Famous quotes

Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,159,190 quotes Who coined it · How we decide

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Life

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“Our life’s our quiver. When our years are vainly spent In chasing phantoms, grief one day will have its vent. Let God’s protection mercifully on us rest, All fancies and all phantoms stand at once confessed, God’s servants are His shadows here below on earth To this world dead, but living in a second birth.”
Rumi (attributed) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Milton! thou should'st be living at this hour: England hath need of thee! . . . . . . Thy soul was like a star, and dwelt apart: So didst thou travel on life's common way In cheerful godliness.”
William Wordsworth (1770–1850) said by 1850 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Learning to enjoy the simple life of living back home”
Hodan Nalayeh wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I spend my days preparing for life, not preparing for death... They haven't stopped me from doing what I want every day. I believe in life, I believe in freedom, so my mind is not consumed with death. It's with love, life and those things. In many ways, on many days, only my body is here, because I am thinking about what's happening around the world.”
Mumia Abu-Jamal (born 1954) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: I spend my days preparing for life, not for death" The Guardian, Laura Smith (2007-10-25)
“It should be remembered that the ancestors of many of today's most ardent liberals could not have imagined life without slavery, life without lynching, life without segregation.”
Angela Davis (born 1944) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Do you know what a good life is? A good life is a life in which you never have to think about yourself again. You know why? Because you can't think about yourself without producing fear.”
Guy Finley (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Life on the earth is a school of Wisdom and Realisation of the Self. God is the unseen Teacher who through His great sons, through Nature herself, teaches man the secret and source of the attainment of Life Immortal. Thus, life abounds in lessons. He who heeds them, heeds towards freedom and Light; he who neglects, dooms himself: in darkness in which the world to-day is steeped.”
Swami Sivananda (1887–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Take, then, the life of perfect men like Bhishma and think of their deeds and their life and ideals. Your life will be filled by purity, courage, etc. You will become a noble, perfect man. The thought will transform you into its own likeness. Man becomes like what he worships. Man becomes like what he thinks. This is indeed true.”
Swami Sivananda (1887–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Let hearts and lippes speak lowd; and say Hail, door of life: and sourse of day! The door was shutt, the fountain seal'd; Yet Light was seen and Life reveald. The door was shutt, yet let in day, The fountain seald, yet life found way.”
Richard Crashaw (1612–1649) said by 1649 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Celebrities have an intimate life and a life in the grid of two hundred million. For them, there is no distance between the two grids of American life. Of all Americans, only they are complete.”
George W. S. Trow (1943–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Wherever you look, you will find death as well as life. Upon closer scrutiny, however, you will discover that the decomposing tree trunk and rotting leaves not only give birth to new life, but are full of life themselves. (Ch 9)”
Eckhart Tolle (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Death is not the opposite of life. Life has no opposite. The opposite of death is birth. Life is eternal.(Ch 9)”
Eckhart Tolle (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We could say that the totality, life wants the sapling to become a tree, but the sapling doesn't see itself as separate from life and so wants nothing for itself. It is one with what life wants. That's why it isn't worried or stressed. And, if it has to die prematurely, it dies with ease.....”
Eckhart Tolle (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is essential to effort that existence should be hard, painful and uncertain. It is essential that the struggle should endure, for it is by the struggle man develops. If it ceased, and life became perfect — effort would cease; Life would cease.For Life is effort.”
Norman Lindsay (1879–1969) first seen 1924 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Creative Effort (London, 1924), p. 18
“As Being and Life are one and the same, so are Death and Nothingness one and the same. But there is no real Death and no real Nothing ness, as we have already said. There is, however, an Apparent Life, and this is the mixture of life and death, of being and nothingness.”
Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762–1814) said by 1814 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Life will reveal answers at the pace life wishes to do so. You feel like running, but life is on a stroll. This is how God does things.”
Don Miller (author) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If I plant the idea that you really are a responsible person, that your life and life around you is affected by you, even though you're only one person, life can become very exciting.”
Patch Adams (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If I take things slowly today in order to appreciate life better, and if I take time to listen to the messages that life sends me, then I will have less time to do the things I need to do today. Then tomorrow I will have to do everything that much faster and I will be that much more unable to appreciate life. It is dangerous to stop and smell the roses.”
