“To navigate is necessary, to live is not.”
Pompey (-106–-48 BC) Roman general
To sailors who were defending Rome from a sea invasion.
Life of Pompey
Ibid., pp. 133, 262
This has been attributed to Pessoa. Indeed, it is from Plutarch's "Parallel Lives", about Pompeus, when demanding that soldiers board the ships, when they were afraid of dying at sea.
The Book of Disquiet
Original: Navegar é preciso, viver não é preciso.
“To navigate is necessary, to live is not.”
Pompey (-106–-48 BC) Roman general
To sailors who were defending Rome from a sea invasion.
Life of Pompey
Maimónides book The Guide for the Perplexed
Source: Guide for the Perplexed (c. 1190), Part III, Ch.12
“Yes, it is necessary to suffer, even in vain, so as not to live in vain.”
Antonio Porchia (1885–1968) Italian Argentinian poet
Sí, es necesario padecer, aún en vano, para no vivir en vano.
Voces (1943)
“Love’em or hate’em, by blood or by heart, family was a kind of oxygen. Necessary for the living.”
Jessica Bird (1969) U.S. novelist
Source: Lover at Last
“It's necessary to have wished for death in order to know how good it is to live.”
Alexandre Dumas book The Count of Monte Cristo
Source: The Count of Monte Cristo
William Law (1686–1761) English cleric, nonjuror and theological writer
Source: A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life (1728), Ch. I.
Henry Beston (1888–1968) American writer
Source: The Outermost House: A Year of Life On The Great Beach of Cape Cod
Jimmy Carter (1924) American politician, 39th president of the United States (in office from 1977 to 1981)
Post-Presidency, Nobel lecture (2002)
Source: The Nobel Peace Prize Lecture
Luther Burbank (1849–1926) American botanist, horticulturist and pioneer in agricultural science
How Plants are Trained to Work for Man (1921) Vol. 1 Plant Breeding