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Life quotes

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“To be, or not to be, that is the Question” William Shakespeare, “Hamlet” - 1623

“People don't realize how a man's whole life can be changed by one book.” Malcolm X, “The Autobiography of Malcolm X” - 1965

“It would seem, Adeimantus, that the direction in which education starts a man, will determine his future life.” Plato, “The Republic”

“Have regular hours for work and play, make each day both useful and pleasant, and prove that you understand the worth of time by employing it well. Then youth will be delightful, old age will bring few regrets, and life become a beautiful...” Louisa May Alcott, “Little Women” - 1868

“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.” Oscar Wilde, “The Soul of Man under Socialism” - 1891

“A happy life must be to a great extent a quiet life, for it is only in an atmosphere of quiet that true joy can live.” Bertrand Russell, “The Conquest of Happiness” - 1930

“If you are not too long, I will wait here for you all my life.” Oscar Wilde, “The Importance of Being Earnest” - 1895

“Life was meant to be lived, and curiosity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life.” Eleanor Roosevelt, “The Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt” - 1961

“How good life is when one does something good and just!” Fyodor Dostoyevsky, “The Brothers Karamazov” - 1880

“We are such stuff as dreams are made on; and our little life is rounded with a sleep.” William Shakespeare, “The Tempest” - 1623

“It is not life that's complicated, it's the struggle to guide and control life.” F. Scott Fitzgerald, “This Side of Paradise” - 1920

“Her blood is settled, and her joints are stiff; Life and these lips have long been separated: Death lies on her like an untimely frost Upon the sweetest flower of all the field.” William Shakespeare, “Romeo and Juliet” - 1597

“A light heart lives long.” William Shakespeare, “Love's Labour's Lost” - 1598

“We live, as we dream—alone...” Joseph Conrad, “Heart of Darkness” - 1899

“While you do not know life, how can you know about death?” Confucius, “Analects”

“Droll thing life is—that mysterious arrangement of merciless logic for a futile purpose. The most you can hope from it is some knowledge of yourself—that comes too late—a crop of unextinguishable regrets.” Joseph Conrad, “Heart of Darkness” - 1899

“All the variety, all the charm, all the beauty of life is made up of light and shadow.” Leo Tolstoy, “Anna Karenina” - 1877

“Our life is made by the death of others.” Leonardo da Vinci, “The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci” - 1478 – 1519

“Chaos often breeds life, when order breeds habit.” Henry Adams, “The Education of Henry Adams” - 1906

“Do not stop thinking of life as an adventure. You have no security unless you can live bravely, excitingly, imaginatively; unless you can choose a challenge instead of a competence.” Eleanor Roosevelt, “The Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt” - 1961

“All God does is watch us and kill us when we get boring. We must never, ever be boring.” Chuck Palahniuk, “Invisible Monsters” - 1999

“Life lived on life. There were the eaters and the eaten. The law was: EAT OR BE EATEN.” Jack London, “White Fang” - 1906

“Death is so terribly final, while life is full of possibilities.” George R. R. Martin, “A Game of Thrones” - 1996

“There are darknesses in life, and there are lights. You are one of the lights.” Bram Stoker, “Dracula” - 1897

“But dost thou love Life, then do not squander Time, for that's the stuff Life is made of, as Poor Richard says.” Benjamin Franklin, “The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin” - 1791

“Absorbing, mysterious, of infinite richness, this life.” Virginia Woolf, “Mrs Dalloway” - 1925

“Make a decision and watch your life move forward.” Oprah Winfrey, “What I Know For Sure” - 2014

“The value of money is in proportion to the quantity of the necessaries of life which it will purchase.” Adam Smith, “The Wealth of Nations” - 1776

“But the joy of life is a very good thing, and while work is the essential in it, play also has its place.” Theodore Roosevelt, “Theodore Roosevelt; an Autobiography” - 1913

“If life must not be taken too seriously—then so neither must death.” Samuel Butler, “The Note-Books of Samuel Butler” - 1912

“The man who can centre his thoughts and hopes upon something transcending self can find a certain peace in the ordinary troubles of life which is impossible to the pure egoist.” Bertrand Russell, “The Conquest of Happiness” - 1930

“One friend in a lifetime is much; two are many; three are hardly possible. Friendship needs a certain parallelism of life, a community of thought, a rivalry of aim.” Henry Adams, “The Education of Henry Adams” - 1906

“life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about it.” Oscar Wilde, “Lady Windermere's Fan” - 1893

“Nothing happens while you live. The scenery changes, people come in and go out, that’s all. There are no beginnings. Days are tacked on to days without rhyme or reason, an interminable, monotonous addition.” Jean-Paul Sartre, “Nausea” - 1938

“But she—her life was cold as a garret whose dormer window looks on the north, and ennui, the silent spider, was weaving its web in the darkness in every corner of her heart.” Gustave Flaubert, “Madame Bovary” - 1856

“You must save what you can of your life; you mustn't lose it all simply because you've lost a part.” Henry James, “The Portrait of a Lady” - 1881

“Remove everything pointless from an imperfect life and it’d lose even its imperfection.” Haruki Murakami, “Sputnik Sweetheart” - 1999

“For there is no such thing as perpetual Tranquillity of mind, while we live here; because Life itself is but Motion, and can never be without Desire, nor without Feare, no more than without Sense.” Thomas Hobbes, “Leviathan” - 1651

“The God who gave us life gave us liberty at the same time; the hand of force may destroy, but cannot disjoin them.” Thomas Jefferson, “A Summary View of the Rights of British America” - 1774

“How ridiculous and what a stranger he is who is surprised at anything which happens in life.” Marcus Aurelius, “Meditations” - c. 170 - 180

“I must be gone and live, or stay and die.” William Shakespeare, “Romeo and Juliet” - 1597

“Human life and human labour were near. I must struggle on: strive to live and bend to toil like the rest.” Charlotte Brontë, “Jane Eyre” - 16 October 1847

“But where there's hope, there's life. It fills us with fresh courage and makes us strong again.” Anne Frank, “The Diary of a Young Girl” - 1947

“They show the pores in the face of life. The comfortable people want only wax moon faces, poreless, hairless, expressionless. We are living in a time when flowers are trying to live on flowers, instead of growing on good rain and black loam.” Ray Bradbury, “Fahrenheit 451” - 1953

“The shape does not change: there was a human being who was born, lived, and then, by some means or another, died. There. You may fill in the details from your own experience.” Neil Gaiman, “American Gods” - 2001

“The secret of life is to appreciate the pleasure of being terribly, terribly deceived.” Oscar Wilde, “A Woman of No Importance” - 1893

“This would be a hazardous life, and I would be apart from my family, but when a man is denied the right to live the life he believes in, he has no choice but to become an outlaw.” Nelson Mandela, “Long Walk to Freedom” - 1995

“If all our happiness is bound up entirely in our personal circumstances it is difficult not to demand of life more than it has to give.” Bertrand Russell, “The Conquest of Happiness” - 1930

“For life be, after all, only a waitin' for somethin' else than what we're doin', and death be all that we can rightly depend on.” Bram Stoker, “Dracula” - 1897

“What the count said was true—the most curious spectacle in life is that of death.” Alexandre Dumas, “The Count of Monte Cristo” - 1845

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William Shakespeare (21)
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Jack London (7)
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What I Know For Sure (5)
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William Shakespeare quotes about life · Death quotes about life