“In life there is nothing more unexpected and surprising than the arrivals and departures of pleasure. If we find it in one place to-day, it is vain to seek it there to-morrow. You can not lay a trap for it.”

“Along the road of life are many pleasure resorts, but think not that by tarrying in them you will take more days to the journey. The day of your arrival is already recorded.”

Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914) American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist, and satirist

“But if in vain, down on the stubborn floor
Of Earth, and up to Heav'n's unopening Door
You gaze To-day, while You are You — how then
To-morrow, You when shall be You no more?”

Omar Khayyám (1048–1131) Persian poet, philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer

“He is lucky who, in the full tide of life, has experienced a measure of the active environment he most desires. In these days of upheaval and violent change, when the basic values of to-day are the vain and shattered dreams of to-morrow, there is much to be said for a philosophy which aims at living a full life while the opportunity offers. There are few treasures of more lasting worth than the experience of a way of life that is in itself wholly satisfying. Such, after all, are the only possessions of which no fate, no cosmic catastrophe can deprive us; nothing can alter the fact if for one moment in eternity we have really lived.”

Eric Shipton (1907–1977) British explorer

“We seek—we find—
And find the charm has with the search declined.
Affections—pleasures—all in which we trust, —
What do they end in?—Nothing, or disgust.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) English poet and novelist

“Arrival in the world is really a departure and that, which we call departure, is only a return.”

Dejan Stojanovic (1959) poet, writer, and businessman

“One day with life and heart
Is more than time enough to find a world.”

James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) American poet, critic, editor, and diplomat

“Age is no more near than youth
To the sceptre and the crown.
Vain the wisdom, vain the truth;
Do not lay thy rapture down.”

George William Russell (1867–1935) Irish writer, editor, critic, poet, and artistic painter

“Thoughts are given us, not only to chew over for ourselves, but to communicate to others. And if we can find a man that is ready to receive them, and a suitable occasion, there is nothing more pleasurable than giving them.”

Frank Crane (1861–1928) American Presbyterian minister

“Nothing is more surprising than the surprises of history, and nothing more untrustworthy than the uncritical extrapolation of the tendencies of the recent past.”

Lancelot Law Whyte (1896–1972) Scottish industrial engineer