Quotes about life
page 75

“They say that even the brightest star won't shine forever. But in fact, the brightest star would live the shortest amount of time. Feel free to extract whatever life lesson you want from that.”

Philip Plait (1964) astronomer, skeptic

Source: Death from the Skies! (2008), p. 75-76
Source: Death from the Skies!: These Are the Ways the World Will End...

Feeling, Star, Time

“Time is the coin of your life. You spend it. Do not allow others to spend it for you.”

Carl Sandburg (1878–1967) American writer and editor

Declaration at his 85th birthday party (6 January 1963), as quoted in The Best of Ralph McGill : Selected Columns (1980) by Ralph McGill, edited by Michael Strickland, Harry Davis, and Jeff Strickland, p. 82
Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.
As quoted without source in The School Musician Director and Teacher Vol. 43 (1971) by the American School Band Directors' Association

Time

“Sometimes I think I won't ever feel safe until I can count my last days on one hand. Three more days to get through until I don't have to worry about life anymore.”

Gillian Flynn book Sharp Objects

Source: Sharp Objects

Feeling, Thinking

“… I discovered life sometimes has a way of giving you what you need, but not in the form you expect.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Sugar Daddy

Way

“I suppose that each of us may have a great moment in our life, a month, a week a year, when we are most fully what we are meant to be”

Sebastian Faulks (1953) British journalist and novelist

“She worked her toes into the sand, feeling the tiny delicious pain of the friction of tiny chips of silicon against the tender flesh between her toes. That's life. It hurts, it's dirty, and it feels very, very good.”

Orson Scott Card book Children of the Mind

Source: Children of the Mind

Pain, Feeling, Hurt

“Perhaps it is better to wake up after all, even to suffer, rather than to remain a dupe to illusions all one's life.”

Kate Chopin book The Awakening

The Awakening (1899)
Source: The Awakening, and Selected Stories
Context: The years that are gone seem like dreams -if one might go on sleeping and dreaming- but to wake up and find -oh! well! perhaps it is better to wake up after all, even to suffer, rather than to remain a dupe to illusions all ones life.

Suffering

“This is what you must be like. Grow wherever life puts you down.”

Ben Okri The Famished Road

Source: The Famished Road

“I think when men hear that women want a commitment, they think it means commitment to a romantic relationship, but that's not it. It's a commitment to not floating around anywhere. I want a guy who is entrenched in his own life.”

Mindy Kaling book Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

Source: Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

Women, Men, Guy, Thinking

“Their whole life depends on spending money, and now they’ve
got none to spend. That’s our civilization and our education: bring up
the masses to depend entirely on spending money, and then the money
gives out.”

D.H. Lawrence book Lady Chatterley's Lover

Source: Lady Chatterley's Lover

Money, Education, Dependency

“Life is like music, it must be composed by ear, feeling and instinct, not by rule.”

Samuel Butler (1835–1902) novelist

Music, Feeling, Cute

“Each of us must live off the fruit of his thoughts in the future, because what you think today and tomorrow, next month and next year, you will mold your life and determine your future. You are guided by your mind.”

Earl Nightingale (1921–1989) American motivational speaker

Thinking, Future

“Life can be wonderful if you're not afraid of it. All it takes is courage, imagination… and a little dough”

Charlie Chaplin (1889–1977) British comic actor and filmmaker

Imagination, Courage

“Do not be satisfied with God's calling or His gifts in your life. Be satisfied with Jesus Christ Himself.”

Brother Yun (1958) Chinese christian house church leader

Source: The Heavenly Man: The Remarkable True Story of Chinese Christian Brother Yun

God, Christ

“Life is so often unfair and painful and love is hard to find and you have to take it whenever and wherever you can get it, no matter how brief it is or how it ends.”

