life quotes from influential philosophers, authors and people
"Every parting gives a foretaste of death, every reunion a hint of the resurrection."
77
"The more unintelligent a man is, the less mysterious existence seems to him."
88
"Each day is a little life: every waking and rising a little birth, every fresh morning a little youth, every going to rest and sleep a little death."
94
"A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life."
201
"To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering."
378
"Every person has a right to risk their own life for the preservation of it."
1005
"Like the generations of leaves, the lives of mortal men. Now the wind scatters the old leaves across the earth, now the living timber bursts with the new buds and spring comes round again. And so with men: as one generation comes to life, another dies away."
1091
"Life is largely a matter of expectation."
1101
"Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them."
2
"The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts."
3
"In your actions, don’t procrastinate. In your conversations, don’t confuse. In your thoughts, don’t wander. In your soul, don’t be passive or aggressive. In your life, don’t be all about business."
13
"While we wait for life, life passes."
19
"Life is long, if you know how to use it."
20
"While we are postponing, life speeds by."
24
"Life is very short and anxious for those who forget the past, neglect the present, and fear the future."
28
"Happiness is a good flow of life."
32
"We deem those happy who from the experience of life have learnt to bear its ills without being overcome by them."
62
"I have treated many hundreds of patients. Among those in the second half of life - that is to say, over 35 - there has not been one whose problem in the last resort was not that of finding a religious outlook on life."
65
"There is no doubt that life is given us, not to be enjoyed, but to be overcome; to be got over."
78
"Satisfaction consists in freedom from pain, which is the positive element of life."
95
"To the ambitious, whom neither the boon of life, nor the beauty of the world suffice to content, it comes as penance that life with them is squandered, and that they possess neither the benefits nor the beauty of the world."
101
"As a day well spent brings blessed sleep, so a life well lived brings a blessed death."
115
"Great minds ask great questions. The questions that engage our thought on a daily basis reflect our life purpose and influence the quality of our lives."
120
"First, you must see your attempt at attaining mastery as something extremely necessary and positive... Second, you must convince yourself of the following: people get the mind and quality of brain that they deserve through their actions in life."
126
"In moving toward mastery, you are bringing your mind closer to reality and to life itself."
127
"At your birth a seed is planted. That seed is your uniqueness. It wants to grow, transform itself, and flower to its full potential. It has a natural, assertive energy to it. Your Life's Task is to bring that seed to flower, to express your uniqueness through your work."
130
"The process of realizing your Life's Task comes in three stages: First, you must connect with your inclinations, that sense of uniqueness. The first step then is always inward. You search the past for signs of that inner voice or force. You clear away the other voices that might confuse you- parents and peers. You look for an underlying pattern, a core to your character that you must understand as deeply as possible."
131
"A false path in life is generally something we are attracted to for the wrong reasons- money, fame, attention, and so on. If it is attention we need, we often experience a kind of emptiness inside that we are hoping to fill with the false love of public approval."
134
"Too many people believe that everything must be pleasurable in life, which makes them constantly search for distractions and short-circuits the learning process. The pain is a kind of challenge your mind presents- will you lean how to focus and move past the boredom, or like a child will you succumb to the need for immediate pleasure and distraction?"
138
"..you must meet any boredom head-on and not try to avoid or repress it. Throughout your life you will encounter tedious situations, and you must cultivate the ability to handle them with discipline."
139
"Understand: people will constantly attack you in life. One of their main weapons will be to instill in you doubts about yourself – your worth, your abilities, your potential. They will often disguise this as their objective opinion, but invariably it has a political purpose – they want to keep you down."
155
"Nobody, as long as he moves about among the chaotic currents of life, is without trouble."
162
"In the child, consciousness rises out of the depths of unconscious psychic life, at first like separate islands, which gradually unite to form a 'continent,' a continuous landmass of consciousness. Progressive mental development means, in effect, extension of consciousness."
165
"Our heart glows, and secret unrest gnaws at the root of our being. Dealing with the unconscious has become a question of life for us."
166
"Shrinking away from death is something unhealthy and abnormal which robs the second half of life of its purpose."
167
"It's in responsibility that most people find the meaning that sustains them through life. It's not in happiness. It's not in impulsive pleasure."
168
"One moment can change a day, one day can change a life, and one life can change the world."
174
"If we were not all so interested in ourselves, life would be so uninteresting that none of us would be able to endure it."
182
"Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of."
192
"When deciding whether to follow an appealing pursuit that will introduce more control into your work life, seek evidence of whether people are willing to pay for it. If you find this evidence, continue. If not, move on."
206
"To have a mission is to have a unifying focus for your career. It's more general than a specific job and can span multiple positions. It provides an answer to the question, What should I do with my life? Missions are powerful because they focus your energy toward a useful goal, and this in turn maximizes your impact on your world - a crucial factor in loving what you do."
207
"A good career mission is similar to a scientific breakthrough - it's an innovation waiting to be discovered in the adjacent possible of your field. If you want to identify a mission for your working life, therefore, you must first get to the cutting edge - the only place where these missions become visible."
208
"The issue with any game - even this grand universe game - is that unless there is a possibility of defeat - and it has to be a 'real' defeat - there is no game. The grand game of all games is the game of life and death. If death didn't seem real, the game would be meaningless. Death seems like a real, genuine defeat because if it didn't, we would lose interest in the game."
214
"What if the way to 'win' the game of life is to discover experientially that it's all a game in the first place and that you are the creator of the game? I emphasize the experience of this discovery, and I suggest that this is what happened to the Buddha, Laotzu, and other ancient masters from the East so long ago. In their case, identification with the self collapsed, and so did all the mental suffering that went with it."
