Quotes for the Journey: Life Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards. Søren Kierkegaard

I would like to live. . . open to time and death painlessly, noticing everything, remembering nothing, choosing the given with a fierce and pointed will.        -Annie Dillard     Life is difficult.  This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths.  It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it.  Once we truly know that life is difficult--once we truly understand and accept it--then life is no longer difficult.  Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters.         -M. Scott Peck     If our lives shall be such that we shall receive the glad welcome of "Well done, good and faithful servant," we shall then know that we have not lived in vain.         -Peter Cooper     Time is a flowing river.  Happy those who allow themselves to be carried, unresisting, with the current.  They float through easy days.  They live, unquestioning, in the moment.        -Christopher Morley     If you have known how to compose your life, you have done a great deal more than the person who knows how to compose a book.  You have done more than the one who has taken cities and empires.        -Michel de Montaigne      Listen to your life.  See it for the fathomless mystery that it is.  In the boredom and pain of it no less than in the excitement and gladness:  touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace.        -Frederick Buechner

How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.         -Annie Dillard

Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.  To keep our faces toward change and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable.        -Helen Keller

I wish you humor and a twinkle in the eye.   I wish you glory and the strength to bear its burdens. I wish you sunshine on your path and storms to season your journey. I wish you peace--in the world in which you live and in the smallest corner    of the heart where truth is kept. I wish you faith--to help define your living and your life. More I cannot wish you--except perhaps love--to make all the rest worthwhile.         -Robert A. Ward

You don't get to choose how you're going to die, or when.  You can only decide how you're going to live.  Now!        -Joan Baez

It is only in exceptional moods that we realize how wonderful are the commonest experiences of life.  It seems to me sometimes that these experiences have an "inner" side, as well as the outer side we normally perceive.  At such moments one suddenly sees everything with new eyes; one feels on the brink of some great revelation.  It is as if we caught a glimpse of some incredibly beautiful world that lies silently about us all the time.        -J.W.N. Sullivan

Here is the test to find whether your mission on earth is finished: If you're alive, it isn't. Richard Bach Life is a great big canvas, and you should throw all the paint on it you can. Danny Kaye

A tree has both straight and crooked branches; the symmetry of the tree, however, is perfect.  Life is balanced like a tree.  When you consider the struggles, difficulties, and sorrows as a part of it, then you see it as beautiful and perfect.         -George M. Lamsa

It is not death that we should fear, but we should fear never beginning to live.         -Marcus Aurelius

Affirmation of life is the spiritual act by which people cease to live unreflectively and begin to devote themselves to their lives with reverence in order to raise them to their true value. To affirm life is to deepen, to make more inward, and to exalt the will-to-live.         -Albert Schweitzer

O beautiful human life!  Tears come to my eyes as I think of it.  So beautiful, so inexpressibly beautiful!  The song should never be silent, the dance never still, the laugh should sound like water which runs forever.         -Richard Jeffries

It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul. William Ernest Henley

No one imagines that a symphony is supposed to improve in quality as it goes along, or that the whole object of playing it is to reach the finale.  The point of music is discovered in every moment of playing and listening to it.  It is the same, I feel, with the greater part of our lives, and if we are unduly absorbed in improving them we may forget altogether to live them.        -Alan Watts

To become what we are capable of becoming is the only end in life.        -Robert Louis Stevenson

There are loyal hearts, there are spirits brave, There are souls that are pure and true; Then give to the world the best you have, And the best will come back to you. Madeleine Bridges

To live is like to love--all reason is against it, and all healthy instinct is for it.        -Samuel Butler

Don't let life discourage you; everyone who got where they are had to begin where they were.        -Richard L. Evans

fragments what shall i tell a child if she asks me what is life? will i recount the pain and hurt and focus on the strife? or shall i paint a picture of the beauty that is found in sailing ships and chocolate chips and bugs beneath the ground? i'd like to think i'd give her hope of all that is to come but if she reads some poems of mine, her hope shall be undone i cannot bear to think that i may dim a child's eyes present to her a world of just confusion, pain, and lies for if i am to tell her early on of mountain streams and help her build the pillars that will hold up all her dreams i'd paint the birds that fill the trees with beauty and with song a sanctuary in her mind to help when things go wrong and in that place in her mind's eye the flowers would grow free in meadows under blue skies by the mighty loving sea she'd have a place for comfort, have a place to be alone amidst tomorrow's challenges, no matter how she's grown i pray to learn my lessons from the children whom i meet i dream of sowing sunshine on a crowded city street i pray my words shall never hurt the child here inside i pray that never shall i fear the child in me has died i must reject some words of mine if i'm to feel i'm free embracing hope, i must hold on to how good life can be that i may treat the children with respect that they deserve for i shan't live for self alone--i give my life to serve tdw

