Quotes about living
page 55

“We prefer to go deformed and distorted all our lives rather than not resemble the portrait of ourselves which we ourselves have first drawn. It’s absurd. We run the risk of warping what’s best in us”

André Gide (1869–1951) French novelist and essayist

Source: Strait is the Gate and The Vatican Cellars

“It is better to live in a state of impermanence than in one of finality.”

Gaston Bachelard book The Poetics of Space

Source: The Poetics of Space

“What else can I do to piss you off? (Acheron)
You can leave me. (Tory)
I would never do that, Tory. No one can live without their heart and that’s what you are to me. (Acheron)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Acheron

Heart

“I read somewhere that 77 percent of all the mentally ill live in poverty. Actually, I'm more intrigued by the 23 percent who are apparently doing quite well for themselves.”

Jerry Garcia (1942–1995) American musician and member of the Grateful Dead

Reading

“I have to come to realize that God does not want to punish us, but rather, to fulfill our lives. God created us, loves us and wants to help us to realize our potential so that we can be useful to others.”

Ben Carson (1951) 17th and current United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development; American neurosurgeon

Source: Think Big: Unleashing Your Potential for Excellence

Love, God, Help

“Marriage… is the union of two people of different sexes with a view to the mutual possession of each other's sexual attributes for the duration of their lives.”

Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) German philosopher

Marriage, People, Sex

“We get used to living one way, even if it's a bad way or a hard one. When that's gone, there's a hole to fill. It's in our nature to try to fill it with anxieties and fears. It can take time to fill it with good things instead.”

Cassandra Clare book Lord of Shadows

Source: Lord of Shadows

Fear, Way, Nature, Time

“Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see.”

Neil Postman (1931–2003) American writer and academic

Introduction
The Disappearance of Childhood (1982)
Context: Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see. From a biological point of view it is inconceivable that any culture will forget that it needs to reproduce itself. But it is quite possible for a culture to exist without a social idea of children. Unlike infancy, childhood is a social artifact, not a biological category.

Children, Time

“We don't live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other. And I tell you that the time will soon come when if men will not learn that lesson, then they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish. Good night.”

J.B. Priestley An Inspector Calls

Source: An Inspector Calls

Men, Learning, Time, Night

“You must reach inside yourselves where I live like a story, not old, not young laughing at my own sorrow, weeping pearls at weddings, wielding a torch to melt sand into something clear and bright.”

Francesca Lia Block (1962) American children's writer

Source: The Rose and the Beast: Fairy Tales Retold

Wedding

“I'm not going to do that."
"of course you're not." Jace said. "because you live to torture me, don't you?"
"Not everything, Jace, is about you." Clary said furiously.
"Possibly," Jace said "But you have to admit that the majority of the things are.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Glass

Source: City of Glass

“In the end we shall have had enough of cynicism, skepticism and humbug, and we shall want to live more musically.”

Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890) Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890)

Music

“The mind-is not the heart.
I may yet live, as I know others live,
To wish in vain to let go with the mind-
Of cares, at night, to sleep; but nothing tells me
That I need learn to let go with the heart.”

Robert Frost (1874–1963) American poet

Sleep, Learning, Heart, Night

“If we do not teach our children, societ will. And they-and we-will live with the results.”

Stephen R. Covey (1932–2012) American educator, author, businessman and motivational speaker

Source: 7 habits Family Collection

Children

“He does not believe that does not live according to his belief.”

Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) Austrian neurologist known as the founding father of psychoanalysis

“If suddenly you do not exist,
If suddenly you are not living,
I shall go on living.

I do not dare,
I do not dare to write it,
if you die.

I shall go on living.”

Pablo Neruda (1904–1973) Chilean poet

“It has been my experience that most human stories are circular rather than linear. Regardless of the path we choose, we somehow end up where we commenced - in part, I suspect, because the child who lives in us goes along for the ride.”

James Lee Burke (1936) Novelist, short story writer

Source: The Glass Rainbow

Parting

“EXTINCTATHON, Monitored by MaddAddam. Adam named the living animals, MaddAddam names the dead ones. Do you want to play?”

Margaret Atwood book Oryx and Crake

Source: Oryx and Crake

Animals, Dead

“Live through it," Call said. "That's all we can do.”

Larry McMurtry Lonesome Dove

Source: Lonesome Dove

“It felt very good to have him walking beside her. Good like rest and quiet, like something you could live without but you needed anyway. That you had to learn how to miss, and then you'd never stop missing it.”

Marilynne Robinson book Lila

Source: Lila

Learning

“When it's time to die, go ahead and die, and when it's time to live, live. Don't sort-of-maybe live, but live like you're going all out, like you're not afraid.”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Secret Life of Bees

Source: The Secret Life of Bees (2002)

Time

“The secret of staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly, and lie about your age.”

