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LIFE

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[QUOTES FOLLOW LINKS]

see:

AGE

BIRTH

CAN'T WIN

CARPE DIEM

CHANGE

CHANGING TIMES

DAY

DREAMS

ENDINGS

EVOLUTION

FUTILITY

LEGACIES

LIFESTYLE

LIVE, LIVING

LOVE

MAKING A DIFFERENCE

NEW YEAR

PURPOSE (ON HAVING A)

RISE & SHINE

SECURITY

TIME

TRANSIENCE

UNFAIR


Our entire life consists ultimately in
accepting ourselves as we are.
--Jean [Marie-Lucien-Pierre] Anouilh (1910—1987)
French playwright.

-

Well, gentlemen, life's just one damn thing after another.
--John D. Archbold (1848—1916)
American capitalist.
Standard Oil director and successor to John D. Rockefeller,
upon receiving word of the US Supreme Court decision
affirming the break-up of Standard Oil, May, 1911, to
assembled directors.
In Daniel Yergin _The Prize_ Free Press (paper) 2008, p. 93.

& see:

Life is just one damned thing after another.
--Elbert Hubbard (1859—1915)
American editor, publisher, and author who died in the sinking of the "Lusitania".
In the "Philistine" magazine published from 1905—1915 [December 1909].

& note:

Life is just one darn thing after another.
--"Washington Post" [22 July 1909]

-

A firm faith is the best theology; a good life is the
best philosophy; a clear conscience the best law;
honesty, the best policy, and temperance the best
physic.
--James H. Aughey (1828—1911)
American clergyman.
In _The Native American_, published by Phoenix Indian School, p. 443 [1914].

I think your whole life shows in your
face and you should be proud of that.
--Lauren Bacall [Betty Joan Perske] (1924— )
American actress.
Quoted in "Daily Telegraph" (London) [2 March 1988].

-

We are each given a block of marble when we begin a lifetime,
and the tools to shape it into sculpture... We can drag it
behind us untouched, we can pound it into gravel, we can
shape it into glory.
--Richard Bach (1936— )
American writer.
_One_ [1988]


Here is a test to find whether your mission
on earth is finished: If you're alive, it isn't.
--Richard Bach (1936— )
American writer.
_Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah_ [1977], Ch. 15

-

Everything in life depends on how
that life accepts its limits.
--James Baldwin (1924—1987)
American author and playwright.

The life of every man is a diary in which he means to
write one story, and writes another; and his humble
hour is when he compares the volume as it is with
what he vowed to make it.
--Sir James Matthew Barrie (1860—1937)
Scottish writer and dramatist.
_The Little Minister_, ch. I [1891]

Age and youth look upon life from the opposite ends of
the telescope; it is exceedingly long — it is exceedingly
short.
--Henry Ward Beecher (1813—1887)
American Congregational minister; brother of
Harriet Beecher Stowe, son of Lyman Beecher.

He who experiences the unity of life sees his own Self
in all beings, and all beings in his own Self, and looks
on everything with an impartial eye.
--The Bhagavad Gita (c. 5th c BC. — 2nd c AD.)
Hindu sacred text.

-

Life is a grindstone, and whether it grinds a man down
or polishes him up depends on the stuff he's made of.
--Josh Billings [Henry Wheeler Shaw] (1818—1885)
American humorist.


Life consists not in holding good cards;
but in playing those you hold well.
--Josh Billings [Henry Wheeler Shaw] (1818—1885)
American humorist.
In Ray Kurzweil & Terry Grossman _Fantastic Voyage_, p. 146 [2004].

-

The great secret in life [is] not to open your letters for
a fortnight. At the expiration of that period you will find
that nearly all of them have answered themselves.
--Arthur Binstead (1861—1914)
British journalist.
_Pitcher's Proverbs_ [1909]

Do not fear death so much, but rather the inadequate life.
--Bertolt Brecht (1898—1956)
German dramatist.
_The Mother_ [1932]

It is very certain the desire of life
Prolongs it.
--Lord Byron [George Gordon Byron] (1788—1824)
English Romantic poet and satirist.
_Don Juan_ [1818—1824]

...life is absurd.
--Albert Camus (1913—1960)
French novelist, dramatist, and essayist who won the 1957 Nobel Prize for Literature.
_L'Homme rιvoltι_ ("The Rebel") [1951 essay]

-

One Life; a little gleam of Time between two Eternities;
no second chance for us forevermore!
--Thomas Carlyle (1795—1881)
Scottish historian and political philosopher.
"The Hero as Man of Letters" in
_On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History_ [1841]


A well-written Life is almost as rare as a well-spent one.
--Thomas Carlyle (1795—1881)
Scottish historian and political philosopher.
_Jean Paul Friedrich Richter_ [1827]

-

Life, what is it but a dream?
--Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832—1898)
English writer and logician.
_Thorough the Looking-Glass_, ch. 12 [1872]

If life was fair, Elvis would be alive and
all the impersonators would be dead.
--Johnny Carson (1925—2005)
American comedian and host of The Tonight Show [1962—1992].

Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot
at without result.
--Winston Churchill (1874—1965)
British Conservative statesman and Prime Minister [1940—1945, 1951—1955].
_The Malakand Field Force_, ch. 3 [1898]

To live long, it is necessary to live slowly.
--Marcus Tullius Cicero (106—43 BC)
Roman orator and statesman.

