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All our mortal lives are set in danger and perplexity: one day to prosper, and the next -- who knows? When all is well, then look for rocks ahead.
- I count life just a stuff
- To try the soul's strength on.
ROBERT BROWNING, In a Balcony
A well-developed sense of humor is the pole that adds balance to your steps as you walk the tightrope of life.
WILLIAM ARTHUR WARD, Woman's Day Magazine, Jun. 1, 2007
Life is a long lesson in humility.
J.M. BARRIE, The Little Minister
Life at the greatest is but a froward child, that must be humor'd and coax'd a little till it falls asleep, and then all the care is over.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH, The Good-Natured Man
- My life is a tree,
- Yoke-fellow of the earth;
- Pledged,
- By roots too deep for remembrance,
- To stand hard against the storm,
- To fill by Place.
- (But high in the branches of my green tree there is a wild bird singing:
- Wind-free are the wings of my bird: she hath built no mortal nest.)
KARLE WILSON BAKER, The Tree
Life itself is but the shadow of death, and souls departed but the shadows of the living. All things fall under this name. The sun itself is but the dark simulacrum, and light but the shadow of God.
SIR THOMAS BROWNE, Cyrus' Garden
It's over before you know it. It all goes by so fast. Yeah the bad nights take forever, and the good nights don't ever seem to last.
TOM PETTY, The Best of Everything
Life figures itself to me as a festal or funereal procession.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE, "The Procession of Life"
Maybe a long life does have to be filled with many unpleasant conditions if it's to seem long. But in that event, who wants one?
Whoever has lived long enough to find out what life is, knows how deep a debt of gratitude we owe to Adam, the first great benefactor of our race. He brought death into the world.
MARK TWAIN, The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson
Life is an incurable disease.
ABRAHAM COWLEY, To Dr. Scarborough
Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that's the stuff life is made of.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Poor Richard's Almanac
Life is always uncertain, and common prudence dictates to every man the necessity of settling his temporal concerns, while it is in his power, and while the mind is calm and undisturbed.
GEORGE WASHINGTON, letter to Mrs. Martha Washington, Jun. 18, 1775
Our lives teach us who we are.
SALMAN RUSHDIE, London Independent, Feb. 4, 1990
Meeting each other and leaving each other. Leaving and meeting. That's what life is!
AUGUST STRINDBERG, A Dream Play
- For life, with all it yields of joy and woe,
- And hope and fear, -- believe the aged friend --
- Is just a chance o' the prize of learning love.
ROBERT BROWNING, A Death in the Desert
The days of life are consumed, one by one, without an object beyond the present moment; ever flying from the ennui of that, yet carrying it with us; eternally in pursuit of happiness, which keeps eternally before us. If death or bankruptcy happen to trip us out of the circle, it is matter for the buzz of the evening, and is completely forgotten by the next morning.
THOMAS JEFFERSON, letter to Mrs. Bingham, Feb. 7, 1787
I know that life is a journey I must accept and that pain and confusion are temporary. I know that if I follow my heart, it will lead me where I belong.
JOSH GROBAN, O Magazine, Jan. 2007
Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.
JOHN LENNON, Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)
Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.
ALBERT EINSTEIN, Woman's Day Magazine, Jun. 1, 2007
Philosophers wrestling with the big questions of life are no longer alone. Now scientists are struggling to define life as they manipulate it, look for it on other planets, and even create it in test tubes.
SETH BORENSTEIN, USA Today, Aug. 19, 2007
- Life is the thing--the song of life--
- The eager plow, the thirsty knife!
CONRAD AIKEN, "Youth Imperturbable"
We can smile, breathe, walk, and eat our meals in a way that allows us to be in touch with the abundance of happiness that is available. We are very good at preparing to live, but not very good at living. We know how to sacrifice ten years for a diploma and we are willing to work very hard to get a job, a car, a house, and so on. But we have difficulty remembering that we are alive in the present moment, the only moment there is for us to be alive.
THICH NHAT HANH, Peace is Every Step
Life ... is not about how fast you run or even with what degree of grace. It's about perseverance, about staying on your feet and slogging forward no matter what.
Life is the flash in black heavens.
Real life ... it was an ambiguous world, where actions sometimes had no meaning, where chaos reigned and no one was allowed to see the big picture, only their small portion of it.
BENTLEY LITTLE, The Policy
Every person, all the events of your life are there because you have drawn them there. What you choose to do with them is up to you.
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