Life is the jailer of the soul in this filthy prison, and its only deliverer is death.—What we call life is a journey to death, and what we call death is a passport to life.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
Think of yourself as on the threshold of unparalleled success. A whole, clear, glorious life lies before you. Achieve! Achieve!
—Andrew Carnegie (1835–1919) Scottish-American Industrialist
Tzu-kung asked, ‘Is there a single word which can be a guide to conduct throughout one’s life?’ The Master said, ‘It is perhaps the word ‘shu.’ Do not impose on others what you yourself do not desire.
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. The consciousness of loving and being loved brings a warmth and richness to life that nothing else can bring.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
She fights and vanquishes in me, and I live and breathe in her, and I have life and being.
—Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) Spanish Novelist
True masters are those who have chosen to make a life, rather than a living.
—Neale Donald Walsch (b.1943) American Spiritual Writer
Commerce is a game of skill, which every man cannot play, which few men can play well. The right merchant is one who has the just average of faculties we call commonsense; a man of strong affinity for facts, who makes up his decision on what he has seen. He is thoroughly persuaded of the truths of arithmetic. There is always a reason, in the man, for his good or bad fortune; and so, in making money. Men talk as if there were some magic about this, and believe in magic, in all parts of life. He knows that all goes on the old road, pound for pound, cent for cent-for every effect a perfect cause-and that good luck is another name for tenacity of purpose.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
When we let someone be who they are without trying to change them, that is giving away love. When we trust that someone can handle his or her own life, and act accordingly, that is giving away love.
—Susan Jeffers (1938–2012) American Psychologist, Self-Help Author
You want to change your life? Control the only thing you can control: the meaning you give something.
—Tony Robbins (b.1960) American Self-Help Author, Entrepreneur
Life is not a spectacle or a feast; it is a predicament.
—George Santayana (1863–1952) Spanish-American Poet, Philosopher
Your mind will be like its habitual thoughts; for the soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts. Soak it then in such trains of thoughts as, for example: Where life is possible at all, a right life is possible.
—Marcus Aurelius (121–180) Emperor of Rome, Stoic Philosopher
Life is pure adventure and the sooner we realize that, the quicker we will be able to treat life as art.
—Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American Poet
May you live every day of your life.
—Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) Irish Satirist
Fortune is a prize to be won. Adventure is the road to it. Chance is what may lurk in the shadows at the roadside.
—O. Henry (William Sydney Porter) (1862–1910) American Writer of Short Stories
Live, let live, and help live.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
At last, psychology gets serious about glee, fun, and happiness. Martin Seligman has given us a gift—a practical map for the perennial quest for a flourishing life.
—Daniel Goleman (b.1946) American Psychologist, Author, Science Journalist
Not on one strand are all life’s jewels strung.
—William Morris (1834–96) British Designer, Craftsman, Poet, Writer
It is our relation to circumstances that determines their influence over us. The same wind that carries one vessel into port may blow another off shore.
—Christian Nestell Bovee (1820–1904) American Writer, Aphorist
The certainty that life cannot be long and the probability that it will be shorter than nature allows, ought to waken every man to the active prosecution of whatever he is desirous to perform. It is true that no diligence can ensure success; death may intercept the swiftest career; but he who is cut off in the execution of an honest undertaking, has at least the honor of falling in his rank, and has fought the battle though he missed the victory.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Oft in my way have I stood still, though but a casual passenger, so much I felt the awfulness of life.
—William Wordsworth (1770–1850) English Poet
Jane Fonda, who divided her life into three acts, decided after her sixtieth birthday that she was now facing the final act, and came to the following conclusion: “I thought to myself, well if that’s the case and if what I’m scared of isn’t death, but getting to the end with regrets, then I’ve got to figure out what would be the things that I would regret when I got to the last act if I hadn’t done them or achieved them by then. And they were: having an intimate relationship and having made a difference”.
—Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1934–2021) Hungarian-American Psychologist
We would like to live as we once lived, but history will not permit it.
—John F. Kennedy (1917–63) American Head of State, Journalist
When ‘Omer smote ‘is bloomin’ lyre, He’d ‘eard men sing by land an’ sea; An’ what he thought ‘e might require, ‘E went and took-the same as me.
—Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) British Writer, Poet, Novelist, Short Story Author
The great use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.
—William James (1842–1910) American Philosopher, Psychologist, Physician
Shall I redirect my life’s journey because down some sideroad might be some trifle I’m entitled to?
—Robert Brault
If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.
—Anne Isabella Thackeray Ritchie (1837–1919) English Novelist, Biographer
Lord, how the day passes! It is like a life, so quickly when we don’t watch it, and so slowly if we do.
—John Steinbeck (1902–68) American Novelist, Short Story Writer, Journalist
What I call “doing the dishes” is the practice of loving the task in front of you. Your inner voice guides you all day long to do simple things such as brush your teeth, drive to work, call your friend, or do the dishes. Even though it’s just another story, it’s a very short story, and when you follow the direction of the voice, the story ends. We are really alive when we live as simply as that—open, waiting, trusting, and loving to do what appears in front of us now…What we need to do unfolds before us, always—doing the dishes, paying the bills, picking up the children’s socks, brushing our teeth. We never receive more than we can handle, and there is always just one thing to do. Whether you have ten dollars or ten million dollars, life never gets more difficult than that.
—Byron Katie (b.1942) American Speaker, Author
Making a life comes before making a living.
—Indian Proverb
Live with passion!
—Tony Robbins (b.1960) American Self-Help Author, Entrepreneur
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