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Say, what is life? 'Tis to be born,
A helpless Babe, to greet the light
With a sharp wail, as if the morn
Foretold a cloudy noon and night;
To weep, to sleep, and weep again,
With sunny smiles between; and then?

— John Godfrey Saxe

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Life

More quotes by John Godfrey Saxe

Laws, like sausages, cease to inspire respect in proportion as we know how they are made.

'Tis well to borrow from the good and great;
'Tis wise to learn; 'tis God-like to create!

The Library: Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922)

At Learning's fountain it is sweet to drink,
But 'tis a nobler privilege to think.

The Library; Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922)

'T is wise to learn; 't is God-like to create.

"God bless the man who first invented sleep!"
So Sancho Panza said, and so say I.

All John Godfrey Saxe quotes →

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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: John Godfrey Saxe (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.