Life

"There is no life so humble that, if it be true and genuinely human and obedient to God, it may not hope to shed some of His light. There is no life so meager that the greatest and wisest of us can afford to despise it. We cannot know at what moment it may flash forth with the life of God."

"Life is rather a state of embryo, a preparation for life; a man is not completely born till he has passed through death."

"This is life's greatest moment, when the soul unfolds capacities which reach beyond earth's boundaries."

"Life is short, art long, opportunity fleeting, experiment uncertain, and judgment difficult."

"God help us! it is a foolish little thing, this human life, at the best; and it is half ridiculous and half pitiful to see what importance we ascribe to it, and to its little ornaments and distinctions."

"Act as if you expected to live a hundred years, but might die to-morrow."

"O thou child of many prayers! Life hath quicksands, Life hath snares! Care and age come unawares!"

"Life and religion are one, or neither is any thing."

"Let the current of your being set towards God, then your life will be filled and calmed by one master-passion which unites and stills the soul."

"There is no human life so poor and small as not to hold many a divine possibility."

"Nor love thy life, nor hate; but what thou livest, Live well; how long, or short, permit to Heaven."

"The grand question of life is, Is my name written in heaven?"

"Vita, si scias uti, longa est."

"Ante senectutem curavi ut bene viverem, in senectute (curo) ut bene moriar; bene autem mori est libenter mori."

"From a boy I gloated on existence. Earth to me Seemed all-sufficient and my sojourn there One trembling opportunity for joy."

"Tota vita nihil aliud quam ad mortem iter est."

": Life, if thou knowest how to use it, is long enough."

"Exigua pars est vitæ quam nos vivimus."

"Si ad naturam vivas, nunquam eris pauper; si ad opinionem, numquam dives."

": If you live according to nature, you never will be poor; if according to the world's caprice, you will never be rich."

": Before old age I took care to live well; in old age I take care to die well; but to die well is to die willingly."

"Non vivere bonum est, sed bene vivere."

"Atqui vivere, militare est."

": But life is a warfare."

"Non domus hoc corpus sed hospitium et quidem breve."

": This body is not a home, but an inn; and that only for a short time."

": As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters."

"Prima quæ vitam dedit hora, carpit."

"We have two lives; The soul of man is like the rolling world, One half in day, the other dipt in night; The one has music and the flying cloud, The other, silence and the wakeful stars."

"To be honest, to be kind—to earn a little and to spend a little less, to make upon the whole a family happier for his presence, to renounce when that shall be necessary and not be embittered, to keep a few friends but these without capitulation—above all, on the same grim condition to keep friends with himself—here is a task for all that a man has of fortitude and delicacy."

"Gaudeamus igitur, Juvenes dum sumus Post jucundam juventutem. Post molestam senectutem. Nos habebit humus."

"O vita, misero longa! felici brevis!"

"… The wise man warns me that life is but a dewdrop on the lotus leaf."

"So his life has flowed From its mysterious urn a sacred stream, In whose calm depth the beautiful and pure Alone are mirrored; which, though shapes of ill May hover round its surface, glides in light, And takes no shadow from them."

"Our life is scarce the twinkle of a star In God's eternal day."

"The white flower of a blameless life."

"My life is like a stroll upon the beach."

"The tree of deepest root is found Least willing still to quit the ground; 'Twas therefore said by ancient sages, That love of life increased with years So much, that in our latter stages, When pain grows sharp, and sickness rages, The greatest love of life appears."

"Life let us cherish, while yet the taper glows, And the fresh flow'ret pluck ere it close; Why are we fond of toil and care? Why choose the rankling thorn to wear?"

"Pour exécuter de grandes choses, il faut vivre comme si on ne devait jamais mourir."

": What is a great life? It is the dreams of youth realised in old age."

"Ma vie est un combat."

"Life is a comedy."

"Life is a game of whist. From unseen sources The cards are shuffled, and the hands are dealt. Blind are our efforts to control the forces That, though unseen, are no less strongly felt. I do not like the way the cards are shuffled, But still I like the game and want to play; And through the long, long night will I, unruffled, Play what I get, until the break of day."

"Our lives are albums written through With good or ill, with false or true; And as the blessed angels turn The pages of our years, God grant they read the good with smiles, And blot the ill with tears!"

"The days grow shorter, the nights grow longer, The headstones thicken along the way; And life grows sadder, but love grows stronger For those who walk with us day by day."

"Ah! somehow life is bigger after all Than any painted angel could we see The God that is within us!"

"The Book of Life begins with a man and a woman in a garden. It ends with Revelations."

"A narrow isthmus betwixt time and eternity."

": I have survived."