Quotes about life
page 72

Source: Love, Rosie

“I have always been a reader; I have read at every stage of my life, and there has never been a time when reading was not my greatest joy”

Diane Setterfield book The Thirteenth Tale

Source: The Thirteenth Tale

Time, Reading, Joy

“Life is the most spectacular show on earth”

Sara Gruen book Water for Elephants

Variant: Life is the greatest show on earth!
Source: Water for Elephants

“If I understand Change, I shall make no great mistake in Life”

Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher

Understanding, Change

“The most wonderful opportunity which life offers is to be human.”

Henry Miller (1891–1980) American novelist

“Life is full of troubles and vexations, that one must either rise above it by means of corrected thoughts, or leave it.”

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German philosopher

“Surrender… sacrificing my life or suffering in order to change what needs to be changed”

Rick Warren (1954) Christian religious leader

Suffering, Change

“Change your life today. Don't gamble on the future, act now, without delay.”

Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986) French writer, intellectual, existentialist philosopher, political activist, feminist, and social theorist

Attributed
Source: As quoted in The Book of Positive Quotations (2007) by John Cook, p. 548

Change, Future, Motivational

“I want to know if you can see beauty even when it’s not pretty, every day, and if you can source your own life from its presence.”

Oriah Mountain Dreamer (1954) Canadian author

Beauty

“In great hearts the cruelty of life gives birth to good.”

Vasily Grossman book Life and Fate

Source: Life and Fate

Birth, Heart

“Life is such a glorious trauma, is it not?”

Jessica Bird (1969) U.S. novelist

Source: Lover Avenged

“if there is any secret to this life i live, this is it: the sound of what cannot be seen sings within everything that can. and there is nothing more to it than that.”

Brian Andreas (1956) American artist

Secret, Singing

“Here is my experience. Stay away from the ones you love too much. Those are the ones who will kill you. What you want to live and be happy in the world is a woman who has her own life and lets you have yours.”

Donna Tartt book The Goldfinch

Source: The Goldfinch

Love, Happiness, World

“Life is a series of pulls back and forth… A tension of opposites, like a pull on a rubber band. Most of us live somewhere in the middle. A wrestling match… Which side win? Love wins. Love always wins”

Mitch Albom Tuesdays with Morrie

Source: Tuesdays with Morrie

Love

“I know that homes burn and that you should think what to save before they start to. Not because, in the heat of it, everything looks as valuable as everything else. But, because nothing looks worth the bother, not even your life.”

Amy Hempel (1951) Short story writer

Source: The Collected Stories

Home, Thinking

“In the woods too, a man casts off his years, as the snake his slough, and at what period soever of life, is always a child. In the woods, is perpetual youth.”

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

Source: Nature and Selected Essays

Youth

“If your life's work can be accomplished in your lifetime, you're not thinking big enough.”

Wes Jackson (1936) American botanist

Thinking

“Art isn't meaningless… It is in itself. It isn't in that it tries to make life less so.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald book The Beautiful and Damned

Source: The Beautiful and Damned

Art

“What do babies dream of? She must be dreaming of the before-life, just as I dream of the afterlife.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Everything Is Illuminated

Source: Everything Is Illuminated

Dreams, Baby

“life and love are very precious when both are in full bloom.”

Louisa May Alcott book Little Women

Source: Little Women

Love

“t was almost disappointing because it seemed when stress and madness were eliminated from my daily life there wasn't much left you could depend on.”

Charles Bukowski book Women

Source: Women

Disappointment, Dependency, Madness

“Back in the time when life was easy, the Internet would have told me what I needed to know. The great thing about the Internet was it didn't care why you were asking.”

Susan Beth Pfeffer (1948) American writer

Source: This World We Live In

Time

“What could be worse than getting to the end of your life and realizing you hadn't lived it”

Edward Albee (1928–2016) American playwright

Variant: You're alive only once, as far as we know, and what could be worse than getting to the end of your life and realizing you hadn't lived it?

“Say it,” she said, and he said, “I love you. I’ll always love you. Forever. It’s a life sentence. Now put the damn ring on.”

Jennifer Crusie book Welcome to Temptation

Source: Welcome to Temptation

Love

“You have to avoid thinking of what upsets you. If not, it will take over your life.”

Alex Flinn (1966) American children's writer

Source: Towering

Thinking

“The time comes when each of us has to give up as illusions the expectations which, in his youth, he pinned upon his fellow-men, and when he may learn how much difficulty and pain has been added to his life by their ill-will.”

Sigmund Freud book Civilization and Its Discontents

Source: Civilization and Its Discontents

Men, Pain, Youth, Learning

“The journey in between what you once were and who you are now becoming is where the dance of life takes place.”

