LIFE
Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale,
Vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man.
Thy life's a miracle.
King Lear. Act IV. Sc.6. L. 55.
When we are born, we cry, that we are come
To this great stage of fools.
King Lear. Act IV. Sc. 6. L. 186.
| seealso = (See also Saxe)
| topic = Life
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{{Hoyt quote
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| text = <poem>Nor stony tower, nor walls of beaten brass,
Nor airless dungeon, nor strong links of iron,
Can be retentive to the strength of spirit;
But life, being weary of these worldly bars,
Never lacks power to dismiss itself.
Julius Caesar. Act I. Sc. 3. L. 93,
That but this blow .
Might be the be-all and the end-all here,
But here, upon this bank and shoal of time,
We'ld jump the life to come.
Macbeth. Act I. Sc.7. L. 4.
Had I but died an hour before this chance,
I had liv'd a blessed time; for, from this instant,
There's nothing serious in mortality:
All is but toys; renown, and grace is dead;
The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees
Is left this vault to brag of.
Macbeth. Act II. Sc. 3. L. 96.
So weary with disasters, tuggtt with fortune,
That I would set my life on any chance,
To mend, or be rid on't.
Macbeth. Act III. Sc. I. L. 113.
Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow.
Macbeth. Act V. Sc. 5. L. 23.
I bear a charmed life.
Macbeth. Act V. Sc. 8. L. 12.
Reason thus with life:
If I do lose thee, I do lose a thing
That none but fools would keep.
Life is a shuttle.
Merry Wives of Windsor. Act V. Sc. 1. L. 20.
Her father lov'd me; oft invited me;
Still question'd me the story of my life,
From year to year, the battles, sieges, fortunes,
That I have pass'd.
Othello. Act I. Sc. 3. L. 128.
It is silliness to live when to live is torment;
and then have we a prescription to die when
death is our physician.
Othello. Act I. Sc. 3. L. 309.
Life was driving at brains—at its darling
object: an organ by which it can attain not only
sett-consciousness but self-understanding.
Bernard Shaw—Man and Superman. Act
III.
LIFE
J'ai vecu.
I have survived.
Sieyes. After the Reign of Terror, when
asked what he had done.
We have two lives;
The soul of man is like the rolling world,
One half in day, the other dipt in night;
The one has music and the flying cloud,
The other, silence and the wakeful stars.
Alex. Smith—Horton. L. 76.
Yes, this is life; and everywhere we meet,
Not victor crowns, but waitings of defeat.
Elizabeth Oakes Smith—Sonnet. The Unattained.
"Life is not lost," said she, "for which is bought
Endlesse renowne."
Spenser—Faerie Queene. Bk. III. Canto
XI. St. 19.
Away with funeral music—set
The pipe to powerful lips—
The cup of life's for him that drinks
And not for him that sips.
Stevenson. At Boulogne. (1872)
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{{Hoyt quote
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| text = <poem>To be honest, to be kind—to earn a little and
to spend a little less, to make upon the whole a
family happier for his presence, to renounce
when that shall be necessary and not be embittered, to keep a few friends but these without
capitulation—above all, on the same grim condition to keep friends with himself—here is a task
for all that a man has of fortitude and delicacy.
Stevenson—Christmas Sermon.
Man is an organ of life, and God alone is life.
Swedenboro—True Christian Religion. Par. 504.
Gaudeamus igitur,
Juvenes dum sumus
Post jucundam juventutem.
Post molestam senectutem.
Nos habebit humus.
Let us live then, and be glad
While young life's before us
After youthful pastime had,
After old age hard and sad,
Earth will slumber over us.
Author Unknown. John Addington Stmonds' Trans.
O vita, misero longa! felici brevis!
O life! long to the wretched, short to the
happy.
Syrus—Maxims.
Let your life lightly dance on the edges of
Time like dew on the tip of a leaf.
Rabindranath Tagore—Gardener. 45.
... The wise man warns me that life is
but a dewdrop on the lotus leaf.
Rabindranath Tagore—Gardener. 46.
