Quotes about life
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“Life is now in session. Are you present?”

John C. Maxwell (1947) American author, speaker and pastor

Source: The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth: Live Them and Reach Your Potential

“Don’t try to make life a mathematics problem with yourself in the center and everything coming out equal. When you’re good, bad things can still happen. And if you’re bad, you can still be lucky.”

Barbara Kingsolver The Poisonwood Bible

Source: The Poisonwood Bible

Mathematics, Problem

“Life is choices, and they are relentless. No sooner have you made one choice than another is upon you.”

Atul Gawande book Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End

Source: Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End

“A promise is a commitment to do something later, and a vow is a binding commitment to begin doing something now and to continue to do it for the duration of the vow. Some vows, or contracts, are for life; others are for limited periods of time.”

Myles Munroe (1954–2014) Bahamian Evangelical Christian minister

Source: The Purpose and Power of Love & Marriage

Time

“It takes no more time to see the good side of life than to see the bad.”

Jimmy Buffett (1946) American singer–songwriter and businessman

Time

“So I stared out at that cold window, watching my breath collect on the glass, trying not to think about my life after the thaw.”

Ally Carter book Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover

Source: Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover

Thinking

“The sorrow of God lies in our fear of Him, our fear of life, and our fear of ourselves. He anguishes over our self-absorption and self-sufficiency… God's sorrow lies in our refusal to approach Him when we sinned and failed.”

Brennan Manning (1934–2013) writer, American Roman Catholic priest and United States Marine

Source: Abba's Child: The Cry of the Heart for Intimate Belonging

God, Fear

“If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music. … I cannot tell if I would have done any creative work of importance in music, but I do know that I get most joy in life out of my violin.”

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

1920s, Viereck interview (1929)

Music, Thinking, Joy

“Life isn't worth living if you're scared all the time.
-Jordan”

Sara Shepard (1973) Author

Source: Burned

Time

“The most exhausting thing in life, I have discovered, is being insincere.”

Anne Morrow Lindbergh book Gift from the Sea

Source: Gift from the Sea (1955), Ch. 2; part of this statement has often been paraphrased: "The most exhausting thing in life is being insincere."
Context: I find I am shedding hypocrisy in human relationships. What a rest that will be! The most exhausting thing in life, I have discovered, is being insincere. That is why so much of social life is exhausting; one is wearing a mask. I have shed my mask.

“A life is measured by how it is lived for the sake of heaven.”

Chaim Potok book My Name Is Asher Lev

Source: My Name Is Asher Lev

“You can’t have a plan for your day, ‘til you have a plan for your life.”

Anthony Robbins (1960) Author, actor, professional speaker

“Embrace each challenge in your life as an opportunity for self-transformation.”

Bernie S. Siegel (1932) American writer

“There is a story, always ahead of you. Barely existing. Only gradually do you attach yourself to it and feed it. You discover the carapace that will contain and test your character. You will find in this way the path of your life.”

Michael Ondaatje The Cat's Table

Source: The Cat's Table

Way

“The function of the artist is to provide what life does not.”

Tom Robbins book Another Roadside Attraction

Another Roadside Attraction (1971)

“I lived for those moments when we were together, those few times in my life that I actually felt alive.”

Melissa de la Cruz (1971) American writer

Source: Keys to the Repository

Time

“Run faster, jump higher, reach farther, and you'll always win!

live life expecting the worst, hoping for the best, and living for the future!

Somebody has to do something, and it's just incredibly pathetic that it has to be us.”

Jerry Garcia (1942–1995) American musician and member of the Grateful Dead

Hope, Future

“Your memories become fantasies if they are not shared,
and your life in all its triviality becomes a legend.”

Aleksandar Hemon Nowhere Man

Source: Nowhere Man

Memory

“Besides, life isn't meant to be safe. It's only in our mistakes, our errors, and our faults that we grow and truly live.”

Glenn Beck (1964) U.S. talk radio and television host

Error

“Live your life the way you want. You'll figure it out.”

John Grisham (1955) American lawyer, politician, and author

Way

“Standing on the fringes of life… offers a unique perspective. But there comes a time to see what it looks like from the dance floor.”

Stephen Chbosky book The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Time, Dance

“Think! There's nothing certain in our future! All we can hope for is a vague continuation. But in spite of that, you're going to keep on living. You can't give up on life just because it's vague. It's a question of possibilities…”

Kōji Suzuki book Ring

Source: Ring

Hope, Question, Thinking, Future

“For your life to be great, your faith must be bigger than your fear.”

Robin S. Sharma (1965) Canadian self help writer

Source: The Saint, the Surfer, and the CEO: A Remarkable Story about Living Your Heart's Desires

Fear, Faith

“Every life is complicated, every mind a kingdom of unmapped mysteries.”

Dean Koontz book Forever Odd

Source: Forever Odd

“The heyday of woman's life is the shady side of fifty.”

Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902) Suffragist and Women's Rights activist

“Wizard's Seventh Rule
Life is the future, not the past.”

Terry Goodkind book The Pillars of Creation

Source: The Pillars of Creation

Past, Future

“If my life wasn't funny it would just be true, and that is unacceptable.”

Carrie Fisher book Wishful Drinking

Variant: If my life wasn’t funny it would just be true, and that is unacceptable.
Source: From her 2008 memoir Wishful Drinking
Context: I have to start by telling you that my entire existence can be summed up in one phrase. And that is: If my life wasn't funny it would just be true, and that is unacceptable.

