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For what are men who grasp at praise sublime,
But bubbles on the rapid stream of time,
That rise, and fall, that swell, and are no more,
Born, and forgot, ten thousand in an hour?

— Edward Young

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Life

More quotes by Edward Young

The blood will follow where the knife is driven,
The flesh will quiver where the pincers tear.

In youth, what disappointments of our own making: in age, what disappointments from the nature of things.

The man that makes a character makes foes.

Death loves a shining mark, a signal blow.

Night-Thoughts (1742)

By night an atheist half believes in God.

Night Thoughts (1743)

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To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead.

Bertrand Russell Marriage and Morals (1929)

Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact.

William James The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy (1897)

Reason is Life's sole arbiter, the magic Laby'rinth's single clue:
Worlds lie above, beyond its ken; what crosses it can ne'er be true.

Richard Francis Burton The Kasîdah of Hâjî Abdû El-Yezdî (1870)

It is the law of life that if you are kind to someone you feel happy. If you are cruel you are unhappy. And if you hurt someone, you will be hurt back.

Cary Grant Love – That’s All Cary Grant Ever Thinks About (1964)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Edward Young (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.