Jenna Blum book Het familieportret

Source: Those Who Save Us

Love, Pain

“You never know when, and you never know who, but someday a stranger will burst through the door of your life and transform it utterly. The world will be turned upside down, and you will be happier for it.”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Source: Nothing but Shadows

World

“Another school declares that all time has already transpired and that our life is only the crepuscular and no doubt falsified and mutilated memory or reflection of an irrecoverable process.”

Jorge Luis Borges book Ficciones

Source: Ficciones

School, Memory, Time

“The victory one would gain after a whole life of work and effort is better than one that is gained sooner.”

Vincent Van Gogh book The Letters of Vincent van Gogh

Source: The Letters of Vincent van Gogh

Effort, Victory

“In me is working a power stronger than every other power. The life that is in me is a thousand times bigger than I am outside.”

Smith Wigglesworth (1859–1947) British evangelist

Time

“When you've come face-to-face with the dark side of the school yard, life doesn't hold many surprises.”

Eoin Colfer (1965) Irish author of children's books

Source: Half-Moon Investigations

School

“Pretty much always. We need to tell the story of our life to someone.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Haunted

Source: Haunted

“When I think of what life is, and how seldom love is answered by love; it is one of the moments for which the world was made.”

E.M. Forster book A Room with a View

Source: A Room with a View

Love, World, Thinking

“The truly adult view […] is that our life is as meaningful, as full and as wonderful as we choose to make it. And we can make it very wonderful indeed.”

Richard Dawkins book The God Delusion

Source: The God Delusion

“There is a time in every life when paths are chosen, character is forged. I could have chosen a different path. But I didn’t. I failed myself.”

Libba Bray book The Sweet Far Thing

Source: The Sweet Far Thing

Time

“Elphaba looked like something between an animal and an Animal, like something more than life but not quite Life.”

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

Animals

“Without knowledge, life is no more than the shadow of death”

Molière (1622–1673) French playwright and actor

Death, Knowledge

“Life is too short, Harry. And there's nowhere near enough joy in it. If you find it, grab it. Before it's gone.”

Jim Butcher book Changes

Source: Changes

Joy

“Now is the dramatic moment of fate, Watson, when you hear a step upon the stair which is walking into your life, and you know not whether for good or ill.”

Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) Scottish physician and author

Fate

“I give myself a good cry if I need it. But then I concentrate on the good things still in my life. I don't allow myself any more self-pity than that. A little each every morning, a few tears, and that's all.”

Mitch Albom Tuesdays with Morrie

Source: Tuesdays with Morrie

Tear, Cry

“As a matter of fact, I think there are more things important in life than "relationships.”

David Nicholls book One Day

Source: One Day

Thinking

“There is one friend in the life of each of us who seems not a separate person, however dear and beloved, but an expansion, an interpretation, of one's self, the very meaning of one's soul.”

Edith Wharton (1862–1937) American novelist, short story writer, designer

Soul, Personality, Friendship, For Friend

“I blame my dad for my sweet tooth. His motto was 'Life is short; eat dessert first.' How can I argue with that?”

Wendy Mass Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life

Source: Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life

“The real trick in life is to want nothing, and to succeed in getting it.

- Karla”

Gregory David Roberts book Shantaram

Source: Shantaram

“Then she smiled, and in that instant, if such a thing were possible, Pasquale fell in love, and he would remain in love for the rest of his life--not so much with the woman, whom he didn't even know, but with the moment.”

Jess Walter book Beautiful Ruins

Source: Beautiful Ruins

Love, Smile

“Whether a thought is spoken or not it is a real thing and it has power," Tuek said. "You might find the line between life and death among the Fremen to be too sharp and quick.”

Frank Herbert book Dune

Source: Dune

Death

“God does not give us overcoming life; He gives us life as we overcome.”

Oswald Chambers (1874–1917) British missionary

Source: My Utmost for His Highest: Traditional Updated Edition

God

“Dad,” I said quietly, “I’ve always made it a rule in my life not to pick fights with children, cute animals, or ignorant old men. I will, however, make an exception for you if you ever touch or insult my wife again.”

