“Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time; for that’s the stuff life is made of.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.”
— Helen Keller Primary source“There is an ecstasy that marks the summit of life, and beyond which life cannot rise. And such is the paradox of living, this ecstasy comes when one is most alive, and it comes as a complete forgetfulness that one is alive.”
— Jack London Primary source“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.”
— Steve Jobs Primary source“There never has been security. No man has ever known what he would meet around the next corner; if life were predictable it would cease to be life, and be without flavor.”
— Eleanor Roosevelt Primary source“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
— Thomas Jefferson Primary source“The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.”
— Jack London Secondary source“Life achieves its summit when it does to the uttermost that which it was equipped to do.”
— Jack London Primary source“The cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.”
— Henry David Thoreau Primary source“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.”
— Henry David Thoreau Primary source“Life was meant to be lived, and curiosity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life.”
— Eleanor Roosevelt Primary source“But I am greedy for life. I do too much of everything all the time. Suddenly one day my heart will fail. The Iron Crab will get me as it got my father. But I am not afraid of The Crab. At least I shall have died from an honourable disease. Perhaps they will put on my tombstone. ‘This Man Died from Living Too Much’.”
— Ian Fleming Primary source“A life which does not go into action is a failure.”
— Arnold J. Toynbee Primary source“The ghostly winter silence had given way to the great spring murmur of awakening life.”
— Jack London Primary source“However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names.”
— Henry David Thoreau Primary source“A life of leisure, and a life of laziness, are two things.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“All would live long, but none would be old.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“Up, sluggard, and waste not life; in the grave will be sleeping enough.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.”
— Ian Fleming Primary source“A long life may not be good enough, but a good life is long enough.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“Wish not so much to live long as to live well.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book.”
— Henry David Thoreau Primary source“Part of what you must learn is how to handle mistakes and new facts that change the odds. Life, in part, is like a poker game, wherein you have to learn to quit sometimes when holding a much-loved hand.”
— Charlie Munger Primary source“Would you live with ease, do what you ought, and not what you please.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“If you know that this life is all that you have, wouldn’t you make the most of it?”
— Ayn Rand Disputed“Life wastes itself while we are preparing to live.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson Primary source“Life is a journey, not a destination.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson Disputed“Life is not always a matter of holding good cards, but sometimes, playing a poor hand well.”
— Jack London DisputedTime Purpose Industry Age Death