John S. Hall (born 1960) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Life's race well run, Life's work well done, Life's victory won, Now cometh rest.”
Edward Hazen Parker (1823–1896) said by 1896 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Funeral Ode on James A. Garfield, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
“Movement is the translation of life and if art depicts life,movement should come into art,since we are only aware of life,because it moves.”
Henri Gaudier-Brzeska (1891–1915) said by 1915 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Sophie Brzeska-Savage Messiah By H S (Jim) Ede Heinimann (1931)
“Llonio said life was a net for luck; to Hevydd the Smith life was a forge; and to Dwyvach the Weaver-Woman a loom. They spoke truly, for it is all of these. But you,” Taran said, his eyes meeting the potter’s, “you have shown me life is one thing more. It is clay to be shaped, as raw clay on a potter’s wheel.”
Lloyd Alexander (1924–2007) said by 2007 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Why do I hear what I can't see? Why do I fear what I can be? I feel the field of battle within my life!I hear the calvalry of light! I see the sound of endless sight! I feel the field of battle within my life!It was a life that had no end A time of love with you, my friend Begin the age of love you know about!”
Becky Stark (born 1976) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: You Broke My Heart, One Day Like Rain video (2007) - live performance Siren Festival (2007)
“I feel myself tied to life. To the immensity and complexity of life. Each painting is an impulse towards life.”
Bram van Velde (1895–1981) first seen 1972 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: short quotes, 29 August 1972; pp. 92-93
“This swallowing up of life in nothingness, this obliteration of life by nothingness is what the emotion of malice ultimately desires. The eternal conflict between love and malice is the eternal contest between life and death. And this contest is what the complex vision reveals, as it moves from darkness to darkness.”
John Cowper Powys (1872–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Good can be done in a life in which Evil is the life principle, but only at the cost of the doer’s sacrificing his life.”
Imre Kertész (1929–2016) said by 2016 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Whether she won or lost, she would continue to wrestle with life. It would not be with her own life alone but with all of life. Something had finally been released within her. And there it was, the sea.”
Clarice Lispector (1920–1977) said by 1977 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Boychick, wake up! Be something! Make your life something good. For the love of an old man who sees in your young days his new life, for such love take the world in your two hands and make it like new. Go out and fight so life shouldn't be printed on dollar bills.”
Clifford Odets (1906–1963) first seen 1935 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Jacob, in Awake and Sing! (1935), Act I
“Verily I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life." My friend, that is worth more than all the feeling you can have in a life-time.”
Dwight L. Moody (1837–1899) said by 1899 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[T]he further one advances towards the ultimate insoluble problems of physics, the more completely one leaves... the phenomenon of life and... its mysteries. The advance... has been from life and not towards it, and the clouded horizons.., whatever they... contain of wonder and revelation, are likely to afford little... to the... mystery of life.”
Frederick Soddy (1877–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I gave you my life, you gave me my life. Like a gush of wind in my hair. Why do we forget what's been said And play the game of life with our hearts?”
Yoko Ono (born 1933) first seen 1981 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Walking On Thin Ice" on Season of Glass (1981).
“I must say that I am still passionately pro-life, I just have a much more holistic sense of what it means to be for life, knowing that life does not just begin at conception and end at birth, and that if I am going to discourage abortion, I had better be ready to adopt some babies and care for some mothers. (p. 44)”
Shane Claiborne (born 1975) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For even if the whole world believed in resurrection, little would change until we began to practice it. We can believe in CPR, but people will remain dead until someone breathes new life into them. And we can tell the world that there is life after death, but the world really seems to be wondering if there is life before death.”
Shane Claiborne (born 1975) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No matter where the skeptical thought originates, or how it gets access to our minds, we see at once that it flattens the level of life and every aspiration. It makes our character less vigorous. The gospel is not simply a philosophy of religion or law of life, but it is an apocalypse, showing the heavens to our thought, and so bringing its spiritual benedictions to every heart and life.”
Richard Salter Storrs (1821–1900) said by 1900 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Sometimes in the ignorance I feel the meaning Invincible invisible wisdom, And I commune with intuitive instinct With the force that made life be And since it made life be It is greater than life And since it let extinction be It is greater than extinction. I commune with feelings more than prayer”
Sun Ra (1914–1993) first seen 1970 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Differences" (1970), p. 132
“I feel that I was made to complete things. To accomplish only a mass of beginnings and attempts would be to make a total failure of life. Perfection is the heritage with which my Creator has endowed me, and since this short life does not give completeness, I must have immortal life in which to find it.”
