Inspirational Quotations on Living

Your life is the one place you have to spend yourself fully–wild, generous, drastic–in an unrationed profligacy of self … And in that split second when you understand that you finally are about to die-to uncreate the world no time to do it over no more chances–that instant when you realize your conscious existence is truly flaring nova, won’t you want to have used up all-all-the splendor that you are?
—Robin Morgan (b.1941) American Activist, Writer, Poet, Editor

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

Just when I think I have learned the way to live, life changes and I am left the same. The more things change the more I am the same. I am what I started with, and when it is all over I will be all that is left of me.
—Hugh Prather (b.1938) American Christian Author, Minister, Counselor

Life is a great big canvas, and you should throw all the paint you can on it.
—Danny Kaye (1913–87) American Actor, Singer, Comedian

Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.
—Carl Sandburg (1878–1967) American Children’s Books Writer, Poet, Biographer, Novelist, Socialist

Life is a long lesson in humility.
—J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) Scottish Novelist, Dramatist, Author

I don’t want to live. I want to love first, and live incidentally.
—Zelda Fitzgerald (1900–48) American Novelist

Just living is not enough. One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.
—Hans Christian Andersen (1805–75) Danish Author, Poet, Short Story Writer

And only when we are no longer afraid do we begin to live in every experience, painful or joyous; to live in gratitude for every moment, to live abundantly.
—Dorothy Thompson (1893–1961) American Journalist, Radio Personality

While there’s life, there’s hope.
—Common Proverb

The best things in life are never rationed. Friendship, loyalty, love, do not require coupons.
—Captain George T. Hewitt

The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another; and his humblest hour is when he compares the volume as it is with what he vowed to make it.
—J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) Scottish Novelist, Dramatist, Author

Chaos often breeds life, when order breeds habit.
—Henry Adams (1838–1918) American Journalist, Historian, Academic, Novelist

Searching is half the fun: life is much more manageable when thought of as a scavenger hunt as opposed to a surprise party.
—Jimmy Buffett (b.1946) American Children’s Books Writer, Musician, Author

There are in life as many aspects as attitudes towards it; and aspects change with attitudes… Could we change our attitude, we should not only see life differently, but life itself would come to be different. Life would undergo a change of appearance because we ourselves had undergone a change in attitude.
—Katherine Mansfield (1888–1923) New Zealand-born British Author

I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.
—Jack London

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

Life’s challenges are not supposed to paralyze you; they’re supposed to help you discover who you are.
—Bernice Johnson Reagon (1942–73) American Singer, Composer, Scholar, Social Activist

A life of ease is a difficult pursuit.
—William Cowper (1731–1800) English Anglican Poet, Hymn writer

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 Essayist, Critic

Life is like riding a bicycle. You don’t fall off unless you stop pedaling.
—Claude Pepper (1900–89) American Politician

Be aware of wonder. Live a balanced life–learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
—Robert Fulghum (b.1937) American Unitarian Universalist Author, Essayist, Clergyman

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

Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps down new roads armed with nothing but their own vision.
—Ayn Rand (1905–82) Russian-born American Novelist, Philosopher, Playwright, Screenwriter

Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live.
—Norman Cousins (1915–90) American Journalist, Author, Academic, Activist

A man lives not only his personal life as an individual but also, consciously or unconsciously, the life of his epoch and his contemporaries.
—Thomas Mann (1875–1955) German Novelist, Short Story Writer, Social Critic, Philanthropist, Essayist

Gently remind yourself that life is okay the way it6 is, right now. In the absence of your judgment, everything would be fine. As you begin to eliminate your need for perfection in all areas of your life, you’ll begin to discover the perfection in life itself.
—Richard Carlson (1912–77) American Actor, TV Personality, Film Director, Screenwriter

I’ve watched a lot of mid-career people, and Yogi Berra says you can observe a lot just by watching. I’ve concluded that most people enjoy learning and growing. And many are dearly troubled by the self-assessments of mid-career. Such self-assessments are no great problem at your age. You’re young and moving up. The drama of your own rise is enough. But when you reach middle age, when your energies aren’t what they used to be, then you’ll begin to wonder what it all added up to; you’ll begin to look for the figure in the carpet of your life. I have some simple advice for you when you begin that process. Don’t be too hard on yourself. Look ahead. Someone said that Life is the art of drawing without an eraser. And above all don’t imagine that the story is over. Life has a lot of chapters.
—John W. Gardner (1912–2002) American Government Official, Political leader

The longer I live the more beautiful life becomes. If you foolishly ignore beauty, you will soon find yourself without it. Your life will be impoverished. But if you invest in beauty, it will remain with you all the days of your life.
—Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) American Architect

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 Writer, Inventor

To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet

You’ve gotta dance like there’s nobody watching,|Love like you’ll never be hurt,|Sing like there’s nobody listening,|And live like it’s heaven on earth.
—William Watson Purkey

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen nor even touched, but just felt in the heart.
—Helen Keller (1880–1968) American Author

I believe that every single event in life happens as an opportunity to choose love over fear.
—Oprah Winfrey (b.1954) American TV Personality

Life is a horizontal fall.
—Jean Cocteau (1889–1963) French Poet, Novelist, Dramatist, Playwright, Artist

This is all you have. This is not a dry run. This is your life. If you want to fritter it away with your fears, then you will fritter it away, but you won’t get it back later.
—Laura Schlessinger (b.1947) American Children’s Books Writer, Psychologist, TV Personality, Author

Those who know how to think need no teachers.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader

Don’t brood. Get on with living and loving. You don’t have forever.
—Leo Buscaglia (1924–98) American Motivational Speaker

Since it is not granted to us to live long, let us transmit to posterity some memorial that we have at least lived.
—Pliny the Younger (61–112) Ancient Roman Lawyer, Author, Magistrate