Barbara De Angelis (1951) American psychologist

Dance

“Poetry is not the most important thing in life… I'd much rather lie in a hot bath reading Agatha Christie and sucking sweets.”

Dylan Thomas (1914–1953) Welsh poet and writer

Lie, Reading

“Life has its own hidden forces which you can only discover by living.”

Sören Kierkegaard (1813–1855) Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism

“Imagine how you’d feel if your whole life turned into a job you couldn’t stand.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Survivor

Source: Survivor

Feeling, Imagination

“Things didn't turn out the way they were supposed to, but what can you do? You must take life the way it comes at you and make the best of it.”

Yann Martel book Life of Pi

Variant: Things didn't turn out the way they're supposed to, but what can you do? You must take life the way it comes at you and make the best of it.
Source: Life of Pi

Way

“Our attitude toward life determines life's attitude towards us”

Earl Nightingale (1921–1989) American motivational speaker

Attitude

“Far from being the father of jihad, Mohammad was a peacemaker, who risked his life and nearly lost the loyalty of his closest companions because he was determined to effect a reconciliation with Mecca.”

Karen Armstrong (1944) author and comparative religion scholar from Great Britain

Source: Muhammad: A Biography of The Prophet (2001)

Loyalty

“What well-bred woman would refuse her heart to a man who had just saved her life? Not one; and gratitude is a short cut which speedily leads to love.”

Théophile Gautier book Mademoiselle de Maupin

Source: Mademoiselle de Maupin

Love, Heart, Gratitude

“A strong man who has known power all his life may lose respect for that power. But a weak man knows the value of strength.”

Jeffrey Archer (1940) English author and former politician

Strong

“There is suffering in life, and there are defeats. No one can avoid them. But it's better to lose some of the battles in the struggles for your dreams than to be defeated without ever knowing what you're fighting for.”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist

As quoted in Honor Your Gifts (2007) by Dona M. Deane, p. 199.
Variant: But there is suffering in life, and there are defeats. No one can avoid them. But it's better to lose some of the battles in the struggles for your dreams than to be defeated without ever knowing what you're fighting for

Dreams, Suffering, Fight

“Life will defend itself no matter how small it is.”

Yann Martel book Life of Pi

Source: Life of Pi

“Sometimes he felt like he'd been gone his whole life--in exile, away from the place he was supposed to be, and that, soldier-like, he was pining to be returned. Homesick for a place he'd never been.”

Gillian Flynn book Dark Places

Source: Dark Places

“In order not to suffer, you had to renounce love. It was like putting out your own eyes in order not to see the bad things in life.”

Paulo Coelho book Brida

Source: Brida

Love, Suffering

“One of the inescapable encumbrances of leading an interesting life is that there have to be moments when you almost lose it.”

Jimmy Buffett book A Pirate Looks at Fifty

Source: A Pirate Looks at Fifty

“Nobody has a perfect life and it's entirely possible that if you want someone else's life they are busy wanting someone else's too–maybe even yours.”

Joyce Meyer (1943) American author and speaker

Business, Perfection

“Now I can addto my list of life's accomplishments.”

Augusten Burroughs book Running with Scissors

Source: Running with Scissors

“Your life only gets better when you get better.”

Brian Tracy (1944) American motivational speaker and writer

Motivational, Wise, Deep, Success

“We must meditate on what God has done in our life instead of what we are still waiting on Him to do.”

Joyce Meyer (1943) American author and speaker

God, Waiting

“A New Orleans credo: When life gives you lemons - make daiquiris.”

Chris Rose

1 Dead in Attic: Post-Katrina Stories

“What do I believe that I deserve in this life?”

Elizabeth Gilbert book Eat, Pray, Love

Source: Eat, Pray, Love

“One day, you're going to learn something that can't be explained with science. And when that happens, your life's going to change in ways you can't imagine.”

Nicholas Sparks book True Believer

Doris McClellan, Chapter 3, p. 54
Source: 2000s, True Believer (2005)

Way, Imagination, Learning, Science

“It is art that makes life, makes interest, makes importance, for our consideration and application of these things, and I know of no substitute whatever for the force and beauty of its process.”

Henry James (1843–1916) American novelist, short story author, and literary critic

Letter to H.G. Wells (10 July 1915).

Beauty, Art

“More exists among human beings than can be answered by the simplistic question I'm hit with every day of my life: "Are you a man or a woman?”

Leslie Feinberg (1949–2014) activist and author known for authoring Stone Butch Blues

Question

“The moment I stopped spending so much time chasing the big pleasure of life. I began to enjoy the little ones, like watching the stars dancing in moonlit sky or soaking in the sunbeams of a glorious summer morning.”

