Quotes on Life
August 2019
Years ago I was going to write a small pamphlet on “Life Quotes”. I collected lots of them, but never got round to doing it. Forty years and one blog later and here are some of my favourites which range from Shakespeare to Homer to Mike from “The Young Ones” to Liza Minnelli.
Mike in The Young Ones
Life is like a burnt steak – it’s hard, it’s black, it’s tough and the chips are always stacked against you.
Life is also like…
Life is like taking a bath – the longer you stay in it, the more wrinkled you become.
Life is like eating an ice cream – just when you think you got it licked, it drips all over you.
John Lennon - Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.
The Odyssey Book VIl 180-185.
Odysseus to Nausicaa ( I have often written this as a quote in wedding cards)
And then may the gods grant you everything your heart desires:
May they grant you a husband and a house and sweet contentment
In all things, for nothing is better than this, more steadfast,
Than when two people, a man and his wife, keep a harmonious household:
A thing that brings much distress to those who hate them
And pleasure to their well-wishers, and for them the best reputation.
Elbert Hubbard Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive.
Liza Minnelli
Start by admitting from cradle to tomb,
It isn’t that long a stay.
Life is a cabaret, ol’ chum,
Come to the cabaret.
Jimi Hendrix I’m the one that’s got to die when it’s time for me to die, so let me live my life the way I want to.
Ludwig Jacobowski Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.
St. Augustine 'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.
Card I once bought – 'Tis better to have loved and lost than to have lived with that psycho for the rest of your life.
Monty Python – Always Look on the Bright Side of Life
Life's a piece of shit
When you look at it
Life's a laugh and death's a joke, it's true.
You'll see it's all a show
Keep 'em laughing as you go
Just remember that the last laugh is on you.
And always look on the bright side of life...
Always look on the right side of life...
Oscar Wilde – We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
Friend of mine at a dinner to a friend who had made a sick joke - We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking… well, in your case, looking down into the sewer.
Socrates The unexamined life is not worth living.
Green Goblin We are who we choose to be.
Douglas Adams I love deadlines, I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.
Bill Hicks - one of the funniest stand-up comedians I have ever seen. Lots of his material is on Youtube.
The world is like a ride in an amusement park, and when you choose to go on it you think it's real because that's how powerful our minds are. The ride goes up and down, around and around, it has thrills and chills, and it's very brightly coloured, and it's very loud, and it's fun for a while. Many people have been on the ride a long time, and they begin to wonder, "Hey, is this real, or is this just a ride?" And other people have remembered, and they come back to us and say, "Hey, don't worry; don't be afraid, ever, because this is just a ride." And we … kill those people. "Shut him up! I've got a lot invested in this ride, shut him up! Look at my furrows of worry, look at my big bank account, and my family. This has to be real." It's just a ride. But we always kill the good guys who try and tell us that, you ever notice that? And let the demons run amok … But it doesn't matter, because it's just a ride. And we can change it any time we want. It's only a choice. No effort, no work, no job, no savings of money. Just a simple choice, right now, between fear and love. The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on your doors, buy guns, close yourself off. The eyes of love instead see all of us as one. Here's what we can do to change the world, right now, to a better ride. Take all that money we spend on weapons and defences each year and instead spend it feeding and clothing and educating the poor of the world, which it would pay for many times over, not one human being excluded, and we could explore space, together, both inner and outer, forever, in peace.
Today a young man on acid realized that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration, that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively, there is no such thing as death, life is only a dream, and we are the imagination of ourselves. Here’s Tom with the Weather…
I'm tired of this back-slappin' "isn't humanity neat" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes
Folks, it's time to evolve. That's why we're troubled. You know why our institutions are failing us, the church, the state, everything's failing? It's because they're no longer relevant. We're supposed to keep evolving. Evolution did not end with us growing opposable thumbs. You do know that, right?
Leo Buscaglia Don’t brood. Get on with living and loving. You don’t have forever.
Dean Martin – You’re nobody till somebody loves you so find yourself somebody to love.
Charles Darwin A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.
Albert Einstein Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.