Maxim for life: You get treated in life the way you teach people to treat you.
—Wayne Dyer (b.1940) American Motivational Writer, Author, Motivational Speaker

Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself, and know that everything in life has purpose. There are no mistakes, no coincidences, all events are blessings given to us to learn from.
—Elisabeth Kubler-Ross (1926–2004) Swiss-American Psychiatrist

The person who tries to live alone will not succeed as a human being. His heart withers if it does not answer another heart. His mind shrinks away if he hears only the echoes of his own thoughts and finds no other inspiration.
—Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973) American Novelist, Human Rights Activist

The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of a mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one.
—Wilhelm Stekel (1868–1940) Austrian Physician, Psychologist

Live life as if it were created just for you.
—Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American Poet

Be such a man, and live such a life, that if every man were such as you, and every life a life like yours, this earth would be God’s Paradise.
—Phillips Brooks (1835–93) American Episcopal Clergyman, Author

Never forget that life can only be nobly inspired and rightly lived if you take it bravely and gallantly, as a splendid adventure in which you are setting out into an unknown country, to face many a danger, to meet many a joy, to find many a comrade, to win and lose many a battle.
—Annie Besant (1847–1933) British-born Indian Theosophist, Civil Rights Advocate, Writer, Orator

Much violence is based on the illusion that life is a property to be defended and not to be shared.
—Henri Nouwen (1932–96) Dutch Catholic Priest, Writer, Theologian

Happiness is not so much in having as sharing. We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.
—Norman MacEwen British Military Leader

Stop acting as if life is a rehearsal. Live this day as if it were your last. The past is over and gone. The future is not guaranteed.
—Wayne Dyer (b.1940) American Motivational Writer, Author, Motivational Speaker

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

I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.
—Agatha Christie (1890–1976) British Novelist, Short-Story Writer, Playwright

I count life just a stuff to try the soul’s strength on.
—Robert Browning (1812–89) English Poet

The less routine the more life.
—Amos Bronson Alcott (1799–1888) American Teacher, Writer, Philosopher

When I hear somebody sigh that “Life is hard,” I am always tempted to ask, “Compared to what?”
—Sydney J. Harris (1917–86) American Journalist, Columnist, Drama Critic

Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each. Let them be your only diet, drink, and botanical medicines.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher

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

And life is what we make it. Always has been, always will be.
—Grandma Moses (1860–1961) American Painter, Artist

Lives of great men all remind us|We can make our lives sublime,|And, departing, leave behind us|Footprints on the sands of time.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82) American Poet, Educator, Academic

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 not lost by dying; life is lost minute by minute, day by dragging day, in all the thousand small uncaring ways.
—Stephen Vincent Benet (1898–1943) American Poet

People need to be made more aware of the need to work at learning how to live because life is so quick and sometimes it goes away too quickly.
—Andy Warhol (1928–87) American Painter, Printmaker, Film Personality

They that have lived a single day have lived an age.
—Jean de La Bruyere

The purpose of life, after all, is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experiences.
—Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American First Lady, Diplomat, Civil Rights Activist, Politician

Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.
—Marie Curie (1867–1934) Polish-born French Physicist, Chemist

There are three stages in a person’s life, birth, their life and death. They are not conscious of birth submit to death and forget to live.
—Jean de La Bruyere

We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.
—Unknown

And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State

If you want to keep your memories, you first have to live them.
—Bob Dylan (b.1941) American Singer, Songwriter, Musician

Most of us spend our lives as if we had another one in the bank.
—Unknown

The main purpose of life is to live rightly, think rightly, act rightly. The soul must languish when we give all our thought to the body.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader

Imitation is the sincerest of flattery.
—Charles Caleb Colton (1780–1832) English Angelic Priest, Writer, Collector

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader

Life is never fair, and perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet

If life were predictable it would cease to be life, and be without flavor.
—Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American First Lady, Diplomat, Civil Rights Activist, Politician

When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die.
—Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American First Lady, Diplomat, Civil Rights Activist, Politician

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

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

I don’t want to get to the end of my life and find that I have just lived the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well.
—Diane Ackerman (b.1948) American Children’s Books Writer, Author, Poet, Naturalist

These then are my last words to you. Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact.
—William James (1842–1910) American Philosopher, Psychologist, Physician

One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon—instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today.
—Dale Carnegie (1888–1955) American Self-Help Author

There is no real excellence in all of this world which can be separated from right living.
—David Starr Jordan (1851–1931) American Zoologist, Educator, Peace Activist

The joy of life consists in the exercise of one’s energies, continual growth, constant change, the enjoyment of every new experience. To stop means simply to die. The eternal mistake of mankind is to set up an attainable ideal.
—Aleister Crowley (1875–1947) English Occultist, Mystic, Magician

I think these difficult times have helped me to understand better than before how infinitely rich and beautiful life is in every way and that so many things that one goes around worry about are of no importance whatsoever.
—Karen Blixen (Isak Dinesen)

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

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 (b.1925) American First Lady

Before I knew the best part of my life had come, it had gone.
—Ashleigh Brilliant (b.1933) British Cartoonist, Author

If you care about something, you have to protect it—if you’re lucky enough to find a way of life you love, you have to find the courage to live it.
—John Irving

Life’s splendor forever lies in wait about each one of us in all its fullness, but veiled from view, deep down, invisible, far off. It is there, though, not hostile, not reluctant, not deaf. If you summon it by the right word, by its right name, it will come.
—Franz Kafka (1883–1924) Austrian Novelist, Short Story Writer

This is the true joy in life: Being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one, being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. 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 what I can. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright

Providence has its appointed hour for everything. We cannot command results, we can only strive.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader

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