LIFE QUOTES XXVII

quotations about life

What unlooked-for things do happen, to be sure, in a long life!

ARISTOPHANES

Lysistrata

Tags: Aristophanes


We cross the stream of life at different places. Some wade through the shallows in a drought, others have to swim across deep waters in a storm.

CHARLES EDWARD JERNINGHAM

The Maxims of Marmaduke


It is in life as it is in ways, the shortest way is commonly the foulest, and surely the fairer way is not much about.

FRANCIS BACON

Advancement of Learning

Tags: Francis Bacon


When our life is a continuous trial, the moments of respite seem only to substitute the heaviness of dread for the heaviness of actual suffering; the curtain of cloud seems parted an instant only that we may measure all its horror as it hangs low, black, and imminent, in contrast with the transient brightness; the waterdrops that visit the parched lips in the desert bear with them only the keen imagination of thirst.

GEORGE ELIOT

Janet's Repentance


Life is a series of abandonings.

JEFF ABBOTT

The Last Minute

Tags: Jeff Abbott


Life, authentic life, is supposed to be all struggle, unflagging action and affirmation, the will butting its blunt head against the world's wall, suchlike, but when I look back I see that the greater part of my energies was always given over to the simple search for shelter, for comfort, for, yes, I admit it, for cosiness. This is a surprising, not to say shocking, realisation. Before, I saw myself as something of a buccaneer, facing all-comers with a cutlass in my teeth, but now I am compelled to acknowledge that this was a delusion. To be concealed, protected, guarded, that is all I have ever truly ever wanted, to burrow down into a place of womby warmth and cower there.

JOHN BANVILLE

The Sea

Tags: John Banville


When I consider Life, 'tis all a cheat;
Yet, fooled with hope, men favour the deceit;
Trust on, and think to-morrow will repay:
To-morrow's falser than the former day;
Lies worse; and while it says, we shall be blest
With some new joys, cuts off what we possessed.

JOHN DRYDEN

Aureng-Zebe

Tags: John Dryden


Try not to turn your life into a race, least of all an obstacle race.

JOSÉ BERGAMÍN

Head in the Clouds

Tags: José Bergamín


Thus will we deal with life, my little help-meet. Will we not, eh? What though it blink at us like an owl that is blinded by the sun, we will yet force it to smile.

LEONID ANDREYEV

The Life of Man

Tags: Leonid Andreyev


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

Tags: Mark Twain


And if sometimes, commingled with life's wine,
We find the wormwood, and rebel and shrink,
Be sure a wiser hand than yours or mine
Pours out this potion for our lips to drink.

MAY RILEY SMITH

"Sometime"


Life is a dance. To master it, we must master the rhythm of our lives.

MICHAEL MAMAS

"In the Rhythm of Life, Timing is Everything", Huffington Post, August 19, 2016


Life figures itself to me as a festal or funereal procession.

NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE

"The Procession of Life"

Tags: Nathaniel Hawthorne


You tasted it. Isn't that enough? Of what do you ever get more than a taste? That's all we're given in life, that's all we're given of life. A taste. There is no more.

PHILIP ROTH

The Dying Animal


If I don't have time to live my life well the first time, when am I going to find the time to go back and live it over?

ROBERT FULGHUM

Uh-Oh

Tags: Robert Fulghum


The life most of us live are lives we are forced to live by immediate needs, influences, and pressures.

WALTER MOSLEY

Black Genius

Tags: Walter Mosley


Life is the lust of a lamp for the light that is dark till the dawn of the day that we die.

ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE

"Nephelidia"

Tags: Algernon Charles Swinburne


From whatever point he starts, whatever path he follows, modern man comes to the same conclusion: behind its visible appearances, life hides a meaning that is eternally inaccessible to penetration by the spirit that seeks for its discovery, caught in the dilemma of being aware that it is impossible to find it, and yet also impossible to renounce the hopeless quest.

ARTHUR ADAMOV

"Le refus", L'Heure Nouvelle


Into the void of silence, into the empty space of nothing, the joy of life is unfurled.

C. S. LEWIS

The Magician's Nephew

Tags: C. S. Lewis


Life is indeed either a rich possession or a poor, according as it is made subservient to noble aims or ignoble pleasures.

CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE

Intuitions and Summaries of Thought

Tags: Christian Nestell Bovee