Live

“For of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: ‘It might have been!’” Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811–1896), who was a contemporary of John Greenleaf Whittier, staunch abolitionist, and author of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” had this to say, “The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone.” What are these two like-minded individuals telling us? The saddest words of all are the words of regret, especially if they are uttered at one’s deathbed.

If you would not be forgotten,
as soon as you are dead and rotten,
either write things worth reading
or do things worth the writing. — Ben Franklin

The tragedy of life does not lies with what is perish when we die but what dies within us while we are still living. — Albert Schweitzer

Life is just a series of trying to make up your mind. — Timothy Fuller

Forget the times of your distress, but never forget what they taught you. — Herbert Gasser

To laugh often and much. To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;
To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;
To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition;
To know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Live not as though there were a thousand years ahead of you. Fate is at your elbow; make yourself good while life and power are still yours.” — Marcus Aurelius wrote in the second century

We learn the rope of life by untying its knots. -Jean Toomer

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us. -Oliver Wendell Holmes

Every man dies. Not every man lives. -Tim Robbins

If you don’t know where you are going, how can you expect to get there? — Basil S. Walsh

Worry is a funky luxury when a lot has to be done. — Melvin Peebles

Life begets life. Energy creates energy. It is by spending oneself that one becomes rich. — Sarah Bernhardt

Action is the antidote to despair. — Joan Baez

Rhetoric is a poor substitute for action. — Theodore Roosevelt

“The future belongs to those who live intensely in the present.” — Anon.

One never notices what has been done; one can only see what remains to be done. — Marie Curie

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

Trouble brings experience, and experience brings wisdom. — Anon.

“I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.” -Thomas Jefferson

“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” -Theodore Roosevelt

“I cannot share Freud’s opinion as he stated it …: ‘The moment a man questions the meaning and value of life he is sick.’ I rather think that such a man only proves that he is truly a human being.” — Viktor E. Frankl, “Psychotherapy and Existentialism.”

“I would not fear nor wish my fate, but boldly say each night, to-morrow let my sun his beams display, or in clouds hide them; I have lived today.” -Abraham Crowley

The worst thing one can do is not to try, to be aware of what one wants and not give in to it, to spend years in silent hurt wondering if something could have materialized — never knowing. — Jim Rohn

There is more to life than simply the length in years we live from cradle to grave — the quality of those years is much more important. — unknown

“He who has nothing to die for has nothing to live for.” -Moroccan Proverb

Don’t conduct your life as if you are going to live forever. — Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor

Far better is to be dare mighty things. to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat. ~ Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of USA

Fear less, hope more; Whine less, breathe more; Talk less, say more; Hate less, love more; And all good things are yours. — Anon.

Goodwill is the one and only asset that competition cannot undersell or destroy. — Marshall Field

The best preparation for a better life next year is a full, complete, harmonious, joyous life this year. — Thomas Dreier

The true test of character is…how we behave when we don’t know what to do. — John Holt

People are usually more convinced by reasons they discovered themselves than by those found by others. — Blaise Pascal

Few things are harder to put up with than a good example. -Mark Twain

“Only those who risk going to far can possibly find out how far one can go.” -T. S. Eliot

“Well done is better than well said.” -Benjamin Franklin

You cannot have the fruits unless, you take care of the roots. — unknown

Do not wait for extraordinary circumstances to do good actions; try to use ordinary situations.” — Jean Paul Richter

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I wanted to live deep and suck all the marrow of life. — Henry David Thoreau

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. — Mark Twain, American Author

Persons of high self-esteem are not driven to make themselves superior to others; they do not seek to prove their value by measuring themselves against a comparative standard. Their joy is being who they are, not in being better than someone else.” — Nathaniel Branden, American Psychologist and Author

The life that is unexamined is not worth living. — Plato

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. — Mother Teresa, Catholic Nun, Missionary, Nobel Peace Prize Recipient

Life is full of challenges, accept them.
Life is full of problems, solve them.
Life is a stage, play on.
Life is a long, long journey, complete it. — Myanmar Buddhist Temple

“For too long we have been dreaming a dream from which we are now waking up: the dream that if we just improve the socioeconomic situation of people, everything will be okay, people will become happy. The truth is that as the struggle for survival has subsided, the question has emerged: survival for what? Ever more people today have the means to live, but no meaning to live for.” — Viktor E. Frankl, “The Unheard Cry for Meaning”

Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards. — Soren Kierkegaard

We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring, will be to arrive where we started and started and know the place for the first time. — T.S. Eliot

“Life is a mystery to be lived, not a problem to be solved.” -Van Kaam

Often we are so concerned with what makes us feel good that we forget what makes us great. Understanding how to surmount pain, doubt and failure is an important aspect of the game of winning at life. — Chin Ning Chu

The least of things with a meaning is worth more in life than the greatest of things without it. -Carl Jung

Enjoy yourself. These are the good old days you’re going to miss in the years ahead.” ~ unknown

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” -Mark Twain

The game of life is not so much in holding a good hand as playing a poor hand well. — H.T. Leslie

The obstacles in life are suppose to make us better, not bitter. — Anon

Look at a stone cutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred-and-first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not the last blow that did it, but all that had gone before. — Jacob A. Riis

Life is a succession of moments. To live each one is to succeed. — Corita Kent