LIFE QUOTES XXVII

quotations about life

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 figures itself to me as a festal or funereal procession.

NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE

"The Procession of Life"

Tags: Nathaniel Hawthorne


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


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


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


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

ARISTOPHANES

Lysistrata

Tags: Aristophanes


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


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


The unfairness of life is indicative of trees. I planted twenty trees on the same block. It's so fucking weird. Six became huge. One is giant. And there are some little shitty ones. Same soil. Same water. Same seed. But those little ones just don't grow. I can't explain it.

TIM ALLEN

Esquire, Nov. 2011

Tags: Tim Allen


Life is what you do while you're waiting to die.

DONALD TRUMP

interview, Playboy, Mar. 1990

Tags: Donald Trump


No man ever sailed over exactly the same route that another sailed over before him; every man who starts on the ocean of life arches his sails to an untried breeze.

WILLIAM MATHEWS

Hints on Success in Life


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


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


How fugitive and brief is mortal life between the budding and the falling leaf.

THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH

"Two Moods"

Tags: Thomas Bailey Aldrich


What fills us is real, sweet, dopey, funny life.

ANNE LAMOTT

"Time Lost and Found", Sunset

Tags: Anne Lamott


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 a stream
On which we strew
Petal by petal the flower of our heart.

AMY LOWELL

"Petals", A Dome of Many-coloured Glass

Tags: Amy Lowell


Life is a journey that's constantly flowing, regardless of the number of candles that will be on your next birthday cake. For you to stay in the same place forever would mean to resist growth. And that's what we're all here to do anyway -- we're here to grow.

ELISE MOREAU

"How to Change Your Life at Any Age", Care2, September 1, 2016


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


There is no normal life. There is only life.

ANNE RICE

The Wolves of Midwinter