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Life Quotes about Living
Life Quotations and Sayings
Here's a list of life quotes. Some of them are funny, some of them are silly, but all of them contain at least one kernel of wisdom. Some of them are quite profound, in fact. If you're looking for quotes about living, then you're in the right place, because we have a whole mess of 'em.
"A man just can't sit around." ~ Larry Walters, the lawn chair pilot.
"Don't forget Mother's Day. Or as they call it in Beverly Hills, Dad's Third Wife Day." ~ Jay Leno
"It is a short step from a careless phrase to a flash of insight." ~ A.N. Whitehead
"By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail." ~ Benjamin Franklin
"I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody." ~ Bill Cosby
"Failing doesn't make you a failure. Giving up, accepting your failure, refusing to try again does!" ~ Richard Exely
"Write the bad things that are done to you in sand, but write the good things that happen to you on a piece of marble." ~ Author Unknown
"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." ~ Martin Luther King Jr.
"What I want is all the power and none of the responsibility" ~ Ashleigh Brilliant
"In nature there are neither rewards nor punishments - there are consequences." ~ Robert G Ingersoll (1833 - 1899), Author, Attorney
"I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody" ~ Bill Cosby
"It is good to have an end to journey toward, but it is the journey that matters in the end." ~ Ursula K. LeGuin
"If I ignore the future, maybe it will go away" ~ Ashleigh Brilliant
"Whatever women must do they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily, this is not difficult." ~ Charlotte Whitton
"People want to know why I do this, why I write such gross stuff. I like to tell them I have the heart of a small boy - and I keep it in a jar on my desk." ~ Stephen King
"I get to go to lots of overseas places, like Canada." ~ Britney Spears, Singer
"The brain is a wonderful organ. It starts working when you get up in the morning, and doesn't stop until you get to the office." ~ Robert Frost (1874-1963).
"If money is your hope for independence you will never have it. The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability." ~ Henry Ford (1863-1947), Industrialist
"To err is human, but to really foul things up you need a computer." ~ Paul Ehrlich.
"Don't let life discourage you. Everyone who got where he is, had to begin where he was." ~ Richard L. Evans
"The power of accurate observation is called cynicism by those who have not got it." ~ G. B. Shaw
"I am not a vegetarian because I love animals; I am a vegetarian because I hate plants." ~ A. Whitney Brown
"Control your destiny or somebody else will." ~ Jack Welsh
"I hope I'm not waiting here for someone who's waiting for me somewhere else" ~ Ashleigh Brilliant
"Most men pursue pleasure with such breathless haste that they hurry past it" ~ Soren Kierkegaard
"Continuous effort- not strength or intelligence- is the key to unlocking our potential." ~ Winston Churchill
"To great evils we submit; we resent little provocations" ~ William Haslitt, author.
"I never came across anyone in whom the moral sense was dominant who was not heartless, cruel, vindictive, log-stupid, and entirely lacking in the smallest sense of humanity. Moral people, as they are termed, are simple beasts" ~ Oscar Wilde
"One cannot and must not try to erase the past merely because it does not fit the present." ~ Golda Meir
"There is nothing more frightening than active ignorance." ~ Goethe
"Everything has been said before, but since nobody listens we have to keep going back and beginning all over again." ~ Andre Gide
"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on." ~ Robert Frost
"Conquer yourself, not the world." ~ René Descartes
"The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time" ~ Bertrand Russell, Philosopher
"The quality of the magazines in the waiting room is inversely proportional to the time you have to wait to see the doctor." ~Geoffrey K. Braden
"There's nothing like wealth for dulling desire" - Barry McGuigan, Boxer
"Happiness is nothing more than good health and a bad memory" ~ Albert Schweitzer
"It is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data" ~ Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
"The reason why worry kills more people than work, is that more people worry than work." ~ Robert Frost (1874-1963) Poet
"The world is disgracefully managed, one hardly knows to whom to complain" ~ Ronald Firbank, Novelist
"A man who is 'of sound mind' is one who keeps the inner madman under lock and key" ~ Paul Valery, Poet
"There are known knowns, there are known unknowns. But there are also unknown unknowns - the ones we don't know we don't know" ~ Donald Rumsfeld, Politician
"Travel light, and you can sing in the robber's face" ~ Juvenal, Roman satirist ~ Ronald Reagan, 40th President of the USA