Clearly the trick in life is to die young as late as possible.
--William Sloane Coffin, Jr. (1924—2006)
American clergyman and peace activist.
_Credo_ [2004], "Life In General"

The happiness of life is made up of minute fractions — the
little soon forgotten charities of a kiss or smile, a kind look,
a heartfelt compliment, and the countless other infinitessimals
of pleasurable thought and genial feeling.
--Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772—1834)
English poet, critic, and philosopher.
_The Friend_ [1828]

Enjoy your own life without comparing it with that of another.
--Marie-Jean-Antoine-Nicolas de Caritat, marquis de Condorcet (1743—1794)
French philosopher.

-

We live, as we dream — alone.
--Joseph Conrad [Teodor Jσzef Konrad Nalecz-Korzeniowski] (1857—1924)
Polish-born English novelist.
_Heart of Darkness_, ch. I [1902]


I remember my youth and the feeling that will
never come back any more — the feeling that
I could last for ever, outlast the sea, the earth,
and all men; the deceitful feeling that lures us
on to joys, to perils, to love, to vain effort — to
death; the triumphant conviction of strength,
the heat of life in the handful of dust, the glow
in the heart that with every year grows dim,
grow cold, grows small and expires — and
expires, too soon, too soon — before life
itself.
--Joseph Conrad [Teodor Jσzef Konrad Nalecz-Korzeniowski] (1857—1924)
Polish-born English novelist.

-

Life is an incurable disease.
--Abraham Cowley (1618—1667)
English poet and essayist.
"To Dr Scarborough" [1656]

A man said to the universe:
'Sir, I exist!'
'However,' replied the universe,
'The fact has not created in me
A sense of obligation.'
--Stephen Crane (1871—1900)
American author and journalist.
"War Is Kind" [1899]

The first half of our lives is ruined by our parents
and the second half by our children.
--Clarence Darrow (1857—1938)
American lawyer.

For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to
begin — real life. But there was always some obstacle in
the way, something to be got through first, some unfinished
business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then
life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles
were my life.
--Fr. Alfred D'Souza,
_Handbook for the Soul_, edited by Benjamin Shield

When through one man a little more love and goodness,
a little more light and truth come into the world,
then that man's life has meaning.
--Alfred Delp

The moon belongs to ev'ryone,
The best things in life are free.
--B.G. DeSylva (1895—1950)
American songwriter.
"The Best Things in Life Are Free" [1927 song]
Coauthored with Lew Brown and Ray Henderson.

-

Do all that you can in the time that you have because
before you know it, you're not there anymore.
--Charles Dickens (1812—1870)
English novelist.
_A Christmas Carol_ [1843]


It's a mad world. Mad as Bedlam.
--Charles Dickens (1812—1870)
English novelist.
_David Copperfield_, ch. 14 [1850]

-

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 worrying
about are of no importance whatsoever.
--Isak Dinesen (pseudonym of Karen Blixen) (1885—1962)
Danish writer.

'Where was it,' thought Raskolnikov, 'where was it I read about a man
sentenced to death who, one hour before his execution, says or thinks
that if he had to live on some high rock, on a cliff, on a ledge so narrow
that there was room only for him to stand there, and if there were
bottomless chasms all round, the ocean, eternal darkness, eternal solitude,
and eternal gales, and if he had to spend all his life on that square yard of
space — a thousand years, an eternity — he rather live like that than die
at once! Oh, only to live, live, live! Live under any circumstances — only
to live!'
--Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821—1881),
Russian novelist, journalist, and short story writer.
_Crime and Punishment_ [1866], tr. David Magarshack [1951]

They are not long, the days of wine and roses;
Out of a misty dream
Our path emerges for a while, then closes
Within a dream.
--Ernest Dowson (1867—1900)
English poet.
"Vitae Summa Brevis" [1896]

Life is a God-damned, stinking, treacherous
game, and nine hundred and ninety-nine
men out of every thousand are bastards.
--Theodore Dreiser (1871—1945)
American novelist.
Quoting an unidentified newspaper editor in _A Book About Myself_ [1922].

-

Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.
--Albert Einstein (1879—1955)
German-American physicist who developed the special and general theories of relativity.


If you want to live a happy life, tie it to
a goal, not to people or objects.
--Albert Einstein (1879—1955)
German-American physicist who developed the special and general theories of relativity.
In A. P. French's _Einstein: A Centenary Volume_ [1979].

-

Unless each day can be looked back upon by an individual as
one in which he has had some fun, some joy, some real
satisfaction, that day is a loss.
--Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890—1969),
American Army General, supreme Allied commander WWII,
NATO commander, American President [1953—1961].

-

Life is a succession of lessons which
must be lived to be understood.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803—1882)
American philosopher and poet.


These times of ours are serious and full of calamity,
but all times are essentially alike. As soon as there
is life there is danger.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803—1882)
American philosopher and poet.

-

Who knows but life be that which men call death,
And death what men call life.
--Euripides (485?—406 B.C.)
Greek dramatist.

Listen, you son of a bitch, life isn't all a godamn
football game! You won't always get the girl!
Life is rejection and pain and loss.
--Frederick Exley (1929—1992)
American author.
_A Fan's Notes_ [1968]

Life begins at 40 — but so do fallen arches, rheumatism,
faulty eyesight, and the tendency to tell a story to the
same person, three or four times.
--attributed to William Feather (1889—1981) and Helen Rowland (1875—1950).

