Famously Said Random quote

Quotes about life and death

656 quotes from 337 people

Most readBy personPage 3 of 44

In the life of a man, his time is but a moment…his sense, a dim rushlight. All that is body is as coursing waters…all that is of the soul, as dreams, and vapors.
Marcus Aurelius121–180
It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.
Marcus Aurelius121–180
Reverence the gods, and help men. Short is life.
Marcus Aurelius121–180VI, 30
Be not as one that hath ten thousand years to live; death is nigh at hand: while thou livest, while thou hast time, be good.
Marcus Aurelius121–180Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919), Meditations. iv. 17.
- Virtue
Not as though thou hadst thousands of years to live. Death hangs over thee: whilst yet thou livest, whilst thou mayest, be good.
Marcus Aurelius121–180Meditations (c. 170–180), The Fourth BookIn context
- Virtue
Human nature is so well disposed towards those who are in interesting situations, that a young person, who either marries or dies, is sure of being kindly spoken of.
Jane Austen1775–1817Emma (1815)In context
- Marriage
Here is a test to find whether your mission on earth is finished: If you’re alive, it isn’t.
Richard Bachborn 1936Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah (1977)
- Motivation & Goals
The world’s a bubble, and the life of man
Less than a span.
Francis Bacon1561–1626The World (1629)
But men must know that in this theater of man’s life it is reserved only for God and angels to be lookers on.
Francis Bacon1561–1626The Advancement of Learning (1605), Book II, xx, 8
- God
All of us alive are survivors, but how many of us transcend survival?
Joan Baezborn 1941And a Voice to Sing With (1989) (p. 322)
Art would not be important if life were not important, and life is important.
James Baldwin1924–1987“An interview with James Baldwin” (1961)
- Art
The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another; and his humblest hour is when he compares the volume as it is with what he vowed to make it.
J. M. Barrie1860–1937The Little Minister (1891), Ch. 1: The Love-Light
‘To die will be an awfully big adventure.’
J. M. Barrie1860–1937Peter Pan (1911), Chapter VIIIIn context
I don’t think about art while I work… I try to think about life.
Jean-Michel Basquiat1960–1988On his artistic process in “Jean-Michel Basquiat on How to Be an Artist” in Artsy (2019 Jun 6)
- Art
This life is a hospital where each patient is possessed by the desire to change his bed.
Charles Baudelaire1821–1867“Anywhere Out of the World”, Le Spleen de Paris (1869)