Quotes about living page 4
Hunter S. Thompson (1937–2005) American journalist and author
Source: The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967
“You who suffer because you love, love still more. To die of love, is to live by it.”
Victor Hugo book Les Misérables
Source: Les Misérables
“It's necessary to have wished for death in order to know how good it is to live.”
Alexandre Dumas book The Count of Monte Cristo
Source: The Count of Monte Cristo
Carlos Castaneda (1925–1998) Peruvian-American author
Source: Carlos Castaneda (1971) Separate Reality: Conversations With Don Juan. p. 85; As cited in: Eugene Dupuis (2001) Time Shift: Managing Time to Create a Life You Love. Ch. 5: Self Management
“The only preventative measure one can take is to live irregularly.”
Adolf Hitler book Mein Kampf
Source: Mein Kampf
John Wooden (1910–2010) American basketball coach
Source: Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court
“I can't stand it to think my life is going so fast and I'm not really living it.”
Ernest Hemingway book The Sun Also Rises
Source: The Sun Also Rises
“Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears.”
Les Brown (1945) American politician
Variant: Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living out fears.
“I wish to go on living even after my death.”
Anne Frank (1929–1945) victim of the Holocaust and author of a diary
Source: The Diary of a Young Girl
“We have two lives, and the second begins when we realize we only have one.”
Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher
“To know nothing about yourself is to live. To know yourself badly is to think.”
Fernando Pessoa book The Book of Disquiet
Source: The Book of Disquiet
Herman Melville (1818–1891) American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet
Though this statement and a few other variants of it have been widely attributed to Herman Melville, it is actually a paraphrase of one found in a sermon of Henry Melvill, "Partaking in Other Men's Sins", St. Margaret's Church, Lothbury, England (12 June 1855), printed in Golden Lectures (1855) :
: There is not one of you whose actions do not operate on the actions of others—operate, we mean, in the way of example. He would be insignificant who could only destroy his own soul; but you are all, alas! of importance enough to help also to destroy the souls of others. ...Ye cannot live for yourselves; a thousand fibres connect you with your fellow-men, and along those fibres, as along sympathetic threads, run your actions as causes, and return to you as effects.
Misattributed
“I had to philosophize. Otherwise, I could not live in this world.”
Edmund Husserl (1859–1938) German philosopher, known as the father of phenomenology
“Learn from the mistakes of others. You can never live long enough to make them all yourself.”
Groucho Marx (1890–1977) American comedian
Bruce Chatwin book The Songlines
Source: The Songlines
“The tragedy of life is not death but what we let die inside of us while we live.”
Norman Cousins (1915–1990) American journalist
“If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain.”
Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) American poet
“Resolution One: I will live for God. Resolution Two: If no one else does, I still will.”
Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758) Christian preacher, philosopher, and theologian
“The greatest prison people live in is the fear of what other people think.”
David Icke (1952) English writer and public speaker
Variant: The greatest prison people live in is the fear of what other people think.
“Live for yourself and you will live in vain;
Live for others, and you will live again.”
Bob Marley (1945–1981) Jamaican singer, songwriter, musician
Keith Haring (1958–1990) American artist and social activist whose work responded to the New York City street culture of the 1980s b…
Haring – Art in Transit http://www.haring.com/!/selected_writing/haring-art-in-transit#.V1cw0tIrKyw The Keith Haring Foundation
Jordan Peterson (1962) Canadian clinical psychologist, cultural critic, and professor of psychology
Bible Series V: Cain and Abel: The Hostile Brothers
Concepts
“Whoever lives as he sees fit will not die as he sees fit.”
Shams-i Tabrizi (1185–1248) 1185-1248, spiritual instructor of Mewlānā Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhi.
Me & Rumi (2004)
Alex Jones (1974) American radio host, author, conspiracy theorist and filmmaker
Alex Jones: The "Justin Biebler" Rant https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDMB0KyhPN8, 21 February 2011. <br class="br">2011
Corneliu Zelea Codreanu (1899–1938) Romanian politician
For My Legionaries: The Iron Guard (1936), Nation and Culture
“May everyone live,
And may everyone die.
Hello, my love,
And my love, Goodbye.”
Leonard Cohen (1934–2016) Canadian poet and singer-songwriter
"Here It Is"
Ten New Songs (2001)
“I've had enough, this is my prayer.
That I'll die living just as free as my hair.”
Lady Gaga (1986) American singer, songwriter, and actress
Hair, written by Lady Gaga and RedOne
Song lyrics, Born This Way (2011)
Edward Abbey book Desert Solitaire
"Down the River", p. 148
Desert Solitaire (1968)
Leonardo DiCaprio (1974) American actor and film producer
http://www.popmonk.com/actors/leonardo-dicaprio/quotes-leonardo-dicaprio.htm
Patch Adams (1945) Physician, activist, diplomat, author
Source: House Calls: How we can all heal the world one visit at a time (1998), p. 10
“The idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that’s wrong with the world.”