-

Dost thou love Life? Then do not squander Time,
for that is the Stuff Life is made of.
--Benjamin Franklin (1706—1790)
American politician, inventor, and scientist.
_Poor Richard's Almanack_ [June 1746]


Were it offered to my choice, I should have no
objection to a repetition of the same life from
its beginning, only asking the advantages
authors have in a second edition to correct
some faults of the first.
--Benjamin Franklin (1706—1790)
American politician, inventor, and scientist.
_Autobiography_ [1798]


Wish not so much to live long as to live well.
--Benjamin Franklin (1706—1790)
American politician, inventor, and scientist.
_Poor Richard's Almanack_ [1738]


All would live long, but none would be old.
--Benjamin Franklin (1706—1790)
American politician, inventor, and scientist.
_Poor Richard's Almanack_ [September 1749]

-

If you resolve to give up smoking, drinking, and loving,
you don't actually live longer; it just seems longer.
--Clement Freud (1924—2009)
German-born English broadcaster and politician.
Quoted in "Observer" (London) [27 December 1964].

We are born crying, live complaining, and die disappointed.
--Thomas Fuller (1654—1734)
English writer and physician.
Comp., _Gnomologia: Adages and Proverbs_ [1732]

Life is a jest and all things show it;
I thought so once, but now I know it.
--John Gay (1685—1732)
English poet and dramatist.
"My Own Epitaph" [1720]

Measure not your life in years,
Measure it in moments of excellence.
Measure not your years in numbers,
Measure them in meanings.
Measure not your days in hours;
Measure them in deepness.
--Richard S. Gilbert,
_Slow Me Down, Lord_, p. 20

A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry,
and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order
that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the
beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.
--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749—1832)
German poet, novelist, and playwright.

Whichever way we look the prospect is disagreeable. Behind, we
have left pleasures we shall never enjoy, and therefore regret; and
before, we see pleasures which we languish to possess, and are
consequently uneasy till we possess them.
--Oliver Goldsmith (1728—1774)
Anglo-Irish writer, poet, and dramatist.

This is always one moment in childhood when the
door opens and lets the future in.
--Graham Greene (1904—1991)
English novelist.

-

Pessimism (or rather what is called such) is, in brief, playing the
sure game. You cannot lose at it; you may gain. It is the only view
of life in which you can never be disappointed. Having reckoned
what to do in the worst possible circumstances, when better arise,
as they may, life becomes child's play.
--Thomas Hardy (1840—1928)
English novelist and poet.
_Notebook_ [1 January 1902]


Anybody's life may be just as romantic and strange and interesting if
he or she fails as if he or she succeed. All the difference is, that the
last chapter is wanting in the story.
--Thomas Hardy (1840—1928)
English novelist and poet.
_A Pair of Blue Eyes_, ch. 19 [1873]

-

Sunrise, sunset,
Swiftly fly the years;
One season following another,
Laden with happiness and tears.
--Sheldon Harnick (1924— )
American lyricist.
"Sunrise, Sunset" [1964 song]

-

Henry David Thoreau on his deathbed and sinking fast was asked
by his aunt who'd long worried about her nephew, 'Have you made
your peace with your God?' Thoreau, still alert, replied, 'I never
quarreled with my God.' This is one of the great deathbed quotes
if we excuse any put-down element in it. But the story does not
end there. There's an addition which seems, to me, even better.

Thoreau's aunt pursued the matter, asking, 'But aren't you concerned
about the next world?' Thoreau, impatient now, said, 'One world at
a time.'

This is an entire sermon, an entire religion, an entire philosophy
condensed into one short sentence. This world, this life. It is
enough. It is of cosmic relevance.

--W. Edward Harris (1935— )
American minister.
_A Garage Sale of the Mind_ [1993]

-

-

"The Station"
by Robert J. Hasting

Tucked away in our subconscious is an idyllic vision. We
see ourselves on a long trip that spans the continent. We
are traveling by train. Out the windows, we drink in the
passing scene of cars on nearby highways...of children
waving at a crossing...of cattle grazing on a distant
hillside...of smoke pouring from a power plant...or row
upon row of corn and wheat...of flatlands and valleys...
of mountains and rolling hillsides...of city skylines
and village halls.

But uppermost in our minds is the final destination. On a
certain day at a certain hour, we will pull into the station.
Bands will be playing and flags waving. Once we get there,
so many wonderful dreams will come true and the pieces of
our lives will fit together like a completed jigsaw puzzle.
How restlessly we pace the aisles, damning the minutes
for loitering...waiting...waiting...waiting for the station.

"When we reach the station, that will be it!" we cry. "When
I'm 18. When I buy a new 450 SL Mercedes Benz! When I have
paid off the mortgage! When I get a promotion! When I reach
the age of retirement, I shall live happily everafter!"

Sooner or later, we must realize there is no station...no
one place to arrive once and for all. The true job of life
is the trip. The station is only a dream. It constantly
outdistances us.

"Relish the moment" is a good motto, especially when coupled
with Psalm 118:24, "This is the day which the Lord hath made;
We will rejoice and be glad in it."

It isn't the burdens of today that drive men mad.
It is the regrets over yesterday and the fear of
tomorrow. Regret and fear are twin thieves who rob
us of today. So, stop pacing the aisles and counting
the miles. Instead, climb more mountains...eat more
ice cream...go barefoot more often...swim more
rivers...watch more sunsets...laugh more...cry less.

Life must be lived as we go along. The station will
come soon enough.

-

Life is made up of sobs, sniffles and smiles,
with sniffles predominating.
--O. Henry [William Sydney Porter] (1862—1910)
American short-story writer.
"The Gift of the Magi" _The Four Million_ [1906]

Just to be is a blessing. Just to live is holy.
--Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907—1972)
Jewish theologian and philosopher.
In Walter J Burghardt _Preaching the Just Word_, p. 68 [1998].

When the sun shineth, make hay.
--John Heywood (1497—1580)
English playwright.
_Proverbs_ [1546]

-

The riders in a race do not stop short when they reach the goal.
There is a little finishing canter before coming to a standstill. There
is time to hear the kind voice of friends and to say to one's self:
'The work is done.'

