Quotes about life
page 53

“Maybe she'd always been there. Maybe strangers enter your heart first and then you spent the rest of your life searching for them.”

Melina Marchetta (1965) Australian teen writer

Source: The Piper's Son

Search, Heart

“But the memories that hang heaviest are the easiest to recall. They hold in their creases the ability to change one's life, organically, forever. Even when you shake them out, they've left permanent wrinkles in the fabric of your soul.”

Julie Gregory (1969) American writer

Source: Sickened: The Memoir of a Munchausen by Proxy Childhood

Soul, Memory, Change

“Running with a drowsy child of Hades was more like doing a 3 -legged race with a life size rag doll.”

Rick Riordan book The Last Olympian

Source: The Last Olympian

“It's a curious idea to reproduce when you don't even like life.”

Michel Houellebecq book Atomised

Source: The Elementary Particles

Idea

“Life is a comedy to those who think and a tragedy for those who feel.”

Horace Walpole (1717–1797) English art historian, man of letters, antiquarian and Whig politician

Letter to Anne, Countess of Ossory, (16 August 1776)
A favourite saying of Walpole's, it is repeated in other of his letters, and might be derived from a similar statement attributed to Jean de La Bruyère, though unsourced: "Life is a tragedy for those who feel, and a comedy for those who think". An earlier form occurs in another published letter:
I have often said, and oftener think, that this world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel — a solution of why Democritus laughed and Heraclitus wept.
Letter to Sir Horace Mann (31 December 1769)
Variant: The world is a comedy to those that think; a tragedy to those that feel.

Feeling, Thinking

“You are a name, not a number. Never forget that name, whatever they tell you here. You will always be Chaya—life—to me.”

Jane Yolen book The Devil's Arithmetic

Source: The Devil's Arithmetic

Forgetting

“With his fantastic mane of multicoloured hair, Phury should have been in Hollywood's league with the ladies, but he'd stuck with his vow of celibacy. There was room for one and only one love in his life, and it had been slowly killing him for years.”

Jessica Bird book Dark Lover

Source: Dark Lover

Love

“My father always used
to say that when you die,
if you've got five real friends,
then you've had a great life.”

Lee Iacocca (1924–2019) American businessman

“The life given us, by nature is short; but the memory of a well-spent life is eternal.”

Marcus Tullius Cicero (-106–-43 BC) Roman philosopher and statesman

Nature, Memory

“feels like some kind of ride but it's turning out just
to be life going absolutely perfectly”

Brian Andreas (1956) American artist

Feeling

“Belief in mysteries, any manner of mysteries, is the only lasting luxury in life.”

Zilpha Keatley Snyder book The Witches of Worm

Source: The Witches of Worm

“You can't love anyone or anything until you love your own existence first. Love can only grow out of a respect for your own life.”

Terry Goodkind book The Pillars of Creation

Source: The Pillars of Creation

Love

“I had wanted life not to bother me too much, and had succeeded - and how pitiful that was.”

Julian Barnes book The Sense of an Ending

Source: The Sense of an Ending

“There are no mistakes in life,
only lessons. There is no such thing as a negative experience, only
opportunities to grow, learn and advance along the road of selfmastery.
From struggle comes strength. Even pain can be a wonderful teacher”

Robin S. Sharma (1965) Canadian self help writer

Pain, Learning, Teachers

“I have always considered it despicable to grovel for your life as if life were a favor. If you cannot live the way you want, there is no point in living”

Reinaldo Arenas (1943–1990) Cuban poet/novelist/playwright

Way

“I'd killed him in the end, but revenge only makes things all better in the movies. In real life, once the villain is dead the trauma lives on inside the victims.”

Laurell K. Hamilton book Bullet

Source: Bullet

Revenge, Dead

“A man either lives life as it happens to him, meets it head-on and licks it, or he turns his back on it and starts to wither away.”

Gene Roddenberry (1921–1991) American television screenwriter and producer

"The Cage" (Star Trek first pilot), spoken by John Hoyt as "Dr. Philip Boyce" (0:06:18) <br class="br">Cited in: Dubes 52, Surviving Katrina Before and After https://books.google.nl/books?id=wyySAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA35&dq=%22A+man+either+lives+life+as+it+happens+to+him,+meets+it+head-on+and+licks+it,+or+he+turns+his+back+on+it+and+starts+to+wither+away%22&hl=nl&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjsleOa8aHLAhUFIQ8KHdVnClIQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=%22A%20man%20either%20lives%20life%20as%20it%20happens%20to%20him%2C%20meets%20it%20head-on%20and%20licks%20it%2C%20or%20he%20turns%20his%20back%20on%20it%20and%20starts%20to%20wither%20away%22&f=false, 2014, p. 35

“It's better to dance than to march through life.”

