Life Stream Quotes

It's your duty to use what influence you have, unless you want to drift through life like a fish belly-up on the stream"
"I wish I could believe that life really is something more than a stream that carries us along, belly-up"
"Alright, if it's a stream, you're still free to be in this part of it or that part, aren't you? The water will divide again and again. If you bump, and tussle, and fight, and make use of whatever advantages you might have-"
"Oh, that's fine, I'm sure, when you have advantages."
"You'd find them everywhere, if you ever bothered to look! ~ Arthur Golden

No one can predict at the outset where the life stream will lead, but those moments of fissure, rupture, diversion, and frustration require choice and can become springboards to opportunity. ~ Virginia Scharff

According to the Buddha's teaching the beginning of the life-stream of living beings is unthinkable. THe believer in the creation of life by God may be astonished at this reply. But if you were to ask him 'What is the beginning of God?' he would answer without hesitation 'God has no beginning', and he is not astonished at his own reply. ~ Walpola Rahula

I know myself as mortal, but this raises the question: "What is I?" Am I an individual, or am I an evolving life stream composed of countless selves? ~ Charles Lindbergh

We all have that same stream of life within us, so you are a part of everything. Each one of us has the power
to make a difference to everything. ~ Jay Woodman

OUR age is retrospective. It builds the sepulchres of the fathers. It writes biographies, histories, and criticism. The foregoing generations beheld God and nature face to face; we, through their eyes. Why should not we also enjoy an original relation to the universe? Why should not we have a poetry and philosophy of insight and not of tradition, and a religion by revelation to us, and not the history of theirs? Embosomed for a season in nature, whose floods of life stream around and through us, and invite us by the powers they supply, to action proportioned to nature, why should we grope among the dry bones of the past, or put the living generation into masquerade out of its faded wardrobe? The sun shines to-day also. There is more wool and flax in the fields. There are new lands, new men, new thoughts. Let us demand our own works and laws and worship. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Life is an unending stream of extenuating circumstances. ~ Clayton Christensen

Let the intellect alone, it has its usefulness in its proper sphere, but let it not interfere with the flowing of the life-stream. ~ D.T. Suzuki

Everything in art must spring from the movement of our whole life-stream, of our whole being - including the unconscious. ~ Marc Chagall

Yea, I am one with all I see, With wind and wave, with pine and palm; Their very elements in me Are fused to make me what I am. Through me their common life-stream flows, And when I yield this human breath, In leaf and blossom, bud and rose, Live on I will…. There is no Death ~ Robert W. Service

I cite too the ordinary fears of mortality the inspection of a fast-growing mole on the side of the nose blood in the stool a painful injury or the mournful witness of the slow death of a parent all this is given to all men as well as the starting awake in the nether hours of the night from such glutinous nightmare that on'e self name relationships nationality place in life all data of specificity wipe out amnesiatically asiatically you don't even know the idea human it is such a low hour of the night and he shares it with all of us. ~ E.L. Doctorow

Individuals are custodians of the life stream
temporal manifestations of far greater being, forming from and returning to their essence like so many dreams. ~ Charles Lindbergh

One of the fundamental discoveries I made about myself - early enough to make use of it - was that I am driven to seize life and to understand it. The motor that pushes me is propelled by more than scientific curiosity. ~ Craig Venter

Accept life as the greatest gift. ~ Lailah Gifty Akita

Eighty percent of our life is emotion, and only 20 percent is intellect. I am much more interested in how you feel than how you think. I can change how you think, but how you feel is something deeper and stronger, and it's something that's inside you. ~ Frank Luntz

Maybe that was why I wanted to slap so many of the zombies; they had no idea how freaking lucky they were. Lucky and ignorant, happy little rich kids who believed in Santa Claus and the tooth fairy and thought that life was supposed to be fair. ~ Laurie Halse Anderson

I can get on with someone really, really, really well ... and if they're no good at having sex with me, it really upsets me, because I think, oh God, this is someone I'd really like to spend the rest of my life with, but I cannot face having bad sex for the rest of my life. ~ Lily Allen

We forget that the water cycle and the life cycle are one. ~ Jacques-Yves Cousteau

The irony of life: Realizing a lifetime is barely long enough to figure out how it should have been lived. ~ Richelle E. Goodrich

The cat seldom interferes with other people's rights. His intelligence keeps him from doing many of the fool things that complicate life. ~ Carl Van Vechten

I don't know much about Britain. I've been working overseas for most of my adult life. So I'd like to see what sort of problems there really are here. It's a question of asking, 'Where are we going, how purposeful are we?' And see if there's anything that can be done to find possibilities for change. ~ Rory Stewart

Oh Beck, I love reading your e-mail. Learning your life. And I am careful; I always mark new messages unread so that you won't get alarmed. My good fortune doesn't stop there; You prefer e-mail. You don't like texting. So this means that I am not missing out on all that much communication. You wrote an "essay" for some blog in which you stated that "e-mails last forever. You can search for any word at any time and see everything you ever said to anyone about that one word. Texts go away." I love you for wanting a record. I love your records for being so accessible and I'm so full of you, your calendar of caloric intake and hookups and menstrual moments, your self-portraits you don't publish, your recipes and exercises. You will know me soon too, I promise. ~ Caroline Kepnes

