Nature

"I must agree, life is the best teacher, and without life nothing can be learned. But someone has to open our eyes, and without the leading Principle all evolution would be retarded for endless centuries. Therefore, the books of the Teaching are so essential."

"We know how complicated life is today, how difficult it is, and we feel distressed about each lack of understanding, about each delay, about everything that complicates the progress. The neglect of one's duties can never be expiated. Your task is not an easy one, but with easy things one will not perfect oneself. Pure striving is always supported by the Great Teacher. Therefore, be victorious! The Great Teacher is always ready to give a helping hand to the striving disciple, but such help usually comes after all possibilities have been exhausted by the disciple himself. And herein lies the greatest wisdom and a great cosmic law of evolution. Only at the very limit of tension are our forces transmuted into the finest energies. Our thoughts are with you, and we know that all will come about safely unless we ourselves sever the silver cord by our selfishness, sluggardliness, and superficial attitude toward the Advices."

"Without freedom of choice there is no creativity. Without creativity there is no life. The Body dies."

"Many people ask, for example: What is the purpose of my life? Meaning: What am I meant to do? but the purpose of your life, and each life, is in its being. That being may include certain actions, but the acts themselves are only important in that they spring out of the essence of your life, which simply by being is bound to fulfill its purposes."

"I bargained with Life for a penny, And Life would pay no more, However I begged at evening When I counted my scanty store; For Life is a just employer, He gives you what you ask, But once you have set the wages, Why, you must bear the task. I worked for a menial's hire, Only to learn, dismayed, That any wage I had asked of Life, Life would have paid."

"What is life? For the happy a pleasure, for the poor a torture, and to all an expectation of death."

": May he live, fife, pipe, drink."

"Vivat, fifat, pipat, bibat."

": And there I began to think that it is very true, which is said, that half the world does not know how the other half lives."

"Et là commençay à penser qu'il est bien vray ce que l'on dit, que la moitié du monde ne sçait comment l'aultre vit."

"Know that the life of this world is only a game, a temporary attraction, a means of boastfulness among yourselves and a place for multiplying your wealth and children. It is like the rain which produces plants that are attractive to the unbelievers. These plants flourish, turn yellow, and then become crushed bits of straw. In the hereafter there will be severe punishment or forgiveness and mercy from God. This worldly life is only an illusion."

"Our Life is nothing but a Winter's day; Some only break their Fast, and so away: Others stay to Dinner, and depart full fed: The deepest Age but Sups, and goes to Bed: He's most in debt that lingers out the Day: Who dies betime, has less, and less to pay."

"Participate in your life, don't just bear witness to the rain washing you away."

"Chairman: Item six on the agenda, the Meaning of Life. Now Harry, you’ve had some thoughts on this. :Harry: That’s right, yeah. I’ve had a team working on this over the past few weeks, and what we’ve come up with can be reduced to two fundamental concepts. One, people are not wearing enough hats. Two, matter is energy. In the Universe there are many energy fields which we cannot normally perceive. Some energies have a spiritual source which act upon a person’s soul. However, this soul does not exist ab initio as orthodox Christianity teaches; it has to be brought into existence by a process of guided self-observation. However, this is rarely achieved owing to man’s unique ability to be distracted from spiritual matters by everyday trivia. [Pause.] :Max: What was that about hats?"

"General:... when one considers the meaning of life, it is a struggle between alternative viewpoints of life itself. And without the ability to defend one's own viewpoint against other perhaps more aggressive ideologies, then reasonableness and moderation could, quite simply, disappear. That is why we'll always need an army, and may God strike me down were it to be otherwise."

"If my delight had not been in your law, I should have perished in my affliction. I will never forget your commandments, because by them you give me life. I am yours; oh, that you would save me! for I study your commandments."

"It was said that life was cheap in Ankh-Morpork. This was, of course, completely wrong. Life was often very expensive; you could get death for free."

"See how the World its Veterans rewards! A Youth of Frolics, an old Age of Cards; Fair to no purpose, artful to no end, Young without Lovers, old without a Friend; A Fop their Passion, but their Prize a Sot; Alive ridiculous, and dead forgot."

"Like following life through creatures you dissect, You lose it in the moment you detect."

"Like bubbles on the sea of matter borne, They rise, they break, and to that sea return."

"On life's vast ocean diversely we sail, Reason the card, but passion is the gale."

"Fix'd like a plant on his peculiar spot, To draw nutrition, propagate and rot."

"Placed on this isthmus of a middle state."

"Let us (since life can little more supply Than just to look about us and to die) Expatiate free o'er all this scene of man; A mighty maze! but not without a plan."

"A portion of life, every moment gets torn out of me hurting, and flees away."

"It’s not my wish to walk intoxicated; to live for never is not my choice."

"Unaware about my surrounding, unconscious I live."

"Death is shaping up slowly and quietly but life, life is melting down like a candle that is flickering all night."

"Life incinerates incessantly trying to smile and keeps broiling continuously pretending to be alive."

"Life is withering away like a candle that is melting down."

"Every moment age is creeping up stealthily, but life, life is melting down like a candle that is flickering around."

"May I splinter away from myself break into whole units and live in each with perfection!"

"This ME made whole by combining countless fragments could not live in any one part with complete ease."

"May life remain enamored of its own charm"

"Will you please go journeying for your own sake, till I come living a moment of life?"

"Still enveloped in a blanket of dreams my life continued to lie still, pretending as if it was in a deep slumber."

"I asked my life why it carried along my dreams but chose to escape me."

"Life was running, running after a mirage-like desires."

"I asked none why life ends in ways uncertain."

"An uneasy rhythm of life is more life like than an easy death."

"Someone once told me that time was a predator that stalked us all our lives. But I rather believe that time is a companion who goes with us on the journey and reminds us to cherish every moment because they'll never come again. What we leave behind is not as important as how we've lived."

"It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness; that is life."

"You've got to understand life, understand it when you're young."

"It is not the things we do in life that we regret on our death bed. It is the things we do not."

"We don't beat the reaper by living longer, but by living well, and living fully — for the reaper will come for all of us. The question is: what do we do between the time we're born and the time he shows up. Because when he shows up, it’s too late to do all the things that you’re always gonna, kinda get around to."

"Do not tell people how to live their lives. Just tell them stories. And they will figure out how those stories apply to them."

"When you wonder about the mystery of yourself, look to Christ who gives you the meaning of life. When you wonder what it means to be a mature person, look to Christ who is the fullness of humanity. And when you wonder about your role in the future of the world... look to Christ."

"Many solutions are offered as to how to gain the something more in life. ...Wealth, strength, and keenness of intellect, taken separately of together, do not constitute the essence of real life. ...At its best, life consists of these things, plus something more. ...In Jesus Christ we see perfection in life. ...From an imperfect understanding of Jesus Christ, it would appear that real life depends upon the fulfilling of three conditions — the dwelling on friendly and affectionate terms with God, with ourselves, and with our fellowmen. ...If we fulfill to any degree these three conditions of being in friendly relations with God, ourselves, and our fellows, we shall discover something more of the meaning of life."

"There's a reason for the world you and I"

"To live in this world you must be able to do three things: to love what is mortal; to hold it against your bones knowing your own life depends on it; and, when the time comes to let it go, to let it go."