And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.

—Abraham Lincoln

Civilization is a stream with banks. The stream is sometimes filled with blood from people killing, stealing, shouting and doing the things historians usually record, while on the banks, unnoticed, people build homes, make love, raise children, sing songs, write poetry and even whittle statues. The story of civilization is what happened on the banks.

—Will Durant

Any idiot can handle a crisis — it’s this day-to-day living that wears you out.

—Anton Chekhov

You will find as you look back upon your life that the moments when you have really lived are the moments when you have done things in a spirit of love.

—Henry Drummond

When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life in such a manner that when you die the world cries and you rejoice.

—Indian Proverb

What is laid down, ordered, factual is never enough to embrace the whole truth: life always spills over the rim of every cup.

—Boris Pasternak

You don’t get to choose how you’re going to die. Or when. You can only decide how you’re going to live. Now.

—Joan Baez

All the arts we practice are apprenticeship. The big art is our life.

—M.C. Richards

Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of nonessentials.

—Lin Yutang

You’re only here for a short visit. Don’t hurry, don’t worry. And be sure to smell the flowers along the way.

—Walter Hagen