Quotes about life
page 84

“Throughout his life the memory of that happy day stayed locked secretly in (his) heart.”

Brian Jacques book Martin the Warrior

Source: Martin the Warrior

Happiness, Memory, Heart

“I take so little interest in my daily life, that I hardly remember to eat and drink.”

Emily Brontë book Wuthering Heights

Source: Wuthering Heights

Drink

“God sometimes removes a person from your life for your protection. Don't run after them.”

Rick Warren (1954) Christian religious leader

God, Personality

“There'll be times when the only refuge is books. Then you'll read as if you meant it, as if your life depended on it.”

Ken Bruen (1951) Irish writer

Source: The Killing Of The Tinkers

Books, Time, Reading, Dependency

“The truth is that the universe has been answering you all of your life, but you cannot receive the answers unless you are awake.”

Rhonda Byrne book The Secret

Source: The Secret

Truth, Universe

“I look at life like a big book and sometimes you get half way through it and go 'Even though I've been enjoying it, I've had enough. Give us another book”

Karl Pilkington (1972) English television personality, social commentator, actor, author and former radio producer

Podcast Series 2 Episode 2
On Life

Books, Way

“A dominant wolf's desire to protect was a strong instinct--Samuel was very dominant. Give him an inch, and he'd take over the world--my life, if I let him." ~Mercy”

Patricia Briggs book Blood Bound

Source: Blood Bound

World, Strong, Wolf

“In real life, love has to be possible. Even if it is not returned right away, love can only survive when the hope exists that you will be able to win over the person you desire.”

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

Source: By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

Love, Hope, Personality

“In a time of social fragmentation, vulgarity becomes a way of life. To be shocking becomes more important - and often more profitable - than to be civil or creative or truly original.”

Al Gore (1948) 45th Vice President of the United States

Way, Time

“But you must give him some sign, some sign that you love him… or he'll never be a man. All his life he'll feel guilty and alone unless you release him.”

John Steinbeck book East of Eden

Source: East of Eden

Love, Feeling

“Where there's life, death is inevitable. Dying's easy; it's living that's hard. The harder it gets, the stronger the will to live. And the greater the fear of death, the greater the struggle to keep on living.”

Mo Yan book Big Breasts and Wide Hips

Source: Big Breasts and Wide Hips (1996)

Death, Fear

“The tragedy of life is not so much what
men suffer, but rather what they miss.”

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher

Men, Suffering, Sad

“Life tests the big dreamers the Passionate revolutionaries.”

Robin S. Sharma (1965) Canadian self help writer

Passion

“Listen to me, Cammie. There are things in this life…in this world…There are things that you don’t want to remember.” - Rachel Morgan”

Ally Carter Out of Sight, Out of Time

Source: Out of Sight, Out of Time

World

“Socrates told us, "the unexamined life is not worth living." I think he's calling for curiosity, more than knowledge. In every human society at all times and at all levels, the curious are at the leading edge.”

Roger Ebert (1942–2013) American film critic, author, journalist, and TV presenter

Knowledge, Thinking, Time

“The man is happiest who lives from day to day and asks no more, garnering the simple goodness of life.”

Euripidés (-480–-406 BC) ancient Athenian playwright

“Pet names are a persistant remnant of childhood, a reminder that life is not always so serious, so formal, so complicated. They are a reminder, too, that one is not all things to all people.”

Jhumpa Lahiri book The Namesake

Source: The Namesake

People, Childhood

“The real struggle is about you: you, a person who has to learn to live in the real world, to inhabit her own skin, to know her own heart, to stop waiting for life to begin.”

Caroline Knapp (1959–2002) American writer

Source: Appetites: Why Women Want

World, Learning, Waiting, Heart

“You are only as invincible as your smallest weakness, and those are tiny indeed - the length of a sleeping baby's eyelash, the span of a child's hand. Life turns on a dime, and - it turns out - so does one's conscience.”

Jodi Picoult Perfect Match

Source: Perfect Match

Sleep, Baby

“The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.”

Walter Bagehot (1826–1877) British journalist, businessman, and essayist

People, Pleasure, Funny

“Books. Cats. Life is good.”

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

Books, Cats

“You have to find what’s good and true and beautiful in your life as it is now. Looking back makes you competitive. And, age is not a competitive issue.”

Mitch Albom Tuesdays with Morrie

Source: Tuesdays with Morrie

Age, Beauty

“The first thing which I can record concerning myself is, that I was born. These are wonderful words. This life, to which neither time nor eternity can bring diminution - this everlasting living soul, began. My mind loses itself in these depths.”

