Nature of life

Explore 41 quotes about Nature of life

No man lives without jostling and being jostled; in all ways he has to elbow himself through the world, giving and receiving offence.

Thomas Carlyle

Sir Walter Scott

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Topic

Nature of life

Author

Thomas Carlyle

Source

Sir Walter Scott

Language

English

Time

1838 1830s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Carlyle, Thomas. "Sir Walter Scott." London and Westminster Review, 12 Nov. 1838.

Current Citation

Carlyle, Thomas. "Sir Walter Scott." The Works of Thomas Carlyle, edited by Henry Duff Traill. Vol. 29, Cambridge University Press, 2010.

The more a thing tends to be permanent, the more it tends to be lifeless.

Alan Watts

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Topic

Nature of life Life Permanence Impermanence

Author

Alan Watts

Source

Play to Live

Genre

Religious literature Philosophical literature

Language

English

Time

1982 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Watts, Alan. Play to Live: Selected Seminars. And Books, 1982.

It’s just like our life, we appear and we disappear. We are so important to some, but we are just…passing through.

Before Midnight

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Topic

Nature of life Life The human condition

Speaker

Natalia

Actor

Xenia Kalogeropoulou

Source

Before Midnight

Medium

Film

Genre

Romantic drama (film) Drama (film) Romantic drama Drama

Language

English

Time

2013 2010s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Before Midnight. Directed by Richard Linklater, Castle Rock Entertainment/Venture Forth/Detour Filmproduction, 2013.

The wise and tragic sense of life. By this I mean...the sense that life is essentially a cheat and its conditions are those of defeat, and that the redeeming things are not "happiness and pleasure" but the deeper satisfactions that come out of struggle.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

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Topic

Nature of life Adversity

Author

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Source

Letters of F. Scott Fitzgerald

Medium

Letter

Language

English

Time

1940 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. "To: Scottie Fitzgerals, October 5, 1940." Scott Fitzgerald: A Life in Letters, edited by Matthew J. Bruccoli. Scribner, 1995. Originally from Letter to Frances Scott Fitzgerald, 5 Oct. 1940.

What is life? A frenzy. What is life? An illusion, a shadow, a fiction. And the greatest good is of slight worth, as all life is a dream, and dreams are dreams.

Pedro Calderón de la Barca

Life is a Dream

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Topic

Nature of life Life Dreams

Speaker

Sigismund

Author

Pedro Calderón de la Barca

Source

Life is a Dream

Medium

Play

Statement Type

Question

Language

Spanish

Time

1635 1630s 17th century

Era

Spanish Golden Age

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Calderón de la Barca, Pedro. La vida es sueño [Life Is a Dream]. 1635, Madrid, Spain, act 2.

Current Citation

Calderón de la Barca, Pedro. Life is a Dream. Penguin Classics, 2006, act 2.

Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient premises.

Samuel Butler (Novelist)

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Topic

Nature of life Life

Author

Samuel Butler (Novelist)

Source

Journals of Samuel Butler

Language

English

Time

1902 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Butler, Samuel. The Note-Books of Samuel Butler, edited by Henry Festing Jones. A. C. Fifield, 1912, ch. 1.

Life is a horizontal fall.

Jean Cocteau

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Topic

Nature of life Life

Author

Jean Cocteau

Language

French

Time

1930 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Cocteau, Jean. Opium, Journal d'une Desintoxication [Opium: Diary of a Cure]. Librairie Stock, 1930.

A little while and I will be gone from among you, whither I cannot tell. From nowhere we came, into nowhere we go. What is life? It is a flash of a firefly in the night. It is a breath of a buffalo in winter time. It is as the little shadow that runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.

Crowfoot

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Topic

Nature of life Life

Speaker

Crowfoot

Medium

Speech

Language

English

Time

1890 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Crowfoot. Farewell to his people. 25 Apr. 1890, Blackfoot Crossing Historical Park, Alberta, Canada.

Out of the dark we came, into the dark we go... Life is nothing. Life is all. It is the hand with which we hold off death. It is the glow-worm that shines in the night-time and is black in the morning; it is the white breath of the oxen in the winter; it is the little shadow that runs across the grass and loses itself at sunset.

H. Rider Haggard

King Solomon's Mines

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Topic

Nature of life Ephemeral nature of life Shortness of life Life Death

Speaker

Ignosi (Umbopa)

Author

H. Rider Haggard

Source

King Solomon's Mines

Medium

Novel

Genre

Adventure novel

Language

English

Time

1885 1880s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Haggard, H. Rider. King Solomon's Mines. London: Cassell and Company, 1886.

Current Citation

Haggard, H. Rider. King Solomon's Mines. Penguin Classics, 2008.

What we anticipate seldom occurs; what we least expected generally happens.

Benjamin Disraeli

Henrietta Temple

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Topic

Nature of life

Author

Benjamin Disraeli

Source

Henrietta Temple

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1837 1830s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Disraeli, Benjamin. Henrietta Temple. London: Henry Colburn, 1837, bk. 2, ch. 4.

