Quotes about life
page 48

“All things of the body stream away like a river, all things of the mind are dreams and delusion; life is warfare, and a visit to a strange land; the only lasting fame is oblivion.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

Source: Meditations

Dreams

“if you don’t try at anything, you can’t fail… it takes back bone to lead the life you want”

Richard Yates book Revolutionary Road

Source: Revolutionary Road

“I'll never understand how a man can live his life
With his finger on the self-destruct button,
Holding it there day after day,
Blinded by an obsession to press it
But lacking the conviction to do even that.”

Neal Shusterman (1962) American novelist

Source: Bruiser

Understanding

“All is well. Everything is working out for my highest good. Out of this situation only good will come. I am safe." It will work miracles in your life.”

Louise L. Hay (1926–2017) American writer

“I'm not afraid of death. It's the stake one puts up in order to play the game of life.”

Jean Giraudoux Amphitryon 38

Source: Amphitryon 38

Death, Game

“Life is here, death is over there. I am here, not over there.”

Haruki Murakami book Norwegian Wood

Source: Norwegian Wood

Death

“And do you know a funny thing? I'm almost fifty years old and I've never understood anything in my whole life.”

Richard Yates book The Easter Parade

Source: The Easter Parade

“But life is just a party, and parties weren't meant to last.”

Prince (1958–2016) American pop, songwriter, musician and actor

1999
Song lyrics, 1999 (1982)
Source: 1999 (Piano/Vocal/Guitar)
Context: I was dreamin' when I wrote this
So sue me if I go 2 fast.
But life is just a party, and parties weren't meant 2 last.
War is all around us, my mind says prepare 2 fight
So if I gotta die I'm gonna listen 2 my body tonight.Yeah, they say two thousand zero zero party over,
oops out of time
So tonight I'm gonna party like it's 1999.

“You are the masterpiece
of your own life.
You are the Michelangelo
of your own life.
The David you are sculpturing
is you

(Dr. Joe Vitale)”

Rhonda Byrne book The Secret

Source: The Secret

“perfection. I have been waiting all my life to be with you. My heart slams against my ribs when I think of the slaughtered nights I spent all over the world waiting to feel your touch.”

Henry Rollins (1961) American singer-songwriter

Source: Solipsist

World, Feeling, Thinking, Waiting

“O for a life of Sensations rather than of Thoughts!”

John Keats (1795–1821) English Romantic poet

Letter to Benjamin Bailey (November 22, 1817)
Letters (1817–1820)
Source: Letters of John Keats

“The atheist view is correspondingly life-affirming and life-enhancing, while at the same time never being tainted with self-delusion, wishful thinking, or the whingeing self-pity of those who feel that life owes them something.”

Richard Dawkins book The God Delusion

Source: The God Delusion

Feeling, Thinking, Time

“When you kill a man, you steal a life," Baba said. "You steal his wife's right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness. Do you see?”

Khaled Hosseini book The Kite Runner

Variant: When you kill a man, you steal a life. You steal his wife's right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness.
Source: The Kite Runner (2003)
Context: There is only one sin, only one. And that is theft. Every other sin is a variation of theft.... When you kill a man, you steal a life. You steal his wife's right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness.

Children, Truth, Lie, Cheating

“I know you feel inhuman, and as if you are set apart, away from life and love, but…"
His voice cracked a little, the first time Tessa had heard him sound unsure.
He cleared his throat. "I promise you, the right man won't care.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel

Source: Clockwork Angel

Love, Feeling, Time

“The shortness of life, so often lamented, may be the best thing about it.”

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German philosopher

Wise, Life

“Life, that can shower you with so much splendour, is unremittingly cruel to those who have given up.”

Stephen Fry book Moab Is My Washpot

1990s, Moab is My Washpot (autobiography, 1997)
Source: Moab Is My Washpot

“At Sunday worship, as in every dimension of our existence, many of us pretend to believe we are sinners. Consequently, all we can do is pretend we have been forgiven. As a result, our whole spiritual life is pseudo-repentance and pseudo-bliss.”

Brennan Manning (1934–2013) writer, American Roman Catholic priest and United States Marine

“The hard thing about death is that nothing ever changes. The hard thing about life is that nothing stays the same.”

Sue Grafton (1940–2017) American writer

Source: J is for Judgment

Death, Change

“Give me a girl at an impressionable age and she is mine for life.”

Muriel Spark book The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

Source: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

Age, Girl

“I am afraid. Not of life, or death, or nothingness, but of wasting it as if I had never been.”

Daniel Keyes book Flowers for Algernon

Source: Flowers for Algernon (1966)

Death

“… I try to laugh at whatever life brings…”

Ani DiFranco (1970) musician and activist

“If you're looking for Mr. Perfect, you‟re going to spend your whole life being disappointed, because he doesn‟t exist. You have to get the best deal you can, but there will always be problems.”

Linda Howard (1950) American writer

Source: Mr. Perfect

Disappointment, Problem, Perfection

“The world is crazy. You need a license to drive a car and go fishing. You don't need a license to start a family. Two people have sex and BAM! Perfectly innocent kid is born whose life will be screwed up by her parents forever.”

