Theodore Roosevelt on life and death

Speak softly and carry a big stick.

To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.

It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.

Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.

John Lennon1940–1980Double Fantasy (1980), “Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)”

Dream as if you’ll live forever. Live as if you’ll die today.

James Dean1931–1955

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

Mahatma Gandhi1869–1948

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