215
"If, in the future, all life is programmable, those with the right knowledge and capability will be in possession of unfathomable power. They could create life, and tweak existing life forms, to do almost anything - be it good or bad."
219
"If we could manipulate cells - the basic building bricks of life - then we could direct the machines to do our bidding."
221
"It is within the power of every man to live his life nobly, but of no man to live forever. Yet so many of us hope that life will go on forever, and so few aspire to live nobly."
236
"Do not pray for an easy life, pray for the strength to endure a difficult one."
239
"Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance."
305
"There is nothing in life that can't be handled. If we choose, there is no situation in which we are not free. The road to freedom is also the road to happiness."
338
"A man should have an object or purpose in life, that he may direct all his energies to it; of course a good object. He who has not one object or purpose in life, cannot be one and the same all through his life."
346
"Happiness was not the direct object of a Stoic's life. There is no rule of life contained in the precept that a man should pursue his own happiness. Many men think that they are seeking happiness when they are only seeking the gratification of some particular passion, the strongest that they have."
347
"A living thing seeks above all to discharge its strength — life itself is will to power."
363
"Life is continually shedding something that wants to die."
366
"Without music, life would be a mistake."
369
"The greatest and most important problems of life are all fundamentally insoluble. They can never be solved but only outgrown."
399
"The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are."
400
"The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved; loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves."
404
"Do not waste what remains of your life in speculating about your neighbors, unless with a view to some mutual benefit."
415
"The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time."
418
"And life itself confided the secret to me: behold, it said, I am that which must always overcome itself."
424
"The reason why the universe is eternal is that it does not live for itself; it gives life to others as it transforms."
504
"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."
515
"If you correct your mind, the rest of your life will fall into place."
548
"Live your life as an Exclamation rather than an Explanation."
567
"The ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of circumstances."
575
"Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving."
612
"The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future in life."
632
"If a man neglects education, he walks lame to the end of his life."
634
"Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything."
645
"It's very important to like the people you work with, otherwise life [and] your job is gonna be quite miserable."
657
"Each player must accept the cards life deals him or her: but once they are in hand, he or she alone must decide how to play the cards in order to win the game."
686
"Give me the patience for the small things of life, courage for the great trials of life. Help me to do my best each day and then go to sleep knowing God is awake."
693
"God gave us the gift of life; it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well."
694
"Life is too short, time too valuable, to spend it on what is useless."
709
"Life is a shipwreck, but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats."
713
"Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly."
762
"It’s the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting."
772
"You’ve been given another day of life. How will you use it? Will you wait until tomorrow as you’ve done for years or decide today is the day you commit to excellence?"
794
"You must put in the effort to get the life you want."
825
"Depression is not real. Feeling depressed is real. So, you can feel depressed, but you feel depressed and that is a natural, biological, evolutionary trigger for you to change something in your life. That’s your own mind telling you ‘you’re unhappy about X’. If I went to jail today, I’d be depressed because I’m in jail. I haven’t caught depression, I don’t have a disease, I’m just upset with my situation."
828
"You don’t get to go through life only doing the things that you feel like doing."
829
"The right to life is the source of all rights—and the right to property is their only implementation. Without property rights, no other rights are possible."
864
"Since the only proper function of a government is to protect man’s rights, it cannot claim title to his life in exchange for that protection."
871
"An individualist…says: 'I will not run anyone’s life—nor let anyone run mine. I will not rule nor be ruled. I will not be a master nor a slave.'"
872
"If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things."
907
"And thus, the actions of life often not allowing any delay, it is a truth very certain that, when it is not in our power to determine the most true opinions we ought to follow the most probable."
915
"I desire to live in peace and to continue the life I have begun under the motto 'to live well you must live unseen."
917
"Some years ago I was struck by the large number of falsehoods that I had accepted as true in my childhood, and by the highly doubtful nature of the whole edifice that I had subsequently based on them. I realized that it was necessary, once in the course of my life, to demolish everything completely and start again right from the foundations if I wanted to establish anything at all in the sciences that was stable and likely to last."
932
"Being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions."
947
"The busier we are, the more acutely we feel that we live, the more conscious we are of life."
978
"You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life."
1028
"I would rather live my life as if there is a God and die to find out there isn't, than live as if there isn't and to die to find out that there is."
1030
"But what is happiness except the simple harmony between a man and the life he leads?"
1036
"Without work, all life goes rotten. But when work is soulless, life stifles and dies."
1043
"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards."
1054
"Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced."
1058
"It is perfectly true, as philosophers say, that life must be understood backwards. But they forget the other proposition, that it must be lived forwards."
1062
"The highest and most beautiful things in life are not to be heard about, nor read about, nor seen but, if one will, are to be lived."
1078
"Everything worthwhile in life is won through surmounting the associated negative experience."
1156
"Pain is an inextricable thread in the fabric of life, and to tear it out is not only impossible, but destructive: attempting to tear it out unravels everything else with it. To try to avoid pain is to give too many fucks about pain. In contrast, if you’re able to not give a fuck about the pain, you become unstoppable."
1157
"Life is essentially an endless series of problems. The solution to one problem is merely the creation of another."
1159
"This is the most simple and basic component of life: our struggles determine our successes."
1162
"You cannot be a powerful and life-changing presence to some people without being a joke or an embarrassment to others."
1171
"Fall in love with some activity, and do it! Nobody ever figures out what life is all about, and it doesn’t matter."
1174