Life Quotes
“Life” is a smaller page than you might expect, and an older one. Seneca is the most-quoted of the classical writers, and the sourced entries run from Emerson’s journals in 1822 to Carl Jung’s memoir in 1963. Reading it is closer to browsing a shelf of moralists than scrolling a feed of captions.
One entry needs a warning. “Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced” is credited to Søren Kierkegaard all over the internet. The earliest appearance anyone has located is in a 1976 book about Jack Kerouac, which is a long way from nineteenth-century Copenhagen. We keep it listed, with its flag, because people search for it. We would not put his name under it.
The goal, the project of living a human life, a truly human life, is all about self-mastering.
Nor love thy life, nor hate; but what thou liv'st
Live well; how long or short permit to heav'n.
Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale,
Vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man.
Reflect that life, like every other blessing,
Derives its value from its use alone.
Love is sunshine, hate is shadow,
Life is checkered shade and sunshine.
No particular motive for living, except the custom and habit of it.
What is a great life? It is the dreams of youth realised in old age.
Act as if you expected to live a hundred years, but might die to-morrow.
Nor love thy life, nor hate; but what thou livest,
Live well; how long, or short, permit to Heaven.
Search of the answer to this question is the answer to this question.