“We are reading the story of our lives
As though we were in it
As though we had written it.”

— Mark Strand

Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "We are reading the story of our lives As though we were in it As though we had written it." by Mark Strand?

Mark Strand photo

Mark Strand14

Canadian-American poet, essayist, translator 1934–2014

Related quotes

“We should live our lives as though Christ were coming this afternoon.”

Jimmy Carter (1924) American politician, 39th president of the United States (in office from 1977 to 1981)

Addressing a Bible class in Plains, Georgia (March 1976), as quoted in Boston Sunday Herald Advertiser (11 April 1976)
Pre-Presidency

“To accomplish great things we must live as though we had never to die.”

Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues (1715–1747) French writer, a moralist

Pour exécuter de grandes choses, il faut vivre comme si on ne devait jamais mourir.
Quoted in Queers in History: The Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Historical Gays (2009), by Keith Stern, p. 466.
Variant: In order to achieve great things, we must live as though we were never going to die.
Source: Reflections and Maxims (1746), p. 172.

“When we submit our lives to what we read in scripture, we find that we are not being led to see God in our stories but our stories in God's. God is the larger context and plot in which our stories find themselves.”

Eugene H. Peterson (1932–2018) American translator

“That we devote ourselves to God, is seen
In living just as though no God there were.”

Robert Browning Paracelsus

Part 1.
Paracelsus (1835)

“We are afraid of losing what we have, whether it's our life or our possessions and property. But this fear evaporates when we understand that our life stories and the history of the world were written by the same hand.”

Paulo Coelho book The Alchemist

Source: The Alchemist (1988), p. 93

“We should keep the dead before our eyes, and honor them as though still living”

Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher

“There was a house we all had in common and it was called the past, even though we'd lived in different rooms.”

Angela Carter book Wise Children

Source: Wise Children

“We haven't accepted — we can't really believe — that the most characteristic product of our age of scientific miracles is junk, but that is so. And we still think and behave as though we face an unspoiled continent, with thousands of acres of living space for every man. We still sing "America the Beautiful" as though we had not created in it, by strenuous effort, at great expense, and with dauntless self-praise, an unprecedented ugliness.”

Wendell Berry (1934) author

"The Rise"
The Long-Legged House (1969)

“In the light, we read the inventions of others; in the darkness we invent our own stories.”

Alberto Manguel (1948) writer

Source: The Library at Night

“We knew our days were numbered. We had fouled up our lives and we were getting ready for a shake-up.”

Raymond Carver (1938–1988) American short story author and poet

Source: Where I'm Calling From: New and Selected Stories

Related topics