Quotes About Life

The common belief that to follow the Buddha's teaching one has to retire from life is a misconception. It is really an unconscious defence against practising it.

This point has to be particularly emphasized, because a wrong notion that consciousness is a sort of Self or Soul that continues as a permanent substance through life, has persisted from the earliest time to the present day.

A] being is nothing but a combination of physical and mental forces or energies. What we call death is the total non-functioning of the physical body. Do all these forces and energies stop altogether with the non-functioning of the body?

It is not correct to say that life is moving, but life is movement itself. Life and movement are not two different things. In other words, there is no thinker behind the thought. Thought itself is the thinker. If you remove the thought, there is no thinker to be found.

When this physical body is no more capable of functioning, energies do not die with it, but continue to take some other shape or form, which we call another life.

There is no unmoving mover behind the movement. It is only movement. It is not correct to say that life is moving, but life is movement itself. Life and movement are not two different things. In other words, there is no thinker behind the thought. Thought itself is the thinker. If you remove the thought, there is no thinker to be found. Here we cannot fail to notice how this Buddhist view is diametrically opposed to the Cartesian cogito ergo sum: 'I think, therefore I am.

What we call life [...] is [...] a combination of physical and mental energies. These are constantly changing; they do not remain the same for two consecutive moments. Every moment they are born and they die.

When this physical body is no more capable of functioning, energies do not die with it, but continue to take some other shape or form, which we call another life. In a child all the physical, mental and intellectual faculties are tender and weak, but they have within them the potentiality of producing a full grown man. Physical and mental energies which constitute the so-called being have within themselves the power to take a new form, and grow gradually and gather force to the full.

Life is a tragedy for those who feel...but a comedy for those who think

There is more treasure in books than in all the pirates' loot on Treasure Island and best of all, you can enjoy these riches every day of your life.

I always like to look on the optimistic side of life, but I am realistic enough to know that life is a complex matter.

Don't take life so serious, son...it ain't no how permanent. --Porky Pine, June 19-24, 1950

O Me! O life!... of the questions of these recurring; Of the endless trains of the faithless—of cities fill'd with the foolish; . . . What good amid these, O me, O life? Answer. That you are here—that life exists, and identity; That the powerful play goes on, and you will contribute a verse.

Come lovely and soothing death,Undulate round the world, serenely arriving, arriving,In the day, in the night, to all, to each,Sooner or later delicate death.

Nor for you, for one alone,Blossoms and branches green to coffins all I bring,For fresh as the morning, thus would I chant a song for you O sane and sacred death.

...the powerful play goes on, and you will contribute a verse.

And whether I come to my own today or in ten thousand or ten million years, I can cheefully take it now, or with equal cheerfulness I can wait... And as to you, Life, I reckon you are the leavings of many deaths, (No doubt I have died myself ten thousand times before.)

Answer That you are here---that life exists and identity, That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.

We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. So medicine, law, business, engineering... these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love... these are what we stay alive for.

I like the scientific spirit—the holding off, the being sure but not too sure, the willingness to surrender ideas when the evidence is against them: this is ultimately fine—it always keeps the way beyond open—always gives life, thought, affection, the whole man, a chance to try over again after a mistake—after a wrong guess.

When people observe that your life is in harmony with the message, they may not believe, but they know in their conscience that they have met truth.

You will carry into eternity the product of your investment in this life. Life is too short and the stakes too high to live mediocre lives.

The desire to retire is an expression of despair. It means that you have lost your rudder and do not know why you are here or where you are going.

Thus it is easy to see how your awareness of your indebtedness to God influences the totality of your life. When you acknowledge that God is good in all that He does, and you affirm His goodness by a life of gratitude, it appreciably influences your ability to get along with others, mitigates your propensity to anger, and fills your life with contentment.