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Life

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“To ensure a decent quality of life for the rest of our lives, as well as for all those who follow, we must develop global policies that recognize the interdependence of life and the need for nations to agree on mutually beneficial measures to protect and maintain the basic elements of life support, on a planetary scale. But it is difficult to be concerned”
Sylvia Earle (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The album was the creation of a space where all of the different lives I’ve led. My life has been really divided and this was a place where I could finally gather them all up and they would be in one place. So that my professional life and personal life exist together.”
Thao Nguyen (born 1984) first seen 2020 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On the message of her music album Temple in "DIVA chats to Thao Nguyen all about her new record, coming out to the world and Zoom music video magic" in Diva (29 May 2020)
“The savage recognizes life only in himself and his personal desires. His interest in life is concentrated on himself alone. The highest happiness for him is the fullest satisfaction of his desires. The motive power of his life is personal enjoyment. His religion consists in propitiating his deity and in worshiping his gods, whom he imagines as persons living only for their personal aims.”
Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) said by 1910 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My whole life has largely been one of surprises. I believe that any man's life will be filled with constant, unexpected encouragements of this kind if he makes up his mind to do his level best each day of his life — that is, tries to make each day reach as nearly as possible the high-water mark of pure, unselfish, useful living.”
Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) said by 1915 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Here and everywhere is the struggle for existence, life inextricably enmeshed with war. All life living at the expense of life, every organism eating other organisms forever.”
Will Durant (1885–1981) said by 1981 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“So much of our life passes in a comfortable blur. Living on the senses requires an easily triggered sense of marvel, a little extra energy, and most people are lazy about life. Life is something that happens to them while they wait for death.”
Diane Ackerman (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Through your interest in plant life, your fostering of beauty, your alignment with constructive conservation causes, you promote that onward flow of life that is the essence of our world. This is a time when forces of a very different nature too often prevail-forces careless of life or deliberately destructive of it and of the essential web of living relationships.”
Rachel Carson (1907–1964) said by 1964 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“… but love, like all art, as Oscar said, it's quite useless. It is the useless things that make life worth living and that make life dangerous too: wine, love, art, beauty. Without them life is safe but not worth bothering with.”
Stephen Fry (born 1957) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In the conduct of life, habits count for more than maxims, because habit is a living maxim, becomes flesh and instinct. To reform one's maxims is nothing: it is but to change the title of the book. To learn new habits is everything, for it is to reach the substance of life. Life is but a tissue of habits.”
Henri-Frédéric Amiel (1821–1881) said by 1881 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The delicacy of life is found In balance with the heights, The very living source of life, The very truth and breath of life Though visible in seconds here, And yet is timelessness.”
Lucy Barfield (1935–2003) said by 2003 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I believe that I fashion my own life out of words and images, and that's how I get by. If I didn't do those things, I think that I would find my existence a problem of some sort. Writing, giving expression to my spirit and to my mind, that's a way of surviving, of ordering one's life. That's a way of living, of making life acceptable to oneself. (1981)”
N. Scott Momaday (1934–2024) said by 2024 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All of it just confirmed his belief that his real life, the life he should be living, had been mislaid through some clerical error by the cosmic bureaucracy. This couldn’t be it. It had been diverted somewhere else, to somebody else, and he’d been issued this shitty substitute faux life instead.”
Lev Grossman (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am everything that my heart desires to be. I am a woman, an artist, a lover of life and most importantly, a woman living a purposeful life. I am thankful for the gift of life and the chance to do what I love”
Khabonina Qubeka (born 1981) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It feels like my career as an artist has a new purpose over there. Because I feel like once you bring the music scene to life, you also bring the Filipino community to life — you bring Filipino restaurants, businesses, beauty parlors to life… so I feel like that was my purpose living in Spain.”
Kitchie Nadal (born 1980) first seen 2025 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: EXCLUSIVE: Kitchie Nadal thankful as her songs remain relevant: ‘I don’t take it for granted’ Clarence Gillego, Push Team, 14 June 2025.
“I believe there is no part of our lives, our adult as well as child life, when we're not fantasizing, but we prefer to relegate fantasy to children, as though it were some tomfoolery only fit for the immature minds of the young. Children do live in fantasy and reality; they move back and forth very easily in a way we no longer remember how to do.”
Maurice Sendak (1928–2012) first seen 1972 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Questions to an Artist Who Is Also an Author : A Conversation between Maurice Sendak and Virginia Haviland (1972) by Virginia Haviland
“You don’t merely give over your creativity to making a film—you give over your life! In theatre, by contrast, you live these two rather strange lives simultaneously; you have no option but to confront the mould on last night’s washing-up.”
