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1 " One can be very much in love with a woman without wishing to spend the rest of one's life with her. "
― W. Somerset Maugham , The Painted Veil
2 " To put meaning in one's life may end in madness,But life without meaning is the tortureOf restlessness and vague desire--It is a boat longing for the sea and yet afraid. "
― Edgar Lee Masters , Spoon River Anthology
3 " If the meaning of life has become doubtful, if one's relations to others and to oneself do not offer security, then fame is one means to silence one's doubts. It has a function to be compared with that of the Egyptian pyramids or the Christian faith in immortality: it elevates one's individual life from its limitations and instability to the plane of indestructability; if one's name is known to one's contemporaries and if one can hope that it will last for centuries, then one's life has meaning and significance by this very reflection of it in the judgments of others. "
― Erich Fromm , Escape from Freedom
4 " One must try to make one's life as pleasant as possible. I'm alive and it's not my fault, which means I must somehow go on living the best I can, without bothering anybody, until I die.''But what makes you live? With such thoughts, you'll sit without moving, without undertaking anything...''Life won't leave one alone as it is. "
― Leo Tolstoy , War and Peace
5 " It is not merely enough to love literature if one wishes to spend one's life as a writer. It is a dangerous undertaking on the most primitive level. For, it seems to me, the act of writing with serious intent involves enormous personal risk. It entails the ongoing courage for self-discovery. It means one will walk forever on the tightrope, with each new step presenting the possiblity of learning a truth about oneself that is too terrible to bear. "
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6 " To live with regret is to deny one's life of living. "
― Gillian Duce , Demons and Dangers: Magic and Mayhem - Book 4
7 " But my point, you see is that death is misunderstood. The loss of one's life is not the greatest loss. It is no loss at all. To others, perhaps, but not to oneself. "
― Tom Rachman , The Imperfectionists
8 " Ask him why there are hypocrites in the world.''Because it is hard to bear the happiness of others.''When are we happy?''When we desire nothing and realize that possession is only momentary, and so are forever playing.''What is regret?''To realize that one has spent one's life worrying about the future.''What is sorrow?''To long for the past.''What is the highest pleasure?''To hear a good story. "
― Vikram Chandra , Red Earth and Pouring Rain
9 " As Emmanuel, Cardinal Suhard says, " To be a witness does not consist in engaging in propaganda, nor even in stirring people up, but in being a living mystery. It means to live in such a way that one's life would not make sense if God did not exist. "
10 " As the essence of courage is to stake one's life on a possibility, so the essence of faith is to believe the possibility exists. "
― William Salter
11 " To care about words, to have a stake in what is written, to believe in the power of books - this overwhelms the rest, and beside it one's life becomes very small. "
― Paul Auster , The New York Trilogy
12 " At some fundamental level, religion does not allow for compromise. It insists on the impossible. If God has spoken, then followers are expected to live up to God's edicts, regardless of the consequences. To base one's life on such uncompromising commitments may be sublime; to base our policy making on such commitments would be a dangerous thing. "
― Barack Obama , The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream
13 " ...education is a sacred thing, and the pledge to build a school is a commitment that cannot be surrendered or broken, regardless of how long it may take, how many obstacles must be surmounted, or how much money it will cost. It is by such promises that the balance sheet of one's life is measured. "
― Greg Mortenson , Stones Into Schools: Promoting Peace With Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan
14 " People don't vanish from one's life they come back in disguise. "
15 " We may indeed die here, that's true. But we will all die anyway-is there any denying that? When you think of all the possible ways you might go, this is as fine a place as any, isn't it? I mean, to end one's life surrounded by friends, in a comfortable, dry room with plenty to read... that doesn't sound too awful, does it?" " What is the advantage of fear, or the benefit of regret, or the bonus of granting misery a foothold even if death is embracing you? My old abbot used to say, 'Life is only precious if you wish it to be.' I look at it like the last bite of a wonderful meal-do you enjoy it, or does the knowledge that there is no more to follow make it so bitter that you would ruin the experience?" The monk looked around, but no one answered him. " If Maribor wishes for me to die, who am I to argue? After all, it is he who gave me life to begin with. Until he decides I am done, each day is a gift granted to me, and it would be wasted if spent poorly. Besides, for me, I've learned that the last bite is often the sweetest. "
16 " To give power to that which has no bearing on one's life simply means one is not living their true life. "
― Peprah Boasiako
17 " Many atheists might proudly proclaim that our lives have no ultimate meaning, yet the business of finding significance in one's life is perhaps the most important part of being human. When we drift into a life without meaning, we soon become a pack of symptoms and pathologies; and without any feeling of significance, many choose to end their lives altogether. "
― Derren Brown , Happy: Why More or Less Everything is Absolutely Fine
18 " The better part of one's life consists of his friendships. "
― Abraham Lincoln
19 " Dwelling among shipwrecked dreams and losing oneself in wishful thinking cannot be a solution to tribulations. Identifying cracks and apprehending the defaults in one's life is essential to find a way to get out of a ghetto and to start a search for a new haven. (" The world was somewhere else" ) "
20 " Especially at a time when one's life was new, roots helped. "
― Barbara Delinsky , Blueprints
