Quotes about life
page 83

“Life is short. Art long. Opportunity is fleeting. Expierience treacherous. Judgement difficult.”

Geoffrey Chaucer (1343–1400) English poet

Art

“Never try to impress a woman, because if you do she'll expect you to keep up the standard for the rest of your life.”

W.C. Fields (1880–1946) actor

“Having a baby is painful in order to show how serious a thing life is.”

Lisa See book Shanghai Girls

Source: Shanghai Girls

Pain, Baby

“When you read a great book, you don't escape from life, you plunge deeper into it.”

Julian Barnes (1946) English writer

Books, Reading

“peace of mind and heart
arrives
when we accept what is:
having been
born into this
strange life
we must accept
the wasted gamble of our
days
and take some satisfaction in
the pleasure of
leaving it all
behind.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

Source: The Pleasures of the Damned

Pleasure, Peace, Heart

“You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don't do too many things wrong.”

Warren Buffett (1930) American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist

“What did that stupid deserting crap-bag ex-boyfriend, ex-best friend with the most perfect stupid hair do? He DIDN'T delete his crap off the desktop before he fled my life and left me all alone. That's what he did.”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Source: Fang

Stupidity, Perfection

“To bring anything into your life, imagine that it's already there.”

Richard Bach (1936) American spiritual writer

Source: The Bridge Across Forever: A True Love Story

Imagination

“I buried Little Ann by the side of Old Dan. I knew that was where she wanted to be. I also buried a part of my life along with my dog.”

Wilson Rawls book Where the Red Fern Grows

Source: Where the Red Fern Grows

Dogs, Parting, Heartbreaking

“… every time you make a decision to be less than what God wants for you, you're denying yourself some of God's blessings. It's up to you. You can live a life with God's blessings, or just exist with all the consequences of choosing wrong.”

Terri Blackstock (1957) American writer

Source: Last Light

God, Decision, Time

“The first time I called myself a 'Witch' was the most magical moment of my life.”

Margot Adler (1946–2014) author, Neopagan, and National Public Radio reporter

Source: Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers, and Other Pagans in America

Time

“To love God is to love His will. It is to wait quietly for life to be measured by One who knows us through and through. It is to be content with His timing and His wise appointment.”

Elisabeth Elliot (1926–2015) American missionary

Love, God, Time, Waiting

“With a bit of luck, his life was ruined forever. Always thinking that just behind some narrow door in all of his favorite bars, men in red woolen shirts are getting incredible kicks from things he’ll never know.”

Hunter S. Thompson book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Source: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Men, Thinking

“Sometimes your whole life could hinge on a fraction of an inch. Or the beat of nanosecond. Or the knock on a door.
Kind of made a male believe in the divine. It really did.”

Jessica Bird (1969) U.S. novelist

Source: Lover Awakened

“Let every dawn of morning be to you as the beginning of life, and every setting sun be to you as its close.”

John Ruskin (1819–1900) English writer and art critic

Source: The Two Paths

Sun

“I don't see why human people make such a heavy trip out of sex. It isn't anything complex, it is simply the best thing in life, even better than food.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Friday

Source: Friday

People, Food, Sex

“This was not a fearie tale. This was not the movies. This was life. It hurt more. It was excruciating. It was excruciatingly beautiful.”

Francesca Lia Block (1962) American children's writer

Variant: This was not a faerie tale. This was not the movies. This was life. It hurt more. It was excruciating. It was excruciatingly beautiful.
Source: Violet & Claire

Beauty, Hurt

“It was one of those moments that would have had dramatic music if my life were a movie, but instead I got a radio jingle for some kind of submarine sandwich place blaring over the store's ambient stereo. The movie ofmy life must be really low-budget.”

Jim Butcher Dead Beat

Source: Dead Beat

Music

“Storiesto be read, David's mother would whisper. They needed it. It was the reason they forced themselves from their world into ours. They wanted us to give them life.”

John Connolly The Book of Lost Things

Source: The Book of Lost Things

World, Reading

“I have discovered the value of psychology and psychiatry, that their teachings can undo knots in us and permit life to flow again and aid us in becoming more truly human.”

Jean Vanier (1928–2019) Canadian humanitarian

Source: Becoming Human

“When I looked at you, my life made sense. Even the bad things made sense. They were necessary to make you possible.”

Jonathan Safran Foer (1977) Novelist

Sense

“Life's no piece of cake, mind you, but the recipe's my own to fool with.”

Haruki Murakami book Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

Source: Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

Fools

“Take Risks in Your Life If u Win, U Can Lead! If u Lose, U Can Guide!”

Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902) Indian Hindu monk and phylosopher

Source: Raja-Yoga

“I couldn't have felt more of lonely desolation somehow, had I been robbed of a belief or had missed my destiny in life…”

Joseph Conrad book Heart of Darkness

Source: Heart of Darkness

“In everyone there sleeps
A sense of life lived according to love.
To some it means the difference they could make
By loving others, but across most it sweeps,
As all they might have done had they been loved.
That nothing cures.”

Philip Larkin (1922–1985) English poet, novelist, jazz critic and librarian

Love, Sense, Sleep

“No man should go through life without once experiencing healthy, even bored solitude in the wilderness, finding himself depending solely on himself and thereby learning his true and hidden strength.”

Jack Kerouac book Lonesome Traveler

Lonesome Traveler (1960)
Context: No man should go through life without once experiencing healthy, even bored solitude in the wilderness, finding himself depending solely on himself and thereby learning his true and hidden strength. Learning for instance, to eat when he's hungry and sleep when he's sleepy.

Solitude, Learning, Dependency, For Men

“Even without wars, life is dangerous.”

Anne Sexton (1928–1974) poet from the United States

War

“Oh! I am delighted with the book! I should like to spend my whole life in reading it.”

Jane Austen book Northanger Abbey

Source: Northanger Abbey

Books, Reading

“I am wholly yours - you are everything to me; we will sustain each other in all the ills of life it may please fate to inflict upon us; you will soothe my troubles; I will comfort you in yours.”

Denis Diderot (1713–1784) French Enlightenment philosopher and encyclopædist

Fate

“They're afraid of change, and we must change. They're afraid of the young, and we are the young. They're afraid of music, and music is our life. They're afraid of books, and knowledge, and ideas. They're most afraid of our magic.”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Source: Witch & Wizard

Books, Music, Idea, Knowledge

“Horace normally didn't need anyone else to save his life. He was pretty skilled at doing it for himself.”

John Flanagan (1873–1938) Irish-American hammer thrower

Source: The Emperor of Nihon-Ja

“Have you ever felt that there was something going on in life that not everyone was aware of?”

Regina Doman (1970) American writer

Source: The Shadow of the Bear

“Difficulties come when you don't pay attention to life's whisper. Life always whispers to you first, but if you ignore the whisper, sooner or later you'll get a scream”

Oprah Winfrey (1954) American businesswoman, talk show host, actress, producer, and philanthropist

“People think a soul mate is your perfect fit, and that's what everyone wants. But a true soul mate is a mirror, the person who shows you everything that is holding you back, the person who brings you to your own attention so you can change your life.”

Elizabeth Gilbert book Eat, Pray, Love

Source: Eat, Pray, Love (2006)
Context: People think a soul mate is your perfect fit, and that's what everyone wants. But a true soul mate is a mirror, the person who shows you everything that is holding you back, the person who brings you to your own attention so you can change your life.
A true soul mate is probably the most important person you'll ever meet, because they tear down your walls and smack you awake. But to live with a soul mate forever? Nah. Too painful. Soul mates, they come into your life just to reveal another layer of yourself to you, and then leave.
A soul mates purpose is to shake you up, tear apart your ego a little bit, show you your obstacles and addictions, break your heart open so new light can get in, make you so desperate and out of control that you have to transform your life, then introduce you to your spiritual master…

People, Soul, Thinking, Change

“Life… is only heavy and none else; there is only the one trip, all heavy. Heavy that leads to the grave. For everyone and everything.”

Philip K. Dick book A Scanner Darkly

Source: A Scanner Darkly

“Why should I want to make anything up? Life's bad enough as it is without wanting to invent any more of it.”

Douglas Adams (1952–2001) English writer and humorist

“Like any man, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people will get to the promised land.”

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

1960s, I've Been to the Mountaintop (1968)
Context: Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like any man, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people will get to the promised land. And I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.

God, People, Mountain

“Most people confuse their life situation with their actual life, which is an underlying flow beneath the everyday events.”

Richard Rohr (1943) American spiritual writer, speaker, teacher, Catholic Franciscan priest

Source: Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life

People

“Poetry is a way of taking life by the throat.”

Robert Frost (1874–1963) American poet

As quoted in Robert Frost: the Trial by Existence (1960) by Elizabeth S. Sergeant, Ch. 18
1960s
Variant: Poetry is a way of taking life by the throat.

Way

“In the face of such hopelessness as our eventual, unavoidable death, there is little sense in not at least trying to accomplish all of your wildest dreams in life.”