Laurie Halse Anderson (1961) American children's writer

Source: The Impossible Knife of Memory

People, World, Family, Sex

“If you have a past with which you feel dissatisfied, then forget it, now. Imagine a new story for your life and believe in it. Focus only on the moments when you achieved what you desired, and that strength will help you to get what you want.”

Paulo Coelho book The Fifth Mountain

Source: The Fifth Mountain

Feeling, Imagination, Past, Help

“Life is half delicious yogurt, half crap, and your job is to keep the plastic spoon in the yogurt.”

Scott Adams (1957) cartoonist, writer

Dilbert Blog, Sleepless in California, 2006-07-21, http://web.archive.org/20060814050102/dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2006/07/sleepless_in_ca.html, 2006-08-14 http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2006/07/sleepless_in_ca.html,

“I’m so sorry that I wasted your time because you really do mean a lot to me and I hope you have a very nice life because I really think you deserve it. I really do. I hope you do, too. Okay, then. Goodbye.”

Stephen Chbosky book The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Hope, Thinking, Time

“Being touched by Jericho Barrons with kindness makes you feel like you the biggest, most savage lion in the jungle, lying down, placing your
head it its mouth and, rather than taking your life, it licks you and
purrs.”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: Bloodfever

Feeling, Lying

“Everything we do is infused with the energy with which we do it. If we're frantic, life will be frantic. If we're peaceful, life will be peaceful. And so our goal in any situation becomes inner peace.”

Marianne Williamson (1952) American writer

Peace

“Once in a while, life gives you a chance to measure your worth. Sometimes you're called upon to make a split-second decision to do the right thing, defining which way your life will go. These are the decisions that make you who you are.”

Perry Moore (1971–2011) Executive producer of the Narnia films and author of award-winning LGBTQ young adult novel Hero

Way, Decision, Chance

“You tasted it. Isn't that enough? Of what do you ever get more than a taste? That's all we're given in life, that's all we're given of life. A taste. There is no more.”

Philip Roth book The Dying Animal

Source: The Dying Animal

“SABLE- A common knitting acronym that stands for Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy.”

Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (1968) Canadian writer

Source: At Knit's End: Meditations for Women Who Knit Too Much

“We spend our life building higher fences and stronger locks, when the gravest dangers are already inside”

Richard Paul Evans (1962) American writer

Source: The Sunflower

“Children don’t heed the life experiences of their parents, and nations ignore history. Bad lessons always have to be learned anew.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

Children, History, Parent, Learning

“Patience is… clearly not fatalistic, shoulder-shrugging resignation. It is the acceptance of a divine rhythm to life; it is obedience prolonged. Patience stoutly resists pulling up the daisies to see how the roots are doing.”

Neal A. Maxwell (1926–2004) Mormon leader

Patience

“Who says life is fair, where is that written?”

William Goldman book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

“Solitude is not the absence of company, but the moment when our soul is free to speak to us and help us decide what to do with our life.”

Paulo Coelho book Manuscript Found in Accra

Source: Manuscript Found in Accra (2012), Solitude

Soul, Solitude, Help

“I read the first chapter ofwhen Dad was still alive, and I got incredibly heavy boots about how relatively insignificant life is, and how, compared to the universe and compared to time, it didn't even matter if I existed at all.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Universe, Time, Reading

“Life's not fair, get over it!”

Bill Gates (1955) American business magnate and philanthropist

Variant: Life is not fair get used to used to it

“To accept one's past - one's history - is not the same things as drowning in it. An invented past can never be used; it cracks and crumbles under the pressures of life like clay in a season of drought.”

James Baldwin book The Fire Next Time

Variant: To accept one’s past – one’s history – is not the same thing as drowning in it; it is learning how to use it. An invented past can never be used; it cracks and crumbles under the pressures of life like clay in a season of drought.
Source: The Fire Next Time

History, Past, Season

“To be sensual, I think, is to respect and rejoice in the force of life, of life itself, and to bein all that one does, from the effort of loving to the breaking of bread.”

James Baldwin book The Fire Next Time

Source: The Fire Next Time

Love, Thinking, Effort

“Everything in life is luck.”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

“His heart danced upon her movements like a cork upon a tide. He heard what her eyes said to him from beneath their cowl and knew that in some dim past, whether in life or revery, he had heard their tale before.”

James Joyce book A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Source: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Past, Heart, Dance

“change your brain, change your life”

Ilchi Lee (1950) South Korean businessman

Change: Realizing Your Greatest Potential

Change

“Never leave a friend behind. Friends are all we have to get us through this life--and they are the only things from this world that we could hope to see in the next.”

Dean Koontz book Fear Nothing

Source: Fear Nothing

World, Hope, Friendship, For Friend

“Sometimes life is very mean: a person can spend days, weeks, months and years without feeling new. Then, when a door opens - a positive avalanche pours in. One moment, you have nothing, the next, you have more than you can cope with.”

Paulo Coelho book Eleven Minutes

Source: Eleven Minutes

Feeling, Personality

“Just once in my life--oh, when have I ever wanted anything just once in my life?”

