“The goal of being alive is to figure out what it means to be alive.”

“Imagine being sentient but not alive. Seeing and even knowing, but not alive. Just looking out. Recognizing but not being alive. A person can die and still go on. Sometimes what looks out at you from a person's eyes maybe died back in childhood.”

Philip K. Dick book A Scanner Darkly

“Hell is being alive, and being alive is all there is.”

Michael Marshall Smith (1965) British novelist, screenwriter and short story writer

“The aim is to balance the terror of being alive with the wonder of being alive.”

Carlos Castaneda (1925–1998) Peruvian-American author

“What a blessed if painful thing, this business of being alive.”

Joe Hill (1879–1915) Swedish-American labor activist, songwriter, and member of the Industrial Workers of the World

“Many people are alive but don't touch the miracle of being alive.”

Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist

“Spirituality does not mean going away from life. Spirituality means becoming alive in the fullest possible way so you are not just alive on the surface, you are alive to the core.”

Sadhguru (1957) Yogi, mystic, visionary and humanitarian

“I don't believe people are looking for the meaning of life as much as they are looking for the experience of being alive.”

Joseph Campbell (1904–1987) American mythologist, writer and lecturer

“Life is without meaning. You bring the meaning to it. The meaning of life is whatever you ascribe it to be. Being alive is the meaning.

Love is a friendship set to music.”

Joseph Campbell (1904–1987) American mythologist, writer and lecturer

“Act out being alive, like a play. And after a while, a long while, it will be true.”

John Steinbeck book East of Eden