The Quotes canon
Sourced and curated.
Every quote has been curated by hand and carefully authenticated.
Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
Philosophical literature5 quotes
For our discussion is about no ordinary matter, but on the right way to conduct our lives. — Socrates · 375 BCFor what should a man live, if not for the pleasures of discourse? — Plato · 370 BCThere is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide. Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy. — Albert Camus · 1942The prudent man aspires not to pleasure, but to the absence of pain. — Aristotle · 322 BCThe good of man is the active exercise of his soul's faculties in conformity with excellence or virtue... Moreover this activity must occupy a complete lifetime; for one swallow does not make spring, nor does one fine day; and similarly one day or a brief period of happiness does not make a man supremely blessed and happy. — Aristotle · 322 BCComedy3 quotes
Did you ever think that maybe there's more to life than being really, really, really, ridiculously good looking? — Derek Zoolander · 2001Human beings were not meant to sit in little cubicles staring at computer screens all day, filling out useless forms, and listening to eight different bosses drone on about mission statements! — Peter Gibbons · 1999If you don't believe in love, what's the point of living? — Ron Swanson · 2009Drama3 quotes
I don’t know if we each have a destiny, or if we’re all just floatin’ around accidental-like on a breeze. But I, I think maybe it’s both. Maybe both get happening at the same time. — Forrest Gump · 1994When a man sees his end, he wants to know there was some purpose to his life. — Marcus Aurelius · 2000We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion and medicine, law, business, engineering. These are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for. — John Keating · 1989Drama (film)3 quotes
I don’t know if we each have a destiny, or if we’re all just floatin’ around accidental-like on a breeze. But I, I think maybe it’s both. Maybe both get happening at the same time. — Forrest Gump · 1994When a man sees his end, he wants to know there was some purpose to his life. — Marcus Aurelius · 2000We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion and medicine, law, business, engineering. These are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for. — John Keating · 1989Religious literature3 quotes
Consider your origin;
you were not born to live like brutes,
but to follow virtue and knowledge. — Dante Alighieri · 1321And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. — Genesis 1:28 · 1405 BCFear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. — Ecclesiastes 12:13 · 931 BCAutobiography and memoir2 quotes
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. — Henry David Thoreau · 1854A man who becomes conscious of the responsibility he bears toward a human being who affectionately waits for him, or to an unfinished work, will never be able to throw away his life. He knows the “why” for his existence, and will be able to bear almost any “how.” — Viktor Frankl · 1946Comedy (film)2 quotes
Did you ever think that maybe there's more to life than being really, really, really, ridiculously good looking? — Derek Zoolander · 2001Human beings were not meant to sit in little cubicles staring at computer screens all day, filling out useless forms, and listening to eight different bosses drone on about mission statements! — Peter Gibbons · 1999Comedy drama2 quotes
I just don't know what I'm supposed to be. You know? — Charlotte (Lost in Translation) · 2003This isn't life! This is just stuff! And it's become more important to you than living! Well, honey, that's just nuts. — Lester Burnham · 1999Comedy drama (film)2 quotes
I just don't know what I'm supposed to be. You know? — Charlotte (Lost in Translation) · 2003This isn't life! This is just stuff! And it's become more important to you than living! Well, honey, that's just nuts. — Lester Burnham · 1999Adventure comedy1 quote
Don't be in a hurry. You'll miss the best parts in life. — Saloon hostess · 1956Adventure comedy (film)1 quote
Don't be in a hurry. You'll miss the best parts in life. — Saloon hostess · 1956Black comedy1 quote
This isn't life! This is just stuff! And it's become more important to you than living! Well, honey, that's just nuts. — Lester Burnham · 1999Black comedy (film)1 quote
This isn't life! This is just stuff! And it's become more important to you than living! Well, honey, that's just nuts. — Lester Burnham · 1999Comedy (TV)1 quote
If you don't believe in love, what's the point of living? — Ron Swanson · 2009Coming of age story1 quote
You must find your dream, then the way becomes easy. — Hermann Hesse · 1919Epic1 quote
Don't be in a hurry. You'll miss the best parts in life. — Saloon hostess · 1956Epic (film)1 quote
Don't be in a hurry. You'll miss the best parts in life. — Saloon hostess · 1956Epic poem1 quote
Consider your origin;
you were not born to live like brutes,
but to follow virtue and knowledge. — Dante Alighieri · 1321Historical drama1 quote
When a man sees his end, he wants to know there was some purpose to his life. — Marcus Aurelius · 2000Historical drama (film)1 quote
When a man sees his end, he wants to know there was some purpose to his life. — Marcus Aurelius · 2000Historical literature1 quote
The goal in life is living in agreement with nature. — Zeno of Citium · 200Narrative poem1 quote
Consider your origin;
you were not born to live like brutes,
but to follow virtue and knowledge. — Dante Alighieri · 1321Romantic comedy1 quote
I just don't know what I'm supposed to be. You know? — Charlotte (Lost in Translation) · 2003Romantic comedy (film)1 quote
I just don't know what I'm supposed to be. You know? — Charlotte (Lost in Translation) · 2003Science fiction1 quote
There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened. — Douglas Adams · 1980Teen1 quote
We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion and medicine, law, business, engineering. These are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for. — John Keating · 1989Teen (film)1 quote
We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion and medicine, law, business, engineering. These are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for. — John Keating · 1989Tragedy (play)1 quote
What is a man
If his chief good and market of his time
Be but to sleep and feed? A beast, no more. — William Shakespeare · 1616Travel writing1 quote
To be what we are, and to become what we are capable of becoming, is the only end of life. — Robert Louis Stevenson · 1882