Life is not a series of gig lamps symmetrically arranged; life is a luminous halo, a semi-transparent envelope surrounding us from the beginning of consciousness to the end.
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) English Novelist
How can they say my life is not a success? Have I not for more than sixty years got enough to eat and escaped being eaten?
—Logan Pearsall Smith (1865–1946) American-British Essayist, Bibliophile
I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
Maxim for life: You get treated in life the way you teach people to treat you.
—Wayne Dyer (1940–2015) American Self-Help Author
Perhaps life is just that… a dream and a fear.
—Joseph Conrad (1857–1924) Polish-born British Novelist
Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Both abundance and lack exist simultaneously in our lives, as parallel realities. It is always our conscious choice which secret garden we will tend…when we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives but are grateful for the abundance that’s present—love, health, family, friends, work, the joys of nature and personal pursuits that bring us pleasure—the wasteland of illusion falls away and we experience Heaven on earth.
—Sarah Ban Breathnach (b.1947) American Self-help Author
It is difficult to live in the present, ridiculous to live in the future, and impossible to live in the past. Nothing is as far away as one minute ago.
—Jim Bishop (1907–87) American Journalist, Author
By having a reverence for life, we enter into a spiritual relation with the world … By practicing reverence for life we become good, deep, and alive.
—Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965) French Theologian, Musician, Philosopher, Physician
Purity of personal life is the one indispensable condition for building up a sound education.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
May you live as long as you wish and love as long as you live.
—Robert A. Heinlein (1907–88) American Science Fiction Writer
The wonderful thing about books is that they allow us to enter imaginatively into someone else’s life. And when we do that, we learn to sympathize with other people. But the real surprise is that we also learn truths about ourselves, about our own lives that somehow we hadn’t been able to see before.
—Katherine Paterson (b.1932) American Novelist, Writer
Our life is made by the death of others.
—Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Polymath, Painter, Sculptor, Inventor, Architect
There is nothing keeps longer than a middling fortune, and nothing melts away sooner than a great one. Poverty treads on the heels of great and unexpected riches.
—Jean de La Bruyere (1645–96) French Satiric Moralist, Author
If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.
—Emily Dickinson (1830–86) American Poet
This is a world of action, and not for moping and droning in.
—Charles Dickens (1812–70) English Novelist
Life is a mirror and will reflect back to the thinker what he thinks into it.
—Ernest Holmes (1887–1960) American New Thought Writer, Teacher
I count life just a stuff to try the soul’s strength on.
—Robert Browning (1812–89) English Poet
If we don’t change, we don’t grow. If we don’t grow, we are not really living. Growth demands a temporary surrender of security.
—Gail Sheehy (1936–2020) American Writer, Journalist
Accept life, take it as it is? Stupid. The means of doing otherwise? Far from our having to take it, it is life that possesses us and on occasion shuts our mouths.
—Albert Camus (1913–60) Algerian-born French Philosopher, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist, Author
At the end of your life, you will never regret not having passed one more test, not winning one more verdict or not closing one more deal. You will regret time not spent with a husband, a friend, a child, or a parent.
—Barbara Bush (1925–2018) American First Lady
Look not mournfully into the Past. It comes not back again. Wisely improve the Present. It is thine. Go forth to meet the shadowy Future, without fear, and with a manly heart.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82) American Poet, Educator, Academic
Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.
—Helen Keller (1880–1968) American Author
Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of the nonessentials.
—Lin Yutang (1895–1976) Chinese Author, Philologist
We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.
—Unknown
It’s a shallow life that doesn’t give a person a few scars.
—Garrison Keillor (b.1942) American Author, Humorist, Radio Personality
Life is like playing the violin solo in public and learning the instrument as one goes on.
—Samuel Butler
I could not, at any age, be content to take my place in a corner by the fireside and simply look on. Life was meant to be lived. Curiosity must be kept alive. The fatal thing is the rejection. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life.
—Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American First Lady, Diplomat, Humanitarian
I think of those who were truly great. The names of those who in their lives fought for life, Who wore at their hearts the fire’s center.
—Stephen Spender (1909–95) English Poet, Critic