Quotes About Life

Is life worth living? Yes, so long As Spring revives the year, And hails us with the cuckoo's song, To show that she is here; So long as May of April takes, In smiles and tears, farewell, And windflowers dapple all the brakes, And primroses the dell.

Where has thou been all the dumb winter days When neither sunlight was nor smile of flowers, Neither life, nor love, nor frolic, Only expanse melancholic, With never a note of thy exhilarating lays?

Life seems like a haunted wood, where we tremble and crouch and cry.

Is the conclusion then that a pessimistic criticism of life necessarily makes a poet greater than another poet who criticizes it from an optimistic point of view? Not in the least. The consideration—we do not say to the positive philosopher, to the historian, to the moralist, but—to the disinterested lover of poetry, is simply irrelevant.

Some of the finest poetry ever written upon life is to be found surely in the Old Testament.

It is for the best and highest interests of literature that those who love it before all other things, and cherish it beyond all other considerations, should nevertheless take a large and liberal view of what constitutes life.

Now the highest literature—and Poetry is confessedly the highest literature—is a transfiguring reflex of life; and in its magic mirror we perforce see reflected all the thoughts, feelings, interests, passions, and events of human existence.

He awoke. He was alive. He wasted no time on prayer or thanks but continued the business of survival.

I've handed life and death back to the people who do the living and the dying.

You're all freaks, sir. But you always have been freaks. Life is a freak. That's its hope and glory.

What are you afraid of, mister, it won't be so bad. You won't die. Berlin's a big place. Where thousands live, there's room for one more.

Drink, little brother, drink, leave your worries at home, feel no trouble, feel no pain, life is a jolly refrain, feel no trouble and feel no pain, life is a jolly refrain.

Reality is very stupid sometimes, and we ought to help it out a little.

Take time as it comes, the wind as it blows, woman as she is.

[I]f you are truly a man, sure of yourself and confident of your strength, you may taste of life without fear and without reserve; you may be sad or joyous, deceived or respected; but be sure you are loved, for what matters the rest?

I have come too late into a world too old.

I could not clearly distinguish what was passing in my head; it seemed to me that I was under the influence of a horrible dream and that I had but to awake to find myself cured; at times it seemed that my entire life had been a dream, ridiculous and childish, the falseness of which had just been disclosed.

life is a deep sleep of which love is the dream

A happy memory is perhaps on this earth truer than happiness itself.

Look at the sun! It's dry, it's dead, it needs a drink, it wants blood! And I'll give it blood!

Elle aurait aimé, si l'orgueil Pareil à la lampe inutile Qu'on allume près d'un cercueil, N'eût veillé sur son coeur stérile. Elle est morte, et n'a point vécu. Elle faisait semblant de vivre. De ses mains est tombé le livre, Dans lequel elle n'a rien lu.

mais il y a au monde une chose sainte et sublime, c'est l'union de deux de ces êtres si imparfaits et si affreux. On est souvent trompé en amour, souvent blessé et souvent malheureux; mais on aime, et quand on est sur le bord de sa tombe, on se retourne pour regarder en arrière et on se dit : j'ai souffert souvent, je me suis trompé quelquefois, mais j'ai aimé. C'est moi qui ai vécu, et non pas un être factice créé par mon orgueil et mon ennui.»

Comment l'homme est-il assez insensé pour quitter cette vie tant qu'il n'a pas épuisé toutes ses chances de bonheur ? Celui qui perd sa fortune au jeu quitte-t-il le tapis tant qu'il lui reste une pièce d'or ? Une seule pièce peut lui rendre tout.

Meurs ! tu es l'ennemi de tout ce qui aime ; affaisse-toi sur ta solitude, n'attends pas la vieillesse ; ne laisse pas d'enfant sur la terre, ne féconde pas un sang corrompu ; efface-toi comme la fumée, ne prive pas le grain de blé qui pousse d'un rayon de soleil !