But just as one says that, the answer comes: 'The race is over,
but the work never is done while the power to work remains.'

The canter that brings you to a standstill need not be only coming
to rest. It cannot be, while you still live. For to live is to function.
That is all there is in living.

--Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841—1935)
Justice of the United States Supreme Court, legal historian, and philosopher.
Radio address on his 90th birthday [8 March 1931].

-

Life is 10 percent what happens to me
and 90 percent how I react to it.
--Lou Holtz (1937— )
American football coach.

Life is a preparation for the future; and the
best preparation for the future is to live as
if there were none.
--Elbert Hubbard (1859—1915)
American editor, publisher, and author who died in the sinking of the "Lusitania".
In the "Philistine" magazine published from
1905—1915.

-

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.
_The Will to Believe_ [1897] "Is Life Worth Living?"


The greatest use of life is to spend it for something
that will outlast it.
--William James (1842—1910)
American philosopher.

-

-

Let your boat of life be light, packed with only what
you need — a homely home and simple pleasures,
one or two friends worth the name, someone to love
and someone to love you, a cat, a dog, and a pipe or
two, enough to eat and enough to wear, and a little
more than enough to drink; for thirst is a dangerous
thing.
--Jerome K Jerome (1859—1927)
English novelist and playwright.
_Three Men in a Boat_ [1889], ch. 3


A waistcoat of broadcloth or of fustian is alike to an aching
heart, and we laugh no merrier on velvet cushions than we
did on wooden chairs. Often have I sighed in those low-
ceilinged rooms, yet disappointments have come neither
less nor lighter since I quitted them. Life works upon a
compensating balance, and the happiness we gain in one
direction we lose in another. As our means increase, so do
our desires; and we ever stand midway between the two.
--Jerome K Jerome (1859—1927)
English novelist and playwright.
"On Furnished Apartments"

-

The Best Things in Life Are Free.
--Howard E. Johnson (1887-1941)
American songwriter.
[Title of 1917 song written with John Aloysues Tucker.]

Life is a progress from want to want,
not from enjoyment to enjoyment.
--Samuel Johnson (1709—1784)
English poet, critic, and lexicographer.
[May 1776], in James Boswell _The Life of Samuel Johnson_ [1791].

You are the same today that you are going to be five
years from now except for two things: the people with
whom you associate, and the books you read.
--Charles Jones

...We may dig in our heels and dare life never to change,
but, all the same, it changes under our feet like sand
under the feet of a sea gazer as the tide runs out. Life
is forever undermining us. Life is forever washing away
our castles, reminding us that they were, after all, only
sand and sea water.
--Erica Jong (1942— )
American novelist.
_Parachutes and Kisses_ [1984]

I am not at all disposed to think that we should be
resigned to live or die, but rather that we should
kick and struggle and determine to live as long as
we can. For however long we live, we shall feel at
the last that we have not got half the things into
life that we ought to have done.
--Benjamin Jowett (1817—1893)
English educator and Greek scholar.

The meaning of life is that it stops.
--Franz Kafka (1883—1924)
Czech novelist.

Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature,
nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding
danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life
is either a daring adventure or nothing. To keep our faces
toward change and behave like free spirits in the presence
of fate is strength undefeatable.
--Helen Keller (1880—1968)
American author and educator who was blind and deaf.
_Let Us Have Faith_ [1940]

[Last words on the scaffold:]
Such is life!
--Ned Kelly (1854—1880)
Australian outlaw.
Quoted in Frank Clune _The Kelly Hunters_ [1958]

There is always inequity in life. Some men are
killed in a war and some are wounded, and
some men never leave the country, and some
men are stationed in the Antarctic and some are
stationed in San Francisco. . . . Life is unfair.
--John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917—1963)
American Democratic statesman, President of the U.S. [1961—1963].
Press conference [21 March 1962].

As my dad said 'Nic, it is what it is, it's not what it should
have been, not what it could have been, it is what it is.'
--Nicole Kidman (1967— )
Australian actress.

Life must be lived forwards, but can only be understood backwards.
--Sφren Kierkegaard (1813—1855)
Danish philosopher.
"Journals and Papers" [1843]

Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its
place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do
God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And
I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not
get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we,
as a people, will get to the promised land. And I'm happy,
tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any
man.
--Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929—1968)
American civil rights leader.
Address to sanitation workers, Memphis, Tennessee
[3 April 1968], the night before his assassination.

Life has its heroes and its villains, its soubrettes
and its ingenues, and all roles may be acted well.
--Joseph Wood Krutch (1893—1970)
American critic and naturalist.
_The Modern Temper_ [1929]

Most men make use of the first part of their life
to render the last part miserable.
--Jean de La Bruyθre (1645—1696)
French essayist and moralist.
_Les Caractθres_ [1688] "De l'Homme"

Most people think life sucks, and then you die. Not me. I beg to differ.
I think life sucks, then you get cancer, then your dog dies, your wife
leaves you, the cancer goes into remission, you get a new dog, you
get remarried, you owe ten million dollars in medical bills but you
work hard for thirty-five years and you pay it back and then — one
day — you have a massive stroke, your whole right side is paralyzed,
you have to limp along the streets and speak out of the left side of
your mouth and drool but you go into rehabilitation and regain the
power to walk and the power to talk and then — one day — you
step off a curb at Sixty-seventh Street, and BANG you get hit by
a city bus and then you die. Maybe.
--Denis Leary (1957— )
American actor and comedian.

