Quotes about life
page 49

“You are the leader here. Obviiusly your skills are far superior to mine. I don't think I could fit into your life. I'm a loner, not the first lady.”

Christine Feehan book Dark Prince

Source: Dark Prince

Thinking

“Each of us was in your life for a reason. You may not have known the reason at the time, and that is what heaven is for. For understanding your life on earth.”

Mitch Albom book The Five People You Meet in Heaven

Source: The Five People You Meet in Heaven

Understanding, Time

“We both wondered whether these contradictions that one can't avoid if one begins to think of time and space may not really be proofs that the whole of life is a dream, and the moon and stars bits of nightmare.”

Arthur Machen (1863–1947) Welsh author and mystic

Source: The Terror

Dreams, Star, Thinking, Time

“Writing is the only way I have to explain my own life to myself.”

Pat Conroy (1945–2016) American novelist

Source: My Reading Life

Way

“Wealth, my son, should never be your goal in life. Your words are eloquent but they are mere words. True wealth is of the heart, not of the purse.”

Og Mandino book The Greatest Salesman in the World

Source: The Greatest Salesman in the World

Heart, Wealth

“The rose petal floats on water. The kingfisher flashes above the pond. Life and beauty swirl in the midst of death.”

Robert Jordan book The Eye of the World

al'Lan Mandragoran
(15 January 1990)
Source: The Eye of the World

Death, Beauty, Water

“Life is like an onion; you peel it off one layer at a time, and sometimes you weep.”

Carl Sandburg book Remembrance Rock

Variant: Life is an onion - you peel it year by year and sometimes cry.
Source: Remembrance Rock

Time

“I try not to remember the life that I didn’t want to lose but lost and have to remember”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

“Result of self-consciousness: audience and actor are the same. I live my life as a spectacle for myself, for my own edification. I live my life but I don't live in it. The hoarding instinct in human relations.”

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

Source: Reborn: Journals and Notebooks, 1947-1963

“A certain cynicism, born of the life she has led; a streak of strange wisdom; the wistfulness behind the gaiety; sometimes fear; and nearly always the memory of loneliness that hurts the soul.”

Georgette Heyer book These Old Shades

Source: These Old Shades

Wisdom, Fear, Soul, Memory

“The beginning of our happiness lies in the understanding that life without wonder is not worth living.”

Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907–1972) Polish-American Conservative Judaism Rabbi

Happiness, Understanding

“While we're waiting for a cab I'll give you your lesson for today. Don't listen to what your teachers tell ya, you know. Don't pay attention. Just, just see what they look like and that's how you'll know what life is really gonna be like.”

Woody Allen (1935) American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, author, playwright, and musician

Teachers, Waiting

“Life is meant to be fun, and joyous, and fulfilling.”

Jim Henson (1936–1990) American puppeteer

Source: It's Not Easy Being Green: And Other Things to Consider

“I have all the time in the world from life to life to do what is to do, to do what is done, to do the timeless doing.”

Jack Kerouac book The Dharma Bums

Source: The Dharma Bums

World, Time

“How many people ask you to come share their life?”

Janet Fitch book White Oleander

Source: White Oleander

People

“Every action we take has consequences, Vin," Kelsier said. "I've found that in both Allomancy and life, the person who can best judge the consequences of their actions will be the most successful.”

Brandon Sanderson (1975) American fantasy writer

Source: The Final Empire

Success, Personality

“Life is short. Kiss slowly, laugh insanely, love truly and forgive quickly”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist

https://www.facebook.com/11777366210/posts/10159064721041211/?

Love, Forgiveness, Kiss, Heart Touching

“Life is slippery. We all need a loving hand to hold onto.”

H. Jackson Brown, Jr. (1940) American writer

Source: Life's Little Instruction Book: 511 Suggestions, Observations, and Reminders on How to Live a Happy and Rewarding Life

Love

“We never know the quality of someone else's life, though we seldom resist the temptation to assume and pass judgement.”

Tami Hoag (1959) American writer

Source: Dark Horse

“You've already decided what you're going to do, and all that's left is to set the wheels in motion. I mean, it's your life. Basically, you gotta go with what you think is right.”

Haruki Murakami book Kafka on the Shore

Source: Kafka on the Shore

Thinking

“Figure out what is real for you. No use leaning on someone else's story all your life.”

Shannon Hale book Austenland

Source: Austenland

“Remember… life is short. Each moment you have is precious. Treasure every second. Don't spend them doing anything you don't love.”