Groucho Marx (1890–1977) American comedian

Soul, Time

“Life is a drama full of tragedy and comedy. You should learn to enjoy the comic episodes a little more.”

Jeannette Walls book The Glass Castle

Source: The Glass Castle

Learning

“Life is simple," I said. "Ale, women, sword, and reputation. Nothing else matters.”

Bernard Cornwell book The Pale Horseman

Source: The Pale Horseman

Women

“All any of us wanted, really, was to know that we counted. That someone else's life would not have been as rich without us here.”

Jodi Picoult book Handle With Care

Source: Handle with Care

“If you want sweet dreams, you've got to live a sweet life.”

Barbara Kingsolver (1955) American author, poet and essayist

Dreams

“There's a difference between the fact that the universe is inherently unfair on a cosmic level, and the fact that life is unfair because people are actively making it so.”

John Scalzi (1969) American science fiction writer

People, Universe

“For all of my life I have needed more.”

Elizabeth Wurtzel (1967–2020) American author and journalist

Source: More, Now, Again: A Memoir of Addiction

“To find what you seek in the road of life,
the best proverb of all is that which says:
"Leave no stone unturned.”

Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803–1873) English novelist, poet, playwright, and politician

“If you are always frightened for yourself you can't act, and then life loses its purpose. You just have to tell yourself that, when you get right down to it, you don't matter all that much.”

Terry Brooks book The Elf Queen of Shannara

The Elf Queen Of Shannara
Source: The Elf Queen of Shannara

“This nice and subtle happiness of reading, this joy not chilled by age, this polite and unpunished vice, this selfish, serene life-long intoxication.”

Logan Pearsall Smith (1865–1946) British American-born writer

Happiness, Age, Reading, Joy

“It struck him that how you spent Christmas was a message to the world about where you were in life, some indication of how deep a hole you had managed to burrow for yourself”

Nick Hornby About a Boy

Source: About a Boy

World, Christmas

“Life… is like a grapefruit. Well, it's sort of orangey-yellow and dimpled on the outside, wet and squidgy in the middle. It's got pips inside, too. Oh, and some people have half a one for breakfast.”

Douglas Adams book So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

Source: So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

People

“Then came the war, old sport. It was a great relief, and I tried very hard to die, but I seemed to bear an enchanted life.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby

Source: The Great Gatsby

War, Sport

“To alcohol! The cause of… and solution to… all of life's problems”

Matt Groening (1954) American cartoonist

Alcohol, Problem

“The ultimate meaning to which all stories refer has two faces: the continuity of life, the inevitability of death.”

Italo Calvino (1923–1985) Italian journalist and writer of short stories and novels

Death

“Why should we think upon things that are lovely Because thinking determines life. It is a common habit to blame life upon the environment. Environment modifies life but does not govern life. The soul is stronger than its surroundings.”

William James (1842–1910) American philosopher, psychologist, and pragmatist

Love, Soul, Thinking

“Life is bearable even when it's unbearable: that is what's so terrible, that is the unbearable thing about it.”

Geoff Dyer (1958) English writer

Source: Out of Sheer Rage: Wrestling With D.H. Lawrence

“in this short life
that only lasts ah hour
how much-how little-is
within our power.”

Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) American poet

“ONE THING I AM NEVER GOING TO DO WHEN I GROW UP
Is fall in love, drop out of college, learn to subsist on water and air, have a species named after me, and ruin my life.”

Nicole Krauss The History of Love

Source: The History of Love

Love, Learning, Water

“He nodded. "And if I don't make you feel like the most beautiful woman in the world every day of your life, then I don't deserve to be near you.”

Shannon Hale book Austenland

Source: Austenland

World, Beauty, Feeling

“Everyone is always going through tough things, the irony in it is that everyone thinks what they're going through is just as hard as what you are. Life isn't about surviving this, it's about understanding this.”

Nicholas Sparks (1965) American writer and novelist

Understanding, Thinking

“A happy life consists not in the absence, but in the mastery of hardships.”

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

The Simplest Way to be Happy (1933)

Happiness

“Life tells you to take the elevator, but love tells you to take the stairs.”

David Levithan (1972) American author and editor

Source: Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List

Love, Motivational

“I didn't know I had it in me. There's more to all of us than we realize. Life is so much bigger, grander, higher, and wider than we allow ourselves to think. We're capable of so much more than we allow ourselves to believe.”

