20 English quotes
Well-known quotes about how to live, what matters and making the most of the time we have.
“Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.”
– John Lennon, "Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)" (1980)
Meaning: While we are planning the future, real life is already happening around us. Don't be so focused on plans that you miss the present.
– William Shakespeare, Hamlet (c. 1600)
Meaning: Hamlet is asking whether it is better to go on living and suffer, or to stop living. Today people use the line, often as a joke, for any difficult choice.
“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.”
– Albert Einstein, Letter to his son Eduard (1930)
Meaning: If you stop trying, learning and doing things, life starts to feel unstable. Keep going forward, even slowly, and you will stay steady.
“In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on.”
– Robert Frost
Meaning: Whatever happens, good or bad, life continues. It is a reminder that hard times pass and we have to keep living.
“All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players.”
– William Shakespeare, As You Like It (c. 1599)
Meaning: Life is like a play in a theatre, and each of us is an actor who plays different parts as we grow older.
“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.”
– Oscar Wilde, The Soul of Man Under Socialism (1891)
Meaning: Many people simply get through each day without real joy or purpose. Truly living means being active, curious and fully yourself.
“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
– Mary Oliver, "The Summer Day" (1990)
Meaning: You only get one life, and it is valuable. The poet asks us to think seriously about how we want to spend it.
“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”
– Søren Kierkegaard, Journals (1843)
Meaning: We usually understand our choices only when we look back later. But we still have to make decisions now, without knowing how things will turn out.
“Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life.”
– Steve Jobs, Stanford commencement address (2005)
Meaning: Life is short, so follow your own goals instead of doing what other people expect of you.
“I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it.”
– Charles R. Swindoll
Meaning: We can't control most events, but we can control our response. Your attitude matters more than your luck.
– Henry David Thoreau, Walden (1854)
Meaning: Thoreau left busy town life to live simply in nature. He wanted to focus on what really matters, so that at the end of his life he would not feel he had wasted it.
– Henry James, The Ambassadors (1903)
Meaning: Enjoy every experience life offers. Holding back and missing chances is the real error.
– Seneca, On the Shortness of Life (c. AD 49)
Meaning: People complain that life is short, but the problem is that we waste so much of it. Used well, our time is more than enough.
– Marcus Aurelius, Meditations (c. 170–180)
Meaning: The way we think about events shapes how we experience our lives. Change your thoughts and your life feels different.
– Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols (1889)
Meaning: If you have a strong reason or purpose for living, you can survive almost any difficulty along the way.
“The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge.”
– Bertrand Russell, What I Believe (1925)
Meaning: A good life needs both a warm heart and a clear mind: love gives us our reasons, and knowledge shows us the best way to act.
“Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot.”
– Often attributed to Charlie Chaplin
Meaning: When we are in the middle of a problem it feels terrible, but seen from a distance or years later it often looks funny. Close-up and long-shot are film terms for near and far camera views.
– Cesare Pavese, This Business of Living (diaries, published 1952)
Meaning: Our memories are made of special short moments, not whole ordinary days. So it is worth noticing and creating those moments.
“Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about it.”
– Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere's Fan (1892)
Meaning: The joke turns logic upside down: normally important things are discussed seriously, but Wilde's character says life is so important that we should only talk about it lightly and with humour.
– J. M. Barrie, The Little Minister (1891)
Meaning: Again and again, life shows us that we are not as clever or important as we thought. Over time it teaches us to be modest.
