There is no phrase that doesn’t have a double meaning.
—African Proverb
The main facts in human life are five: birth, food, sleep, love and death.
—E. M. Forster (1879–1970) English Novelist, Short Story Writer, Essayist
Dare to err and to dream. Deep meaning often lies in childish plays.
—Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) German Poet, Dramatist
This life is worth living, we can say, since it is what we make it.
—William James (1842–1910) American Philosopher, Psychologist, Physician
There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning.
—Thornton Wilder (1897–1975) American Novelist, Playwright
Life, he realized, was much like a song. In the beginning there is mystery, in the end there is confirmation, but it’s in the middle where all the emotion resides to make the whole thing worthwhile.
—Nicholas Sparks (b.1965) American Novelist
Time has no meaning in itself unless we choose to give it significance.
—Leo Buscaglia (1924–98) American Motivational Speaker
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
I don’t want to live. I want to love first, and live incidentally.
—Zelda Fitzgerald (1899–1948) American Writer, Artist
When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.
—John Lennon (1940–80) British Singer, Songwriter, Musician, Activist
We must not, in trying to think about how we can make a big difference, ignore the small daily differences we can make which, over time, add up to big differences that we often cannot foresee.
—Marian Wright Edelman (b.1939) American Activist, Advocate
Life may have no meaning. Or even worse, it may have a meaning of which I disapprove.
—Ashleigh Brilliant (1933–2025) American Epigrammatist, Author, Cartoonist
It is really true what philosophy tells us, that life must be understood backwards. But with this, one forgets the second proposition, that it must be lived forwards.
—Soren Kierkegaard (1813–55) Danish Philosopher, Theologian
To live is to suffer; to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering.
—Roberta Flack (1937–2025) American Soul Singer, Grammy Award Winner
You must go after your wish. As soon as you start to pursue a dream, your life wakes up and everything has meaning.
—Barbara Sher (1935–2020) American Career Coach
In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.
—Robert Frost (1874–1963) American Poet
Words may show a man’s wit, but actions his meaning.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
Many persons have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.
—Helen Keller (1880–1968) American Author
When you can live forever what do you live for?
—Stephenie Meyer (b.1973) American Novelist
The whole of life is just like watching a film. Only it’s as though you always get in ten minutes after the big picture has started, and no-one will tell you the plot, so you have to work it out all yourself from the clues.
—Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) English Fantasy Writer
Man is a goal seeking animal. His life only has meaning if he is reaching out and striving for his goals.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
Our senses are indeed our doors and windows on this world, in a very real sense the key to the unlocking of meaning and the wellspring of creativity.
—Jean Houston (b.1937) American Author, Speaker, Philosopher
One good punch on your enemy’s nose, gives more pleasure than hearing well-meaning advice from your elders.
—Tibetan Proverb
Weapons are like money; no one knows the meaning of enough.
—Martin Amis (1949–2023) British Novelist, Journalist
It all depends on how we look at things, and not on how things are in themselves. The least of things with a meaning is worth more in life than the greatest of things without it.
—Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961) Swiss Psychologist, Psychiatrist, Philosopher
I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve.
—Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965) French Theologian, Philosopher, Musician, Physician
There is a purpose to our lives that each day tugs at our sleeve as an annoying distraction.
—Robert Brault
God created a number of possibilities in case some of his prototypes failed—that is the meaning of evolution.
—Graham Greene (1904–1991) British Novelist, Short Story Writer, Playwright
Beliefs have the power to create and the power to destroy. Human beings have the awesome ability to take any experience of their lives and create a meaning that disempowers them or one that can literally save their lives.
—Tony Robbins (b.1960) American Self-Help Author, Entrepreneur
The meaning of things lies not in the things themselves, but in our attitude towards them.
—Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1900–44) French Novelist, Aviator
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