Queen Latifah (1970) American musician and actress

Source: Put on Your Crown: Life-Changing Moments on the Path to Queendom

Thinking

“Very few people mate for life with the people they fall for at twelve. Doesn't mean is isn't real, doesn't mean it doesn't hurt, doesn't mean it doesn't matter, but basically, we're talking a practice swing in the big game of love.”

Jennifer Crusie (1949) American writer

Source: Faking It

Love, People, Game, Hurt

“Live your life so that you’ll have no regrets. No matter how hard, no matter how sad, if something is precious to you, protect it with both arms.”

Masashi Kishimoto (1974) Japanese manga artist

Sadness

“Still, what I want in my life is to be willing to be dazzled — to cast aside the weight of facts and maybe even to float a little above this difficult world.”

Mary Oliver (1935–2019) American writer

"The Ponds"
House of Light (1990)

World

“Life is absolutely insane. Yes, life is insane but the great wisdom lies in choosing your insanity wisely.”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist

Wisdom

“All normal life, Peter, consciously or otherwise, resent domination. If the domination is by an inferior, or by a supposed inferior, the resentment becomes stronger.”

Isaac Asimov book I, Robot

Source: I, Robot

“Only two things can reveal life's great secrets: suffering and love.”

Paulo Coelho book Aleph

Source: Aleph

Love, Secret, Suffering

“I've never seen such a collection of idiots in my whole life.' Doolittle shook his head. 'If you participate in this lunacy, y'all will get yourselves killed. Then don't come crying to me.'
Now that would be a neat trick.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Strikes

Cry

“Critical and radical thought will only bear fruit when it is blended with the most precious quality man is endowed with - the love of life”

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

Source: The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness

Love

“Your life is not your own. Keep your hands off it.”

Arthur Conan Doyle book The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes

Source: The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes

“Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young.”

Henry Ford (1863–1947) American industrialist

Learning, Wise, Graduation

“You never know which people will affect your life.”

Sue Grafton (1940–2017) American writer

Source: D is for Deadbeat

People

“And did you get what
you wanted from this life, even so?
I did.
And what did you want?
To call myself beloved, to feel myself
beloved on the earth.”

Raymond Carver book A New Path to the Waterfall

Source: A New Path to the Waterfall

Feeling

“Which of us is not saying to himself
which of us has not been saying to himself all
his life:
"
I shall alter that when I have a little
more time"?
We never shall have any more time. We
have, and we have always had, all the time
there is.”

Arnold Bennett (1867–1931) English novelist

Source: How to Live on 24 Hours a Day

Time

“Most of life's actions are within our reach, but decisions take willpower.”

Robert McKee (1941) American academic specialised in seminars for screenwriters

Source: Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting

Decision

“And as you walk yr road, as you live yr life, RELISH THE ROAD. And relish the fact that the road of yr life will probably be a windy road.”

Suzan-Lori Parks (1963) American writer

“Can't you ever be serious?' I said, mortified.
'It's difficult,' he said. 'There's so little in life that's worth it.”

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (1956) novelist, short story writer, poet, and essayist

Source: The Palace of Illusions

“Corporate types love to pretend their life is exciting. The whispers, fist-pumping and animated hand gestures are all designed to lift our job description from what it really is - that of an overpaid clerk”

Chetan Bhagat book 2 States: The Story of My Marriage

Source: 2 States: The Story of My Marriage

Love, Animals

“It's amazing how quickly nature consumes human places after we turn our backs on them. Life is a hungry thing.”

Scott Westerfeld book Peeps

Variant: It’s amazing how quickly nature consumes human places after we turn our backs on them. Life is a hungry thing.
Source: Peeps

Nature

“The meaning of life is to get meaning for life.”

Wayne W. Dyer (1940–2015) American writer

“Faith is the courage to live your life as if everything that happens does so for your highest good and learning. Like it or not.”

Dan Millman (1946) American self help writer

Source: Sacred Journey of the Peaceful Warrior

Faith, Courage, Learning

“For the life of her, she couldn't understand how such an obstinate, boneheaded chauvinist could make her pulse race and her insides turn to jelly.”

Joanne Fluke (1943) writer

Source: Blueberry Muffin Murder

Understanding

“Stone and sea are deep in life
Two unalterable symbols of the world
Permanence at rest
And permanence in motion
Participants in the power that remains”

Stephen R. Donaldson (1947) Novelist

Source: The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever

World, Sea

“A person’s life story is equal to what they have plus what they want most in the world, minus what they’re actually willing to sacrifice for it.”

Craig Clevenger The Contortionist's Handbook

Source: The Contortionist's Handbook

World, Personality

“Everything in life is speaking in spite of its apparent silence.”