Robin S. Sharma (1965) Canadian self help writer

Source: The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari: A Remarkable Story About Living Your Dreams

Pleasure, Star, Time, Dance

“Your being born makes your parents God. You owe them your life, and they can control you. Then puberty makes you Satan, just because you want something better.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Invisible Monsters

Source: Invisible Monsters

God, Parent

“For what it’s worth: it’s never too late to be whoever you want to be. I hope you live a life you’re proud of, and if you find that you’re not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again.”

Eric Roth (1945) American screenwriter

Source: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Screenplay

Hope

“We read in bed because reading is halfway between life and dreaming, our own consciousness in someone else's mind.”

Anna Quindlen (1952) journalist, Novelist

Source: How Reading Changed My Life

Dreams, Reading

“I've always thought anyone can make money. Making a life worth living, that's the real test.”

Robert Fulghum (1937) American writer

Money

“At the most difficult moments of my life, when it seemed that every door was closed to me, the taste of those apricots comes back to comfort me with the notion that abundance is always within reach, if only one knows how to find it.”

Isabel Allende book Paula

Source: Paula

“I bet if you go through the rest of your life telling yourself, "I'm sparkling," you'll have a whole different energy and experience.”

Wendy Mass (1967) American children's writer

Source: Heaven Looks a Lot Like the Mall

“… the reason life works at all is that not everyone in your tribe is nuts on the same day. [pp. 65-66]”

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

Source: Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith

“Every mix tape tells a story. Put them together, and they add up to the story of life.”

Rob Sheffield (1966) American music journalist

Source: Love Is a Mix Tape

“Battle with unconditioned breath the unconditioned air. Shun electric wire. Communicate slowly. Live a three-dimensional life; stay away from screens.”

Wendell Berry (1934) author

Communication

“So we contemplate each other, and we want each other, and I give it life and warmth, and it gives me my reason for living.”

Paulo Coelho book The Alchemist

Source: The Alchemist

“She had loved him. He knew this; he had never doubted it. But she had also asked him to kill her. If you love someone that much, you did not lay that sort of burden on him for the rest of his life.”

Jodi Picoult book The Pact

Source: The Pact

Love

“Life is divine Chaos. It's messy, and it's supposed to be that way.”

John Keats (1795–1821) English Romantic poet

Way

“I've been in the revenge buisness for so long, now that it's over I don't know what to do with the rest of my life.”

William Goldman book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

Revenge

“The energy of hatred won't get you anywhere; but the energy of forgiveness, which reveals itself through love, will transform your life in a positive way.”

Paulo Coelho book The Zahir

Source: The Zahir

Love, Way, Forgiveness

“Enthusiasm is the electricity of life. How do you get it? You act enthusiastic until you make it a habit.”

Gordon Parks (1912–2006) American photographer, musician, writer and film director

“What kind of life can you have in a house without books?”

Sherman Alexie book Flight

Source: Flight

Books, Housing

“I was tired of seeing the Graces always depicted as beautiful young things. I think wisdom comes with age and life and pain. And knowing what matters.”

Louise Penny book A Fatal Grace

Source: A Fatal Grace

Wisdom, Pain, Age, Beauty

“I don't mind walking. I always feel so sorry for women who don't like to walk; they miss so much--so many rare little glimpses of life; and we women learn so little of life on the whole.”

Kate Chopin book The Awakening

Source: The Awakening

Women, Feeling, Learning

“As I look back, I see that life is like a game of solitaire and every once in a while there is a move.”

James Salter book A Sport and a Pastime

Source: A Sport and a Pastime

Game

“I will not waste time on second thoughts. My life will not be an apology. It will be a statement.”

Andy Andrews (1959) author and corporate speaker

Source: The Traveler's Gift: Seven Decisions that Determine Personal Success

Time

“Anyone who believes that a second is faster than a decade did not live life.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

“I - will have poetry in my life. And adventure. And love. Love above all.”

Marc Norman (1941) Screenwriter

Source: Shakespeare in Love: A Screenplay

Love

“Can you giggle while racing for your life and protecting a six-year-old? I can.”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Source: Maximum Ride The Angel Experiment

“What one does in one's art, that is the breath of one's being. What one does in one's life, that is a bagatelle for the outsiders to fuss about.”

D.H. Lawrence book Women in Love

Source: Women in Love

Art

“If there is one regret that I have had in my life, it is that I never fathered any children. There are times, when I look at what Fergus and Beryl have produced, when I consider myself fortunate, but there are also times when it breaks my heart.”

Derek Landy Skulduggery Pleasant

Source: Skulduggery Pleasant

Children, Time, Heart

“All of life, I wanted to tell him, is in our minds. Where else does it take place, where else do we add up what it means to us and subtract what we have lost? An event is just an event until some person attaches meaning to it.”