Paul Farmer (1959) American anthropologist
https://www.facebook.com/partnersinhealth/photos/%E2%80%9Cthe-idea-that-some-lives/10151726145651986/
Leonardo DiCaprio (1974) American actor and film producer
http://www.popmonk.com/actors/leonardo-dicaprio/quotes-leonardo-dicaprio.htm
George Carlin (1937–2008) American stand-up comedian
Variations of this piece have also been misattributed to Andy Rooney and Woody Allen. The original source is a variation on a piece by Sean Morey. ( "snopes.com: Andy Rooney on Everything", Snopes.com, 2012-09-09 http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/rooney3.asp, ) <br class="br">Misattributed
“Rascals, would you live forever?”
Frederick II of Prussia (1712–1786) king of Prussia
To hesitant guards at the battle of Kolin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Kol%C3%ADn#Battle, 18 June 1757 <br class="br">Attributed in E. M. Knowles, Oxford Dictionary Of Quotations (5th Edition) (Oxford University Press, 1999) <br class="br">"Kerels, wollt ihr den euwig leben?" Frederick the Great, by David Fraser, Penguin 2000, p. 353 Other versions have it: "Hünde, wollt ihr euwig leben?" (Dogs, do you want to live for ever?). <br class="br">Attributed
Bhakti Tirtha Swami (1950–2005) American Hindu writer
?
Books, The Beggar, Volume IV: Die Before Dying (Hari-Nama Press, 2005)
Martin Luther (1483–1546) seminal figure in Protestant Reformation
As quoted in Anderson, H. George; Stafford, J. Francis; Burgess, Joseph A., eds. (1992). The One Mediator, The Saints, and Mary. Lutherans and Catholics in Dialogue. VIII. Minneapolis: Augsburg. ISBN 0-8066-2579-1., p. 236
Muhammad Ali (1942–2016) African American boxer, philanthropist and activist
Written by copywriter Aimee Lehto for a series of Adidas ads in which this was superimposed over stills of various figures, including Muhammad Ali. Documented by Quote Investigator https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/11/28/impossible-is/. <br class="br">Misattributed
“Live morally, do not aspire for other's Wealth, Women and God.”
Basava (1134–1196) a 12th-century Hindu philosopher, statesman, Kannada Bhakti poet of Lingayatism
Basavanna's Preachings
Jane Goodall (1934) British primatologist, ethologist, and anthropologist
In response to: "If chimps are so much like us, why are they endangered while humans dominate the globe?" Discover Magazine interview with Virginia Morell (28 March 2007)
Vera Rubin (1928–2016) American astronomer
As quoted in NPR obituary http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/12/26/507022497/vera-rubin-who-confirmed-existence-of-dark-matter-dies-at-88
Augustus (-63–14 BC) founder of Julio-Claudian dynasty and first emperor of the Roman Empire
From a speech regarding the morality laws of Lex Julia. Livy's account states the speech was plagiarized by Augustus from another by Q. Metellus (Periochae 59.9). A fragment of this original speech (quoted) is preserved by A. Gellius (Noctes Atticae 1.6).
Original: (la) Si sine uxore pati possemus, Quirites, omnes ea molestia careremus; set quoniam ita natura tradidit, ut nec cum illis satis commode, nec sine illis ullo modo vivi possit, saluti perpetuae potius quam brevi voluptati consulendum est.
Source: [http://www.unrv.com/government/julianmarri
“There's nothing wrong with you. There's a lot wrong with the world you live in.”
Chris Colfer (1990) actor, singer, book author
Personal Quotes 2009–2012 <br class="br">Source: http://www.gleeksource.com/Cast-Members/Kurt/Kurt-s-Blog/October-2011/10-Best-Quotes-from-Chris-Colfer-of-Glee.aspx, GleekSource.com's Top Ten Chris Colfer Quotes.
Matthew McConaughey (1969) American actor
" Exclusive interview with Matthew Mcconaughey http://www.hollywood.com/news/movies/7774937/exclusive-interview-with-matthew-mcconaughey?page=all" on hollywood.com, March 18, 2011: On playing Mick Haller in the The Lincoln Lawyer
“Let us live – we must die.”
Vivamus, moriendum est.
Marcus Annaeus Seneca (-54–39 BC) Roman scholar
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
Heinrich Himmler (1900–1945) Nazi officer, Commander of the SS
Our concern, our duty, is our people and our blood. We can be indifferent to everything else. I wish the S.S. to adopt this attitude towards the problem of all foreign, non-Germanic peoples, especially Russians....
