“If life is a punishment, one should wish for an end; if life is a test, one should wish it to be short.”

“Life favors the specific ask and punishes the vague wish.”

Timothy Ferriss book Tools of Titans

“One should not seek those who do not wish to be found.”

Melissa de la Cruz book Masquerade

“I wish life was not so short," he thought. "Languages take such a time, and so do all the things one wants to know about.”

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892–1973) British philologist and author, creator of classic fantasy works

“If the rest of them can survive only by destroying us, then why should we wish them to survive?… Nothing can make it moral to destroy the best. One can't be punished for being good. One can't be penalized for ability.”

Ayn Rand book Atlas Shrugged

“Remorse is a terrible thing to bear, Pam, one of the worst of all punishments in this life. To wish undone something you have done, to wish you could look back on kindness to someone you love, instead of on unkindness - that is a very terrible thing.”

Enid Blyton (1897–1968) author

“Too many adults wish to 'protect' teenagers when they should be stimulating them to read of life as it is lived.”

Margaret A. Edwards (1902–1988) American librarian

“How certain human beings are able to create works of art is a mystery, and why they should wish to do so, at a great cost to themselves usually, is another mystery. Works are not created by one's life; every life is rich in material.”

Elizabeth Hardwick (1916–2007) Novelist, short story writer, literary critic

“Never, for any reason on earth, could you wish for an increase in pain. Of pain you could wish only one thing: that it should stop.”

George Orwell book 1984

“The fear of becoming old is born of the recognition that one is not living now the life that one wishes.”

Susan Sontag (1933–2004) American writer and filmmaker, professor, and activist