Lucille Ball (1911–1989) American actress and businesswoman

Lie, Secret, Age, Funny

“They were maps that lived, maps that one could study, frown over, and add to; maps, in short, that really meant something.”

Gerald Durrell book My Family and Other Animals

Source: My Family and Other Animals

Study

“To live is to experience things, not sit around pondering the meaning of life.”

Paulo Coelho book Aleph

Source: Aleph (2011)

Life

“Allegra's Austen wrote about the impact of financial need on the intimate lives of women. If she'd worked in a bookstore, Allegra would have shelved Austen in the horror section.”

Karen Joy Fowler The Jane Austen Book Club

Source: The Jane Austen Book Club

Women

“What we think determines what happens to us, so if we want to change our lives, we need to stretch our minds.”

Wayne W. Dyer (1940–2015) American writer

Thinking, Change, Wise

“There is no dignity
quite so impressive,
and no independence
quite so important,
as living within your means.”

Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) American politician, 30th president of the United States (in office from 1923 to 1929)

“Find you, love you, marry you, and live without shame.”

Ian McEwan book Atonement

Source: Atonement

Love, Relationship

“So now live for real, Craig. Live. Live. Live. Live.”

Ned Vizzini (1981–2013) American writer

“Cats were the gangsters of the animal world, living outside the law and often dying there. There were a great many of them who never grew old by the fire.”

Stephen King book Pet Sematary

Source: Pet Sematary

World, Law, Cats, Animals

“All of us started normal. All of us started out as functioning human beings with the potential to do almost anything we wanted, but somewhere along the paths of our lives, we got lost.”

James Frey book A Million Little Pieces

page 332
Source: A Million Little Pieces (2003)
Context: All of us started out normal. All of us started out as functioning human beings with the potential to do almost anything we wanted, but somewhere along the paths of our lives we got lost. Though we are here at this Clinic trying to find our way back, we all know that most of us will never get there. Things like the fight allow us to dream, and take us away from here, and allow us to imagine what the normal World must be like and how normal people must live in it.

“But a man who has lived by truth—and you have believed in what he has lived—he does not leave you merely wary when he fails you, he leaves you with nothing. I think that is why I’m nearly out of my mind.”

Harper Lee book Go Set a Watchman

Source: Go Set a Watchman

Truth, Thinking

“And our problems will crumble apart, the soul / blow through like a wind, and here where we live
will all be clean again, with fresh bread on the table.”

Pablo Neruda (1904–1973) Chilean poet

Source: 100 Love Sonnets

Soul, Problem

“An election is coming. Universal peace is declared and the foxes have a sincere interest in prolonging the lives of the poultry.”

T.S. Eliot (1888–1965) 20th century English author

Peace, Universe, Sincerity

“I love people. I love my family, my children … but inside myself is a place where I live all alone and that's where you renew your springs that never dry up.”

Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973) American writer

As quoted in The New York Post (26 April 1959)

Love, Children, People, Family

“There are lives lived for love, and lives lived for art. We, happy band, have chosen the later persuasion.”

Clive Barker (1952) author, film director and visual artist

Love, Happiness, Art

“Because the difference between seeing and not seeing can be the difference between living and dying.”

Stephen King book The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three

Source: The Drawing of the Three

“There are no conditions to which a person cannot grow accustomed, especially if he sees that everyone around him lives in the same way.”

Leo Tolstoy book Anna Karenina

Source: Anna Karenina

Way, Personality

“Youth always tries to fill the void, an old man learns to live with it.”

Mark Z. Danielewski (1965) Novelist

Youth, Learning

“She is a real bookworm. I think she lives on print. Her whole house is full of books - looks as if she likes them better than human company.”

Cornelia Funke Inkheart trilogy

Source: Inkheart

Books, Thinking, Housing

“Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

Life, Success, Motivational, Wise

“She could not ignore life. She had to live it and it was too brutal, too hostile, for her even to try to gloss over its harshness with a smile.”

Margaret Mitchell book Vom Winde verweht (1937 German edition)

Source: Gone with the Wind

Life, Hostility, Smile

“I believe that we form our own lives, that we create our own reality, and that everything works out for the best.”

Jim Henson (1936–1990) American puppeteer

Reality

“Harsh words live in the dungeon of the heart”

Norman Mailer The Gospel According to the Son

Source: The Gospel According to the Son

Heart

“The world loves to be amused by hollow professions, to be deceived by flattering appearances, to live in a state of hallucination; and can forgive everything but the plain, downright, simple, honest truth.”

William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English writer

Love, Truth, World, Forgiveness

“I think you have to know who you are. Get to know the monster that lives in your soul. Dive deep into your soul and explore it. I don’t want to renounce my dark side. The truth has always held an enormous interest for me.”