Randolph Sinks Foster (1820–1903) said by 1903 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The chief cause for the impending collapse of the world - the cause sufficient in and by itself - is the enormous growth of the human population: the human flood. The worst enemy of life is too much life: the excess of human life.”
Pentti Linkola (1932–2020) first seen 2011 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Can Life Prevail? :A Revolutionary Approach to the Environmental Crisis. UK: Arktos Media, 2nd Revised ed. (2011). (English translation of Voisiko elämä voittaa) page 122
“Science depends on outer experiment. Spirituality depends on inner searching and seeking. A scientist discovers the power that very often threatens even his own life. A spiritual seeker discovers the power that guides and moulds his life into a life of divine fulfilment.”
Sri Chinmoy (1931–2007) said by 2007 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What we need is a life of balance — neither to wallow in the pleasures of wealth nor to lead a life of asceticism, but to embrace a life of simplicity and a heart of purity.”
Sri Chinmoy (1931–2007) said by 2007 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it.”
Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In order to make myself recognized by the Other, I must risk my own life. To risk one's life, in fact, is to reveal oneself as not-bound to the objective form or to any determined existence — as not-bound to life.”
Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: p. 237, 1998 edition
“Art is only a means to life, to the life more abundant. It is not in itself the life more abundant. It merely points the way, something which is overlooked not only by the public, but very often by the artist himself. In becoming an end it defeats itself.”
Henry Miller (1891–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is very likely that there are many, many planets carrying life, even intelligent life, throughout the universe, because there are so many stars. By sheer chance, even if those chances are small, a great many life forms and a great many intelligences may exist.”
Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) first seen 1979 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview in Southwest Airlines Magazine 1979)
“What life have you, if you have not life together? There is not life that is not in community, And no community not lived in praise of .”
T. S. Eliot (1888–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“...there is always inequity in life. Some men are killed in a war and some men are wounded, and some men never leave the country, and some men are stationed in the Antarctic and some are stationed in San Francisco. It's very hard in the military or personal life to assure complete equality. Life is unfair.”
John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) first seen 1962 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: [http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Research-Aids/Ready-Reference/JFK-Quotations.aspx "President's News Conference (107)" (21 March 1962)
“This increase in the life span and in the number of our senior citizens presents this Nation with increased opportunities: the opportunity to draw upon their skill and sagacity — and the opportunity to provide the respect and recognition they have earned. It is not enough for a great nation merely to have added new years to life — our objective must also be to add new life to those years.”
John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) first seen 1963 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Special message to the Congress on the needs of the nation's senior citizens (21 February 1963); in Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1963, p. 189
“Oh child that didst despise thy life so much When it seemed only thine to keep or lose, How the fine ear felt fall the first low word "Value life, and preserve life for My sake!”
Robert Browning (1812–1889) said by 1889 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“May we not imagine that possibly this earthly life of ours is to the other life what sleeping is to waking? May not all our life be a dream and death an awakening? But an awakening to what? And supposing that everything is but the dream of God and that God one day will awaken? Will He remember His dream?”
Miguel de Unamuno (1864–1936) said by 1936 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We must needs believe in the other life, in the eternal life beyond the grave. ...And we must needs believe in that other life, perhaps, in order that we may deserve it, in order that we may obtain it, for it may be that he neither deserves it nor will obtain it who does not passionately desire it above reason and, if need be, against reason.”
Miguel de Unamuno (1864–1936) said by 1936 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The cinema is not an art which films life: the cinema is something between art and life. Unlike painting and literature, the cinema both gives to life and takes from it, and I try to render this concept in my films. Literature and painting both exist as art from the very start; the cinema doesn’t.”
Jean-Luc Godard (1930–2022) first seen 1970 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in: Richard Roud, Godard, introduction (1970)
“I think computer viruses should count as life … I think it says something about human nature that the only form of life we have created so far is purely destructive. We've created life in our own image.”
Stephen Hawking (1942–2018) first seen 1994 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech at Macworld Expo in Boston, as quoted in The Daily News (4 August 1994). A nearly identical quote can be found at the end of the second paragraph of his lecture Life in the Universe (1996).