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The human condition160 quotes
Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains. — Jean-Jacques Rousseau · 1762I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all. — Ecclesiastes 9:11 · 931 BCThe mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. — Henry David Thoreau · 1854Between us and excellence, the gods have placed the sweat of our brows. — Hesiod · 700 BCSo we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past. — F. Scott Fitzgerald · 1925What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable; in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god: the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals-And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? — William Shakespeare · 1616All 160 quotes →Life13 quotes
One can live for years sometimes, without living at all, and then all life comes crowding into a single hour. — Oscar Wilde · 1880One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever. — Ecclesiastes 1:4 · 931 BCTo live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all. — Oscar Wilde · 1891I'll tell you a big secret mon cher. Don't wait for the Last Judgment. It takes place every day. — Albert Camus · 1956O Life! thou art a galling load,
Along a rough, a weary road,
To wretches such as I! — Robert Burns · 1786They give birth astride of a grave, the light gleams an instant, then it's night once more. — Samuel Beckett · 1953All 13 quotes →Death11 quotes
Knowing that certain nights whose sweetness lingers will keep returning to the earth and sea after we are gone, yes, this helps us die. — Albert Camus · 1953Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave. — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · 1838Age will not be defied. — Francis Bacon · 1625It comes equally to us all, and makes us all equal. — John Donne · 1621We are food for worms, lads...because, believe it or not, each and every one of us in this room is one day going to stop breathing, turn cold, and die. — John Keating · 1989I heard the old, old men say,
“Everything alters,
And one by one we drop away.” — W.B. Yeats · 1903All 11 quotes →Mortality7 quotes
Sic transit gloria mundi.Time’s the king of men.
He’s both their parent, and he is their grave,
And gives them what he will, not what they crave. — William Shakespeare · 1608And so from hour to hour we ripe and ripe,
And then from hour to hour we rot and rot,
And thereby hangs a tale. — William Shakespeare · 1616The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep. — William Shakespeare · 1616Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore,
So do our minutes hasten to their end. — William Shakespeare · 1609Men must endure
Their going hence even as their coming hither.
Ripeness is all. — William Shakespeare · 1606All 7 quotes →Ephemeral nature of life6 quotes
As for man, his days are like grass; As a flower of the field, so he flourishes.
For the wind passes over it, and it is gone, And its place remembers it no more. — Psalm 103:15-16 · 450 BCOne generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever. — Ecclesiastes 1:4 · 931 BCMan, like a light in the night, is kindled and put out. — Heraclitus · 480 BCThey give birth astride of a grave, the light gleams an instant, then it's night once more. — Samuel Beckett · 1953For we are strangers before thee, and sojourners, as were all our fathers: our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding. — David · 430 BCMan that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble. He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down; he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not. — Job · 500 BCTime5 quotes
Time’s the king of men.
He’s both their parent, and he is their grave,
And gives them what he will, not what they crave. — William Shakespeare · 1608We have trained them to think of the Future as a promised land which favoured heroes attain—not as something which everyone reaches at the rate of sixty minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is. — C.S. Lewis · 1942Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore,
So do our minutes hasten to their end. — William Shakespeare · 1609Nothing 'gainst Time's scythe can make defense. — William Shakespeare · 1609And therein lies the whole of man's plight. Human time does not turn in a circle; it runs ahead in a straight line. That is why man cannot be happy: happiness is the longing for repetition. — Milan Kundera · 1984Human nature4 quotes
What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable; in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god: the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals-And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? — William Shakespeare · 1616Man is the only creature who refuses to be what he is. — Albert Camus · 1951Do you believe that men have always massacred each other as they do to-day, that they have always been liars, cheats, traitors, ingrates, brigands, idiots, thieves, scoundrels, gluttons, drunkards, misers, envious, ambitious, bloody-minded, calumniators, debauchees, fanatics, hypocrites, and fools? — Voltaire · 1759For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. — Apostle Paul · 56Nature of life4 quotes
Life is a gamble at terrible odds-if it was a bet, you wouldn't take it. — Tom Stoppard · 1966The 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 · 1951It’s just like our life, we appear and we disappear. We are so important to some, but we are just…passing through. — Natalia (Before Midnight) · 2013We never reach a point at which our lives lie before us as a clearly marked open road, never have and never should expect a map to the years ahead, never do close those circles that seem, at thirteen and fourteen and nineteen, so urgently in need of closing. — Joan Didion · 1992Passage of time4 quotes
Time’s the king of men.