Yoko Ono (1933) Japanese artist, author, and peace activist

Dance

“The whole of life is but a moment of time. It is our duty, therefore to use it, not to misuse it.”

Plutarch book Moralia

Moralia, Of the Training of Children
Variant: The whole life of man is but a point of time; let us enjoy it, therefore, while it lasts, and not spend it to no purpose.

Time

“I think the secret to a hoppy life is a selective memory. Remember what you are most grateful for and quickly forget what your not.”

Richard Paul Evans (1962) American writer

Source: Grace

Secret, Thinking, Memory, Forgetting

“… if you ever wonder what you've done in your life, and everyone does wonder sooner or later, you have been God's grace to me, a miracle, something more than a miracle.”

Marilynne Robinson Gilead

Source: Gilead

God

“I am learning that a life isn't real unless someone else knows its reality. And I want my life to be real.”

David Levithan book Every Day

Source: Every Day

Reality, Learning

“Maybe we've lived a thousand lives before this one and in each of them we've found each other… I know I've spent each life before this one searching for you. Not someone like you but you, for your soul and mine must always come together.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Notebook

Source: The Notebook

Soul, Search

“Your value is not determined by your valuables, and God says the most valuable things in life are not things!”

Rick Warren (1954) Christian religious leader

Source: The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here for?

God

“In psychology (okay, Twilight) they teach you about the notion of imprinting, and I think it applies here. I reverse-imprinted with athleticism. Ours is the great non-love story of my life.”

Mindy Kaling book Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

Source: Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

Love, Thinking

“It is not theft, properly speaking, to take secretly and use another's property in a case of extreme need: because that which he takes for the support of his life becomes his own property by reason of that need”

Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican scholastic philosopher of the Roman Catholic Church

Support

“Most world religions denounced war as a barbaric waste of human life. We treasured the teachings of these religions so dearly that we frequently had to wage war in order to impose them on other people.”

Jon Stewart (1962) American political satirist, writer, television host, actor, media critic and stand-up comedian

War, People, World, Religion

“It is humankind's duty to respect all life, not only animals have feelings but even also trees and plants.”

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

Feeling, Tree, Animals

“The secret story is the one we'll never know, although we're living it from day to day, thinking we're alive, thinking we've got it all under control and the stuff we overlook doesn't matter. But every single damn thing matters! Only we don't realize. We just tell ourselves that art runs on one track and life, our lives, on another, and we don't realize that's a lie.”

Roberto Bolaño book Last Evenings on Earth

Dentist
Last Evenings on Earth (2006)

Lie, Secret, Art, Thinking

“Life is sometimes novel-shaped, mocking the efforts of those authors who, in an effort to make their novels life-shaped, spurn the easy symmetry and cheap resonance of reality.”

Stephen Fry book Moab Is My Washpot

Source: Moab Is My Washpot

Reality, Effort

“In my life so far, I have discovered that there are really only two kinds of people: those who are for you, and those who are against you. Learn to recognize them, for they are often and easily mistaken for each other.”

Lemmy Kilmister (1945–2015) British singer-songwriter

People, Learning

“And suddenly she knew exactly why Catherine had fallen in love with him. It wasn't that he was unusually attractive, or ambitious, or even charming. He was partly those things, but more important, he seemed to live life on his own terms.”

Nicholas Sparks book Message in a Bottle

Source: Message in a Bottle

Love

“Anything that doesn't take years of your life and drive you to suicide hardly seems worth doing.”

Cormac McCarthy (1933) American novelist, playwright, and screenwriter

The Wall Street Journal, November 20, 2009, "Hollywood's Favorite Cowboy" http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704576204574529703577274572.html by John Jurgensen  <br class="br">Variant: I’m not interested in writing short stories. Anything that doesn’t take years of your life and drive you to suicide hardly seems worth doing. <br class="br">Context: I'm not interested in writing short stories. Anything that doesn't take years of your life and drive you to suicide hardly seems worth doing.

Suicide

“I'm the one that's got to die when it's time for me to die, so let me live my life the way I want to.”

Jimi Hendrix (1942–1970) American musician, singer and songwriter

If 6 Was 9
Song lyrics, Axis: Bold as Love (1967)
Source: Jimi Hendrix - Axis: Bold as Love

Way, Time

“Every life I start with her, my original sin. I know myself through her.”

Ann Brashares book My Name is Memory

Source: My Name Is Memory

“We are men and our lot in life is to learn and to be hurled into inconceivable new worlds.”

Carlos Castaneda A Separate Reality

Source: A Separate Reality

Men, World, Learning

“I have people in my life, of course. Some write; some don't. Some read; some don't. Some stare vacantly into space when I talk the geeky talk and walk the geeky walk, but they make killer chocolate chip pancakes and so all is forgiven.”

Rob Thurman (1950) American writer

People, Reading

“We all agree it's too big to keep up with, that we're surrounded by life, that we'll never understand it, so we center it all in by swigging Scotch from the bottle and when it's empty I run out of the car and buy another one, period.”