Leonardo da Vinci Life is pretty simple: You do some stuff. Most fails. Some works. You do more of what works.
W.C. Fields If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then quit. No use being a damn fool about it.
Elbert Hubbard Life is just one damned thing after another.
Row, row , row your boat gently down the stream,
Merrily, merrily, merrily , merrily,
Life is but a dream.
Happy Talk – Rodgers and Hammerstein
Let's talk about a star lookin' like a toy
Peekin' through the branches of a tree;
Talk about a girl, talk about a boy
Countin' all the ripples on the sea.
Happy talk, keep talkin' happy talk
Talk about things you'd like to do.
You gotta have a dream
if you don't have a dream
How you gonna have a dream come true?
Marcus Aurelius – (If you have not already done so then I would heartily recommend reading the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius).
If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it.
Look into yourself. There is a source of strength which will always spring up if you will always look.
Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars and see yourself running with them.
He who follows reason in all things is both tranquil and active at the same time, and also cheerful and collected.
Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under thy observation in life.
If, at some point in your life, you should come across anything better than justice, honesty, self-control, courage – than a mind satisfied that it has succeeded in enabling you to act rationally, and satisfied to accept what’s beyond its control – if you find anything better than that, embrace it without reservations – it must be an extraordinary thing indeed – and enjoy it to the full.
People look for retreats for themselves, in the country, by the coast, or in the hills… There is nowhere that a person can find a more peaceful and trouble-free retreat than in his own mind… So constantly give yourself this retreat and renew yourself.
Do as Socrates did, never replying to the question of where he was from with, ‘I am Athenian,’ or ‘I am from Corinth,’ but always, ‘I am a citizen of the world.’
Look within yourself. Within you is the foundation of good, and it will ever bubble up, if you will ever dig.
Not to live as if you had endless years ahead of you. Death overshadows you. While you’re alive and able – be good.
Shakespeare
I can’t have a section of life quotes without inserting some by Shakespeare. I have been enjoying The Bard since I was about 14. I remember laughing out loud the first time I read “The Comedy of Errors”, reciting Hamlet’s soliloquy at the theatre in Epidauros and chuckling all the way through the complete works by the Reduced Shakespeare Company who sold a tee-shirt with “I love my Willy” emblazoned across it. If you have read or seen a Shakey play then you will know what I mean. If you haven’t then go see one or more. They are wonderful. The time you invest in them will be repaid back to you many times over .
Hamlet’s soliloquy William Shakespeare
To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them. To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: aye, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover'd country from whose bourn
No traveler returns, puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry
And lose the name of action.
Hamlet
What a piece of work is a man,
How noble in reason, how infinite in faculties,
In form and moving how express and admirable,
In action how like an angel,
In apprehension how like a god!
The beauty of the world,
The paragon of animals.
And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?
Man delights not me — nor woman neither,
Though by your smiling you seem to say so.
Measure for Measure Act III, Scene 1
Claudio
Ay, but to die, and go we know not where;
To lie in cold obstruction and to rot;
This sensible warm motion to become
A kneaded clod; and the delighted spirit
To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside
In thrilling region of thick-ribbed ice;
To be imprison'd in the viewless winds,
And blown with restless violence round about
The pendent world; or to be worse than worst
Of those that lawless and incertain thought
Imagine howling: 'tis too horrible!
The weariest and most loathed worldly life
That age, ache, penury and imprisonment
Can lay on nature is a paradise
To what we fear of death.
Macbeth
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
King John
Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale,
Vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man.
Julius Caesar
Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once.
King Lear
When we are born, we cry, that we are come
To this great stage of fools.
The Comedy of Errors
Within this hour it will be dinner-time:
Till that, I’ll view the manners of the town,
Peruse the traders, gaze upon the buildings,
And then return and sleep within mine inn,
For with long travel I am stiff and weary.
As You Like it
All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms;
And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lin’d,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper’d pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well sav’d, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion;
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
The Tempest
We are such stuff as dreams are made on and our little life is rounded with a sleep
Brian Madican
August 2019
