Quotes about life
page 70

“Life don’t come to you, Memphis. You gotta take it. We have to take it. Because ain’t nobody handing it to us.”

Source: The Diviners

“She liked the life she had. She loved habits. She craved a day with nothing in it, a long, quiet stretch of hours in the studio.”

Ann Brashares book Sisterhood Everlasting

Source: Sisterhood Everlasting

Love

“All of the life-changing awesome
words and pictures and ideas
inside your library are useless
without just one word outside
your library: Open.”

Mo Willems (1968) American children's illustrator and writer

Idea, Change

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

Margaret Cho (1968) American stand-up comedian

Source: I Have Chosen to Stay and Fight

Feeling, Thinking

“That life isn't fair?" Yeah, that, of course. But I also learned that it's possible to go on, no matter how impossible it seems, and that in time, the grief… lessens.”

Nicholas Sparks book Dear John

Tim Wheddon, Chapter 20, p. 265
Variant: ... I learned that it's possible to go on, no matter how impossible it seems, and that in time, the grief... lessens. It may not ever go away completely, but after a while it's not overwhelming.
Source: 2000s, Dear John (2006)

Learning, Time

“Sometimes the small pleasures in life are the sweetest.”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: Bloodfever

Pleasure

“Is this how it goes? You fall in love, and nothing seems truly scary anymore, and life is one big possibility?”

Jenny Han book Always and Forever, Lara Jean

Source: Always and Forever, Lara Jean

Love

“He made her play and she had almost forgotten how. Life had been so serious and so bitter. He knew how to play and swept her along with him.”

Margaret Mitchell book Vom Winde verweht (1937 German edition)

Source: Gone with the Wind

“There are in life a few moments so beautiful, that even words are a sort of profanity.”

Diana Palmer (1946) American romance novelist

Beauty

“I want to spend every possible minute of the rest of my life with you. -Peeta Mellark”

Suzanne Collins book Catching Fire

Variant: I just want to spend every possible minute of the rest of my life with you.
Source: Catching Fire

“Sarcasm and compassion are two of the qualities that make life on Earth tolerable.”

Nick Hornby book Songbook

Source: Songbook

“We come unbidden into this life, and if we are lucky we find a purpose beyond starvation, misery, and early death which, lest we forget, is the common lot.”

Abraham Verghese book Cutting for Stone

Source: Cutting for Stone

Death, Forgetting

“I've come to believe errors, especially written errors, are often the only markers left by a solitary life: to sacrifice them is to lose the angles of personality, the riddle of a soul. In this case a very old soul. A very old riddle.”

Mark Z. Danielewski book House of Leaves

Source: House of Leaves

Error, Soul, Personality

“You want to protect your child from pain, and what you get instead is life, and grace; and though theologians insist that grace is freely given, the truth is that sometimes you pay for it through the nose. And you can't pay your child's way.”

Anne Lamott (1954) Novelist, essayist, memoirist, activist

Source: Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith

Pain, Truth, Way

“Doing what you love is the cornerstone of having abundance in your life.”

Wayne W. Dyer (1940–2015) American writer

Love

“Listen. Are you breathing just a little and calling it a life?”

Mary Oliver (1935–2019) American writer

Have You Ever Tried to Enter the Long Black Branches?
West Wind (1997)

“She kept swimming out into life because she hadn't yet found a rock to stand on.”

Barbara Kingsolver Animal Dreams

Source: Animal Dreams

“Life is a nightmare.”

Ned Vizzini book It's Kind of a Funny Story

Source: It's Kind of a Funny Story

“It is not death that we wish to avoid, but life that we wish to live.”

Ayn Rand book Atlas Shrugged

Source: Atlas Shrugged

Death

“A book had always been a door to another world… a world much more interesting and fantastical than reality. But she had finally discovered that life could be even more wonderful than fantasy.

And that love could fill the real world with magic.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Scandal in Spring

Love, Books, World, Reality

“I’m beginning to think I’ve led a much too sheltered life.”

Diana Wynne Jones House of Many Ways

Source: House of Many Ways

Thinking

“May you live all the days of your life.”

Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, and poet

Polite Conversation (1738), Dialogue 2

Life, Cute, Anniversary, Birthday

“Fiction is an improvement on life”

Charles Bukowski book Ham on Rye

Source: Ham on Rye

“I was attempting to write the story of my life. It wasn't so much about plot. It was much more about character.”

David Levithan (1972) American author and editor

Source: Dash & Lily's Book of Dares

“Loneliness, when accepted, becomes a gift that will lead us to find a purpose in life.”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist

Loneliness

“Writing turns you into somebody who's always wrong. the illusion that you may get it right someday is the perversity that draws you on. What else could? As pathological phenomena go, it doesn't completely wreck your life.”

Philip Roth (1933–2018) American novelist

Drawing

“I dislike the thought that some animal has been made miserable to feed me. If I am going to eat meat, I want it to be from an animal that has lived a pleasant, uncrowded life outdoors, on bountiful pasture, with good water nearby and trees for shade.”

