Ishmael Beah Quotes

20 Sourced Quotes

This is one of the consequences of the civil war. People stop trusting each other, and every stranger becomes an enemy.

Ishmael Beah
How many more times do we have to come to terms with death before we find safety?

Ishmael Beah
I lay in my bed night after night staring at the ceiling and thinking, Why have I survived the war? Why was I the last person in my immediate family to be alive? I didn't know.

Ishmael Beah
I am always quiet so that I know what to say when I must speak.

Ishmael Beah
I grew up in Sierra Leone, in a small village where as a boy my imagination was sparked by the oral tradition of storytelling. At a very young age I learned the importance of telling stories - I saw that stories are the most potent way of seeing anything we encounter in our lives, and how we can deal with living.

Ishmael Beah
My squad is my family, my gun is my provider and protector, and my rule is to kill or be killed.

Ishmael Beah
In the sky there are always answers and explanations for everything: every pain, every suffering, joy and confusion.

Ishmael Beah
I took out my grenade and put my fingers inside the pin. 'Do you boys want this to be your last meal, or do you want to answer his question?'

Ishmael Beah
My teeth became sour as I listened to his story. It was then that I understood why he was quiet all the time.

Ishmael Beah
I joined the army to avenge the deaths of my family and to survive, but I've come to learn that if I am going to take revenge, in that process I will kill another person whose family will want revenge; then revenge and revenge and revenge will never come to an end...

Ishmael Beah
I get a chance to observe the moon now, I still see those same images I saw when I was six, and it pleases me to know that that part of my childhood is still embedded in me.

Ishmael Beah
If you are alive, there is hope for a better day and something good to happen. If there is nothing good left in the destiny of a person, he or she will die.

Ishmael Beah
We should do this again. Laughing like this is good for the soul.

Ishmael Beah
Some nights the sky wept stars that quickly floated and disappeared into the darkness before our wishes could meet them.

Ishmael Beah
ONE OF THE UNSETTLING THINGS about my journey, mentally, physically, and emotionally, was that I wasn't sure when or where it was going to end.

Ishmael Beah
I was still hesitant to let myself let go, because I still believed in the fragility of happiness.

Ishmael Beah
Some people tried to hurt us to protect themselves, their family and communities...This was one of the consequences of civil war. People stopped trusting each other, and every stranger became an enemy. Even people who knew you became extremely careful about how they related or spoke to you.

Ishmael Beah
My childhood had gone by without my knowing, and it seemed as if my heart had frozen.

Ishmael Beah
We must live in the radiance of tomorrow, as our ancestors have suggested in their tales. For what is yet to come tomorrow has possibilities, and we must think of it, the simplest glimpse of that possibility of goodness. That will be our strength. That has always been our strength.

Ishmael Beah
Children have the resilience to outlive their sufferings, if given a chance.

Ishmael Beah