One day nearer the grave, Thurber.
--M.B. "Bill" Levick
Daily greeting to James Thurber at the "New Yorker,"
quoted in James Thurber _The Years with Ross_ [1957].

Literature is mostly about having sex and not much
about having children. Life is the other way around.
--David Lodge (1935— )
English novelist.
_The British Museum is Falling Down_, ch. 4 [1965]

-

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—1882)
American poet.
_A Psalm of Life_ [1839], Stanza 7


Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.
Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust though art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.
--Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807—1882)
American poet.
"A Psalm of Life" [1838]


Ships that pass in the night, and speak to each other in passing;
Only a signal shown and a distant voice in the darkness;
So on the ocean of life we pass and speak to one another;
Only a look and a voice; then darkness again and silence.
--Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807—1882)
American poet.
_Tales of a Wayside Inn_ [1863] pt. 3
"The Theologian's Tale: Elizabeth" pt. 4 [1874]

-

Our life is what our thoughts make it.
--Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121—180)
Roman emperor [161—180] and Stoic philosopher.
_Meditations_, IV, 3

The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing.
If you can fake that, you've got it made.
--Groucho [Julius Henry] Marx (1895—1977)
American film comedian.

It's a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept
anything but the best, you very often get it.
--W. Somerset Maugham (1874—1965)
English novelist, playwright, and short-story writer.
_The Mixture as Before_ "The Treasure" [1940]

To love the worthy people who surround me, shun
the evil ones, enjoy the good things in life,
endure the bad, and remember to forget. This is
my optimism. It has helped me to live. May it
help you also.
--Andrι Maurois (1885—1967) (pseudonym of Ιmile Salomon Wilhelm Herzog)
French author.
_Lettres a l'Inconnu_

Life has no other discipline to impose, if we would but
realize it, than to accept life unquestioningly. Everything
we shut our eyes to, everything we run away from, everything
we deny, denigrate, or despise, serves to defeat us in the
end. What seems nasty, painful, evil, can become a source
of beauty, joy, and strength, if faced with an open mind.
Every moment is a golden one for him who has the vision
to recognize it as such.
--Henry Miller (1891—1980)
American novelist and essayist.
_The World of Sex_ [1940]

Many of life's circumstances are created by three basic
choices: the disciplines you choose to keep, the people
you choose to be with; and, the laws you choose to obey.
--Charles Millhuff
American evangelist.

Wherever your life ends, it is all there. The advantage
of living is not measured by length, but by use; some
men have lived long, and lived little; attend to it while
you are in it. It lies in your will, not in the number of
years, for you to have lived enough.
--Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (1533—1592)
French moralist and essayist.
_Essays_ [1580] bk. 1, ch. 20

There are three ingredients in the good life:
learning, earning, and yearning.
--Christopher Morley (1890—1957)
American journalist, novelist, and poet.
_Parnassus on Wheels_, ch. 10 [1917]

Life is a very short visit to a toyshop between
birth and death.
--Desmond Morris (1928— )
English anthropologist and author.

The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense
tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light
between two eternities of darkness.
--Vladimir Nabokov [pen name Vladimir Sirin] (1899—1977)
Russian novelist.

We will find in the lives of men who have done anything,
of those whom we call great men, that it is this spirit of
adventure, the call of the unknown, that has lured and
urged them along on their course ... All of us are explorers
in life, whatever trail we follow ... It is the explorers with
the true spirit of adventure we now need if humanity
shall really overcome the present difficulties ... Ah, youth.
What a glorious word! Unknown realms ahead of you,
hidden behind the mists of the morning. As you move
on, new islands appear, mountain summits shoot up
through the peering mists, one behind another, waiting
for you to climb; dense new forests unfold for you to
explore, free boundless plains for you to traverse.
--Fridtjof Nansen (1861—1930)
Norwegian polar explorer.
Speech on being installed as Rector of the University of Aberdeen [November 1926].
Quoted in Nigel Rees _Brewer's Famous Quotations_ [2006].

-

The seven ages of man: spills, drills, thrills,
bills, ills, pills, and wills.
--Richard John Needham (1912—1996)
British-born Canadian writer


For the first half of your life, people tell you what
you should do; for the second half, they tell you
what you should have done.
--Richard John Needham (1912—1996)
British-born Canadian writer

-

Life is like a game of cards. The hand that is
dealt you represents determinism; the way
you play it is free will.
--Jawaharlal Nehru (1889—1964)
Indian statesman.

Deep down every human being well knows that he
is in the world only one time, unique, and that no
such strange chance will throw together a second
time such a wonderfully many-colored assortment
into a unity such as he is: he knows it, but conceals
it like a bad conscience.
--Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844—1900)
German classical scholar, philosopher, and critic of culture.
_Schopenhauer as Educator_ [1874]

And in the meantime — in the meantime life is not all seriousness
and a somber understanding of history, and the work of making life
better. Life is beautiful. Life is the best horse on the best ranch
and the best ride to see the best sunset. Laugh, have a good time,
enjoy it — it's beautiful.
--Peggy Noonan (1950— )
Speechwriter for U.S. presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.
"The Ben Elliott Story"

A lament in one ear, maybe; but always a
song in the other. And to me life is simply
an invitation to live.
--Sean O'Casey (1880—1964)
Irish dramatist and memorist.
In David A. Wilson _Ireland, a Bicycle, and a Tin Whistle_, p. 1 [1995].