Be not afraid of life.  Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact.       -William James

None but a good person is really a living one, and the more good any person does, the more he or she really lives.  All the rest is death, or belongs with it.       -Cotton Mather

As a doctor, I studied survivors--people who got sick but exceeded expectations.  Many of those exceptional patients had been given little time to live, yet they were some of the happiest people I'd ever met. They knew, or they discovered through their illness, which became their teacher, that if you want to be happy, you must answer some key questions.  What are you here for? And how do you want to spend your limited time?  If your answer is that you are here to love, to serve others and not to be served, then you already have everything you need to be happy.  If you wake up in the morning, that's enough; you are grateful for life and the opportunity to contribute in your way.       -Bernie Siegel

The value of life lies not in the length of days, but in the use we make of them; a person may live long yet live very little.       -Montaigne

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace.  Where there is hatred let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy.    O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love.  For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.       -St. Francis of Assissi (attributed)

A Psalm of Life WHAT THE HEART OF THE YOUNG MAN SAID TO THE PSALMIST Tell me not, in mournful numbers, Life is but an empty dream!-- For the soul is dead that slumbers, And things are not what they seem. Life is real! Life is earnest! And the grave is not its goal; Dust thou art, to dust returnest, Was not spoken of the soul. Not enjoyment, and not sorrow, Is our destined end or way; But to act, that each to-morrow Find us farther than to-day. Art is long, and Time is fleeting, And our hearts, though stout and brave, Still, like muffled drums, are beating Funeral marches to the grave. In the world's broad field of battle, In the bivouac of Life, Be not like dumb, driven cattle! Be a hero in the strife! Trust no future, howe'er pleasant! Let the dead Past bury its dead! Act,--act in the living Present! Heart within, and God o'erhead! Lives of great men all remind us We can make our lives sublime, And, departing, leave behind us Footprints on the sands of time; Footprints, that perhaps another, Sailing o'er life's solemn main, A forlorn and shipwrecked brother, Seeing, shall take heart again. Let us, then, be up and doing, With a heart for any fate; Still achieving, still pursuing, Learn to labor and to wait. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Your life has been designed to work, and your hidden potential contains what you seek and all that you need in your life.  It is OK to be who you are and to choose what you have.  The Quakers call it the "still, small voice within," that place of full awareness within that is in touch with the entire universe and is the source of wisdom.  In effect, you don't have to keep searching for confirmation by focusing on being someone else or being somewhere else.  There is no place else to be and nothing else to get.  You will be able to grasp the levers of change in your life when you can allow yourself to be present in the moment, accept the world as it is, and trust that everything is as it was intended to be.       -Ari Kiev

It is a glorious privilege to live, to know, to act, to listen, to behold, to love. To look up at the blue summer sky; to see the sun sink slowly beyond the line of the horizon; to watch the worlds come twinkling into view, first one by one, and the myriads that no man can count, and lo! the universe is white with them; and you and I are here.       -Marco Morrow

No one has success until he or she has the abounding life.  This is made up of the many-fold activity of energy, enthusiasm and gladness.  It is to spring to meet the day with a thrill at being alive. It is to go forth to meet the morning in an ecstasy of joy.  It is to realize the oneness of humanity in true spiritual sympathy.       -Lillian Whiting

When your life is filled with the desire to see the holiness in everyday life, something magical happens: ordinary life becomes extraordinary, and the very process of life begins to nourish your soul!  With each new circumstance that comes your way, another opportunity presents itself to nourish your soul.        -Harold Kushner

At end of Love, at end of Life, At end of Hope, at end of Strife' At end of all we cling to so-- The sun is setting--we must go. At dawn of Love, at dawn of Life, At dawn of Peace that follows Strife, At dawn of all we long for so-- The sun is rising--let us go. Louise Chandler Moulton

I wish there were a book I could read each day to tell me exactly what to do to live consciously from my heart and soul.  But part of the mystery and magic, part of the reason I'm here, is to try to stumble through and hear what the soul has to say about what it needs at each moment--whether it is to work through an emotional block, discover what the next lesson is, meet the next soul mate (my children are soul mates; my best friends are soul mates), or finish my business with the one I'm with now. Ultimately, for most of us, the journey comes down to the same issue:  learning to love freely.  First ourselves, then other people.        -Melody Beattie

The people whom I have seen succeed best in life have always been cheerful and hopeful, who went about their business with a smile on their faces, and took the changes and chances of this mortal life with strength, facing rough and smooth alike as it came.       -Charles Kingsley

