Echoes

The measure of a man's life is the well spending of it, and not the length.

The person who has lived the most is not the one who has lived the longest, but the one with the richest experiences.

As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.

The value of life lies not in the length of days, but in the use we make of them... Whether you find satisfaction in life depends not on your tale of years, but on your will.

The point is, not how long you live, but how nobly you live. And often this living nobly means that you cannot live long.

Wherever your life ends, it is all there. The utility of living consists not in the length of days, but in the use of time; a man may have lived long, and yet lived but a little. Make use of time while it is present with you. It depends upon your will, and not upon the number of days, to have a sufficient length of life. Is it possible you can imagine never to arrive at the place towards which you are continually going? and yet there is no journey but hath its end. And, if company will make it more pleasant or more easy to you, does not all the world go the self-same way?

Do not, my soul, seek immortal life, but exhaust the limits of the possible.

Life is a journey, not a destination.

I am endeavouring to live every day as if it were a complete life.

I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.

It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives. The act of dying is not of importance, it lasts so short a time.

Not to live as if you had endless years ahead of you. Death overshadows you. While you're alive and able—be good.

It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.

A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.

It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a great deal of it.

The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.

Do not act as if thou wert going to live ten thousand years. Death hangs over thee. While thou livest, while it is in thy power, be good.

Even death is not to be feared by one who has lived wisely.

Thou oughtest in every deed and thought so to order thyself, as if thou wert to die this day.

Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn't matter to me … Going to bed at night saying we've done something wonderful... that's what matters to me.

There is surely nothing other than the single purpose of the present moment. A man's whole life is a succession of moment after moment. If one fully understands the present moment, there will be nothing else to do, and nothing else to pursue. Live being true to the single purpose of the moment. Everyone lets the present moment slip by, then looks for it as though he thought it were somewhere else.

As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well spent brings happy death.

Lost Time is never found again.

The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, honorable, compassionate.

Our bodies are perishable, wealth is not at all permanent and death is always nearby. Therefore we must immediately engage in acts of merit.