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
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 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
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
Civilization is a stream with banks. The stream is sometimes filled with blood from people killing, stealing, shouting and doing the things historians usually record, while on the banks, unnoticed, people build homes, make love, raise children, sing songs, write poetry and even whittle statues. The story of civilization is what happened on the banks.
—William C. Durant (1861–1947) American Entrepreneur, Business
To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Dramatist, Short Story Writer, Journalist, Writer
I believe that every single event in life happens as an opportunity to choose love over fear.
—Oprah Winfrey (b.1954) American TV Personality, Businessperson, Actor
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
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
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
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, Philosopher, Civil Rights Activist
If you want to keep your memories, you first have to live them.
—Bob Dylan (b.1941) American Singer, Songwriter, Musician
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) America Architect, Writer, Educator
Live life as if it were created just for you.
—Maya Angelou (1928–2014) African-American Poet, Author, Civil Rights Activist
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
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
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
I count life just a stuff to try the soul’s strength on.
—Robert Browning (1812–89) English Poet, Playwright
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, Philosopher, Civil Rights Activist
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
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, Dramatist, Short Story Writer, Journalist, Writer
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
I don’t want to live. I want to love first, and live incidentally.
—Zelda Fitzgerald (1900–48) American Novelist
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
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
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
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 Zealander Short story
Before I knew the best part of my life had come, it had gone.
—Ashleigh Brilliant (b.1933) British Cartoonist, Author
The less routine the more life.
—Amos Bronson Alcott (1799–1888) American Teacher, Writer, Philosopher
Life is a horizontal fall.
—Jean Cocteau (1889–1963) French Poet, Novelist, Dramatist, Playwright, Artist
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
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
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 (1938–2010) American Christian Author, Minister, Counselor
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
It’s a shallow life that doesn’t give a person a few scars.
—Garrison Keillor (b.1942) American Author, Humorist, Radio Personality
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
Providence has its appointed hour for everything. We cannot command results, we can only strive.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader, Philosopher, Civil Rights 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
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.
—Dorothy Thompson (1893–1961) American Journalist, Radio Personality
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
They that have lived a single day have lived an age.
—Jean de La Bruyere
Chaos often breeds life, when order breeds habit.
—Henry Adams (1838–1918) American Journalist, Historian, Academic, 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
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