Hazrat Inayat Khan (1882–1927) Indian Sufi

Silence

“When life gives you lemons, make Lemonade!”

Wally Amos (1936) American author

Man with No Name: Turn Lemons Into Lemonade

Attitude

“Everything in life that’s any fun, as somebody wisely observed, is either immoral, illegal or fattening.”

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

“Dreams? If only they had been! But I don't need dreams, Doctor, that's why I hardly have them—because I have this life instead. With me it all happens in broad daylight!”

Philip Roth book Portnoy's Complaint

Source: Portnoy's Complaint (1969)

Dreams

“With an eye made quiet by the power of harmony, and the deep power of joy, we see into the life of things.”

William Wordsworth (1770–1850) English Romantic poet

Joy, Deep

“Whatever it is that pulls the pin, that hurls you past the boundaries of your own life into a brief and total beauty, even for a moment, it is enough”

Jeanette Winterson book Gut Symmetries

Gut Symmetries (1997)
Context: They were letting off fireworks down at the waterfront, the sky exploding in grenades of colour. Whatever it is that pulls the pin, that hurls you past the boundaries of your own life into a brief and total beauty - even for a moment - it is enough.

Beauty, Past

“What we leave behind in this life is the memory of who we were and what we did. An imprint, no more.”

Kate Mosse book Labyrinth

Source: Labyrinth

Memory

“you grab at any sign of hope. You grab it with both hands and breathe life into it, day after day. You do anything to keep it alive.”

Melina Marchetta Finnikin of the Rock

Source: Finnikin of the Rock

Hope

“What strange phenomena we find in a great city, all we need do is stroll about with our eyes open. Life swarms with innocent monsters.”

Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867) French poet

“The millions are awake enough for physical labor; but only one in a million is awake enough for effective intellectual exertion, only one in a hundred millions to a poetic or divine life. To be awake is to be alive.”

Henry David Thoreau book Walden ou la vie dans les bois

Source: Walden

“One must not live one's life through men but must be complete on oneself as a woman of substance.”

Helen Fielding book Bridget Jones's Diary

Source: Bridget Jones's Diary

Men

“Then you think that one can keep a hopeless love in one's heart for so long as that?… And that life can breathe upon it every day, without extinguishing it?”

André Gide (1869–1951) French novelist and essayist

Love, Thinking, Heart

“Remember that the most beautiful things in life are often the most useless; peacocks and lilies for instance.”

John Ruskin book The Stones of Venice

Volume I, chapter II, section 17.
The Stones of Venice (1853)
Variant: Remember that the most beautiful things in the world are the most useless.
Context: You were made for enjoyment, and the world was filled with things which you will enjoy, unless you are too proud to be pleased with them, or too grasping to care for what you cannot turn to other account than mere delight. Remember that the most beautiful things in the world are the most useless: peacocks and lilies, for instance.

Beauty

“That's what literature is. It's the people who went before us, tapping out messages from the past, from beyond the grave, trying to tell us about life and death! Listen to them!”

Connie Willis Passage

Source: Passage

Death, People, Literature, Past

“But life is not a legend or a story. Reality is far more precious than a story…”

David Clement-Davies book The Sight

Source: The Sight

Reality

“…still when I lost her, I lost sight of any landmark that might have led me someplace happier, to some more populated or congenial life…”

Donna Tartt book The Goldfinch

Source: The Goldfinch

“The dread of futility has been my life-long plague.”

Maya Angelou book I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Source: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

“Most mothers worry when their daughters reach adolescence but I was the opposite. I relaxed, I sighed with relief. Little girls are cute and small only to adults. To one another they are not cute. They are life sized.”

Margaret Atwood (1939) Canadian writer

Source: CAT'S EYE.

Girl, Daughters

“The only intelligent tactical response to life’s horror is to laugh defiantly at it”

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

Intelligence

“Superman is, after all, an alien life form. He is simply the acceptable face of invading realities.”

Clive Barker (1952) author, film director and visual artist

Reality

“Strange as it may seem, my life is based on a true story”

Ashleigh Brilliant (1933) American author and cartoonist

“I'm not often bored,' I assured her. "Life's not long enough for that.”

Agatha Christie book Murder in Mesopotamia

Source: Murder in Mesopotamia

“It would be a terrible mistake to go through life thinking that people are the sum total of what you see.”

Jonathan Tropper (1970) American writer

This Is Where I Leave You (2009), 2014-January-15 http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/This_Is_Where_I_Leave_You.html?id=3jVps2Z9LQcC, <br class="br">Source: This is Where I Leave You

People, Thinking