“We must cultivate our garden.”
Voltaire · Candide, 1759
Category
← Back to top
Life Quotes
LifeLife Lessons
229 quotes on life and the lessons it teaches — from the classics to the everyday.
“A man can live and be healthy without killing animals for food; therefore, if he eats meat, he participates in taking animal life merely for the sake of his appetite. And to act so is immoral.”
Leo Tolstoy · The First Step, 1892
“The sole meaning of life is to serve humanity.”
Leo Tolstoy · A Confession, 1882
“Man lives consciously for himself, but is an unconscious instrument in the attainment of the historic, universal aims of humanity.”
Leo Tolstoy · War and Peace, 1869
“If you look for perfection, you'll never be content.”
Leo Tolstoy · Anna Karenina, 1878
“I sit on a man's back, choking him and making him carry me, and yet assure myself and others that I am very sorry for him and wish to ease his lot by all possible means — except by getting off his back.”
Leo Tolstoy · What Then Must We Do?, 1886
“The biggest surprise in a man's life is old age.”
Leo Tolstoy
“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.”
Leo Tolstoy · Three Methods of Reform, 1900
“The version of yourself that shows up when someone is watching is also you. Don't be so quick to dismiss it.”
Original
“Not all those who wander are lost.”
J. R. R. Tolkien · The Fellowship of the Ring, 1954
“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.”
Mark Twain · Notebook, 1904
“The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness.”
Vladimir Nabokov · Speak, Memory, 1951
“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”
Maya Angelou · I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, 1969
“The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places.”
Ernest Hemingway · A Farewell to Arms, 1929
“In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on.”
Robert Frost
“I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship.”
Louisa May Alcott · Little Women, 1868
“Man is condemned to be free.”
Jean-Paul Sartre · Existentialism Is a Humanism, 1945