One need only remind oneself of all that we expect from life to see how very strange it is, and to arrive at the conclusion that man has found his way into it by mistake and does not really belong there.

Italo Svevo

Zeno's Conscience

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Topic

Strangeness of life Nature of life

Author

Italo Svevo

Source

Zeno's Conscience

Medium

Novel

Language

Italian

Time

1923 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Svevo, Italo. La coscienza di Zeno [Zeno's Conscience]. Milan: Giuseppe Morreale Editore, 1923.

Current Citation

Svevo, Italo. Zeno's Conscience, translated by William Weaver. Everyman's Library, 2001.

Life consists in what a man is thinking of all day.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

More information about this quote

Topic

Thoughts Inner life Nature of life Life

Author

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Source

Journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson

Medium

Personal journal

Language

English

Time

1847 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. Journal entry. Aug. 1847.

The present life of man, O king, seems to me, in comparison of that time which is unknown to us, like to the swift flight of a sparrow through the room wherein you sit at supper in winter, with your commanders and ministers, and a good fire in the midst, whilst the storms of rain and snow prevail ahead; the sparrow, I say, flying in at one door, and immediately out at another, whilst he is within, is safe from the wintry storm; but after a short space of fair weather, he immediately vanishes out of your sight, into the dark winter from which he had emerged. So this life of man appears for a short space, but of what went before, or what is to follow, we are utterly ignorant.

Venerable Bede

Ecclesiastical History of the English People

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Topic

Ephemeral nature of life Nature of life

Author

Venerable Bede

Source

Ecclesiastical History of the English People

Genre

Historical literature

Language

Latin

Time

731 730s 8th century

Era

Middle Ages

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Bede. Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum [Ecclesiastical History of the English People]. c. 731, bk. 2, ch. 13.

Current Citation

Bede. "Ecclesiastical History of the English People." The Ecclesiastical History of the English People; The Greater Chronicle; Bede's Letter to Egbert, edited by Judith McClure and Roger Collins. Oxford University Press, 2009, bk. 2, ch. 13.

The secret is that only that which can destroy itself is truly alive.

Carl Jung

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Topic

Self-destruction Nature of life Life

Author

Carl Jung

Source

Psychology and Alchemy

Genre

Psychological literature

Statement Type

Paradox

Language

German

Time

1944 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Jung, Carl. Psychologie un Alchemie [Psychology and Alchemy] Routledge, 1944.

Oh, what a day-to-day business life is.

Jules Laforgue

More information about this quote

Topic

Nature of life Spending time Passage of time Life

Author

Jules Laforgue

Source

Les Complaintes

Medium

Poem

Language

French

Time

1885 1880s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Laforgue, Jules. "Complainte sur certains ennuis." Les Complaintes. Paris: Léon Vanier, 1885.

Life is an incurable disease.

Abraham Cowley

Read this poem at quod.lib.umich.edu

More information about this quote

Topic

Nature of life Life Pessimism

Author

Abraham Cowley

Source

To Dr. Scarborough Pindarique Odes

Medium

Poem

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

English

Time

1656 1650s 17th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Cowley, Abraham. "To Dr Scarborough." Poems written by A. Cowley. London: Humphrey Moseley, 1656, st. 6.

Life is a game... And you keep score with dollars.

Ted Turner

More information about this quote

Topic

Money Nature of life Life

Speaker

Ted Turner

Source

Playboy Magazine

Medium

Interview Magazine

Language

English

Time

1978 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Turner, Ted. "Playboy Interview: Ted Turner." Interviewed by Peter Ross Range. Playboy Magazine, Aug. 1978.

We never reach a point at which our lives lie before us as a clearly marked open road, never have and never should expect a map to the years ahead, never do close those circles that seem, at thirteen and fourteen and nineteen, so urgently in need of closing.

Joan Didion

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Topic

Nature of life The human condition

Author

Joan Didion

Source

Pacific Distances After Henry

Medium

Essay

Language

English

Time

1992 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Didion, Joan. "Pacific Distances." After Henry. Simon & Schuster, 1992.

Current Citation

Didion, Joan. "Pacific Distances." Joan Didion: The 1980s & 90s, edited by David L. Ulin. Library of America, 2021.

Life is made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles predominating.

O. Henry

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Topic

Nature of life

Author

O. Henry

Source

The Gift of the Magi

Medium

Short story

Language

English

Time

1905 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

O. Henry. "Gifts of the Magi." The Four Million: A Collection of Short Stories. McClure, Phillips & Co., 1906. Originally published in The New York Sunday World, 10 Dec. 1905.

Life exists in the universe only because the carbon atom possesses certain exceptional properties.

James Jeans

More information about this quote

Topic

Nature of life Biology Life

Author

James Jeans

Source

The Mysterious Universe

Genre

Scientific literature

Language

English

Time

1930 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Jeans, James. The Mysterious Universe. Cambridge University Press/Macmillan, 1930, ch. 1.