“We are reading the story of our lives
As though we were in it
As though we had written it.”
Mark Strand (1934–2014) Canadian-American poet, essayist, translator
The Extasy, line 45
Context: We then, who are this new soul, know
Of what we are compos'd and made,
For th' atomies of which we grow
Are souls, whom no change can invade.
But oh alas, so long, so far,
Our bodies why do we forbear?
They'are ours, though they'are not we; we are
The intelligences, they the spheres.
“We are reading the story of our lives
As though we were in it
As though we had written it.”
Mark Strand (1934–2014) Canadian-American poet, essayist, translator
Billy Joel (1949) American singer-songwriter and pianist
Summer, Highland Falls.
Song lyrics, Turnstiles (1976)
“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
“Even though we are each our own person… we're connected through the same dream! We are Seigaku!”
Takeshi Konomi (1970) Japanese manga artist
“Thus, though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run.”
Andrew Marvell To His Coy Mistress
Source: To His Coy Mistress (1650-1652)
Context: Let us roll all our strength and all
Our sweetness up into one ball,
And tear our pleasures with rough strife
Thorough the iron gates of life:
Thus, though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run.
“We sit here stranded, though we're all doin' our best to deny it.”
Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist
Song lyrics, Blonde on Blonde (1966), Visions of Johanna
Frederick Douglass (1818–1895) American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman
1860s, Our Composite Nationality (1869)
Context: The apprehension that we shall be swamped or swallowed up by Mongolian civilization; that the Caucasian race may not be able to hold their own against that vast incoming population, does not seem entitled to much respect. Though they come as the waves come, we shall be all the stronger if we receive them as friends and give them a reason for loving our country and our institutions. They will find here a deeply rooted, indigenous, growing civilization, augmented by an ever-increasing stream of immigration from Europe, and possession is nine points of the law in this case, as well as in others. They will come as strangers. We are at home. They will come to us, not we to them. They will come in their weakness, we shall meet them in our strength. They will come as individuals, we will meet them in multitudes, and with all the advantages of organization. Chinese children are in American schools in San Francisco. None of our children are in Chinese schools, and probably never will be, though in some things they might well teach us valuable lessons. Contact with these yellow children of the Celestial Empire would convince us that the points of human difference, great as they, upon first sight, seem, are as nothing compared with the points of human agreement. Such contact would remove mountains of prejudice.
“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