis Zamperini

“I couldn't speak English. I'm in kindergarten, and the only reason I got through to first grade is because I cheated.”

“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.”

“'Unbroken' was published as a help to society.”

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

“All I did was pray to God, every day. In prison camp, the main prayer was, 'Get me home alive, God, and I'll seek you and serve you.' I came home, got wrapped up in the celebration, and forgot about the hundreds of promises I'd made to God.”

“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.”

“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.”

“(On surviving on the raft for 47 days) We had truly made it on a wing and prayer.”

“When you're on a raft, you pray like in a foxhole.”

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

“(after asking Christ into his heart) I waited. And then, true to His promise, He came into my heart and my life. The moment was more than remarkable; it was the most realistic experience I'd ever had. I'm not sure what I expected; perhaps my life or my sins or a great white light would flash before my eyes; perhaps I'd feel a shock like being hit by a bolt of lightning. Instead, I felt no tremendous sensation, just a weightlessness and an enveloping calm that let me know that Christ had come into my heart.”

“If you hate somebody, it's like a boomerang that misses its target and comes back and hits you in the head. The one who hates is the one who hurts.”

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

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

“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.”

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

“The Bible speaks of the Word of God as added. Sometimes it's planted by the wayside, and nothing grows there. Sometimes it's sown among the thorns and represents the person who makes the decision an then goes back to his old life of bars and chasing women or whatever. A third seed is sown among the rocks. There's sand and dirt between the rocks, and when it rains you'll see a stalk of green coming up. But on the first day with sunshine it wilts because there is no room for roots.The fourth seed is planted on fertile soil, and finally it takes hold and has a chance to grow and live. That's what happened to me.”

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

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

“God knew my needs and took care accordingly.”