Richelle Mead book Silver Shadows

Source: Silver Shadows

Men, Children, Animals, Fight

“I live my own life and nurse my own wounds. It's not the best way to live. But it's the way I am.”

Jeffrey Eugenides book Middlesex

Source: Middlesex

Way

“Life among academics had taught me that a well-expressed opinion is usually better than a badly expressed fact, so far as professional advancement goes.”

Diana Gabaldon book Outlander

Source: Outlander

“The doctor says there are such boys springing up amongst us—boys of a sort unknown in the last generation—the outcome of new views of life. They seem to see all its terrors before they are old enough to have staying power to resist them. He says it is the beginning of the coming universal wish not to live.”

Thomas Hardy book Jude the Obscure

Jude the Obscure

Spring, Boy, Universe

“May be she’ll learn something about what death really is, which is where the pain stops and the good memories begin. Not the end of life but the end of pain.”

Stephen King book Pet Sematary

Source: Pet Sematary

Death, Pain, Learning, Memory

“We are born with two incurable diseases, life, from which we die, and hope, which says maybe death isn't the end.”

Andrew M. Greeley (1928–2013) Irish-American Roman Catholic priest, sociologist, journalist and novelist

Death, Disease, Hope

“I have stitched life into me like a rare organ”

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

“It's strange how the simple things in life go on while we become more difficult.”

Richard Brautigan (1935–1984) American novelist, poet, and short story writer

“It's important in life to conclude things properly. Only then can you let go. Otherwise you are left with words you should have said but never did, and your heart is heavy with remorse." Page 316”

Yann Martel book Life of Pi

Variant: It’s important in life to conclude things properly. Only then can you let go. Otherwise you are left with words you should have said but never did, and your heart is heavy with remorse.
Source: Life of Pi

Heart

“Our life is one, big proverbial coin toss.”

L.J. Smith (1965) American author

“Oh, something is there, waiting for me. Perhaps someday the revelation will burst in upon me and I will see the other side of this monumental grotesque joke. And then I'll laugh. And then I'll know what life is.”

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

Source: The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

Waiting

“Life goes on is a redundancy. Life is defined by its going on.”

David Levithan book Love Is the Higher Law

Source: Love Is the Higher Law

“Our firmest convictions are apt to be the most suspect; they mark our limitations and our bounds. Life is a petty thing unless it is moved by the indomitable urge to extend its boundaries.”

José Ortega Y Gasset (1883–1955) Spanish liberal philosopher and essayist

“Life is not long at all, never long enough, but days are very long indeed.”

Martha Gellhorn (1908–1998) journalist from the United States

“Nobody's life is filled with perfect little moments. And if it were, they wouldn't be perfect little moments. They would just be normal. How would you ever know happiness if you never experience downs?”

Cecelia Ahern (1981) Irish novelist

Variant: Nobody's life is filled with perfect little moments. And if it were they wouldn't be perfect little moments. They would just be normal. ow would you know happiness if you never experienced downs?
Source: P.S. I Love You

Happiness, Perfection

“I planned my death carefully, unlike my life, which meandered along from one thing to another, despite my feeble attempts to control it.”

Margaret Atwood book Lady Oracle

Source: Lady Oracle

Death

“Life's just a cocktail party - on the street.”

Mick Jagger (1943) British rock musician, member of The Rolling Stones

“Live it well and this life can be grand.”

Amelia Atwater-Rhodes Hawksong

Source: Hawksong

“This world demands the qualities of youth; not a time of life but a state of mind, a temper of the will, a quality of the imagination, a predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the life of ease.”

Robert F. Kennedy (1925–1968) American politician and brother of John F. Kennedy

Youth, World, Imagination, Courage

“This is the world. Half of it is lit by the sun and the other half remains in darkness. It is the same with life. There is good and bad and it's our duty to remain in the light, be good.”

