22 Oct
2026
Quotes from Don't Give Up, the upcoming book by Jonathan Anthony Burkett. Coming soon.
Stay because your story is not finished, and the chapter you are in is not the whole book.
Every breath you take is proof that the story is still being written. Every morning you wake up is a new page you did not have yesterday.
What hope did was keep me from staying down. Every time I fell, the decision I had made was still there, waiting for me to pick it back up.
A breath is the smallest unit of staying alive.
You can walk away from a bad situation and still be holding on to yourself. In fact, sometimes walking away is how you hold on.
But loud is not the same as true.
Your future is not something that was decided for you when you were a child.
But when you are holding on by a thread, small things are what the thread is made of.
Where you sleep is not who you are.
But if you are still breathing, it is not too late.
When the stairs are dark, a handrail does not light them up. It just gives you something to hold on to while you take the next step.
You do not need a crowd to survive. Sometimes you only need one person who refuses to give up on you.
Strength is not the absence of need.
When you have no hope of your own left, you can borrow someone else's. You can hold on to what a person who loved you believed about you, until you are strong enough to believe it yourself.
Faith is not seeing the other end of the rope. Faith is choosing to hold on anyway, because you believe someone is there.
Nobody who gave up early ever found out how their story could have gone.
Feeling like you have no purpose is not the same as having no purpose.
The fact that you are still breathing means you still have something to give.
When you write down something you want to do tomorrow, you are casting a vote for tomorrow.
You may have forgotten about that hope, but it has not forgotten about you.
You tighten your grip, not because you feel strong, but because you have decided you are not letting go.
If you are reading this and you feel behind, I want you to know that feeling behind is not the same as being finished.
You do not need permission from a piece of paper to keep going.
Holding on is not about never hearing no. It is about what you do in the breath after you hear it.
That is what I mean by stubborn hope. It is not the hope that everything will be easy. It is the hope that refuses to let go, even after you have been knocked flat.
Tired is not the same as finished.
Rest is not the opposite of strength.
Your exhaustion is evidence that you have been holding on with everything you have.
As long as you have breath in your body, you have another beginning in front of you.
Your pain is not the only story you have. It might be the first story you need to tell, but it does not have to be the last.
A dream you set down is not the same as a dream you threw away.
Holding on to people is not the same as holding on to pain.
You do not have to hold on to everyone. But do not let go of love itself. Hold on to the people who hold on to you.
The day you ask for help is not the day you give up.
Holding on is not something you do once. It is something you keep choosing, one breath at a time, for as long as it takes.
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