There are only two ways to live your life.
One is as though nothing is a miracle.
The other is as if everything is.
To live fully is to let go and die
with each passing moment,
and to be reborn in each new one.
Life is a great big canvas,
and you should throw
all the paint on it you can.
Imagine the best day of your life.
Now imagine living that way
365 days a year.
There’ll be two dates on your tombstone.
And all your friends will read ’em.
But all that’s gonna matter
is that little dash between ’em.
If you want your life
to be a magnificent story,
then begin by realizing
that you are the author
and every day you have the opportunity
to write a new page.
We’re fools whether we dance or not,
so we might as well dance.
When you hold back on life,
life holds back on you.
Security is mostly a superstition.
It does not exist in nature,
nor do the children of men
as a whole experience it.
Avoiding danger is no safer
in the long run than outright exposure.
Life is either a daring adventure,
or nothing.
Don’t ask yourself what the world needs;
ask yourself what makes you come alive.
And then go and do that.
Because what the world needs
is people who have come alive.
Use what talent you possess:
the woods would be very silent
if no birds sang except those that sang best.
Life is like a piano.
What you get out of it
depends on how you play it.
Don’t let life discourage you;
everyone who got where he is
had to begin where he was.
Live as if your were to die tomorrow.
Learn as if you were to live forever.
The question is not
whether we will die,
but how we will live.
The tragedy of life
is not that it ends so soon,
but that we wait so long
to begin it.
You will find
as you look back upon your life
that the moments when
you have truly lived
are the moments when you have
done things in the spirit of love.
The best things in life aren’t things.
When you were born,
you cried and the world rejoiced.
Live your life so that when you die,
the world cries and you rejoice.
When I was a Boy Scout, we played a game
when new Scouts joined the troop.
We lined up chairs in a pattern,
creating an obstacle course
through which the new Scouts, blindfolded,
were supposed to maneuver.
The Scoutmaster gave them a few moments
to study the pattern before our adventure began.
But as soon as the victims were blindfolded,
the rest of us quietly removed the chairs.
I think life is like this game.
Perhaps we spend our lives avoiding obstacles
we have created for ourselves
and in reality exist only in our minds.
We’re afraid to apply for that job, take violin lessons,
learn a foreign language, call an old friend,
write our Congressman
— whatever it is that we would really like to do
but don’t because of personal obstacles.
Don’t avoid any chairs until you run smack into one.
And if you do, at least you’ll have a place to sit down.
Meditate.
Live purely. Be quiet.
Do your work with mastery.
Like the moon, come out
from behind the clouds!
Shine
If the world is cold,
make it your business to build fires.
Live your life each day
as you would climb a mountain.
An occasional glance toward the summit
keeps the goal in mind,
but many beautiful scenes are to be observed
from each new vantage point.
climb slowly, steadily,
enjoying each passing moment;
and the view from the summit
will serve as a fitting climax for the journey.
In the end it’s not
the years in your life that count.
It’s the life in your years.
I think that,
as life is action and passion,
it is required of a man
that he should share the passion
and action of his time at peril
of being judged not to have lived.
The trail is the thing,
not the end of the trail.
Travel too fast and you miss
all you are traveling for.
I don’t believe that life
is supposed to make you feel good,
or make you feel miserable either.
Life is just supposed to make you feel.
There is more to life than increasing its speed.
The waste of life lies
in the love we have not given,
the powers we have not used,
the selfish prudence t
hat will risk nothing and which,
shirking pain,
misses happiness as well.
I used to sit on the banks with a raft
and watch the water roll lazily by.
One day I pushed my raft
into the shallows of the water
and found the water moved
swifter than I thought,
but my raft was actually a little rowboat.
Then, after some time I rowed
my little boat into deeper water.
There were great storms,
mighty winds, tremendous waves,
and sometimes I felt so alone.
But I have noticed my little rowboat
is now a mighty ship
manned by my friends and loved ones,
and beautiful calm seas,
warm sunny days, and nights
filled with comfortable dreams
always double after a storm.
Now, I could never go back
and sit on the bank,
in fact, I search for deeper water.
Such is life when lived.
Sometimes I lie awake
at night, and I ask,
“Is life a multiple choice test
or is it a true or false test?”
Then a voice comes to me
out of the dark, and says,
“We hate to tell you this,
but life is a thousand word essay.”
Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time.
Life is no brief candle to me.
It is a sort of splendid torch
which I have got a hold of for the moment,
and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible
before handing it on to future generations.
Let us endeavour to live
that when we come to die
even the undertaker will be sorry.
We seem to be going through
a period of nostalgia,
and everyone seems to think
yesterday was better than today.
I don’t think it was,
and I would advise you
not to wait ten years before
admitting today was great.
If you’re hung up on nostalgia,
pretend today is yesterday
and just go out
and have one hell of a time.
It is infinitely more exciting to live a life
of catastrophic failures than a life of could-haves,
should-haves and would-haves.
Life is always walking up to us and saying,
“Come on in, the living’s fine,”
and what do we do?
Back off and take its picture.
Life is not lost by dying;
life is lost minute by minute,
day by dragging day,
in all the thousand
small uncaring ways.
All my life I’ve wanted to be somebody.
But I see now I should have been more specific.
Until you understand
that nothing can happen to you or be kept from you,
except in accord with your state of consciousness,
you do not have the key to life.
If you cry because the sun has gone out of your life,
your tears will prevent you from seeing the stars.
I’m gonna live forever, or die trying.
It is good to have an end to journey towards;
but it is the journey that matters in the end.
Live all you can;
it’s a mistake not to.
It doesn’t so much matter
what you do in particular,
so long as you have your life.
If you haven’t had that
what have you had?
Life is often compared to a marathon,
but I think it is more like being a sprinter;
long stretches of hard work
punctuated by brief moments
in which we are given the opportunity
to perform at our best.
This life is yours.
Take the power to choose
what you want to do and do it well.
Take the power to love
what you want in life and love it honestly.
Take the power to walk
in the forest and be a part of nature.
Take the power to control your own life.
No one else can do it for you.
Take the power to make your life happy.
Life Is A Challenge — Meet It!
Life Is A Song — Sing It!
Life Is A Dream — Realize It!
Life Is A Game — Play It!
Life Is Love — Enjoy It!
One day at a time;
this is enough.
Do not look back and grieve
over the past, for it is gone;
and do not be troubled about the future,
for it has not yet come.
Live in the present,
and make it so beautiful
that it will be worth remembering.
I will not die an unlived life.
I will not live in fear of falling
or catching fire.
I choose to inhabit my days,
to allow my living to open me,
to make me less afraid,
more accessible, to loosen my heart
until it becomes a wing, a torch, a promise.
I choose to risk my significance;
to live so that which comes to me as seed
goes to the next as blossom
and that which comes to me as blossom,
goes on as fruit.
May you live all the days of your life.
Life is an opportunity, benefit from it.
Life is beauty, admire it.
Life is bliss, taste it.
Life is a dream, realize it.
Life is a challenge, meet it.
Life is a duty, complete it.
Life is a game, play it.
Life is a promise, fulfill it.
Life is sorrow, overcome it.
Life is a song, sing it.
Life is a struggle, accept it.
Life is a tragedy, confront it.
Life is an adventure, dare it.
Life is luck, make it.
Life is too precious, do not destroy it.
Life is life, fight for it.
The true meaning of life is to plant trees,
under whose shade you do not expect to sit.