He’s both their parent, and he is their grave,
And gives them what he will, not what they crave. — William Shakespeare · 1608Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave. — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · 1838Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore,
So do our minutes hasten to their end. — William Shakespeare · 1609Nothing 'gainst Time's scythe can make defense. — William Shakespeare · 1609Suffering4 quotes
The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry. — Ernest Hemingway · 1929Life is pain, highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something. — The Man in Black · 1987The Noble Truth of Suffering is this: Birth is suffering, aging is suffering; sickness is suffering; death is suffering; sorror and lamentation, pain, grief and despair are suffering; association with the unpleasant is suffering; dissociation from the pleasant is suffering; not to get what one wants is suffering-in brief, the five aggregates of attachment are suffering. — Pali Tipitaka · 100 BCBirth is suffering, aging is suffering, illness is suffering, death is suffering. — Gautama Buddha · 510 BCAbsurdity of life3 quotes
Sisyphyus, proletarian of the gods, powerless and rebellious, knows the whole extent of his wretched condition: it is what he thinks of during his descent. The lucidity that was to constitute his torture at the same time crowns his victory. There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn. — Albert Camus · 1942Cause it's a bittersweet symphony, that's life. Trying to make ends meet, you're a slave to money then you die. — The Verve · 1997As flies to wanton boys are we to th’ gods;
They kill us for their sport. — William Shakespeare · 1606Aging3 quotes
And so from hour to hour we ripe and ripe,
And then from hour to hour we rot and rot,
And thereby hangs a tale. — William Shakespeare · 1616Age will not be defied. — Francis Bacon · 1625What is the worst of woes that wait on age?
What stamps the wrinkle deeper on the brow?
To view each loved one blotted from life's page,
And be alone on earth, as I am now. — Lord Byron · 1818Happiness3 quotes
Man was made for joy and woe,
And when this we rightly know
Through the world we safely go. — William Blake · 1805And therein lies the whole of man's plight. Human time does not turn in a circle; it runs ahead in a straight line. That is why man cannot be happy: happiness is the longing for repetition. — Milan Kundera · 1984The universe is a cruel, uncaring void. The key to being happy isn't to search for meaning. It's to just keep yourself busy with unimportant nonsense, and eventually, you'll be dead. — Mr. Peanutbutter · 2014Inevitability of death3 quotes
Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave. — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · 1838Old and young, we are all on our last cruise. — Robert Louis Stevenson · 1881There's a saying, every man is put on Earth condemned to die, time and method of execution unknown. — Narrator (Twilight Zone) · 1959Interconnectedness of all people3 quotes
We travel together, passengers on a little space ship, dependent on its vulnerable reserves of air and soil; all committed for our safety to its security and peace; preserved from annihilation only by the care, the work, and, I will say, the love we give our fragile craft. We cannot maintain it half fortunate, half miserable, half confident, half despairing, half slave-to the ancient enemies of man-half free in a liberation of resources undreamed of until this day. No craft, no crew can travel safely with such vast contradictions. On their resolution depends the survival for us all. — Adlai Stevenson · 1965You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was Dostoevsky and Dickens who taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive. — James Baldwin · 1963Language, that most human invention, can enable what, in principle, should not be possible. It can allow all of us, even the congenitally blind, to see with another person’s eyes. — Oliver Sacks · 2010Life and death3 quotes
There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval. — George Santayana · 1922Nothing begins, and nothing ends,
That is not paid with moan;
For we are born in other's pain,
And perish in our own. — Francis Thompson · 1893We come out of the dark and go into the dark again, and in between lie the experiences of our life. But the beginning and end, birth and death, we do not experience; they have no subjective character, they fall entirely in the category of objective events, and that's that. — Thomas Mann · 1924Man and nature3 quotes
How beautiful is all this visible world!
How glorious in its action and itself!