Daniel Day-Lewis (born 1957) first seen 1988 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: City Limits (London, 7 April 1988)
“We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths; In feelings, not in figures on a dial. We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best. Life's but a means unto an end; that end Beginning, mean, and end to all things, — God. The dead have all the glory of the world.”
Philip James Bailey (1816–1902) said by 1902 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Death induces the sensual person to say: Let us eat and drink, because tomorrow we shall die – but this is sensuality's cowardly lust for life, that contemptible order of things where one lives in order to eat and drink instead of eating and drinking in order to live.”
Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855) said by 1855 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The attacks of September 11 were intended to break our spirit, instead we have emerged stronger and more unified. We feel renewed devotion to the principles of political, economic and religious freedom, the rule of law and respect for human life. We are more determined than ever to live our lives in freedom”
Rudy Giuliani (born 1944) first seen 2001 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Dedication for the exhibit "After September 11 : Images from Ground Zero." (31 December 2001)
“What we learn in kindergarten comes up again and again in our lives as long as we live. In far more complex, polysyllabic forms, to be sure. In lectures, encyclopedias, bibles, company rules, courts of law, sermons, and handbooks. Life will examine us continually to see if we have understood and have practiced what we were taught that first year of school.”
Robert Fulghum (born 1937) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This is our purpose: to make as meaningful as possible this life that has been bestowed upon us; to live in such a way that we may be proud of ourselves; to act in such a way that some part of us lives on.”
Oswald Spengler (1880–1936) said by 1936 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Good Advice (1982) edited by Leonard Safir and ‎William Safire, p. 282; also quoted in "Aphorisms: From the Writings of Oswald Spengler", in The Journal of Historical Review (March-April 1998), Vol. 17, No.…
“This I Believe — by that name, we present the personal philosophies of thoughtful men and women in all walks of life. In this brief space, a banker or a butcher, a painter or a social worker, people of all kinds who need have nothing more in common than integrity, a real honesty, will write about the rules they live by, the things they have found to be the basic values in their lives.”
Edward R. Murrow (1908–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Emir said: "This way everyone lives in a body of a kind for a while, and then leaves its body behind so that it can be remade for someone else. That's a very simple explanation, but it will do for now. Then all new life has a chance to live, and lots of room. Then we each take turns, so we can come back on new bodies when there's room available.”
Jane Roberts (1929–1984) said by 1984 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Pagan philosophers set up reason as the sole guide of life, of wisdom and conduct; but Christian philosophy demands of us that we surrender our reason to the Holy Spirit; and this means that we no longer live for ourselves, but that Christ lives and reigns within us (Rom 12:1; Eph 4:23; Gal 2:20).”
John Calvin (1509–1564) said by 1564 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The richness of human life is that we have many lives, we live the events that do not happen (and some that cannot) as vividly as those that do, and if thereby we die a thousand deaths, that is the price we pay...”
Jacob Bronowski (1908–1974) said by 1974 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And, O! there lives within my heart A hope long nursed by me, (And should its cheering ray depart How dark my soul would be)That as in Adam all have died In Christ shall all men live And ever round his throne abide Eternal praise to give;That even the wicked shall at last Be fitted for the skies And when their dreadful doom is past To life and light arise.”
Anne Brontë (1820–1849) said by 1849 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is no Heaven, no Swarga, no Hell, no rebirth, no reincarnation and no immortality. The only thing that is true is that a man is born, he lives and he dies. Therefore, he should live his life properly.”
C. V. Raman (1888–1970) first seen 1934 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In a public lecture at Bangalore in 1934, from
“The war has shaken up people's lives, given them new exposures, new mobility, new perspectives, access to new experience. It will be difficult to shut tight the vistas that have thus been opened up. We move toward tomorrow with the conviction that all the energy and geniality of our vast continent is best expressed in the quality of the life the ordinary American can live.”
Max Lerner (1902–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This week’s episode discussing Tom’s car accident is hard to watch. We both live such busy lives working that sometimes it takes accidents like this to remind us of what’s most important in life—each other. I’m thankful he's made a full recovery, and just in case you were wondering, he never stopped working.”
Erika Jayne (born 1971) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Erika Jayne's blog for Bravo (2018)
“Over the ages, if we had had a more open attitude to knowledge, to change of consciousness, to change of perception of the possibilities of life and the nature of the reality in which we live, people like Galileo or Copernicus would have had altogether easier lives.”
Benjamin Creme (1922–2016) said by 2016 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Silent dancing" to me is reminiscent of the immigrant or migrant situation, where you are trying desperately to live your life fully, but you're silenced many ways because you are not seen or heard. That to me was an appropriate way to see our lives then. We were part of a silent and invisible group of people.”
Judith Ortiz Cofer (1952–2016) said by 2016 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I have done something, and we have done something, that has changed people’s lives. I would much rather live a life of purpose than one in which I might have other things but not that.”