Anita Nair (1966) Indian writer

World, Light, Sun

“the past only had whatever power you gave it; life was what you made it and if you wanted something different from what you had, it was up to you to make it happen.”

Sara Zarr (1970) American children's writer

Source: Sweethearts

Past

“My point is, life is about balance. The good and the bad. The highs and the lows. The pina and the colada.”

Ellen DeGeneres (1958) American stand-up comedian, television host, and actress

Source: Seriously... I'm Kidding

“Everything in this life has a purpose, there are no mistakes, no coincidences.”

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (1926–2004) American psychiatrist

“He who binds to himself a joy
Does the wingèd life destroy;
But he who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in eternity's sunrise.”

William Blake (1757–1827) English Romantic poet and artist

No. 1, He Who Binds
1790s, Poems from Blake's Notebook (c. 1791-1792), Several Questions Answered

Kiss, Joy

“Friends are the support bras of life.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Rainshadow Road

Support, Cute

“I thought you had forgotten me.”
“I have spent my life remembering you.”

Meredith Ann Pierce (1958) American writer

Source: The Son of Summer Stars

“Dirk was, for one of the few times in a life of exuberantly prolific loquacity, wordless.”

Douglas Adams book Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

Source: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

Time

“Man’s main task in life is to give birth to himself, to become what he potentially is. The most important product of his effort is his own personality.”

Erich Fromm (1900–1980) German social psychologist and psychoanalyst

Source: Man for Himself (1947), Ch. 4 "Problems of Humanistic Ethics"

Birth, Effort, Personality

“If you take too long in deciding what to do with your life, you'll find you've done it.”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright

“Bread, soup - these were my whole life. I was a body. Perhaps less than that even: a starved stomach. The stomach alone was aware of the passage of time.”

Elie Wiesel book Night

Source: Night

Time

“The devil has put a penalty on all things we enjoy in life. Either we suffer in our health, or we suffer in our soul, or we get fat.”

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

Attributed in Einstein: The Life and Times by Ronald W. Clark (1971), p. 737. The only source given in the end notes is "personal information". Einstein is said to have made this comment when a box of candy was being passed around after dinner, and he said that his doctor wouldn't let him eat it. The book also says that 'A friend asked him why it was the devil and not God who had imposed the penalty. "What's the difference?" he answered. "One has a plus in front, the other a minus."'.
Attributed in posthumous publications

Health, Penalty, Soul, Suffering

“The tides are in our veins, we still mirror the stars, life is your child, but there is in me
Older and harder than life and more impartial, the eye that watched before there was an ocean.”

Robinson Jeffers (1887–1962) American poet

"Continent's End" in Tamar and Other Poems (1924)

Star

“I came here to say that I do not recognize anyone's right to one minute of my life.”

Ayn Rand (1905–1982) Russian-American novelist and philosopher

“I will follow you — until you tell me to go away. Then I'll leave. But I have to love you for the rest of my life.”

Paulo Coelho book By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

By The River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept (1994)
Source: By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept
Context: I am going to sit here with you by the river. If you go home to sleep, I will sleep in front of your house. And if you go away, I will follow you — until you tell me to go away. Then I'll leave. But I have to love you for the rest of my life.

Love

“It’s pretty simple, the ethical life. It’s just demanding.”

Terence McKenna (1946–2000) American ethnobotanist

“One thing I have learned in a long life: that all our science, measured against reality, is primitive and childlike—and yet it is the most precious thing we have.”

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

Letter to Hans Muehsam (9 July 1951), Einstein Archives 38-408, quoted in The Ultimate Quotable Einstein (2010) by Alice Calaprice, p. 404 http://books.google.com/books?id=G_iziBAPXtEC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA404#v=onepage&q&f=false <br class="br">1950s

Reality, Learning, Science

“Prime numbers are what is left when you have taken all the patterns away. I think prime numbers are like life. They are very logical but you could never work out the rules, even if you spent all your time thinking about them.”

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

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

Thinking, Time