The Posen speech to SS officers (6 October 1943)
1940s
Cristoforo Colombo (1451–1506) Explorer, navigator, and colonizer
Letter to Doña Juana de Torres (October 2015)
Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord (1754–1838) French diplomat
Qui n'a pas vécu dans les années voisines de 1789 ne sait pas ce que c'est le plaisir de vivre.
Reported in Memoirs pour Servir a l'histoire de nous Temps by François Guizot, Volume I, p. 6.
“If you cannot live alone, you were born a slave.”
Fernando Pessoa book The Book of Disquiet
Ibid.
The Book of Disquiet
Original: Se te é impossível viver só, nasceste escravo.
Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965) French-German physician, theologian, musician and philosopher
This has usually been presented as something "said shortly before his death" without any definite source, but appears to be entirely spurious. The "FAQ about the life and thoughts of Albert Schweitzer" http://www.schweitzer.org/faq?lang=en#rasist asserts "This quote is utterly false and is an outrageously inaccurate picture of Dr. Schweitzer’s view of Africans. Dr. Schweitzer never said or wrote anything remotely like this. It does NOT appear in the book African Notebook." This refers to some citations of it being from Afrikanische Geschichten (1938), which was translated as From My African Notebook (1939) by Mrs. C. E. B Russell <br class="br">Misattributed
Auguste Rodin (1840–1917) French sculptor
Attributed to Rodin in H. Read (1964), as cited in: Karl H. Pfenninger, Valerie R. Shubik, Bruce Adolphe (2001). The Origins of Creativity. p. 50
1950s-1990s
Tina Turner (1939) singer, dancer, actress, and author
Tina Turner is a soul survivor http://www.express.co.uk/entertainment/music/141823/Tina-Turner-is-a-soul-survivor, Daily Express, 22th of November 2009
Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–1895) English biologist and comparative anatomist
In the Encyclopaedia Britannica, Ninth edition, (1876) Vol. III, "Biology", p. 689.
Also quoted in Joseph Cook (1878), Biology, with Preludes on Current Events, Houghton, Osgood, p. 39
1870s
Magic Johnson (1959) American basketball player
Then & Now: Magic Johnson http://edition.cnn.com/2005/US/01/17/cnn25.tan.johnson/index.html
Michael Jackson (1958–2009) American singer, songwriter and dancer
On his musical work
Ebony interview (2007)
Morrissey (1959) English singer
from "The cradle snatchers", article by Frank Worrall, Melody Maker (3 September 1983)
In interviews etc., About life and death
Babur (1483–1530) 1st Mughal Emperor
Babur writing about the battle against the Rajput Confederacy led by Maharana Sangram Singh of Mewar. In Babur-Nama, translated into English by A.S. Beveridge, New Delhi reprint, 1979, pp. 547-572.
Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965) French-German physician, theologian, musician and philosopher
The Problem of Peace (1954)
Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum (1949) Emirati politician
Inspirational Quotes to lighten our load, http://neuralorganizationtherapy.com/Inspirational_Quotes.html, Neural Organization Therapy
“If we can't live in peace, then let's die in peace.”
Jim Jones (1931–1978) founder and the leader of the Peoples Temple
" Death Tape http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/AboutJonestown/Tapes/Tapes/DeathTape/Q042fbi.html" FBI No. Q042 (18 November 1978)
“We must do away with the absolutely specious notion that everybody has to earn a living.”
Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983) American architect, systems theorist, author, designer, inventor and futurist
"The New York Magazine Environmental Teach-In" by Elizabeth Barlow in New York Magazine (30 March 1970), p. 30 http://books.google.com/books?id=cccDAAAAMBAJ&printsec=frontcover#PPA30,M1 <br class="br">1970s <br class="br">Context: We must do away with the absolutely specious notion that everybody has to earn a living. It is a fact today that one in ten thousand of us can make a technological breakthrough capable of supporting all the rest. The youth of today are absolutely right in recognizing this nonsense of earning a living. We keep inventing jobs because of this false idea that everybody has to be employed at some kind of drudgery because, according to Malthusian-Darwinian theory, he must justify his right to exist. So we have inspectors of inspectors and people making instruments for inspectors to inspect inspectors. The true business of people should be to go back to school and think about whatever it was they were thinking about before somebody came along and told them they had to earn a living.
Epicurus (-341–-269 BC) ancient Greek philosopher
Sovereign Maxims
Context: It is impossible to live a pleasant life without living wisely and honorably and justly, and it is impossible to live wisely and honorably and justly without living pleasantly. Whenever any one of these is lacking, when, for instance, the man is not able to live wisely, though he lives honorably and justly, it is impossible for him to live a pleasant life. (5)
“The wind is rising! . . . We must try to live!”
