“To accomplish great things we must live as though we had never to die.”
Pour exécuter de grandes choses, il faut vivre comme si on ne devait jamais mourir.
Quoted in Queers in History: The Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Historical Gays (2009), by Keith Stern, p. 466.
Variant: In order to achieve great things, we must live as though we were never going to die.
Source: Reflections and Maxims (1746), p. 172.
Original
Pour exécuter de grandes choses, il faut vivre comme si l'on ne devait jamais mourir.
Réflexions et maximes
Variant: Pour exécuter de grandes choses, il faut vivre comme si on ne devait jamais mourir.
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Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues 60
French writer, a moralist 1715–1747Related quotes
“To accomplish great things we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.”
Variant: To accomplish great things, we must dream as well as act.
Source: Discours de réception, Séance De L'académie Française (introductory speech at a session of the French Academy), 24th December 1896, on Ferdinand de Lesseps' work on the Suez Canal.
Context: To accomplish great things we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.
“Let us never forget that if we wish to die like the Saints we must live like them.”
Letter to Sisters at Saint Mary's, 1848.
Context: Let us never forget that if we wish to die like the Saints we must live like them. Let us force ourselves to imitate their virtues, in particular humility and charity.
“To look at something as though we had never seen it before requires great courage.”
Source: My Dearest Friend: Letters of Abigail and John Adams
“We are reading the story of our lives
As though we were in it
As though we had written it.”
“Let us live – we must die.”
Vivamus, moriendum est.
Book II, Chapter VI; translation from Michael Winterbottom, Declamations of the Elder Seneca (London: Heinemann, 1974) vol. 1 p. 349
Some editions of Seneca prefer the reading Bibamus, moriendum est (Let us drink – we must die).
Controversiae
Source: Regards sur le monde actuel [Reflections on the World Today] (1931), p. 58