“Am I a man? To want you so badly that nothing else matters? To see you, and know I would sacrifice honor or family or life itself to lie wi' you, even though ye'd left me?”

Diana Gabaldon book Voyager

Source: Voyager

Lie, Family

“I think I’m greedy, but I’m not greedy for money - I think that can be a burden - I’m greedy for an exciting life.”

David Hockney (1937) British artist

Money, Thinking

“The business of Mr. Bennett's life was to keep his daughters alive. The business of Mrs. Bennett's was to get them married.”

Seth Grahame-Smith book Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

Source: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

Business, Daughters

“Once you learn what life is about, there is no way to erase that knowledge. If you try to do something else with your life, you will always sense that you are missing something”

James Redfield (1950) American author, lecturer, screenwriter and film producer

Source: The Celestine Prophecy: A Pocket Guide to the Nine Insights

Way, Knowledge, Sense, Learning

“I think… the secret is to just settle for the shape of your life takes… Instead of you know, always waiting and wishing for whatmake you happy.”

Wally Lamb book She's Come Undone

Source: She's Come Undone

Happiness, Secret, Thinking, Waiting

“When I look back on all these worries I remember the story of the old man who said on his deathbed that he had had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which had never happened.”

Winston S. Churchill book The Second World War

The Second World War, Volume II : Their Finest Hour (1949) Chapter 8 (September Tensions).
Post-war years (1945–1955)

Deep, Happy

“Though life is very glorious, it is difficult.”

E.M. Forster (1879–1970) English novelist

Source: A Room with a View / Howards End

“The novel is not the author's confession; it is an investigation of human life in the trap the world has become”

Milan Kundera book The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Source: The Unbearable Lightness of Being

World

“Wake up, Caitlin, Mr. Lensing had said. But what he didn't understand was that this dreamland was preferable, walking through this life half-sleeping, everything at arm's length or farther away. I understood those mermaids. I didn't care if they sang to me. All I wanted was to block out all the human voices as they called me name again and again, pulling me upward into light, to drown.”

Sarah Dessen book Dreamland

Source: Dreamland (2000)

Sleep, Light

“So we can be filled with holes and loss and wide expanses of unhealed geography - and we can also be excited by life and in love and content at the exact same moment.”

Augusten Burroughs (1965) American writer

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

Love, Loss

“We can't plan life. All we can do is be available for it.”

Lauryn Hill (1975) American singer, rapper, songwriter, record producer, actress

Life

“If he wants to be an asshole, it's a free country. Millions before him have made the same life choice.”

Margaret Atwood book Oryx and Crake

Source: Oryx and Crake

Country

“To think what is true, to sense what is beautiful and to want what is good, hereby the spirit finds purpose of a life in reason.”

Johann Gottfried Herder (1744–1803) German philosopher, theologian, poet, and literary critic

Beauty, Thinking, Sense

“We all make mistakes, don't we? But if you can't forgive yourself, you'll always be an exile in your own life.”

Curtis Sittenfeld (1975) Novelist, short story writer

Source: Sisterland

Forgiveness

“Character is both developed and revealed by tests, and all of life is a test… You will be tested by major changes, delayed promises, impossible problems, unanswered prayers, undeserved criticism, and even senseless tragedies.”

Rick Warren (1954) Christian religious leader

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

Problem, Change

“It's not enough to believe! Don't you see that, you stupid girl? You could spend your whole life hoping and believing! If a love affair is one-sided, then it's only ever a question, never an answer. You can't live your life waiting for an answer.”

Sophie Kinsella book Twenties Girl

Source: Twenties Girl

Love, Stupidity, Hope, Girl

“Even now, I wonder how much of my life is convinced.”

Markus Zusak book The Book Thief

Source: The Book Thief

“Stop thinking about life and choose to live it”

Paulo Coelho book The Fifth Mountain

Source: The Fifth Mountain

Thinking

“Life is ours to be spent, not to
be saved.”

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

Funny, Happy, Life

“If you only try to please others, you're going to resent those people you're trying to please; the ones who are often closest to you. If you choose a path that you yourself want to take, then you're going to be much kinder to the people in your life.”

Sarah McLachlan (1968) Canadian musician, singer, and songwriter

Source: Plenty: A Collection of Sarah McLachlan's Favorite Recipes

People

“If I had followed my better judgment always, my life would have been a very dull one.”

Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875–1950) American writer

“… in the end, all I want is to be with him. It's the only way my life feels complete.”

Alyson Nöel book Shadowland

Source: Shadowland

Way, Feeling

“The pleasure of living and the pleasure of the orgasm are identical. Extreme orgasm anxiety forms the basis of the general fear of life.”

Wilhelm Reich (1897–1957) Austrian-American psychoanalyst

Source: The Function of the Orgasm (1927), Ch. V : The Development of the Character-Analytic Technique
Context: Sexual anxiety is caused by the external frustration of instinctual gratification and is internally anchored by the fear of the dammed-up sexual excitation. This leads to orgasm anxiety, which is the ego's fear of the over-powering excitation of the genital system due to its estrangement from the experience of pleasure. Orgasm anxiety constitutes the core of the universal, biologically anchored pleasure anxiety. It is usually expressed as a general anxiety about every form of vegetative sensation and excitation, or the perception of such excitation and sensations. The pleasure of living and the pleasure of the orgasm are identical. Extreme orgasm anxiety forms the basis of the general fear of life.

Pleasure, Fear