Elizabeth Holmes (born 1984) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Some pathogens live exciting double lives, with entirely separate life cycles and be- haviors in different animals.”
Chris von Csefalvay first seen 2023 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Chris von Csefalvay, Host-vector and multihost systems: Dynamics of host-vector transmission, in: Computational Modeling of Infectious Disease, Elsevier, 2023.
“If you're alone too much," Persky said, "you think too much." "Without a life," Rosa answered, "a person lives where they can. If all they got is thoughts, that's where they live.”
Cynthia Ozick (born 1928) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I’m a woman trying to live life in the most exciting way possible! I work as an actress, that way I can experience many lives!”
Sibongile Mlambo (born 1990) first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Sibongile Mlambo: Zimbabwean-Born Actress Stars in ‘Honey 3’". Face2Face. September 14, 2016.
“Also, as its motto Live Locally, Grow Globally states, OU is expected to solve local and global issues and create a new society through co-creation with society. This new society will be one in which people can stay active longer and enjoy happy and fulfilling lives while respecting each other's individuality, that is, a society in which people can find meaning and purpose in life.”
Shojiro Nishio (born 1951) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Free people make the only milieu possible in society for the full gift of one's self to church, state, and family. Free people enjoy and sustain and feel with one another because they live for one another. The paths of life are intermingled lives.”
Haniel Long (1888–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths; In feelings, not in figures on a dial. We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best. Life 's but a means unto an end; that end Beginning, mean, and end to all things,--God.”
Philip James Bailey (1816–1902) said by 1902 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Today people live to work rather than work for a living. They have forgotten their true goal in life. Subsequently they have forgotten their dharma. There is no communication between hearts, there is no sharing. Having lost contact with other's hearts, we become totally isolated. But in truth we are not isolated islands, we are links that form one chain.”
Mata Amritanandamayi (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Many people live habitually as if the present moment were an obstacle that they need to overcome in order to get to the next moment, and imagine living your whole life like that. Always, this moment is not quite good enough because you need to get to the next one.”
Eckhart Tolle (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In ordinary, everyday responsibilities, such as earning a living, I am a positive flop, and this makes me difficult to live with. I am only interested in the extraordinary, in the things that most people consider 'impossible.' Only when faced with enormous challenges do I become deeply interested. The driving force of my life has been a deep satisfaction in defying overwhelming odds.”
George Lincoln Rockwell (1918–1967) first seen 1963 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview on September 28, 1963, with Ralph Ginzburg, published February 1964, "The Man Who Thinks Goldwater Is a Communist". Fact. Vol. 1, no. 1. p. 44
“I understood that if ever one wanted to live with someone you cooked for them and they came running. But then it is my idea of hell these days, living with someone. The idea of sharing your life with someone is just utterly ghastly. I know why people do it, but it's never a good idea.”
Nigel Slater (born 1958) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Macrobiotic living is the process of changing ourselves so that we can eat anything we like without fear of becoming ill; it enables us to live a joyful life during which we can achieve anything we choose.”
George Ohsawa (1893–1966) said by 1966 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No wonder some people commit suicide! Why not end this absurdity? Why go through with this hollow charade called life? Why, except that somewhere within us a voice says, "Live." Always, from some inner region, we hear the command,"Keep living!" Cloquet recognized the voice; it was his insurance salesman. Naturally, he thought - Fishbein doesn't want to pay off.”
Woody Allen (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“These horrific murders are only a symptom of a deeper malaise. Life is hell for the living too. Whole populations — millions of Dalits, Adivasis, Muslims and Christians — are being forced to live in terror, unsure of when and from where the assault will come.”
Arundhati Roy (born 1961) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If I were to be totally sincere, I would say that I do not know why I live and why I do not stop living. The answer probably lies in the irrational character of life which maintains itself without reason.”
Emil Cioran (1911–1995) said by 1995 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Crime is naught but misdirected energy. So long as every institution of today, economic, political, social, and moral, conspires to misdirect human energy into wrong channels; so long as most people are out of place doing the things they hate to do, living a life they loathe to live, crime will be inevitable, and all the laws on the statutes can only increase, but never do away with, crime.”
Emma Goldman (1869–1940) said by 1940 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Perhaps I'm hiding from myself. Perhaps I don't want to be what I'm supposed to be. Or perhaps I don't want to keep living the life I already started to live.”
Orson Scott Card (born 1951) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Life cannot exist without a certain conformity to the surrounding universe — that conformity involves a certain amount of happiness in excess of pain. In short, as we live we are paid for living.”
Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–1895) said by 1895 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To speak a truth that belongs to another is untruth, for speaking belongs to living, hence to speak another’s truth is to live a life that is not one’s own.”
David L. Norton (1930–1995) said by 1995 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source