"Never trust a man who, when left alone in a room with a tea cosy, doesn't try it on" ~ Billy Connolly
"A neurosis is a secret you do not know you are keeping" ~ Kenneth Tynan, Theatre Critic
"I’m tired of all this nonsense, about beauty being only skin deep. That’s deep enough. What do you want, an adorable pancreas?" ~ Jean Kerr
"Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something" ~ Plato
"The world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel." ~ Horace Walpole, writer
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty." ~ Sir Winston Churchill
"Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing happened." ~ Sir Winston Churchill
"Attitudes are contagious. Is yours worth catching?" ~ Author Unknown
"When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen." ~ Ernest Hemingway
"Old Soldiers never die, they just fade away" ~ General Douglas Macarthur
"When you can't have what you want, it's time to start wanting what you have." ~ Kathleen A. Sutton
"Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises" ~ Demosthenes, Athenian Statesman
"If we want everything to remain as it is, it will be necessary for everything to change" ~ Giuseppe Tomasi Di Lampedusa, Writer
"When you sit with a nice girl for two hours, you think it's only a minute. But when you sit on a hot stove for a minute, you think it's two hours. That's relativity." ~ Albert Einstein, 1879-1955
"You learn more from failure, because failure hurts" ~ John Trent, Film Director
"Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today." ~ James Dean, Actor
"The formula 'Two And Two Make Five' is not without its attractions" ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Novelist
"The whole rock'n'roll thing is pretty over-rated. Take away the drugs and drink, and what's left?" ~ Chrissie Hynde, Musician
"Man has but three events in his life: to be born, to live, and to die. He is not conscious of his birth, he suffers at his death and he forgets to live." ~ Jean de la Bruyere
"Striving for excellence motivates you; striving for perfection is demoralizing." ~ Harriet Braiker
"Don't worry over what other people are thinking about you. They're too busy worrying over what you are thinking about them." ~ Author unknown
"Experience is that marvellous thing that enables you recognise a mistake when you make it again." ~ F. P. Jones
"The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time." ~ Abraham Lincoln
"Learn all you can from the mistakes of others. You won't have time to make them all yourself." ~ Alfred Sheinwold
"All my life, I always wanted to be somebody. Now I see that I should have been more specific." ~ Jane Wagner
"You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don't try." ~ Beverly Sills
"No day is so bad that it cannot be fixed by a good nap." - Carrie Snow
"I don't have any solution but I certainly admire the problem." ~ Ashleigh Brilliant
"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." ~ Theodore Giesel (Dr. Suess)
"All mankind is divided into three classes; those that are immovable, those that are movable, and those that move."~ Benjamin Franklin
"Drama is Life with the dull bits left out" ~ Alfred Hitchcock, Film director
"We are very much what others think of us. The reception our observations meet with gives us courage to proceed, or damps our efforts." ~ William Hazlitt
"A graceful taunt is worth a thousand insults." ~ Louis Nizer
"Better to be silent and be thought a fool, then to speak out and remove all doubt" ~ Abraham Lincoln
"Opportunities are usually disguised as hard work, so most people don't recognize them" ~ Ann Landers 1918-2002, Advice Columnist
"For a list of all the ways technology has failed to improve the quality of life, please press 3." ~ Alice Kahn
"Sometimes you have to look reality in the face and deny it. " ~ Eleanor Roosevelt
"We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give." ~ Sir Winston Churchill
"It matters not whether you win or lose; what matters is whether I win or lose." ~ Darrin Weinberg, actor.
"I am just going outside, and may be some time" ~ Captain Lawrence 'Titus' Oates, before walking out to die, near the South Pole
"The clever people never listen, And the stupid people never talk" ~ Oscar Wilde
"For God's Sake look after our people" ~ Captain Robert Falcon Scott's last diary entry, twelve days later.
"If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart." ~ Nelson Mandela
"You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don't try." ~ Beverly Sills
Life Quotes: Submissions
Interested in submitting new life quotes to add to this page? Get in touch with me; I'm always happy to hear from readers of the site. If I use your submission, I'll be sure to acknowledge your contribution on the site, too.
I last made changes to this page on January 2, 2012.