But we, who name ourselves its sovereigns, we,
Half dust, half deity, alike unfit
To sink or soar, with our mix'd essence make
A conflict of its elements, and breathe
The breath of degradation and of pride. — Lord Byron · 1817The significance of man is that he is that part of the universe that asks the question, What is the significance of Man? He alone can stand apart imaginatively and, regarding himself and the universe in their eternal aspects, pronounce a judgement. The significance of man is that he is insignificant and is aware of it. — Carl Becker · 1936Most troubles are unnecessary. We have Nature beaten; we can make her grow wheat; we can keep warm when she sends blizzards. So we raise the devil just for pleasure-wars, politics, race-hatreds, labor-disputes. — Sinclair Lewis · 1920Original sin3 quotes
In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. — God · 1405 BCFor all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. — Apostle Paul · 56Ye are fallen from grace. — Apostle Paul · 50Progress3 quotes
Men travel faster now, but I do not know if they go to better things. — Willa Cather · 1929It is because Humanity has never known where it was going that it has been able to find its way. — Oscar Wilde · 1891The history of man has just begun: in the aeons which lie before him lie limitless hope or limitless despair. The choice is his; the present choice is ours. It is worth the trial. — Learned Hand · 1945Randomness3 quotes
I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all. — Ecclesiastes 9:11 · 931 BCThere is a tide in the affairs of men
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries. — William Shakespeare · 1599I 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 · 1994Shortness of life3 quotes
As for man, his days are like grass; As a flower of the field, so he flourishes.
For the wind passes over it, and it is gone, And its place remembers it no more. — Psalm 103:15-16 · 450 BCThey give birth astride of a grave, the light gleams an instant, then it's night once more. — Samuel Beckett · 1953Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble. He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down; he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not. — Job · 500 BCTiming3 quotes
I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all. — Ecclesiastes 9:11 · 931 BCThere is a tide in the affairs of men
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries. — William Shakespeare · 1599Men must endure
Their going hence even as their coming hither.
Ripeness is all. — William Shakespeare · 1606Alienation2 quotes
Janie's a pretty typical teenager. Angry, insecure, confused. I wish I could tell her that's all going to pass, but I don't want to lie to her. — Lester Burnham · 1999Oh how am I to face the odds
Of man's bedevilment and God's?
I, a stranger and afraid
In a world I never made. — A.E. Housman · 1922Being born2 quotes
Not to be born is, past all prizing, best. — Sophocles · 406 BCThe best of all things for earthly men is not to be born and not to see the beams of the bright sun; but if born, then as quickly as possible to pass the gates of Hades, and to lie deep buried. — Theognis of Megara · 545 BCCarpe diem2 quotes
To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all. — Oscar Wilde · 1891We are food for worms, lads...because, believe it or not, each and every one of us in this room is one day going to stop breathing, turn cold, and die. — John Keating · 1989Challenges of life2 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 · 1759Character2 quotes
Between us and excellence, the gods have placed the sweat of our brows. — Hesiod · 700 BCDoes character develop over time? In novels, of course it does: otherwise there wouldn't be much of a story. But in life? I sometimes wonder. Our attitudes and opinions change, we develop new habits and eccentricities; but that's something different, more like decoration. Perhaps character resembles intelligence, except that character peaks a little later: between twenty and thirty, say. And after that, we're just stuck with what we've got. We're on our own. If so, that would explain a lot of lives, wouldn't it? And also—if this isn't too grand a word—our tragedy. — Julian Barnes · 2011Desire2 quotes
Imagine that human existence is defined by an Ache: the Ache of our not being, each of us, the center of the universe; of our desires forever outnumbering our means of satisfying them. — Jonathan Franzen · 1996The desires of the heart are as crooked as corkscrews.
Not to be born is the best for man. — W.H. Auden · 1937Fate2 quotes
Time’s the king of men.
He’s both their parent, and he is their grave,
And gives them what he will, not what they crave. — William Shakespeare · 1608I 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 · 1994Fortune2 quotes
There is a tide in the affairs of men
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries. — William Shakespeare · 1599Of all human ills, greatest is fortune's wayward tyranny. — Sophocles · 430 BC