quotations and passages about life

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It is not death that we
should fear, but we
should fear never
beginning to live.

A tree has both straight and crooked branches; the symmetry of the tree,
however, is perfect. Life is balanced like a tree. When you consider
the struggles, difficulties, and sorrows as a part of it,
then you see it as beautiful and perfect.

George M. Lamsa

No one imagines that a symphony is supposed to improve in quality as it goes
along, or that the whole object of playing it is to reach the finale. The point
of music is discovered in every moment of playing and listening to it. It is the
same, I feel, with the greater part of our lives, and if we are unduly absorbed
in improving them we may forget altogether to live them.

Alan Watts

Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.
To keep our faces toward change and behave
like free spirits in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable.

Helen Keller

Affirmation of life is the spiritual act by which people cease
to live unreflectively and begin to devote themselves to
their lives with reverence in order to raise them to their
true value. To affirm life is to deepen, to make more inward,
and to exalt the will-to-live.

Albert Schweitzer

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate;
I am the captain of my soul.

William Ernest Henley

O beautiful human life! Tears come to my eyes as I think of it. So beautiful,
so inexpressibly beautiful! The song should never be silent, the dance never still,
the laugh should sound like water which runs forever.

Richard Jeffries

Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery that it is. In the boredom
and pain of it no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way
to the holy and hidden heart of it because in the last analysis all moments
are key moments, and life itself is grace.

Frederick Buechner

If you have known how
to compose your life,
you have done a great
deal more than the
person who knows how
to compose a book.
You have done more
than the one who has
taken cities and empires.

Michel de Montaigne

Three versions of a similar passage: there's a passage on success that's usually attributed to Emerson, but that very probably is a misattribution. Unfortunately, over the years the various versions have changed, and it's pretty hard to tell where these ideas came from originally. We won't attempt to answer the question of source definitively--we'll just give you the three versions as they're written.

To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest criticism and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty and find the best in others; to leave this world a bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived--this is to have succeeded.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Success

They have achieved success
who have lived well,
laughed often, and loved much;

who have enjoyed the trust of
pure men and women,

the respect of intelligent people and
the love of little children;

who have filled their niche and accomplished their tasks;

who have left the world better than they found it
whether by an improved poppy,
a perfect poem or a rescued soul;

who have never lacked appreciation of Earth's beauty
or failed to express it;

who have always looked for the best in others and
given them the best they had;

whose lives were an inspiration;
whose memory a benediction.

--Bessie Anderson Stanley, 1904

("Success" was written as the winning entry in a contest run by Brown Book Magazine in 1904. Bessie won a cash prize of $250 which paid off the mortgage on the house, among other things. It was included in Bartlett's Book of Quotations for decades, and if you can find an old edition from the 30's or 40's, it should be in there. They dropped it, I think in the 60's, but I don't know why.

The family isn't sure how the poem got mangled and attributed to Emerson, but it was further confused by Ann Landers and her sister Abby. Ann Landers used to (mis)quote it all the time and cite Emerson as the source. My great-uncle Art, a retired federal judge who died last March, and she had a decade-long correspondence as he argued for a public correction. She finally conceded and in her book, The Ann Landers Encyclopedia, prints the whole story.

~~Bethanne Larson, a granddaughter of Bessie Stanley)
Thanks to robinsweb.com for this info.

That Person is a Success
Who has lived well,
    laughed often and loved much;
Who has gained the respect of intelligent people
    and the love of children;
Who has filled his or her niche
    and accomplished his or her task;
Who leaves the world better than he or she found it,
    whether by improved poppy, a perfect poem,
    or a rescued soul;
Who never lacked appreciation of earth's beauty
    or failed to express it.
Who looked for the best in others
    and gave the best he or she had.

Robert Louis Stevenson

Life is difficult. This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths.
It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth,
we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult--once we
truly understand and accept it--then life is no longer difficult.
Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is
difficult no longer matters.

M. Scott Peck

Time is a flowing river. Happy those who allow themselves
to be carried, unresisting, with the current. They float through easy days.
They live, unquestioning, in the moment.

Christopher Morley

There are loyal hearts, there are spirits brave,
There are souls that are pure and true;
Then give to the world the best you have,
And the best will come back to you.

Madeleine Bridges

If our lives shall be such that we shall receive the
glad welcome of "Well done, good and faithful servant,"
we shall then know that we have not lived in vain.

Peter Cooper

I wish you humor and a twinkle in the eye.
I wish you glory and the strength to bear its burdens.
I wish you sunshine on your path and storms to season your journey.
I wish you peace--in the world in which you live and in the smallest corner
of the heart where truth is kept.
I wish you faith--to help define your living and your life.
More I cannot wish you--except perhaps love--to make all the rest worthwhile.

Robert A. Ward

It is only in exceptional moods that we realize how wonderful are
the commonest experiences of life. It seems to me sometimes that
these experiences have an "inner" side, as well as the outer side
we normally perceive. At such moments one suddenly sees everything
with new eyes; one feels on the brink of some great revelation. It is as if
we caught a glimpse of some incredibly beautiful world
that lies silently about us all the time.

J.W.N. Sullivan

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fragments

what shall i tell a child if she asks me what is life?
will i recount the pain and hurt and focus on the strife?
or shall i paint a picture of the beauty that is found
in sailing ships and chocolate chips and bugs beneath the ground?

i'd like to think i'd give her hope of all that is to come
but if she reads some poems of mine, her hope shall be undone
i cannot bear to think that i may dim a child's eyes
present to her a world of just confusion, pain, and lies

for if i am to tell her early on of mountain streams
and help her build the pillars that will hold up all her dreams
i'd paint the birds that fill the trees with beauty and with song
a sanctuary in her mind to help when things go wrong

and in that place in her mind's eye the flowers would grow free
in meadows under blue skies by the mighty loving sea
she'd have a place for comfort, have a place to be alone
amidst tomorrow's challenges, no matter how she's grown

i pray to learn my lessons from the children whom i meet
i dream of sowing sunshine on a crowded city street
i pray my words shall never hurt the child here inside
i pray that never shall i fear the child in me has died

i must reject some words of mine if i'm to feel i'm free
embracing hope, i must hold on to how good life can be
that i may treat the children with respect that they deserve
for i shan't live for self alone--i give my life to serve

tom walsh

To become what we are capable of becoming is the only end in life.

Robert Louis Stevenson

Life can only be understood backwards,
but it must be lived forwards.

Søren Kierkegaard

Don't let life discourage you; everyone who got
where they are had to begin where they were.

Richard L. Evans

To live is like to love--all reason is against it, and all healthy instinct is for it.

Samuel Butler

You don't get to choose how you're going to die, or when.
You can only decide how you're going to live. Now!

Joan Baez

Here is the test to find whether
your mission on earth is finished:
If you're alive, it isn't.

Richard Bach

Life is a great big canvas, and you should
throw all the paint on it you can.

Danny Kaye

I would like to live. . . open to time and death painlessly,
noticing everything, remembering nothing,
choosing the given with a fierce and pointed will.

Annie Dillard

How we spend our days is, of course,
how we spend our lives.

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The first thing that I can record concerning myself is, that I was born. . . .
These are wonderful words. This life, to which neither time nor eternity
can bring diminution--this everlasting soul, began.
My mind loses itself in these depths.

Margaret Oliphant