Oh, life is a glorious cycle of song,
A medley of extemporanea;
And love is a thing that can never go wrong;
And I am Marie of Roumania.
--Dorothy Parker (1893—1967)
American critic and humorist.
"Comment" l. I [1926]

Life has not taught me to expect nothing, but she has taught me
not to expect success to be the inevitable result of my endeavors.
She taught me to seek sustenance from the endeavor itself, but
to leave the result to God.
--Alan Stewart Paton (1903—1988)
South African author.
"The Challenge of Fear," _Saturday Review_ [9 September 1967]

To live at all is miracle enough.
--Mervyn Peake (1911—1968)
British novelist, poet, and artist.
_The Glassblower_ [1950]

Faith and my name is Kelly Michael Kelly,
But I'm living the life of Reilly just the same.
--Harry Pease (fl. 1919)
Songwriter.
"My Name is Kelly" [1919 song]

Once we truly know that life is difficult — once we truly
understand and accept it — then life is no longer difficult.
Because once it is accepted, it no longer matters.
--Scott Peck (1936—2005)
American author.
_The Road Less Traveled_ [1978]

The fortunate man, in my opinion, is he to whom the gods
have granted the power either to do something which is
worth recording or to write what is worth reading; and most
fortunate of all is the man who can do both.
--letter from Pliny the Younger to Tacitus
{Pliny the Younger or Caius Plinius Caecilius Secundus (62—c.115)
Roman senator and author of a famous collection of letters.
Tacitus [or Publius Cornelius Tacitus or Gaius Cornelius Tacitus]
(c.55—c.117), Roman orator, lawyer, senator, and historian}

'But is all this *true*?' said Brutha. Didactylos shrugged. 'Could
be. Could be. We are here and it is now. The way I see it is,
after that, everything tends toward guesswork.'
--Terry Pratchett (1948— )
English science fiction writer.
_Small Gods_ [1992]

My soul, sit thou a patient looker-on;
Judge not the play before the play is done:
Her plot hath many changes; every day
Speaks a new scene; the last act crowns the play.
--Francis Quarles (1592—1644)
English poet.
_Epigram_, "Respice Finem"

I wanted a perfect ending. Now I've learned, the hard way,
that some poems don't rhyme, and some stories don't have
a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not
knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making
the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen
next. Delicious Ambiguity.
--Gilda Radner (1946—1989)
American actress and comedienne.

A tough lesson in life that one has to learn is
that not everybody wishes you well.
--Dan Rather (1931— )
American televison journalist.

-

Once upon a time there was a tavern
Where we used to raise a glass or two
Remember how we laughed away the hours
And dreamed of all the great things we would do

Those were the days my friend
We thought they'd never end
We'd sing and dance forever and a day
We'd live the life we choose
We'd fight and never lose
For we were young and sure to have our way.

Then the busy years went rushing by us
We lost our starry notions on the way
If by chance I'd see you in the tavern
We'd smile at one another and we'd say

[Repeat Refrain]

Just tonight I stood before the tavern
Nothing seemed the way it used to be
In the glass I saw a strange reflection
Was that lonely woman really me

[Repeat Refrain]

Through the door there came familiar laughter
I saw your face and heard you call my name
Oh my friend we're older but no wiser
For in our hearts the dreams are still the same

[Repeat Refrain]

"Those Were The Days"
Music and lyrics by Gene Raskin (1910—2004)
[Mid-1960s song based on a Russian folk tune and sung by Mary Hopkin.]


-

Some people have thought me too much of a pessimist, but
I think of myself as a realist. I can't help that I've seen far
too much evil, cruelty, brutality, death, dishonesty and
hypocrisy to be a happy optimist. On the other hand, I've
seen too much goodness, kindness, honesty, integrity and
bravery to be a pessimist. The Chinese Taoists have it right.
There is always light and darkness, good and evil, cowardice
and courage, good times and bad times. Life is never all one
or the other. It's always a mix, and we have to be strong
enough to accept that.

So, Sentinel readers, adieu. Thanks for all your kind thoughts
and letters. To those of you who sent unkind thoughts, go
to hell.

--Charley Reese (1937— )
American newspaper columnist.
Farewell column in _Orlando Sentinel_ [29 July 2001].

-

It is after you have lost your teeth
that you can afford to buy steaks.
--Pierre Auguste Renoir (1841—1919)
French painter.

Almost all men are over-anxious. No sooner do they enter
the world than they lose that taste for natural and simple
pleasures so remarkable in early life. Every hour do they
ask themselves what progress they have made in the
pursuit of wealth or honor; and on they go as their fathers
went before them, till, weary and sick at heart, they look
back with a sigh of regret to the golden time of their
childhood.
--Samuel Rogers (1763—1855)
English poet.
_Italy_ [1822—1828] "Foreign Travel"

I cannot believe that the purpose of life is to be
"happy." I think the purpose of life is to be useful,
to be responsible, to be compassionate. It is, above
all, to matter: to count, to stand for something, to
have made some difference that you lived at all.
--Leo Rosten (1908—1997)
Polish-born American writer and social scientist.
_Passions and Prejudices_ [1978]

An awful lot of life on this planet is one man's
assessment of the other.
--Walt W. Rostow (1916—2003)
American economist and educator.
Quoted in Hugh Sidey
_John F. Kennedy, President: A Reporter's Inside Story_ [1963].

The first quarter of life slips away before we know how to use it;
the last quarter slips away after we have ceased to enjoy it. At
first we do not know how to live; soon we are not able to live. In
the interval between these two useless extremes three-quarters of
the time left to us is consumed by sleep, work, pain, constraints,
and every kind of suffering.
--Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712—1778)
French philosopher and novelist. [In 1762.]

