Optimism in Her Darkest Moment

We tend to overestimate how bad things are and can be. Perhaps it’s evolutionary. Being overly cautious means not getting too close to the lion because if you get to close to the lion it’ll eat you and your entire family and probably the village and…

You get the point.

That's what makes today's quote particularly powerful, optimism in what would be most people's darkest moment. Võ Thị Thắng was a Vietnamese revolutionary that was tasked with assassinating a spy in Saigon. She failed and was arrested. The South Vietnamese Government sentenced her to twenty years in prison. Upon hearing that her next two decades would be spent in a hard labor camp, she smiled and said:

"20 years? Your government won't last that long."

She was released less than six years later. She spent the rest of her life representing unions and serving as an elected representative of the Long An Province. She passed away in August of 2014.

The last three books I read…
The Bomber Mafia
Impact Players
Essentialism