Tori Amos (1963) American singer

Truth, Soul, Thinking

“I've learned that memories can have a physical, almost living presence.”

Nicholas Sparks book Dear John

Source: Dear John

Learning, Memory

“By means of all created things, without excaption, the divine assails us, penetrates us, and molds us. We imagined it as distant and inaccessible, when in fact we live steeped in its burning layers”

Pierre Teilhard De Chardin (1881–1955) French philosopher and Jesuit priest

Imagination, Distant

“Talent is its own expectation, Jim: you either live up to it or it waves a hankie, receding forever.”

David Foster Wallace (1962–2008) American fiction writer and essayist

“As to conforming outwardly and living your own life inwardly, I do not think much of that.”

Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist

Life, Thinking

“I am lost without you. I am soulless, a drifter without a home, a solitary bird in a flight to nowhere. I am all these things, and I am nothing at all. This, my darling, is my life without you. I long for you to show me how to live again.”

Nicholas Sparks book Message in a Bottle

Source: Message in a Bottle

Life, Home, Bird

“… whether the people are happy or not in their lives, they have learned to keep steadily moving, moving all the time.”

Chang-rae Lee A Gesture Life

Source: A Gesture Life

Happiness, People, Learning, Time

“But I didn't understand then. That I could hurt somebody so badly she would never recover. That a person can, just by living, damage another human being beyond repair.”

Haruki Murakami (1949) Japanese author, novelist

South of the Border, West of the Sun

Understanding, Hurt, Personality, Depressing

“We’re conditioned to think that our lives revolve around great moments. But great moments often catch us unaware – beautifully wrapped in what others may consider a small one.”

Kent Nerburn (1946) Author

Source: Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace: Living in the Spirit of the Prayer of St. Francis

Thinking

“Life was short, no matter how many days you were granted. And people were precious, each and every one, no matter how many you were lucky enough to have in your life. And love… love was worth dying for.
Worth living for, too. -Tohrment”

Jessica Bird (1969) U.S. novelist

Source: Lover Reborn

Love, Life, People

“I don't mind living in a man's world, as long as I can be a woman in it.”

Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962) American actress, model, and singer

Variant: I don't mind living in a man's world as long as I can be a woman in it.
Source: Marilyn

World

“Every living organism is fulfilled when it follows the right path for its own nature.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

Source: Meditations

Nature

“Journalism allows its readers to witness history; fiction gives its readers an opportunity to live it.”

John Hersey (1914–1993) American journalist, novelist, professor

History

“I want to live and feel all the shades, tones and variations of mental and physical experience possible in life.”

Sylvia Plath (1932–1963) American poet, novelist and short story writer

Life, Feeling

“One of the greatest opportunities to live our values-or betray them-lies in the food we put on our plates.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Eating Animals

Source: Eating Animals

Food

“We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.”

Toni Morrison (1931–2019) American writer

Nobel Prize Lecture (1993)
Context: Word-work is sublime... because it is generative; it makes meaning that secures our difference, our human difference — the way in which we are like no other life.
We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.

Life

“therefore i live for today-
certain of finding at sunrise
guidance and strength for the way.
power for each moment of weakness,
hope for each moment of pain,
comfort for every sorrow,
sunshine and joy after rain!”

Billy Graham (1918–2018) American Christian evangelist

Source: Hope for Each Day: Words of Wisdom and Faith

Pain, Hope, Way, Joy

“I'd be happy to die for a taste of what Angel had… Someone to live for… Unafraid to say 'I love you!”

Jonathan Larson (1960–1996) American composer and playwright

Source: Rent (1996)

Love, Happiness, Angels

“Living never wore one out so much as the effort not to live.”

Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) writer of novels, short stories, and erotica

As quoted in A Woman's Journal : A Blank Book with Quotes by Women (2002) by Running Press Staff, p. 1932

Effort

“But what does it matter what reality is outside myself, so long as it has helped me to live, to feel that I am, and what I am?”

Charles Baudelaire book Les Fleurs du mal

Source: Les Fleurs du Mal

Feeling, Reality, Help

“The difficulty of living alone is that any mess he makes he is forced to clean up himself.

No, the real difficulty of living alone is that no one cares if you are upset.”

Gabrielle Zevin (1977) American writer

Source: The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry

“A man goes to knowledge as he goes to war: wide-awake, with fear, with respect, and with absolute assurance. Going to knowledge or going to war in any other manner is a mistake, and whoever makes it might never live to regret it”

Carlos Castaneda (1925–1998) Peruvian-American author

Source: The Wheel of Time: Shamans of Ancient Mexico, Their Thoughts About Life, Death and the Universe, (1998), Quotations from The Teachings of Don Juan (Chapter 4)

War, Fear, Knowledge