Jack Kerouac book Big Sur

Source: Big Sur

Cars, Understanding

“When life hands you a lemon, say "Oh yeah, I like lemons. What else you got?”

Henry Rollins (1961) American singer-songwriter

The Boxed Life

“Ma vie est une énigme dont ton nom est le mot. (My life is an enigma, of which your name is the word.)”

Victor Hugo (1802–1885) French poet, novelist, and dramatist

“If you hate your life, you haven't' seen enough of it. If you hate your life, it's because your life is too small and doesn't' fit you.”

Augusten Burroughs (1965) American writer

Source: This Is How: Surviving What You Think You Can't

Hate

“This is how it has always been with me. Give me something good, I’ll destroy it. Love me, I’ll destroy you. I have never felt deserving of anything in my life.”

James Frey book A Million Little Pieces

Source: A Million Little Pieces

Love

“There are parts of his life and personality that are extremely messy, and that's the truth”

Walter Isaacson book Steve Jobs

Source: Steve Jobs

Truth, Parting, Personality

“I did not consider him to be any kind of a genius. I considered him deeply lacking in the area that mattered most in life. Star quality.”

Augusten Burroughs book Running with Scissors

Source: Running with Scissors

Star

“Remember it all, every insult, every tear. Tattoo it on the inside of your mind. In life, knowledge of poisons is essential. I've told you, nobody becomes an artist unless they have to.”

Janet Fitch (1955) American writer

Knowledge, Tear, Tattoo

“I didn't realize then that so much of being adult is reconciling ourselves with the awkwardness and strangeness of our own feelings. Youth is the time of life lived for some imaginary audience”

Douglas Coupland book Girlfriend in a Coma

Source: Girlfriend in a Coma

Youth, Feeling, Time

“You can either be a victim of the world or an adventurer in search of treasure. It all depends on how you view your life.”

Paulo Coelho book Eleven Minutes

Variant: I can choose either to be a victim of the world or an adventurer in search of treasure. It's all a question of how I view my life.
Source: Eleven Minutes (2003), p. 37.

World, Search, Dependency

“I have two rules in life - to hell with it, whatever it is, and get your work done.”

Ray Bradbury (1920–2012) American writer

Hell

“Eventually you will see that the real cause of problem is not life itself. It's the commotion the mind makes about life that really causes the problems.”

Michael Singer (1945) American landscape architect

Source: The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself

Problem

“What's the point of not taking chances? I don't know if I could stand living my whole life afraid.”

Ilsa J. Bick (1957) American writer

Source: Drowning Instinct

Chance

“Most travel, and certainly the rewarding kind, involves depending on the kindness of strangers, putting yourself into the hands of people you don't know and trusting them with your life.”

Paul Theroux book Ghost Train to the Eastern Star

Source: Ghost Train to the Eastern Star

People, Travel, Dependency

“Nothing living should ever be treated with contempt. Whatever it is that lives, a man, a tree, or a bird, should be touched gently, because the time is short. Civilization is another word for respect for life…”

Elizabeth Goudge book Green Dolphin Street

Source: Green Dolphin Street

Bird, Tree, Time

“and taught him the only thing he had to learn about love: that nobody teaches life anything.”

Gabriel García Márquez book Love in the Time of Cholera

Source: Love in the Time of Cholera

Love, Learning

“The life you save may very well be your own.”

Flannery O’Connor (1925–1964) American novelist, short story writer

“If you are good life is good.”

Roald Dahl book Matilda

Source: Matilda

“When I read a good book, I wish my life were three thousand years long.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

Books, Reading

“A man who has spent most of his adult life trying out a series of patent medicines is always an optimist.”

P.G. Wodehouse (1881–1975) English author

Source: The Most of P.G. Wodehouse

“He said you couldn't pretend the terrible things in life didn't happen. You can't clean it up. You keep all the refuse and the scars. It's how you learn. And try to make improvements.”

Marisha Pessl Special Topics in Calamity Physics

Source: Special Topics in Calamity Physics

Learning

“I want to thank you, Lord, for life and all that's in it.

Thank you for the day and for the hour, and the minute.”

Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American author and poet

“When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. Then find someone who's life is givin' them vodka and have a party!”

Ron White (1956) American comedian

They Call Me Tater Salad
Variant: I believe that if life gives you lemons, you should make lemonade. And try to find somebody whose life has given them vodka, and have a party.
Source: I Had the Right to Remain Silent...But I Didn't Have the Ability

Funny

“Human beings are not born once and for all on the day their mothers give birth to them, but… life obliges them over and over again to give birth to themselves.”

Gabriel García Márquez (1927–2014) Colombian writer

Birth

“I've thrown enough punches in my life to know when someone is hurting.”

Ally Carter Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy

Source: Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy

Hurt