The future is always fairy-land to the young. Life is like a beautiful and
winding lane, on either side bright flowers, and beautiful butterflies and
tempting fruits, which we scarcely pause to admire and to taste, so
eager are we to hasten to an opening which we imagine will be more
beautiful still. But by degrees, as we advance, the trees grow bleak,
the flowers and butterflies fail, the fruits disappear, and we find we
have arrived — to reach a desert waste.
--George Sala (1828—1896)
English journalist and illustrator.
Quoted in Maturin M. Ballou _Treasury of Thought_ p. 193 [15th ed. 1894].

-

Our lives are like a candle in the wind.
--Carl Sandburg (1878—1967)
American poet.


The history of the world and its peoples in three words —
'Born,
troubled,
died.'
--Carl Sandburg (1878—1967)
American poet.
_The People, Yes_ [1936]

-

There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval.
--George Santayana (1863—1952)
Spanish-born philosopher and critic.
_Soliloquies in England_ "War Shrines" [1922]

-

A man must have grown old and lived long
in order to see how short life is.
--Arthur Schopenhauer (1788—1860)
German philosopher.
_Parerga and Paralipomena_ [1861]


The more unintelligent a man is, the less
mysterious existence seems to him.
--Arthur Schopenhauer (1788—1860)
German philosopher.

-

I have often noticed that a kindly, placid good-
humor is the companion of longevity, and, I
suspect, frequently the leading cause of it.
--Sir Walter Scott (1771—1832)
Scottish novelist and poet.
In John Gibson Lockhart _Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott_ , p. 593 [1901].

-

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury
Signifying nothing.
--William Shakespeare (1564—1616)
English dramatist.
_Macbeth_ [1606]


All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages.
--William Shakespeare (1564—1616)
English dramatist.
_As You Like It_ [1599]

-

We should all be obliged to appear before a board
every five years and justify our existence . . .
on pain of liquidation.
--George Bernard Shaw (1856—1950)
Irish comic dramatist, literary critic, Socialist propagandist, and winner
of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1925 [he didn't accept it.]

Life's a bitch. Then you die. Then they throw dirt
in your face. Then the worms eat you. Be thankful
it happens in that order.
--Solomon Short

You've gotta love livin', baby, because dyin'
is a pain in the ass.
--Frank Sinatra (1915—1998)
American singer and actor.

Am I the person who used to wake in the middle of the
night and laugh with the joy of living? Who worried about
the existence of God, and danced with young ladies till
long after daybreak? Who sang "Auld Lang Syne" and
howled with sentiment, and more than once gazed at
the full moon through a blur of great. romantic tears?
--Logan Pearsall Smith (1865-1946)
American-born man of letters.
_More Trivia_ "Last Words" [1934]

I must keep on rowing, not until I reach port but
until I reach my grave.
--Germaine de Staλl (1766—1817)
French writer.
_Letter to Albertine Necker de Saussure_ [July 1814].

Life is a gamble at terrible odds — if
it was a bet, you wouldn't take it.
--Tom Stoppard [Tomas Straussler] (1937— )
Czech-born British playwright.
_Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead_, act 3 [1967]

Let your life lightly dance on the edges of
Time like dew on the tip of a leaf.
--Rabindranath Tagore (1861—1941)
Bengali poet, short-story writer, song composer, playwright,
and painter who won the 1913 Nobel Prize for Literature.

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.
--Henry David Thoreau (1817—1862)
American essayist, poet, and practical philosopher.
_Walden_ [1854]

^^

from a soldier in Iraq [2005] ...

There are days where pain seeps into your veins like a venom, slowing
only to settle in marrow deep pools. There are days where no amount of
rest can crack the adamantine circlets of fatigue that seem to bind your
frame. There are days where memories of home seem like a cracked and
faded picture, leaving just faded impressions shorn of all the subtle shadings
that made the moment unique and special. When these days come they bear
down on your heart like a steel press.

But there is symmetry to all things under heaven, and for every suffering
there is a joy of equal measure. It doesn't always come instantly, but it
always seems to come. On the days where the carrion birds circle your
consciousness that knowledge alone can be enough to ward off the
darkness and mend the hurt.

Sometimes felicity is writ large, like the cool desert mornings where
the sun stains the horizon with sublime banners of crimson and gold. There
are other times where satisfaction flows from being in the company of so
many tough and determined soldiers. At other times joy comes from little
more then seeing my name scrawled on a care package, the familiar words
as intoxicating as the finest liquor. But all of these lesser joys pale in
comparison to the raw sense of bliss that comes from just being alive
another day. Life is something all too easily taken for granted, its
brilliance muffled beneath an avalanche of the unimportant and unnecessary
dramas of being. But out here you see firsthand just how tenuous the thread
of life can be, and that awareness makes every pulse of your heart
something strange and miraculous.

When this mission comes to a close I'll carry back memories as sharp
as razors, and there will be times when they continue to cut. There is no
use bemoaning that reality, it simply is. I'm alright with that, if nothing
else those memories will focus my attention on what has real value in this
world. It isn't anything as empty as money, or as base as fame. It's the
simple things that brought me joy even here in the middle of combat. My
loving wife. My family. The company of good friends. Nature in all her
incarnations. After all this I don't think I'll ever take any of them for
granted.

--Thunder6, "Balance" [12 September 2005]

^^

Pick the right grandparents, don't eat or drink too much,
be circumspect in all things, and take a two-mile walk
every morning before breakfast.
--Harry S. Truman (1884—1972)
American Democratic statesman, President of the U.S. [1945—1953].
Prescription for reaching the age of 80, remark to reporters
on his 80th birthday, Washington, D.C. [8 May 1964].

-

Good friends, good books and a sleepy
conscience: this is the ideal life.
--Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835—1910)
American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot.


Only he who has seen better days and lives to
see better days again knows their full value.
--Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835—1910)
American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot.