Kevin Smith (1970) American screenwriter, actor, film producer, public speaker and director

Source: Tough Shit: Life Advice from a Fat, Lazy Slob Who Did Good

Death, Dreams, Sense

“… this beginning motion, this first time when a sail truly filled and the boat took life and knifed across the lake under perfect control, this was so beautiful it stopped my breath…”

Gary Paulsen (1939) American writer and musher

Source: Caught by the Sea

Beauty, Time, Perfection

“Throughout my life my greatest benefactors have been my travels and my dreams. Very few men, living or dead, have helped me in my struggles.”

Nikos Kazantzakis (1883–1957) Greek writer

Men, Dreams, Travel, Help

“… the waiters carried themselves with a quiet joy, as if their entire mission in life was to make their customers feel comfortable and well tended.”

Julia Child My Life in France

Source: My Life in France

Feeling, Joy

“To look almost pretty is an acquisition of higher delight to a girl who has been looking plain for the first fifteen years of her life than a beauty from her cradle can ever receive.”

Jane Austen book Northanger Abbey

Source: Northanger Abbey (1817)

Beauty, Girl

“Life is easier when you can write off others as monsters, demon, as horrible threats that must be hated and feared the thing is you can't do that without becoming them, just a little.”

Jim Butcher book White Night

Source: White Night

Hate, Fear

“There are a few moments in your life when you are truly and completely happy, and you remember to give thanks. Even as it happens you are nostalgic for the moment, you are tucking it away in your scrapbook.”

David Benioff (1970) writer

Source: When the Nines Roll Over and Other Stories

Happiness

“One does not surrender a life in an instant. That which is lifelong can only be surrendered in a lifetime.”

Elisabeth Elliot (1926–2015) American missionary

“Do you know how an ugly woman feels? Do you know what it is to be ugly all your life and inside to feel that you are beautiful? It is very rare.”

Ernest Hemingway book For Whom the Bell Tolls

Source: For Whom the Bell Tolls

Beauty, Feeling

“Life comes at us in waves. We can't predict or control those waves, but we can learn to surf”

Dan Millman (1946) American self help writer

Learning

“There are bad things in the world. There's no getting away from that. But that doesn't mean nothing can be done about them. You can't abandon life just because it's scary, and just because sometimes you get hurt.”

Jim Butcher Turn Coat

Source: Turn Coat

World, Hurt

“The unselfish effort to bring cheer to others will be the beginning of a happier life for ourselves.”

Helen Keller (1880–1968) American author and political activist

Effort

“Why is life so difficult? Why can't we be just ourselves and have everyone accept us the way we are?”

Beatrice Sparks (1917–2012) American writer

Source: Go Ask Alice

Way

“She was a stranger in her own life, a tourist in her own body.”

Melissa de la Cruz book The Van Alen Legacy

Source: The Van Alen Legacy

“I've mastered many things in my life. Navigating the strets of London, dancing the quadrille, the Japanese art of flower arranging, lying at charades, concealing a highly intoxicated state, delighting young women with my charms…”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel

Source: Clockwork Angel

Women, Art, Flowers, Lying

“Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to life as long as God himself”

Elie Wiesel book Night

Source: Night

God, Forgetting

“The truth is we never stop being children, terrible children covered in sores and knotty veins and tumors and age spots, but ultimately children, in other words we never stop clinging to life because we are life.”

Roberto Bolaño book 2666

Source: 2666

Children, Truth, Age

“Love is like moonlight or thunder, or rain on a tin roof in the middle of the night; it is one of those things in life that is truly worth knowing.”

Sonya Hartnett (1968) Australian writer

Source: The Ghost's Child

Love, Night

“The worse I am, the more I need God. I can't shut myself out from His mercy. That is what it would mean; starting a life with you, without Him.”

Evelyn Waugh (1903–1966) British writer

Source: Brideshead Revisited: The Sacred and Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder

God

“She was tired of everyone wanting to go to heaven, nobody wanting to die. The only thing worth grieving over, she said, was that sometimes there was more beauty in this life than the world could bear.”

Colum McCann book Let the Great World Spin

Source: Let the Great World Spin

World, Beauty

“You know how teachers are. If they get you to take out a book they love too, they're yours for life.”

Gary D. Schmidt book Orbiting Jupiter

Source: Orbiting Jupiter

Love, Books, Teachers

“God wants you to have a good life, a life filled with love, joy, peace, and fulfillment. That doesn’t mean it will always be easy, but it does mean that it will always be good.”

Joel Osteen (1963) American televangelist and author

Source: Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential

Love, God, Peace, Joy

“Sweet life continues in the breeze, in the golden fields.”