Robin Hobb book Fool's Fate

Source: Fool's Fate

Personality

“I couldn't stand the idea of a woman having to have a single pure life and a man being able to have a double life, one pure and one not.”

Sylvia Plath (1932–1963) American poet, novelist and short story writer

Idea

“Life is funny, baby, and that's no joke”

Rachel Cohn book Gingerbread

Source: Gingerbread

Baby

“The good parts of a book may be only something a writer is lucky enough to overhear or it may be the wreck of his whole damn life — and one is as good as the other.”

Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American author and journalist

Letter to F. Scott Fitzgerald (4 September 1929); published in Ernest Hemingway: Selected Letters 1917–1961 (1981) edited by Carlos Baker

Books, Parting

“There is one who remembers the way to your door:
Life you may evade, but Death you shall not.
You shall not deny the Stranger.”

T.S. Eliot (1888–1965) 20th century English author

Choruses from The Rock (1934)

Death, Way

“The ghostly winter silence had given way to the great spring murmur of awakening life.”

Jack London book Call of the Wild

Source: The Call of the Wild

Way, Spring, Silence, Winter

“Like anybody, I would like to have a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

God

“I spent the afternoon musing on Life. If you come to think of it, what a queer thing Life is! So unlike anything else, don't you know, if you see what I mean.”

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

Thinking

“I can't go underground for a year, ten years, my whole life, waiting for freedom to be handed to me. Freedom is something you have to take for yourself.”

Cory Doctorow Little Brother

Source: Little Brother

Freedom, Waiting

“… Goldfinger could not have known that high tension was Bond's natural way of life and that pressure and danger relaxed him.”

Ian Fleming book Goldfinger

Source: Goldfinger

Way, Nature

“You are human, you will make mistakes, and it’s one of the most beautiful things about being human, but you must learn from your mistakes, otherwise your life will have a lot of unnecessary pain.”

Rhonda Byrne book The Magic

Source: The Magic

Pain, Beauty, Learning

“The pearls weren't really white, they were a warm oyster beige, with little knots in between so if they broke, you only lost one. I wished my life could be like that, knotted up so that even if something broke, the whole thing wouldn't come apart.”

Janet Fitch book White Oleander

Source: White Oleander

“He pushed her in. And then he pulled her out. All her life, Lydia would remember one thing. All his life, Nath would remember another.”

Celeste Ng book Everything I Never Told You: A Novel

Source: Everything I Never Told You

“What are you Barrons?”
“The one who will never let you die, and that’s more, Ms Lane, than anyone in your life has been able to say to you. More than anyone else can do”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: Bloodfever

“life's not a paragraph
And death i think is no parenthesis”

E.E. Cummings (1894–1962) American poet

Four VII
is 5 (1926)

Death, Thinking

“Believe in yourself and you can achieve greatness in your life.”

Judy Blume (1938) American children's writer

“Everything in life has some good in it. And when something awful happens, the goodness stands out even more--it's sad, but that's the truth.”

Banana Yoshimoto book The Lake

Source: The Lake

Truth, Sadness

“There comes a time in every life when the world gets quiet and the only thing left is your heart.”

Sarah Dessen book Just Listen

Source: Just Listen

World, Time, Heart

“When I can feel you breathing into me i, like a stone gargoyle
atop some crumbling building,
spring to life
a resuscitated
angel.”

Saul Williams (1972) American singer, musician, poet, writer, and actor

Source: , said the shotgun to the head.

Angels, Feeling, Spring

“I know this: if life is illusion, then I am no less an illusion, and being thus, the illusion is real to me. I live, I burn with life, I love, I slay, and am content.”

Robert E. Howard (1906–1936) American author

"Queen of the Black Coast" (1934)
Source: Conan the Barbarian Omnibus -The Original Stories
Context: He shrugged his shoulders. "I have known many gods. He who denies them is as blind as he who trusts them too deeply. I seek not beyond death. It may be the blackness averred by the Nemedian skeptics, or Crom's realm of ice and cloud, or the snowy plains and vaulted halls of the Nordheimer's Valhalla. I know not, nor do I care. Let me live deep while I live; let me know the rich juices of red meat and stinging wine on my palate, the hot embrace of white arms, the mad exultation of battle when the blue blades flame and crimson, and I am content. Let teachers and priests and philosophers brood over questions of reality and illusion. I know this: if life is illusion, then I am no less an illusion, and being thus, the illusion is real to me. I live, I burn with life, I love, I slay, and am content."

Love

“The weird, weird thing about devastating loss is that life actually goes on. When you're faced with a tragedy, a loss so huge that you have no idea how you can live through it, somehow, the world keeps turning, the seconds keep ticking.”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Source: Angel

World, Idea, Loss