quotations about life
Life is always uncertain, and common prudence dictates to every man the necessity of settling his temporal concerns, while it is in his power, and while the mind is calm and undisturbed.
GEORGE WASHINGTON
letter to Mrs. Martha Washington, Jun. 18, 1775
Life is like our game of whist ... I don't enjoy the game much, but I like to play my cards well, and see what will be the end of it.
GEORGE ELIOT
Felix Holt
Still, life had a way of adding day to day.
VIRGINIA WOOLF
Mrs. Dalloway
Child, child, have patience and belief, for life is many days, and each present hour will pass away.
THOMAS WOLFE
You Can't Go Home Again
Life is just a party, and parties weren't meant 2 last.
PRINCE
"1999"
Life is not about having a good time. We're told you do certain things. You behave a certain way and happiness will come your way. Which isn't true. I don't think we're put on this earth to live happy lives. I think we're put here to challenge ourselves physically, emotionally, intellectually.
JOHN COUGAR MELLENCAMP
interview, Spin Magazine, February 1992
With only one example of life -- the stuff we see on Earth -- we don't really have a good, universally accepted definition of life. NASA some years ago defined life as "a self-sustaining chemical system capable of Darwinian evolution." Not bad, but technically a single rabbit hopping around your garden is not alive, because by itself it can't reproduce.
JOEL ACHENBACH
"The 4 biggest milestones in the history of life on Earth", Albuquerque Journal, September 1, 2016
If life be wretched, it is hard to bear it; if it be happy, it is horrible to lose it ; both come to the same thing.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of Mankind", Les Caractères
If we look at life in its various stages, has it been worth living at each period? It is rarely doubted as regards the youth. Life is to them a joyous thing--all is fresh and new; and life to their minds seems plastic and pliable; they have the experiment of living their life before them. Putting aside the fact that men do not start in the world with the desire for, or properly trained to make the "best of this life," we will consider if "life lived as it is" by the majority, life as realized in ordinary life, is worth living. And the reply must be, "Yes." Man has a body fitted and adapted for the purposes of life; and although, because of his own disobedience or the faults of his predecessors, he may not enjoy good health, yet the majority have a bodily structure that, if carefully attended to, will enable them successfully to do their work and feel it is a privilege to live, and be able to earn sufficient to live upon; and I think it must be admitted that to the majority, by the use of their brains, by industry, and by thrift, there is the possibility of securing sufficient to supply all with the ways and means of life. Wealth, no doubt, is power; it gives great influence, secures its possessor from many annoyances, gives facilities for attempting and effecting what others might dream of in vain; but it is a mistake to think that "life is more worth living" to the rich man than to the poor. Wealth can only belong to the few, and it would be impossible to imagine that the Creator had done His work so badly that only the "idle rich" were able to enjoy this life. The morning can find you without anxiety; the day may find you equal to the fulfilment of your duties; you may do your work willingly and cheerfully; you may retain the bright cloudlessness of your early days--"the child's heart within the man's"--and, day by day, enjoy life, and retire to rest without its bringing to you sleeplessness or morbid terrors, if you be a machanic, perhaps more so than if you were a Rothschild. Each and every condition of life has its duties and anxieties, its troubles and drawbacks, as well as its pleasures. I have implicit faith in the Creator's law of compensation. My belief is, that God wills, and has so arranged that in all ranks of life, let the difference of condition or capability be what it may, each one has it within him to make his life beautiful and happy. To every living being life is preferable to death; life to each and every one of us "is worth living."
JAMES PLATT
"Is Life Worth Living?", Platt's Essays
The good life is a process, not a state of being. It is a direction, not a destination.
BRUCE LEE
Jeet Kune Do: Bruce Lee's Commentaries on the Martial Way
Life is a pressure cooker and whether you remain serene or become stressed-out depends on how you handle that pressure.
KEVIN LEMAN
Stopping Stress before It Stops You: A Game Plan for Every Mom
Life, too much of it, and not enough. The fear that it will end some day, and the fear that tomorrow will be the same as yesterday.
JOHN UPDIKE
Rabbit is Rich
Life must be lived with courage, with climbing and risks, else there is no happiness, no hope, no true success, no future.
JENNETTE LEE
The Ibsen Secret
A long life is a life well spent.
LEONARDO DA VINCI
Thoughts on Art and Life
A man's life is like a well, not like a snake--it should be measured by its depth, not by its length.
AUSTIN O'MALLEY
Keystones of Thought
Enjoy your own life without comparing it with that of another.
ANONYMOUS
We've been told there's a certain way to live ... that this is living ... and we ... we never really questioned it. We just sort of went along. But what if it's not the best way? What if there's another way that's better? What if there's something more?!
WALTER WYKES
The Profession
Our lives teach us who we are.
SALMAN RUSHDIE
London Independent, Feb. 4, 1990
Life is a spell so exquisite that everything conspires to break it.
EMILY DICKINSON
letter to Louisa and Frances Norcross, Apr. 1873
O harp of life, so speedily unstrung!
THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH
"Two Moods"