-

In the beginning, God created the earth, and he looked
upon it in His cosmic loneliness. And God said, "Let Us
make living creatures out of mud, so the mud can see what
We have done." And God created every living creature that
now moveth, and one was man.

Mud as man alone could speak. God leaned close as mud as
man sat up, looked around, and spoke.

Man blinked. "What is the purpose of all this?" he asked
politely."

"Everything must have a purpose?" asked God.

"Certainly," said man.

"Then I leave it to you to think of one for all this,"
said God. And He went away.

--Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (1922—2007)
American novelist and short-story writer.

-

The whole secret of life is to be interested in one
thing profoundly and in a thousand things well.
--Horace Walpole (1717—1797)
English writer and connoisseur.


This world is a comedy to those that think,
a tragedy to those that feel.
--Horace Walpole (1717—1797)
English writer and connoisseur.
Letter to Anne, Countess of Upper Ossory [16 August 1776]

-

Life's a bitch, and then you die.
--"Washington Post" [10 October 1982]

Life is tough. It's even tougher if you're stupid.
--John Wayne [Marion Michael Morrison] (1907—1979)
American motion-picture actor.

Life is such unutterable hell, solely because it is
sometimes beautiful. If we could only be miserable
all the time, if there could be no such thing as love
or beauty or faith or hope, if I could be absolutely
certain that my love would never be returned: how
much more simple life would be. One could plod to
the Siberian salt mines of existence without being
bothered about happiness. Unfortunately the
happiness is there. There is always the chance that
another heart will come to mine. I can't help hoping
and keeping faith, and loving beauty. Quite frequently
I am not so miserable as it would be wise to be.
--T. H. [Terence Hanbury] White (1906—1964)
English novelist.
_The Troll_ [1935]

It is not how much you know about life but how you live
your life that counts. Those who can avoid mistakes by
observing the mistakes of others are most apt to keep
free from sorrow. In a world full of uncertainties, the
record of what has gone before — human experience
— is as sure and reliable as anything of which we know.
--Ray Lyman Wilbur (1875—1949)
Medical doctor and president of Stanford University.

-

Life is too important a thing ever to talk seriously about.
--Oscar Wilde (1854—1900)
Anglo-Irish dramatist and poet.


Paradox though it may seem — and paradoxes are always dangerous
things — it is none the less true that life imitates art far more than art
imitates life.
--Oscar Wilde (1854—1900)
Anglo-Irish dramatist and poet.
"The Decay of Lying: A Dialogue" in
_The Twentieth Century, vol. XXV [January—June 1889]

-

-

My advice to you is not to inquire why or whither,
but just enjoy your ice cream while it's on your
plate — that's my philosophy.
--Thornton Wilder (1897—1975)
American novelist and dramatist.
"The Skin of Our Teeth" [1942]


Oh earth, you're too wonderful for anybody to
realize you. . . . Do any human beings ever
realize life while they live it? — every, every
minute?
--Thornton Wilder (1897—1975)
American novelist and dramatist.
"Our Town" act III [1938]


My, wasn't life awful — and wonderful.
--Thornton Wilder (1897—1975)
American novelist and dramatist.
_Our Town_ [1938]

-

I believe you should live each day as if it is your last,
which is why I don't have any clean laundry because,
come on, who wants to wash clothes on the last day
of their life?
--Child, age 15, "A child's 'eye view'" _Chief's Philosophy of Life_

-

A Chief stood before his CPO selectees with several items
in front of him.

When the session began, wordlessly he picked up a very large
and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with rocks,
about 2" in diameter. He then asked the group if the jar was
full. They agreed that it was.

So the Chief then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them
into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles, of course,
rolled into the open areas between the rocks. He then asked
the selectees again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

He picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of
course, the sand filled up everything else. He then asked
once more the jar was full. The group responded with an
unanimous yes.

The Chief then produced two cans of beer from under the
table and proceeded to pour the entire contents into the
jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand.
The group laughed.

"Now," said the Chief, as the laughter subsided, "I want
you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The
rocks are the important things - your family, your partner,
your health, your children - things that if everything
else was lost and only they remained, your life would
still be full. The pebbles are the other things that matter
like your job, your house, your car. The sand is everything
else - the small stuff."

"If you put the sand into the jar first," he continued "there
is no room for the pebbles or the rocks. The same goes for
your life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small
stuff, you will never have room for the things that are
important to you. Pay attention to the things that are critical
to your happiness. Play with your children. Take time to get
medical checkups. Take your partner out dancing. There will
always be time to go to work, clean the house, give a dinner
party and fix the disposal. Take care of the rocks first - the
things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is
just sand."

One of the selectees raised their hand and inquired what the
beer represented.

The Chief smiled. "I'm glad you asked. It just goes to show
you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always
room for a couple of beers."

--anon.

-

Most of us miss out on life's big prizes. The Pulitzer.
The Nobel. Oscars. Tonys. Emmys. But we're all eligible
for life's small pleasures. Pat on the back. A kiss
behind the ear. A four-pound bass. A full moon. An empty
parking space. A crackling fire. A great meal. A glorious
sunset. Hot soup. Cold beer. Don't fret about copping
life's grand awards. Enjoy its tiny delights. There are
plenty for all of us.
--published in the Wall Street Journal by United Technologies Corp.

-

-----

hardscrabble [HARD-skrab-uhl], adjective:
1. Yielding a bare or meager living with
great labor or difficulty.
2. Marked by poverty.

ontology (noun)
The philosophical study of existence
and the nature of reality.
Derived: ontological, adj.; ontologist, n.


end page



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