Wendell Berry (1934) author

Source: What Are People For?

Tree, Water, Animals

“Real life is messy, inconsistent, and it's seldom when anything ever really gets resolved. It's taken me a long time to realize that.”

Alan Moore book Watchmen

Source: Watchmen

Time

“Life is fair. We all get the same nine-month shake in the box, and then the dice roll. Some people get a run of sevens. Some people, unfortunately, get snake-eyes. Its just how the world is.”

Stephen King book Full Dark, No Stars

Source: Full Dark, No Stars

People, World, Box

“What life gives us, good or bad, we seldom deserve.”

William Kent Krueger (1950) author, novelist

Source: Iron Lake

“Perhaps there are other bits of my life that would take on content, take on shadow, if only I read more and thought less about money.”

Martin Amis book Money

Source: Money

Money, Reading

“The book that I shall make people read is the book of the heart, which holds the key to the mystery of life.”

Meher Baba (1894–1969) Indian mystic

Part of his public message upon arrival on his second visit to America (19 May 1932).
General sources

People, Books, Reading, Heart

“without my wounds, who was i? my scars were my face, my past was my life.”

Janet Fitch book White Oleander

Source: White Oleander

Past

“The wisest and the best of men, nay, the wisest and best of their actions, may be rendered ridiculous by a person whose first object in life is a joke.”

Jane Austen book Pride and Prejudice

Source: Pride and Prejudice

Men, Personality

“It was like that part of my life, was just gone. It was almost too easy, for something I once thought had meant everything.”

Sarah Dessen book The Truth About Forever

Source: The Truth About Forever

Parting

“It’s not about the dress you wear, but it’s about the life you lead in the dress.”

Diana Vreeland (1903–1989) American magazine editor

“We'd even devised the Buffy scale of life relationships: you start off wanting Xander, spend your twenties going out with Spike and setttle down with giles.”

Jenny Colgan (1972) British writer

“Life works on strange laws of nature (Karma).
One never knows when a friend turns enemy & vice-versa.
Rely on your Self; self-reliance”

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (1956) spiritual leader

Law, Nature

“Either things happen for a reason, or they happen for no reason at all. Either one's life is a thread in a glorious tapestry or humanity is just a hopelessly tangled knot.”

Neal Shusterman (1962) American novelist

Source: UnWholly

“Life is neither good or evil, but only a place for good and evil.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

Source: Meditations

Evil

“I've made the most important discovery of my life. It's only in the mysterious equation of love that any logic or reasons can be found.”

Sylvia Nasar book A Beautiful Mind

Source: A Beautiful Mind

Love

“She and I were still friends, but not best friends, not like we used to be. But we were still friends. She'd known me my whole life. It's hard to throw away history. It was like you were throwing away a part of yourself.”

Jenny Han (1980) American writer

Source: The Summer I Turned Pretty

History, Parting

“Taking another life, she had whispered, even a guilty one, should never be easy. If it were, we'd be little more than animals.”

Mary E. Pearson book The Kiss of Deception

Source: The Kiss of Deception

Animals

“She had left me thirsty and all my life would be thirst and longing for what I had lost before I found it.”

Jean Rhys (1890–1979) novelist from Dominica

“We can always choose to perceive things differently. We can focus on what's wrong in our life, or we can focus on what's right.”

Marianne Williamson (1952) American writer

“Isn't life a series of images that change as they repeat themselves?”

Andy Warhol (1928–1987) American artist

Change

“Life is a gift and it offers us the privilege, opportunity, and responsibility to give something back by becoming more.”

Anthony Robbins (1960) Author, actor, professional speaker

Relationship

“Writing and reading decrease our sense of isolation. They deepen and widen and expand our sense of life: they feed the soul.”

Anne Lamott (1954) Novelist, essayist, memoirist, activist

Source: Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

Soul, Sense, Reading

“No motive is pure. No one is good or bad-but a hearty mix of both. And sometimes life actually gives to you by taking away.”

Carrie Fisher book Wishful Drinking

Source: Wishful Drinking

Motivation

“Most people are lucky to have even one great love in their life. You have found two.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Princess

Source: Clockwork Princess

Love, People

“Life is without meaning. You bring the meaning to it. The meaning of life is whatever you ascribe it to be. Being alive is the meaning.

Love is a friendship set to music.”

Joseph Campbell (1904–1987) American mythologist, writer and lecturer

Love, Friendship, Music

“I wondered, "Why have I been chasing happiness my whole life when bliss was here the entire time?”

Elizabeth Gilbert book Eat, Pray, Love

Source: Eat, Pray, Love

Happiness, Time

“Life is not a having and a getting, but a being and a becoming.”

Matthew Arnold (1822–1888) English poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector of schools

“I know life is hard, I think everyone knows that in their hearts, but why dos it have to be cruel, as well? Why does it have to bite?”