Meg Cabot (1967) Novelist

Source: Queen of Babble Gets Hitched

Love

“Life is a gamble. You can get hurt, but people die in plane crashes, lose their arms and legs in car accidents; people die every day. Same with fighters: some die, some get hurt, some go on. You just don't let yourself believe it will happen to you.”

Muhammad Ali (1942–2016) African American boxer, philanthropist and activist

People, Cars, Hurt, Hurtful

“There are moments in your life that, when you look back at them, you realize were perfect.”

Jim Butcher book Skin Game

Source: Skin Game

Perfection

“So what is true for life itself is no less true for the universe: knowing where you came from is no less important than knowing where you are going.”

Neil deGrasse Tyson (1958) American astrophysicist and science communicator

2000s
Context: No matter who you are, engaging in the quest to discover where and how things began tends to induce emotional fervor—as if knowing the beginning bestows upon you some form of fellowship with, or perhaps governance over, all that comes later. So what is true for life itself is no less true for the universe: knowing where you came from is no less important than knowing where you are going.

Universe

“That was such a wonderful time, even in its strangeness and sadness-and life isn't the same now. It's wonderful, but it isn't the same.”

Gregory Maguire book Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

Source: Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

Sadness, Time

“This was the last thing I expected. You destroy my life and then feed me some inspiratonal philosophy.”

Richelle Mead book Last Sacrifice

Source: Last Sacrifice

“How do people come up with a date and a time to take life from another man? Who made them God?”

Ernest J. Gaines A Lesson Before Dying

Source: A Lesson Before Dying

God, People, Time

“Life is like underwear, should be changed twice a day.”

Ray Bradbury book Zen in the Art of Writing

A Graveyard for Lunatics (1990)
Source: Zen in the Art of Writing

Change

“All of life is a foreign country.”

Jack Kerouac (1922–1969) American writer

Letter to John Clellon Holmes (24 June 1949), published in The Beat Vision: A Primary Sourcebook (1987) edited by Arthur Knight and Kit Knight, page 93.

Country

“I do not seek the good of others as a sanction for my right to exist, nor do I recognize the good of others as a justification for their seizure of my property or their destruction of my life.”

Ayn Rand book Atlas Shrugged

Source: Atlas Shrugged

“I want you too much. I want you with me, in my life, in my bed. If i can have that, nothing else matters.”

Sylvia Day (1973) American writer

Source: Reflected in You

“Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the transition that's troublesome.”

Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, known for his works of science fiction …

Death, Peace

“We cannot discuss the state of our minorities until we first have a sense of what we are, who we are, what our goals are, and what we take life to be.”

James Baldwin (1924–1987) (1924-1987) writer from the United States

Sense

“The purpose of life is to familiarize oneself with this after-death body so that the act of dying will not create confusion in the psyche.”

Terence McKenna (1946–2000) American ethnobotanist

Death

“For books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a potency of life in them to be as active as that soul was whose progeny they are; nay, they do preserve as in a vial the purest efficacy and extraction of that living intellect that bred them.”

John Milton book Areopagitica

Source: Areopagitica

Books, Soul, Dead

“Expectation. is the true soul of art. If you can give a man more than he expects, then he will laud you his entire life. If you can create an air of anticipation and feed it properly, you will succeed.”

Brandon Sanderson book Words of Radiance

Source: Words of Radiance

Art, Soul

“I suspect that much of life is like that. We seldom see what is closest to our eyes.”

Jack Whyte book Uther

Source: Uther

“Do you know what I love? Life. And romantic love is a distraction that makes staying alive more difficult. " [Sabine]”

Kresley Cole American writer

Source: Kiss of a Demon King

Love

“You've recognised a fundamental feature of an addict's life. Maintaining your habit is so important you've no real interest in anything else.”

Marian Keyes (1963) Irish writer

Source: Rachel's Holiday

“He felt like somebody had taken the lid off life and let him see the works.”

Dashiell Hammett book The Maltese Falcon

Source: The Maltese Falcon

“It was easy enough to kill yourself in a fit of despair. It was easy enough to play the martyr. It was harder to do nothing. To endure your life. To wait.”

Erica Jong book Fear of Flying

Source: Fear of Flying

Waiting, Despair

“My dad used to say that life's a journey, but somebody screwed up and lost the map.”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

Source: Kiss of Death

“You convinced yourselves we're just a bunch of regular lads who got a bad break in life. Anything else would have cracked your dream open and made you face reality. Illusion is easy. Illusion is the loser's way out. Your way.”

Peter F. Hamilton book The Reality Dysfunction

Source: The Reality Dysfunction

Dreams, Way, Reality

“He sat a long time and he thought about his life and how little of it he could ever have foreseen and he wondered for all his will and all his intent how much of it was his doing.”

