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About this quote

What does it mean?
Even the weakest prisoners offered applause, showing their enduring spirit despite extreme suffering.
In plain terms
Weak prisoners still clapped, showing their spirit.
What can you take from it?
Hope and gratitude persist even in extreme hardship.

Where it applies

  • war
  • survival
  • hospital settings

Putting it to work

  • prisoner support
  • humanitarian aid
  • memorial services

Questions to consider

  • What gives strength in weakness?
  • How do people show gratitude when suffering?

Another view

Survival sometimes requires suppressing emotion rather than expressing it.

More from Edward R. Murrow

  1. The obscure we see eventually. The completely obvious, it seems, takes longer.

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  2. We went to the hospital; it was full. The doctor told me that two hundred had died the day before. I asked the cause of death; he shrugged and said, 'Tuberculo…

    Permalink to quote #20
  3. We are in the same tent as the clowns and the freaks - that's show business.

    Permalink to quote #17

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