Look at an animal, a cat, a dog, or a bird, or one of those beautiful great beasts in the zoo, a puma or a giraffe.  You can't help seeing that all of them are right.  They're never in any embarrassment.  They always know what to do and how to behave themselves.  They don't flatter and they don't intrude.  They don't pretend.  They are as they are, like stones or flowers or stars in the sky.       -Herman Hesse

We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths; In feelings, not in figures on a dial. We should count time by heart-throbs.     They most live Who think most, feel the noblest, act the best. -Philip James Bailey

The world is a looking-glass, and gives back to everyone the reflection of our own faces.  Frown at it, and it in turn will look sourly on you; laugh at it and with it, and it is a jolly, kind companion.       -William Makepeace Thackeray

I am in love with this world. . . I have climbed its mountains, roamed its forests, sailed its waters, crossed its deserts, felt the sting of its frosts, the oppression of its heats, the drench of its rains, the fury of its winds, and always have beauty and joy waited upon my goings and comings.       -John Burroughs

Is life so wretched?  Isn't it rather your hands are too small, your vision which is muddled?  You are the one who must grow up.       -Dag Hammarskjold

Nobody has things just as they would like them.  The thing to do is to make a success with what material I have.  It is a sheer waste of time and soul-power to imagine what I would do if things were different.  They are not different.       -Frank Crane

The secret of success is to be in harmony with existence, to be always calm. . . to let each wave of life wash us a little farther up the shore.       -Cyril Connolly

A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.       -George Bernard Shaw

Prepare to live by all means, but for Heaven's sake do not forget to live.        -Arnold Bennett

Nothing in life is to be feared.  It is only to be understood.       -Marie Curie

People say that what we're all seeking is a meaning for life.  I don't think that's what we're really seeking.  I think that what we're seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonances within our own innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive.        -Joseph Campbell

The things that are most worthwhile in life are really those within the reach of almost every normal human being who cares to seek them out.       -Charles B. Forbes

You come into the world with nothing, and the purpose of your life is to make something out of nothing.       -Henry Louis Mencken

Life's under no obligation to give us what we expect.  We take what we get and are thankful it's no worse than it is.        -Margaret Mitchell

To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury; and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable; and wealthy, not rich; to study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly; to listen to stars and birds, to babes and sages, with open heart; to bear all cheerfully, do all bravely, await occasion, hurry never; in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden, and unconscious to grow up through the common.  This is to be my symphony.       -William Henry Channing

You must understand the whole of life, not just one little part of it.  That is why you must read, that is why you must look at the skies, that is why you must sing, and dance, and write poems, and suffer, and understand, for all that is life.       -J. Krishnamurti

What is this thing called life, and why do we have so many problems trying to get through it? Why do so many people hate it so much, while others love it and live it fully until they die? Part of the goal of this series of pages is to examine life from different perspectives, looking at different aspects of who we are. Maybe we're feeling badly about ourselves because of how we're treating one particular aspect of ourselves, and if we can focus on that, we can start living more. I know that I want to reach my death and look back and say that even though I didn't do everything right, even though I ended up hurting people, even though I made many mistakes, I still did the best that I could, and I still got the most I could out of each moment.  I try to do so, for I know I could die tomorrow. So could you--sorry, but it's true. And even if I live to be eighty, eighty years isn't enough to experience everything that's available to us in this world. Live life, don't just walk through it. This isn't a dress rehearsal--this is the real thing. Take advantage of it. As Maude says, "Get hurt even." You belong here just as much as any other one of God's creations, and God wants you to thrive, to live. He's not going to hand life to you on a platter, though--you've got to go out and get it. Sometimes I think we make it more difficult on ourselves by viewing life in very general terms.  We look at "life"--this vast, all-encompassing term--rather than at "my life," a much more specific term that we actually can get a grip on if we try hard enough.  My life is made up of my experiences and how I react to the experiences of others, and my life is quite a fascinating thing.  My life is lovable and livable, and I can live it only in the way that I choose to live it. We also tend to see life in the way that others see it for us.  Other people seem to think that they know better how we should live our lives, and we cave in and obey them far too often.  There's a huge difference between doing what others tell us to do and learning from others and putting the lessons into practice.  If we do the former, we lose our sense of self, our sense of who we are, and it's difficult to be satisfied with ourselves.  If we do the latter, we keep our integrity (what an important word!), and our lives truly are our lives. Life is a beautiful experience.  Accept that reality, and live as if it were true, and you'll be amazed at how beautiful life actually is.  We're not here to fight, but to cooperate, and when we put that principle into practice, we start to find the peace our hearts yearn for. tom walsh

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