“What I learned
The well-documented difference
Between alone and lonely
The comfort of knowing”
David Levithan The Realm of Possibility
Source: The Realm of Possibility
“Leave well — even 'pretty well' — alone: that is what I learn as I get old.”
As quoted in Fitzgerald to His Friends: Selected Letters of Edward FitzGerald (1979) edited by Alethea Hayter, p. 178.
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Edward FitzGerald13
English poet and writer 1809–1883Related quotes
“Before I became old I tried to live well; now that I am old, I shall try to die well; but dying well means dying gladly.”
Ante senectutem curavi ut bene viverem, in senectute ut bene moriar; bene autem mori est libenter mori.
Seneca the Younger (-4–65 BC) Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, and dramatist
Source: Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter LXI: On meeting death cheerfully, Line 2.
“The old Romans had a custom which survived even into my lifetime. They would add to the opening words of a letter: "If you are well, it is well; I also am well." Persons like ourselves would do well to say. "If you are studying philosophy, it is well." For this is just what "being well" means. Without philosophy the mind is sickly.”
Mos antiquis fuit, usque ad meam servatus aetatem, primis epistulae verbis adicere 'si vales bene est, ego valeo'. Recte nos dicimus 'si philosopharis, bene est'. Valere enim hoc demum est. Sine hoc aeger est animus.
Seneca the Younger (-4–65 BC) Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, and dramatist
Mos antiquis fuit, usque ad meam servatus aetatem, primis epistulae verbis adicere 'si vales bene est, ego valeo'. Recte nos dicimus 'si philosopharis, bene est'.
Valere enim hoc demum est. Sine hoc aeger est animus.
Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter XV
Bruce Springsteen (1949) American singer and songwriter
"Glory Days"
Song lyrics, Born in the U.S.A. (1984)
Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States
1850s, Autobiographical Sketch Written for Jesse W. Fell (1859)
Context: In 1846 I was once elected to the lower House of Congress. Was not a candidate for reëlection. From 1849 to 1854, both inclusive, practiced law more assiduously than ever before. Always a Whig in politics; and generally on the Whig electoral tickets making active canvasses. I was losing interest in politics when the repeal of the aroused me again. What I have done since then is pretty well known.<!--pp.35-36
George Peele (1556–1596) English translator and poet
"The Hunting of Cupid" (1591).
“We learn about life not from pluses alone, but from minuses as well.”
Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) Russian dramatist, author and physician
Letter to A.S. Suvorin (December 23, 1888)
Letters