Cormac McCarthy book Cities of the Plain

Source: Cities of the Plain

Time

“We are all resigned to death: it's life we aren't resigned to.”

Graham Greene book The Heart of the Matter

Source: The Heart of the Matter

Death

“It's not Cowardly to make a choice about what you want your life to be. Choosing what's right for you, maybe that's the bravest thing you can do.”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Source: Angels Twice Descending

“If my life is surrendered to God, all is well. Let me not grab it back, as though it were in peril in His hand but would be safer in mine!”

Elisabeth Elliot (1926–2015) American missionary

God

“If there's a thing I've learned in my life it's to not be afraid of the responsibility that comes with caring for other people. What we do for love: those things endure. Even if the people you do them for don't”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Love, People, Learning

“It may not seem obvious at first glance, but the way we make decisions in life tells a lot about the kind of faith we have in Jesus Christ.”

Jim Cymbala (1959) author, pastor

Source: Fresh Faith: What Happens When Real Faith Ignites God's People

Faith, Way, Decision, Christ

“There's a taste in the air, sweet and vaguely antiseptic, that reminds him of his teenage years in these streets, and of a general state of longing, a hunger for life to begin that from this distance seems like happiness.”

Ian McEwan book Saturday

Source: Saturday

Hunger, Happiness

“A falcon who chases a warlike crane can only hope for a life of pain.”

Gabriel García Márquez book Chronicle of a Death Foretold

Source: Chronicle of a Death Foretold

Pain, Hope

“Sometimes one gets the feeling that life still thinks it's living in Paris in the '30s.”

Tom Robbins (1932) American writer

Feeling, Thinking

“I read so I can live more than one life in more than one place.”

Anne Tyler (1941) American novelist

Reading

“As long as you find something beautiful, good, and true to believe in and abide by, you have the equivalent of God in your life.”

Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist

Source: Creating True Peace: Ending Violence in Yourself, Your Family, Your Community, and the World

God, Beauty

“I used to be afraid of dying. Now I’m afraid of not living. There’s a difference. We go through life planning for a future, but sometimes that future never comes.”

Neal Shusterman (1962) American novelist

Source: Challenger Deep

Future

“This is a great fact: strength is life; weakness is death. Strength is felicity, life eternal, immortal; weakness is constant strain and misery, weakness is death.”

Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902) Indian Hindu monk and phylosopher

Death

“Maybe we're standing like coins on the edge?"
Allie considered this. "Meaning?"
"Meaning, we might be able to shake things up a little, and find a way to come up heads."
"Or tails," suggested Allie.
"What are youabout?" said Lief.
"Life and death.”

Neal Shusterman book Everlost

Source: Everlost

Death, Way

“You can tell a lot from a person's nails. When a life starts to unravel, they're among the first to go.”

Ian McEwan book Saturday

Source: Saturday

Personality

“Everything is so alive, that I can be alive. Without moving I can see it all. In your life I see everything that lives.”

Pablo Neruda (1904–1973) Chilean poet

“Create the highest, grandest vision possible for your life, because you become what you believe”

Oprah Winfrey (1954) American businesswoman, talk show host, actress, producer, and philanthropist

“You know what your problem is, it's that you haven't seen enough movies - all of life's riddles are answered in the movies."
Steve Martin”

Steve Martin (1945) American actor, comedian, musician, author, playwright, and producer

Problem

“Why do people move? What makes them uproot and leave everything they've known for a great unknown beyond the horizon?… The answer is the same the world over: people move in the hope of a better life.”

Yann Martel book Life of Pi

Source: Life of Pi

People, World, Hope

“You told me I was the best sex you'd ever had in your life… You couldn't get enough… At one point you were so loud I thought sure hotel security was going to beat down the door.”

Rachel Gibson (1961) American writer

Source: I'm In No Mood For Love

Sex

“What I wanted to do seemed simple. I wanted something alive and shocking enough that it could be a morning in somebody's life. The most ordinary morning. Imagine, trying to do that.”

Michael Cunningham book The Hours

Source: The Hours

Imagination

“For life makes no mistakes and always gives man that which man first gives himself.”

Neville Goddard (1905–1972) American author and lecturer

Source: The Law and Other Essays on Manifestation

“There is a very fine line between loving life and being greedy for it.”

Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American author and poet

Love

“He swallowed. “Have you no modesty?” Never in his life had he encountered a female so quick to be naked. Of course, he’d never in his life encountered a female who should so utterly be naked at any chance.”

