„Life is short, but it's long enough to ruin any man who wants to be ruined.“

„You are not responsible for anyone who stubbornly chooses to ruin his own life.“

—  Vernon Howard American writer 1918 - 1992

1500 Ways to Escape the Human Jungle

„A kiss may ruin a human life“

—  Oscar Wilde Irish writer and poet 1854 - 1900

„Reality continues to ruin my life.“

—  Bill Watterson American comic artist 1958

Homicidal Psycho Jungle Cat
Source: The Complete Calvin and Hobbes

„There’s no such thing as ruining your life. Life’s a pretty resilient thing, it turns out.“

—  Sophie Kinsella, book The Undomestic Goddess

Source: The Undomestic Goddess

„And what is a man? He is someone who rises when life has knocked him down. Someone who raises his fist to heaven when a storm has ruined his crop — and then plants again. And again.“

—  David Gemmell, book Legend

Source: Drenai series, Legend, Pt 1: Against the Horde, Ch. 7
Context: [A]ll men die.... A man needs many things in his life to make it bearable. A good woman. Sons and daughters. Comradeship. Warmth. Food and shelter. but above all these things, he needs to be able to know that he is a man. And what is a man? He is someone who rises when life has knocked him down. Someone who raises his fist to heaven when a storm has ruined his crop — and then plants again. And again. A man remains unbroken by the savage twists of fate. That man may never win. But when he sees himself reflected, he can be proud of what he sees. For low he may be in the scheme of things: peasant, serf, or dispossessed. But he is unconquerable. And what is death? an end to trouble. An end to strife and fear.... Bear this in mind when you decide your future.

„There is always somebody about to ruin your day, if not your life.“

—  Charles Bukowski, book Pulp

Source: Pulp

„Dr Weiss, at forty, knew that her life had been ruined by literature“

—  Anita Brookner, A Start in Life

Source: A Start in Life

„Dan: You've ruined my life.
Anna: You'll get over it.“

—  Patrick Marber, Closer

Closer

„What's old collapses, times change,
And new life blossoms in the ruins.“

—  Friedrich Schiller, William Tell

Act IV, sc. ii
Wilhelm Tell (1803)

„Drugs are so fucking good that they’ll ruin your life.“

—  Louis C.K. American comedian and actor 1967

Live at the Beacon Theater https://buy.louisck.net/purchase/live-at-the-beacon-theater

„It is not that we have a short space of time, but that we waste much of it. Life is long enough.“

—  Seneca the Younger, Moral Essays

De Brevitate Vitae ("On the Shortness of Life", trans. John W. Basore), Ch. 1
Moral Essays
Original: (la) Non exiguum temporis habemus, sed multum perdidimus. Satis longa vita.

„Who wants to be a hundred? What's the point of it? A short life and a merry one is far better than a long one sustained by fear, caution, and perpetual medical surveillance.“

—  Henry Miller American novelist 1891 - 1980

„I guessed life was like that. You gained and you lost, and if you saved anything from the ruins, even if only a shred of self-respect, it was enough to take you through the next bit.“

—  Dick Francis, Whip Hand

Source: Whip Hand

„Mark in the meadows the ruin of Time;
Take the hint, and let life be improv'd in its prime.“

—  Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield British statesman and man of letters 1694 - 1773

"Advice to a Lady in Autumn", published in A Collection of Poems in Six Volumes. By Several Hands. Vol. I. (1763), printed by J. Hughs, for R. and J. Dodsley

„I should stop ruining my life searching for answers I'm never gonna get, and just enjoy it while it lasts.“

—  Woody Allen American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, author, playwright, and musician 1935

Hannah and Her Sisters (1986).

„What would have happened if she had not lost that necklace? Who knows? who knows? How strange and changeful is life! How small a thing is needed to make or ruin us!“

—  Guy De Maupassant French writer 1850 - 1893

Variant translation:
What would have happened if she had not lost that necklace? Who knows? Who knows? How singular life is, how changeable! What a little thing it takes to save you or to lose you.
La Parure (The Necklace) (1884)

„Art is long, life is short.“

—  Horace Roman lyric poet -65 - -8 BC

Seneca's (De Brevitate Vitae, 1.1) Latin translation of the Greek by Hippocrates.
Misattributed
Original: (la) Ars longa, vita brevis.

„Life is short, but the years are long.“

—  Robert A. Heinlein, book Methuselah's Children

Part of the secret "call and response" codewords by which members of the long-lived Howard Families can identify others:
: Life is short.
But the years are long.
Not while the evil days come not.
Methuselah's Children (1958)

„Every life is, more or less, a ruin among whose debris we have to discover what the person ought to have been.“

—  José Ortega Y Gasset Spanish liberal philosopher and essayist 1883 - 1955