“Conservatism is sometimes a symptom of sterility. Those who have nothing in them that can grow and develop must cling to what they have in beliefs, ideas and possessions. The sterile radical, too, is basically conservative. He is afraid to let go of the ideas and beliefs he picked up in his youth lest his life be seen as empty and wasted.” IdeasSometimesLife IsBeliefGrowsSocietyYouthLetting GoEmptyConservativePossessionRadicalSymptomsConservatism Book:The Passionate State of Mind Source: The Passionate State of Mind
“As I accepted the change of the golden hair of my childhood to the reddish-brown hair of my youth without regret, so I also accept my silver hair-and I am ready to accept the time when my hair and the rest of my clay garment returns to the dust from which it came, while my spirit goes on to freer living. It is the season for my hair to be silver, and each season has its lessons to teach. Each season of life is wonderful if you have learned the lessons of the season before. It is only when you go on with lessons unlearned that you wish for a return.” IfsLife IsSpiritWishAcceptingTeachWonderfulChildhoodYouthReadyRegretHairGoes OnReturnLessonsSeasonsAgingAcceptedGoldenDustBrownSilverClayGarmentsSeasons Of LifeBrown HairGolden HairLife Is Wonderful Author:Peace Pilgrim
“The idea, shared by many, that life is a vale of tears, is just as false as the idea shared by the great majority, the idea to which youth and health and riches incline you, that life is a place of entertainment. Life is a place of service, and in that service one has to suffer a great deal that is hard to bear, but more often to experience a great deal of joy. But that joy can be real only if people look upon their life as a service, and have a definite object in life outside themselves and their personal happiness.” PeopleIfsLooksIdeasRealHardLife IsJoySufferingDealsObjectsYouthTearsBearsMajorityEntertainmentRichesLook UpBeing RealDefiniteInclinePersonal Happiness Author:Leo Tolstoy
“Life is short and tedious, and is wholly spent in wishing; we trust to find rest and enjoyment at some future time, often at an age when our best blessings, youth and health, have already left us. When at last I that time has arrived, it surprises us in the midst of fresh desires; we have got no farther when we are attacked by a fever which kills us; if we had been cured, it would only have been to give us more time for other desires.” IfsLifeGivingHas BeensAgeLastsLife IsDesireLeftWishYouthBlessingSurpriseEnjoymentMidstMore TimeLife Is ShortFeverTediousFuture Time Author:Jean de la Bruyere
“Even through my good-looking youth, I wasn't called on for any romantic parts, which is okay. What I was called on to do, I enjoyed doing. The funny thing about life is that if you live long enough, I think, you'll get every wish you ever had. It'll all come true.” IfsThinkingLongEnoughLife IsWishYouthOkayEnjoyedLooking GoodFunny ThingsWish You Author:Morgan Freeman
“Our life is like th' unstable wave, Our bloom of youth decays. Our joys are brief as lightning flash In summer's cloudy days, Our riches fleet as swift as thought; Faith in the One Supreme Alone will bear us o'er the gulfs Of Being's stormy stream.” GodLife IsJoyOur LivesYouthBearsSummerWaveRichesSupremeStreamsDecayFlashLightningLife Is LikeMe AloneUnstableStormyCloudyCloudy Day Author:Bhartrhari
“The ethical life... is maintained in being by a common culture, which also upholds the togetherness of society... Unlike the modern youth culture, a common culture sanctifies the adult state, to which it offers rites of passage.” StatesLife IsCultureCommonModernYouthOffersAdultsEthicalPassagesTogethernessRiteSanctifyYouth CultureRite Of PassageCommon CultureModern Youth Book:Modern Culture Source: Modern Culture
“How do I know that loving life is not a delusion? How do I know that in hating death I am not like a man who, having left home in his youth, has forgotten the way back?...someday there will be a great awakening when we know that this is all a great dream. Yet the stupid believe that they are awake, busily and brightly assuming they understand things, calling this man ruler, and that man a herdsman- how dense!” KnowsMenWayBelieveHomeDreamLife IsHateLeftStupidYouthCallingAssumingForgottenInsightAwakeningAwakeSomedayDelusionRulersLoving LifeDense Author:Zhuangzi
“For the short-lived bloom and contracted span of brief and wretched life is fast fleeting away! While we are drinking and calling for garlands, ointments, and women, old age steals swiftly on with noiseless step.” AgeLife IsStepsYouthCallingDrinkingStealingOld AgeFleetingWretchedGarlandsShort Lived Author:Juvenal
“The true one of youth's love, proving a faithful helpmate in those years when the dream of life is over, and we live in its realities.” LoveYearsDreamRealityLife IsYouthProveFaithfulTrue Ones Author:Robert Southey
“Youth is the season of tragedy and despair. Youth is the time when one's whole life is entangled in a web of identity, in a perpetual maze of seeking and of finding, of passion and of disillusion, of vague longings and of nameless griefs, of pity that is a blade in the heart, and of 'all the little emptiness of love.” HeartLittlesWholeLife IsPassionGriefIdentityYouthDespairFindingsSeasonsTragedyLongingSeekingWhole LifePityEmptinessPerpetualAdolescenceVagueBladesMazesNamelessDisillusion Author:Ellen Glasgow
“In work consists the true pride of life; grounded in active employment, though early ardor may abate, it never degenerates into indifference, and age lives in perennial youth. Life is a weariness only to the idle, or where the soul is empty.” MaySoulAgeLife IsWorkYouthPrideEmptyActiveEmploymentIndifferenceIdleGroundedWearinessDegeneratesArdorYouth LifeAge Life Author:Leopold Hartley Grindon
“The secret of life is to let every segment of it produce its own yield at its own pace. Every period has something new to teach us. The harvest of youth is achievement; the harvest of middle-age is perspective; the harvest of age is wisdom; the harvest of life is serenity.” AgeLife IsSecretTeachMiddleYouthProducePerspectivePeriodsAchievementMaturitySomething NewYieldPaceSerenityPhasesHarvestMiddle AgesSecret LifeAspects Of LifeDifferent Walks Of Life Author:Joan D. Chittister
“No more generations of our youth, here and all around the world, whose life is over, whose fate has been sealed, who have been condemned to an early death or a life of misery and brutality, whom the system has destined for oppression and oblivion even before they are born. I say no more of that.” WorldHas BeensLife IsBornFateGenerationsYouthMiseryOppressionAround The WorldDestinedOblivionBrutalityEarly Death Author:Bob Avakian
“The idea shared by many that life is a vale of tears is just as false as the idea shared by the great majority, the idea to which youth and health and riches incline you, that life is a place of entertainment.” LifeIdeasLife IsYouthTearsMajorityEntertainmentRichesIncline Author:Leo Tolstoy