Jack Kerouac book Book of Sketches

Source: Book of Sketches

“If a person is confident enough in the way they feel, whether it's an art form or whether it's just in life, it comes off---you don't have anything to prove; you can just be who you are.”

Clint Eastwood (1930) actor and director from the United States

Art, Way, Feeling, Confidence

“That's the story of my life rich or poor and mostly poor and truly poor.”

Jack Kerouac book The Dharma Bums

Source: The Dharma Bums

“Life is short,
and pleasures few,
and holed the ship,
and drowned the crew,
But O! But O!
How very blue
the sea is!”

Clive Barker book Abarat

Abarat, Book One

Pleasure, Sea

“As for me, I did the stupidest thing in my life, which is saying a lot. I attacked the Titan Lord Atlas.”

Rick Riordan book The Titan's Curse

Source: The Titan's Curse

“Life is a series of surprises and would not be worth taking or keeping if it were not.”

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

“You can’t buy time, Nick. Ever. It’s the only thing in life you can’t get most of, and it’s the one thing that will mercilessly tear you up when it’s gone. It takes no pity on no soul and no heart.”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Invincible

Soul, Tear, Time, Heart

“My idea of an interesting person is someone who is quite proud of their seemingly abnormal life and turns their disadvantage into a career.”

John Waters (1946) American filmmaker, actor, comedian and writer

Source: Shock Value: A Tasteful Book About Bad Taste

Idea, Personality

“All we really want is for no one to have a boring life, to be impressive, so we can be impressed. ~ on the friends we choose.”

Dave Eggers book A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

Source: A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

“To understand just one life, you have to swallow the world.”

Salman Rushdie book Midnight's Children

Variant: To understand just one life you have to swallow the world... do you wonder, then, that I was a heavy child?
Source: Midnight's Children

World, Understanding

“Beautiful as a dandelion-blossom, golden in the green grass,
This life can be.
Common as a dandelion-blossom, beautiful in the clean grass, not beautiful
Because common, beautiful because beautiful,
Noble because common, because free.”

Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892–1950) American poet

Source: Conversation At Midnight

Beauty, Grass

“A man's subconscious self is not the ideal companion. It lurks for the greater part of his life in some dark den of its own, hidden away, and emerges only to taunt and deride and increase the misery of a miserable hour.”

P.G. Wodehouse book The Adventures of Sally

Source: The Adventures of Sally (1922)

Parting

“It gets so tiring, this strong-picking-on-the-weak stuff. It was the story of my life -literally- and it seemed to be a big part of the outside world too. I was sick of it, sick of guys like these, stupid and bullying.”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Source: The Angel Experiment

Stupidity, World, Guy, Strong

“I'll go to the south of Sicily in the winter, and paint memories of Arles – I'll buy a piano and Mozart me that – I'll write long sad tales about people in the legend of my life – This part is my part of the movie, let's hear yours”

Jack Kerouac book Tristessa

Source: Tristessa

People, Sadness, Memory, Winter

“Advanced life-forms, my seweet patootie. Jerks. Both of them.”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Source: Fang

Jerk

“Nothing has transformed my life more than realizing that it’s a waste of time to evaluate my worthiness by weighing the reaction of the people in the stands.”

Brené Brown (1965) US writer and professor

Source: Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead

People, Time

“The heart wants what it wants, Dolp. You don't plan on making your life complicated, it just happens, and you don"t do it on purpose, and you don't do it to hurt people who love you. It just turns out that way sometimes.”

Laurell K. Hamilton book Narcissus in Chains

Source: Narcissus in Chains

Love, People, Way, Heart

“Life is full of surprises, but never when you need one.”

Bill Watterson (1958) American comic artist

Homicidal Psycho Jungle Cat

“One's life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, indignation and compassion.”

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

As quoted in Successful Aging : A Conference Report (1974) by Eric Pfeiffer, p. 142
Attributed

Love, Friendship

“… When I look back on my life's greatest traumas… I see that each one has something in common. No matter how life-shattering they felt at the time, there was an end to them.”

Anna Maxted (1969) British writer

Source: Getting Over It

Time

“Come, hunt with me, the invitation whispers in my heart. Leave the pain behind and let your life be your own again. There is a place where all time is now, and the choices are simple and always your own.
Wolves have no kings.”

Robin Hobb book Royal Assassin

Variant: Leave the pain behind and let your life be your own again. There is a place where all time is now, and the choices are simple and always your own.

Wolves have no kings
Source: Royal Assassin

Pain, Time, Heart