Amy Hempel (1951) Short story writer

Source: The Dog of the Marriage: Stories

“The untold want, by life and land ne'er granted,
Now, Voyager, sail thou forth, to seek and find.”

Walt Whitman book Fulles d'herba

Variant: Now, Voyager, sail thou forth, to seek and find.
Source: Leaves of Grass

“A ballplayer spends a good piece of his life gripping a baseball, and in the end it turns out that it was the other way around all the time.”

Jim Bouton (1939–2019) American baseball player, writer

Way, Time

“Our life is composed greatly from dreams, from the unconscious, and they must be brought into connection with action. They must be woven together.”

Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) writer of novels, short stories, and erotica

Dreams

“Every life is in many days, day after day. We walk through ourselves, meeting robbers, ghosts, giants, old men, young men, wives, widows, brothers-in-love, but always meeting ourselves.”

James Joyce Ulysses

Source: Ulysses

Love, Men

“Once the travel bug bites there is no known antidote, and I know that I shall be happily infected until the end of my life”

Michael Palin (1943) British comedian, actor, writer and television presenter

Travel

“Intelligent life on other planets? I'm not even sure there is on earth!”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

Intelligence

“Despite everything, life is full of beauty and meaning.”

Etty Hillesum (1914–1943) Jewish diarist

Source: Lettres De Westerbork

Beauty

“Our very life depends on everythings' recurring til we answer from within.”

Robert Frost (1874–1963) American poet

Dependency

“There was a dull pang of regret because it was not the kiss of love which had inflamed her, because it was not love which had held this cup of life to her lips.”

Kate Chopin book The Awakening

Source: The Awakening

Love, Kiss

“Have you ever noticed how when you're happy, time seems to pass by fast, while when you're miserable it goes real slow? Life would have been a blink with you whether it lasted a millennium or a month.”

Lynsay Sands Canadian writer

Source: A Quick Bite

Happiness, Time

“Real misanthropes are not found in solitude, but in the world; since it is experience of life, and not philosophy, which produces real hatred of mankind.”

Giacomo Leopardi (1798–1837) Italian poet, philosopher and writer

World, Solitude

“Life is a zoo in a jungle”

Peter de Vries (1910–1993) American editor and novelist

“No matter how quiet and conformist a person’s life seems, there’s always a time in the past when they reached an impasse. A time when they went a little crazy. I guess people need that sort of stage in their lives.”

Haruki Murakami book Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage

Source: Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage

People, Time, Past, Personality

“Trevor possessed many of the qualities of a vampire without actually being one. He constantly preyed on me, was deeply charismatic, and tried to suck the life out of me.”

Ellen Schreiber (1967) American writer

Source: Cryptic Cravings

“Life gives to all the choice. You can satisfy yourself with mediocrity if you wish. You can be common, ordinary, dull, colorless, or yyou can channel your life so that it will be clean, vibrant, useful, progressive, colorful, and rich.”

Spencer W. Kimball (1895–1985) President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Color

“Then I go in the den and turn on Law & Order, since the only thing i can really count on in life is that whenever I turn on the TV, there will be a Law & Order episode.”

David Levithan book Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Source: Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Law

“There’s a lesson in real-life stalking cases that young women can benefit from learning: persistence only proves persistence—it does not prove love. The fact that a romantic pursuer is relentless doesn’t mean you are special—it means he is troubled.”

Gavin de Becker (1954) American engineer

Source: The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence

Love, Women, Learning

“Without music, life would be a blank to me.”

Jane Austen book Emma

Source: Emma

Music

“I grabbed her, right there outside the lunch room in the swarming mob. I didn't care if others were watching. In fact, i hoped they were. I grabbed her and squeezed her. I had never been so happy and so proud in my life.”

Jerry Spinelli book Stargirl

Source: Stargirl

Happiness, Hope

“Life attracts life.”

Paulo Coelho book The Alchemist

The alchemist uses this expression at p. 23, but it is one that does not originate with Coelho, though his work has popularized it.
Source: The Alchemist (1988)

“Do not, under any circumstances belittle a works of fiction by trying to turn it into a carbon copy of real life; what we search for in fiction is not so much reality but the epiphany of truth.”

Azar Nafisi book Reading Lolita in Tehran

Source: Reading Lolita in Tehran (2003)

Truth, Search, Reality

“you will find as you look back upon your life that the moments when you have truly lived are the moments when you have done things in the spirit of love.”

Henry Drummond (1851–1897) Scottish evangelist, writer and lecturer

Variant: You will find, as you look back upon your life, that the moments when you really lived are the moments when you have done things in the spirit of love.

Love, Wedding

“For me, the release was a spot in time with no past and no future. Just the extraordinary simplicity of a moment— the kind of moment that has a funny way of making a person believe that life and love can last forever.”

Tiffanie DeBartolo (1970) American writer

Source: How to Kill a Rock Star

Love, Way, Time, Past

“Everything comes at a price. Everthing in your life. The question you have to ask yourself is, what price are you willing to pay?”

Paullina Simons book The Summer Garden

Source: The Summer Garden

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