The Quotes canon
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Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
Classical antiquity6 quotes
And life is given to none freehold, but it is leasehold for all. — Lucretius · 55 BCThe art of living is more like wrestling than dancing, for it requires that we should stand ready and firm to meet onsets which are sudden and unexpected. — Marcus Aurelius · 180What is the prime of life? May it not be defined as a period of about twenty years in a woman's life, and thirty in a man's? — Socrates · 375 BCLife is long if you know how to use it. — Seneca · 49He will through life be master of himself and a happy man who from day to day can have said, "I have lived: tomorrow the Father may fill the sky with black clouds or with cloudless sunshine." — Horace · 23 BCRemember that no man loses other life than that which he lives, nor lives other than that which he loses. — Marcus Aurelius · 180Old Testament Era4 quotes
To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace. — Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 · 931 BCOne generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever. — Ecclesiastes 1:4 · 931 BCThe days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away. — Psalm 90:10 · 450 BCA man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry. — Ecclesiastes 8:15 · 931 BCThe Renaissance4 quotes
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing. — William Shakespeare · 1616Living is my job and my art. — Michel de Montaigne · 1580The value of life lies not in the length of days but in the use you make of them. — Michel de Montaigne · 1580Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale,
Vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man. — William Shakespeare · 1616Age of Enlightenment2 quotes
O Life! thou art a galling load,
Along a rough, a weary road,
To wretches such as I! — Robert Burns · 1786Human life is everywhere a state in which much is to be endured and a little to be enjoyed. — Samuel Johnson · 1759New Testament Era2 quotes
All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away. — 1st Peter 1:24 · 65You do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. — James 4:14 · 49Spanish Golden Age1 quote
What is life? A frenzy. What is life? An illusion, a shadow, a fiction. And the greatest good is of slight worth, as all life is a dream, and dreams are dreams. — Pedro Calderon de la Barca · 1635