Stephen King book 11/22/63

Source: 11/22/63

Thinking, Heart

“Literature is mostly about having sex and not much about having children. Life is the other way round.”

David Lodge book The British Museum Is Falling Down

The British Museum Is Falling Down ([1965] 1983), ch. 4, p. 56. ISBN 0140062149

Children, Sex, Way, Literature

“She had a certain way of looking at life which he took as a personal offense.”

Henry James book The Portrait of a Lady

Source: The Portrait of a Lady

Way, Personality

“In avoiding specific goals he had avoided specific limitations. For the time being the world, life itself, could be his chosen field.”

Richard Yates book Revolutionary Road

Source: Revolutionary Road

World, Time

“Live your life, dont endure it”

Kate Atkinson

“Life is a gift…
Life is a test…
Life is temporary assignment….”

Rick Warren (1954) Christian religious leader

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

“If you had to pack your whole life into a suitcase-not just the practical things, like clothing, but the memories of the people you had lost and the girl you had once been-what would you take?”

Jodi Picoult book The Storyteller

Source: The Storyteller

People, Girl, Memory, Clothes

“It is far easier for a woman to lead
a blameless life than it is for a man;
all she has to do is to avoid
sexual intercourse like the plague.”

Angela Carter (1940–1992) English novelist

“She would've been a good woman," said The Misfit, "if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life.”

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

Source: A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories

“living a life that is driven more strongly by curiosity than by fear.”

Elizabeth Gilbert Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

Source: Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

Fear

“Accept this: your mortal is doomed."

"Please, Aric. I'm begging you!"

He whirled around, fury in his expression. "You refused - twice - to beg me for your own life, but you'd beg for his?"

I whispered, "Yes.”

Kresley Cole American writer

Source: Endless Knight

“Life has never been All or Nothing- it's All and Nothing. Forget the binaries.”

Jeanette Winterson book The Stone Gods

Source: The Stone Gods

Forgetting

“The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and let it come in”

Morrie Schwartz (1916–1995) American sociologist

Source: Morrie: In His Own Words

Love, Learning, Deep, Relationship

“fear life but don't die, your alone, everybody's alone, oh Cody Pomeray you can't win you can't lose all is ephemeral all is hurt”

Jack Kerouac (1922–1969) American writer

Fear, Hurt

“The wise man reads both books and life itself.”

Lin Yutang book The Importance of Living

Source: The Importance of Living (1937), p. 388

Books, Reading

“A lot of life is just surviving what happens.”

Deb Caletti (1963) American writer

Source: The Six Rules of Maybe

“Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.”

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

Health, Chance

“We imagine that when we are thrown out of our usual ruts all is lost, but it is only then that what is new and good begins. While there is life there is happiness. There is much, much before us.”

Leo Tolstoy book War and Peace

Source: War and Peace

Happiness, Imagination

“It answers the question that was tormenting you: my love, you are not 'one thing in my life' - not even the most important - because my life no longer belongs to me because… you are always me.”

Jean Paul Sartre (1905–1980) French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and …

Love, Question

“Memoir is about handing over you life to someone and saying, This is what I went through, this is who I am, and maybe you can learn something from it.”

Jeannette Walls (1960) American writer and journalist

Learning

“The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in.”

Mitch Albom Tuesdays with Morrie

Source: Tuesdays with Morrie (1997)

Love, Learning, Deep, Relationship

“Start telling the story of your amazing life, and the law of attraction must make sure you receive it!”

Rhonda Byrne book The Power

Source: The Power

Law

“I'm choosing happiness over suffering, I know I am. I'm making space for the unknown future to fill up my life with yet-to-come surprises.”

Elizabeth Gilbert book Eat, Pray, Love

Source: Eat, Pray, Love

Happiness, Suffering, Future

“In the infinity of life where I am,
All is perfect, whole and complete,
I no longer choose to believe in old limitations and lack, I now choose to begin to see myself
As the Universe sees me --- perfect, whole, and complete.”

Louise L. Hay book You Can Heal Your Life

Source: You Can Heal Your Life

Universe, Perfection

“Life is a mission, not a career. A career is a profession, a mission is a cause. A career asks, What's in it for me? A mission asks, How can I make a difference?”

Sean Covey (1964) author; business executive

“And there you have it… if I knew that I could only have a few nights in that man's arms or nothing, I would take those magic nights and use them to keep me warm for the rest of my life.”

Karen Marie Moning book To Tame a Highland Warrior

Source: To Tame a Highland Warrior

Night

“If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.”

René Descartes book Principles of Philosophy

Original Latin: Veritatem inquirenti, semel in vita de omnibus, quantum fieri potest, esse dubitandum
Variant translation: If you would be a real seeker after truth, you must at least once in your life doubt, as far as possible, all things.
Principles of Philosophy (1644)
Variant: In order to seek truth, it is necessary once in the course of our life, to doubt, as far as possible, of all things.

Truth