Book Quotes About Life: Wisdom from Great Minds

All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us. — J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live. — J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment. — Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance

In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on. — Robert Frost

Man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed but not defeated. — Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. — Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere's Fan

It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities. — J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion. — Albert Camus

No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path. — Buddha, as quoted in various texts

We accept the love we think we deserve. — Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower

The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why. — Mark Twain

Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself. — George Bernard Shaw

Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans. — Allen Saunders, as popularized by John Lennon

You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough. — Mae West

The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well. — Ralph Waldo Emerson

Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving. — Albert Einstein

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. — H. Jackson Brown Jr., Life’s Little Instruction Book

Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened. — Dr. Seuss

I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work. — Thomas Edison

The best way out is always through. — Robert Frost, A Servant to Servants

You must be the change you wish to see in the world. — Mahatma Gandhi

It is never too late to be what you might have been. — George Eliot

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts. — Winston Churchill

The only impossible journey is the one you never begin. — Tony Robbins

Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it. — Helen Keller

Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars. — Khalil Gibran

Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny. — C.S. Lewis

When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves. — Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning

Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all the darkness. — Desmond Tutu

Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body. — Seneca

I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it. — Maya Angelou

Turn your wounds into wisdom. — Oprah Winfrey

Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise. — Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life. — J.K. Rowling

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us. — Ralph Waldo Emerson

You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them. — Maya Angelou

Love makes our souls grow. — Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood

The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved; loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves. — Victor Hugo

If you remember me, then I don't care if everyone else forgets. — Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

We loved with a love that was true love. — Edgar Allan Poe, Annabel Lee

Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same. — Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights

I have waited for this opportunity for more than half a century, to repeat to you once again my vow of eternal fidelity and everlasting love. — Gabriel García Márquez, Love in the Time of Cholera

You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. — Jane Austen, Persuasion

Soul meets soul on lovers’ lips. — Percy Bysshe Shelley

I would always rather be happy than dignified. — Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

There is no remedy for love but to love more. — Henry David Thoreau

Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own. — Robert Heinlein

To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides. — David Viscott

Courage is not the absence of fear, but doing what is right despite fear. — Franklin D. Roosevelt

I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. — Nelson Mandela

Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering. — Yoda, Star Wars (inspired by literature)

Everything has been figured out, except how to live. — Jean-Paul Sartre

It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends. — J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. — Eleanor Roosevelt

He who has a why to live can bear almost any how. — Friedrich Nietzsche

Do one thing every day that scares you. — Eleanor Roosevelt

Fear less, hope more; eat less, chew more; whine less, breathe more; talk less, say more. — Swedish Proverb

The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear. — Nelson Mandela

It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult. — Seneca

Feel the fear and do it anyway. — Susan Jeffers

The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why. — Mark Twain

Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever. — Mahatma Gandhi

Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. — Steve Jobs

The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away. — Pablo Picasso

Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive. — Howard Thurman

Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light. — J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream. — C.S. Lewis

The big lesson in life, baby, is never be scared of anyone or anything. — Frank Sinatra

Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all. — Helen Keller

The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate. — Ralph Waldo Emerson

Wherever you go, go with all your heart. — Confucius

What you do today can improve all your tomorrows. — Ralph Marston

Time is the longest distance between two places. — Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie

The trouble is, you think you have time. — Buddha

So it's not so much that I'm interested in the future; I'm interested in doing something today that won't be futile tomorrow. — Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift: that’s why they call it the present. — Lao Tzu

You cannot get very far in life without realizing that time is all we’ve got. — Mitch Albom, Tuesdays with Morrie

We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out. — Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine

Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live. — Norman Cousins

Do not regret growing older. It is a privilege denied to many. — Unknown

The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain. — Dolly Parton

Time you enjoy wasting was not wasted. — John Lennon

We must be willing to let go of the life we planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us. — Joseph Campbell

The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once. — Albert Einstein

Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes. — Carl Jung

The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any. — Alice Walker, The Color Purple

Owning our story and loving ourselves through that process is the bravest thing we’ll ever do. — Brené Brown

And now that you don’t have to be perfect, you can be good. — John Steinbeck, East of Eden

Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking. — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection. — Buddha

Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom. — Aristotle

Until you value yourself, you won't value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it. — M. Scott Peck

The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are. — Carl Jung

We suffer more often in imagination than in reality. — Seneca

Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. — Carl Jung

The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek. — Joseph Campbell

Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after the other. — Walter Elliot

Fall seven times, stand up eight. — Japanese Proverb

It always seems impossible until it's done. — Nelson Mandela

Strength does not come from what you can do. It comes from overcoming the things you once thought you couldn't. — Rikki Rogers

Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm. — Winston Churchill

I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become. — Carl Jung

Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall. — Confucius

I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can't accept not trying. — Michael Jordan

Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground. — Theodore Roosevelt

Never, never, never give up. — Winston Churchill

A winner is just a loser who tried one more time. — George M. Moore

When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on. — Franklin D. Roosevelt