Paul Valéry (1871–1945) French poet, essayist, and philosopher
As translated by by C. Day Lewis
Variant translations:
The wind is rising ... we must attempt to live.
Charmes ou poèmes (1922)
Context: The wind is rising!... We must try to live!
The huge air opens and shuts my book: the wave
Dares to explode out of the rocks in reeking
Spray. Fly away, my sun-bewildered pages!
Break, waves! Break up with your rejoicing surges
This quiet roof where sails like doves were pecking.
Manly P. Hall (1901–1990) Canadian writer and mystic
Quoted in the tribute of The Lost Symbol (2009) by Dan Brown
The Secret Teachings of All Ages (1928)
Context: A nation with culture is blessed. To live in the world without becoming aware of the meaning of the world is like wandering about in a great library without touching the books. It has always seemed to me that symbolism should be restored to the structure of world education. The young are no longer invited to seek the hidden truths, dynamic and eternal, locked within the shapes and behavior of living beings.
Crazy Horse (1840–1877) Oglala Sioux chief
As quoted in Literature of the American Indian (1973) by Thomas Edward Sanders and Walter W. Peek, p. 294
Context: My friend, I do not blame you for this. Had I listened to you this trouble would not have happened to me. I was not hostile to the white men. Sometimes my young men would attack the Indians who were their enemies and took their ponies. They did it in return. We had buffalo for food, and their hides for clothing and for our tepees. We preferred hunting to a life of idleness on the reservation, where we were driven against our will. At times we did not get enough to eat and we were not allowed to leave the reservation to hunt. We preferred our own way of living. We were no expense to the government. All we wanted was peace and to be left alone. Soldiers were sent out in the winter, they destroyed our villages. The "Long Hair" [Custer] came in the same way. They say we massacred him, but he would have done the same thing to us had we not defended ourselves and fought to the last. Our first impulse was to escape with our squaws and papooses, but we were so hemmed in that we had to fight. After that I went up on the Tongue River with a few of my people and lived in peace. But the government would not let me alone. Finally, I came back to the Red Cloud Agency. Yet, I was not allowed to remain quiet. I was tired of fighting. I went to the Spotted Tail Agency and asked that chief and his agent to let me live there in peace. I came here with the agent [Lee] to talk with the Big White Chief but was not given a chance. They tried to confine me. I tried to escape, and a soldier ran his bayonet into me. I have spoken.
Sun Tzu (-543–-495 BC) ancient Chinese military general, strategist and philosopher from the Zhou Dynasty
Source: The Art of War, Chapter XI · The Nine Battlegrounds
Martin Luther (1483–1546) seminal figure in Protestant Reformation
An Introduction to St. Paul's Letter to the Romans from<cite>Dr. Martin Luthers Vermischte Deutsche Schriften</cite>. Johann K. Irmischer, ed. Vol. 63(Erlangen: Heyder and Zimmer, 1854), pp.124-125. (EA 63:124-125) http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/wittenberg/luther/luther-faith.txt <br class="br">Context: Faith is a living, bold trust in God's grace, so certain of God's favor that it would risk death a thousand times trusting in it. Such confidence and knowledge of God's grace makes you happy, joyful and bold in your relationship to God and all creatures. The Holy Spirit makes this happen through faith. Because of it, you freely, willingly and joyfully do good to everyone, serve everyone, suffer all kinds of things, love and praise the God who has shown you such grace.
“I love to live in the past, with a little hope for the future… ”
Alexander Rybak (1986) Norwegian singer, actor, violinist, composer, pianist
“You need to be happy to live, I don’t.”
Keanu Reeves (1964) Canadian actor, director, producer and musician
“You can't live without illusions, even if you must fight for them.”
Marlene Dietrich (1901–1992) German-American actress and singer
“Painting has to get back to its original goal, examining the inner lives of human beings.”
Pierre Bonnard (1867–1947) French painter and printmaker
Rowan Atkinson (1955) English actor, comedian, and screenwriter
As quoted in an interview with entertainment.ie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entertainment.ie (2018)
Romain Rolland (1866–1944) French author
Gottfried to Jean-Christophe. Part 3: Ada
Jean-Christophe (1904 - 1912), Youth (1904)
Martin Luther King, Jr. book Strength to Love
Strength to Love, Chapter 7
1960s, Strength to Love (1963)
Jacque Fresco (1916–2017) American futurist and self-described social engineer
Designing the Future (2007)
Joseph Goebbels (1897–1945) Nazi politician and Propaganda Minister
1930s, Die verfluchten Hakenkreuzler. Etwas zum Nachdenken (1932)