Kresley Cole book The Warlord Wants Forever

Source: The Warlord Wants Forever

Chance

“I used to think that humor was the only way to appreciate how wonderful and terrible the world is, to celebrate how big life is. But now I think the opposite. Humor is a way of shrinking from that wonderful and terrible world.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Everything Is Illuminated

Source: Everything Is Illuminated (2002)

World, Way, Thinking

“I think I’ve got something else to help center my life.”

Richelle Mead book The Golden Lily

Source: The Golden Lily

Thinking, Help

“The art of life is more like the wrestler's art than the dancer's, in respect of this, that it should stand ready and firm to meet onsets which are sudden and unexpected.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

VII, 61
Source: Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VII

Art

“Youth offers the promise of happiness, but life offers the realities of grief.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Rescue

Source: 2000s, The Rescue (2000), Chapter 1, p. 9

Happiness, Youth, Reality

“You use your life.”

John Fowles book The Collector

The Collector

“Never build your emotional life on the weaknesses of others.”

George Santayana (1863–1952) 20th-century Spanish-American philosopher associated with Pragmatism

“He had the unlucky capacity many men have of seeing and believing in the possibility of goodness and truth, but of seeing the evil and falsehood of life too clearly to take any serious part in it.”

Leo Tolstoy book War and Peace

Source: War and Peace

Men, Truth, Evil, Parting

“And what he meant was that maths wasn't like life because in life there are no straightforward answers in the end”

Mark Haddon book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Source: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

“You can't live your life to suit other people. The harder you try, the more restrictions they'll put on you just for the fun of seeing you jump through their hoops.”

Judith McNaught (1944) American writer

Source: Paradise

People

“If you stumble about believability, what are you living for? Love is hard to believe, ask any lover. Life is hard to believe, ask any scientist. God is hard to believe, ask any believer. What is your problem with hard to believe?”

Yann Martel book Life of Pi

Source: Life of Pi

Love, God, Lovers, Problem

“A person will sometimes devote all his life to the development of one part of his body— the wishbone.”

Robert Frost (1874–1963) American poet

Parting, Personality

“The hatred I feel for him, for the phantom girl, for everything, is so real and immediate it chokes me. Gale is mine. I am his. Anything else is unthinkable. Why did it take him being whipped within an inch of his life to see it?”

Suzanne Collins book Catching Fire

Source: Catching Fire

Feeling, Girl

“Things men have made with wakened hands, and put soft life into
are awake through years with transferred touch, and go on glowing
for long years.
And for this reason, some old things are lovely
warm still with the life of forgotten men who made them.”

D.H. Lawrence (1885–1930) English novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, literary critic and painter

Love, Men

“They waited for life to happen to them. They waited for someone to save them. Or heal them. They did nothing for themselves.”

Louise Penny book Still Life

Source: Still Life

Waiting

“It was the kind of kiss that made
me know that I was never so happy in my whole life.”

Stephen Chbosky book The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Happiness, Kiss, Happy

“Life is a train, get on board.”

Khaled Hosseini book The Kite Runner

Source: The Kite Runner

Training

“Harry Dresden: Many things are not as they seem: The worst things in life never are.”

Jim Butcher book White Night

Source: The Dresden Files, White Night (2007), Chapter 1, Opening line

“You must never behave as if your life belongs to a man. Do you hear me?” Aunty Ifeka said. “Your life belongs to you and you alone.”

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie book Half of a Yellow Sun

Source: Half of a Yellow Sun

“Has that line ever worked for anyone?”
“I’m not feeding you lines. I mean every word.”
…
“Day One of my life was the day I met you.”
“Okay, that’s a winner. You can put it in.”

Sylvia Day (1973) American writer

Source: Entwined with You

“I like the rain. It washes memories off the sidewalk of life.”

Woody Allen (1935) American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, author, playwright, and musician

Source: Manhattan

Memory

“You can put anything into words, except your own life”

Max Frisch (1911–1991) Swiss playwright and novelist

“It is the useless things that make life worth living and that make life dangerous too: wine, love, art, beauty. Without them life is safe, but not worth bothering with.”

Stephen Fry book Moab Is My Washpot

Referencing Oscar Wilde from the preface of "The Picture of Dorian Gray"; "All art is quite useless".
1990s, Moab is My Washpot (autobiography, 1997)
Source: Moab Is My Washpot
Context: … but love, like all art, as Oscar said, it's quite useless. It is the useless things that make life worth living and that make life dangerous too: wine, love, art, beauty. Without them life is safe but not worth bothering with.

Love, Beauty, Art, Wine