The right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness means that each of us is free to go our own way, even if the ways some of us may choose to go seem sinful or shocking to our fellow citizens. ~ Dan Savage

Five cats and a woman. That is all I need in life. ~ Alejandro Jodorowsky

It would be nice if life worked this way, stripping the dirt from our lives and sending us back out into the world clean. But some dirt is destined to lingered. ~ Veronica Roth

We labor under the great delusion that we are in control.
Silly humans. ~ Toni Sorenson

I'm not afraid of life and I'm not afraid of death: Dying's the bore. ~ Katherine Anne Porter

...when the bullets fly and sundry erratic fragments of shell are seeking
a fellowʼs life, and he has to lay low in the pits to keep his light from being snuffed
out, then is a good opportunity to reckon up and balance accounts with the world
in general and a fellowʼs near relatives and family in particular. Many, many,
many a time have I thought of the careless word or deed never recalled, or
amended, and during those midnight hours would I have given almost life itself to
have the opportunity of making amends for them. Not through fear of what is
beyond this life, but in order that after my flesh had turned to dust, and my bones
to traces of white lime, those that knew me in life could say, "Charlie is gone, and
though his life was full of inconsistencies, still he was a good hearted fellow, and
if he did not amount to much as man, still he done no one any harm." Charlie Biddlecom January 22, 1865 ~ Katherine M. Aldridge

When I'm sixteen and reach the midpoint of my life, I'll have my first child. Not 'cause I want to, or 'cause I made a silly decision with a strapping young boy after sneaking a few sips of my father's fire juice, but 'cause I must. It's the Law of my people, the Heaters; a Law that's kept us alive and thriving for many years. A Law I fear. ~ David Estes

We cannot get away from the infinite. It stares us in the face whether we look at atoms or stars, or at the becauses behind the becauses, stretching back through eternity. Flat-earth science has no more use for it than the flat-earth theologians had in the Dark Ages; but a true science of life must let infinity in, and never lose sight of it. In two earlier books I have tried to show that throughout the ages the great innovators in the history of science had always been aware of the transparency of phenomena towards a different order of reality, of the ubiquitous presence of the ghost in the machine -even such a simple machine as a magnetic compass or a Leyden jar. Once a scientist loses the sense of mystery, he can be an excellent technician, but he ceases to be a savant. ~ Arthur Koestler

In life; there's always someone knowing the secret hidden in your life besides yourself. ~ Auliq Ice

The worst pain in the world is shame. I spend a lot of time trying to not do anything bad to anyone, but you can't live your life and not hurt people. ~ Fiona Apple

I couldn't stand the idea of a woman having to have a single pure life and a man being able to have a double life, one pure and one not. ~ Sylvia Plath

In Mark 10:51-52, we read of a blind man named Bartimaeus who heard a crowd approach. When Bartimaeus realized who was within reach, he wouldn't be silenced. He began to call out the name of Jesus. "What do you want me to do for you?" Jesus asked him. The blind man said, "Rabbi, I want to see." Jesus stopped everything to open the eyes of this man, and his life was so changed by that encounter that he followed Christ alongside the road. Are you crying out to God today? ~ Suzanne Eller

Life is change. If you aren't growing and evolving, you're standing still, and the rest of the world is surging ahead. ~ Louise Penny

Those who fail to exhibit positive attitudes, no matter the external reality, are seen as maladjusted and in need of assistance. Their attitudes need correction. Once we adopt an upbeat vision of reality, positive things will happen. This belief encourages us to flee from reality when reality does not elicit positive feelings. These specialists in "happiness" have formulated something they call the "Law of Attraction." It argues that we attract those things in life, whether it is money, relationships or employment, which we focus on. Suddenly, abused and battered wives or children, the unemployed, the depressed and mentally ill, the illiterate, the lonely, those grieving for lost loved ones, those crushed by poverty, the terminally ill, those fighting with addictions, those suffering from trauma, those trapped in menial and poorly paid jobs, those whose homes are in foreclosure or who are filing for bankruptcy because they cannot pay their medical bills, are to blame for their negativity. The ideology justifies the cruelty of unfettered capitalism, shifting the blame from the power elite to those they oppress. And many of us have internalized this pernicious message, which in times of difficulty leads to personal despair, passivity and disillusionment. ~ Chris Hedges

Drive down any road,

take a train or an airplane
across the world, leave
your old life behind,

die and be born again~
wherever you arrive
they'll be there first,

glossy and rowdy
and indistinguishable.
The deep muscle of the world. ~ Mary Oliver

This is the very reason that some lives end seemingly early and by their own hands because Mother Nature doesn't understand that a personage can out-age a body. It is the reason that someone unwell can look so very vibrant on the outside, giving no indication that death lurks around the corner. Souls saturated in sickness, negativity, and ill-thoughts cannot weather the years well. ~ Jess Neal Woods

The world's a puzzle; no need to make sense out of it. - Socrates ~ Dan Millman

Through acting and film, I felt that my life had a sense to it. I felt I had a mission. ~ Cecilia Roth

Good writing excites me, and makes life worth living. ~ Harold Pinter

My mother is my root, my foundation. She planted the seed that I base my life on, and that is the belief that the ability to achieve starts in your mind. ~ Michael Jordan

If things are too easy, life is a whole lot less interesting. ~ Marian Wright Edelman

A curious thought experiment ... Nietzsche's message to us was to live life in such a way that we would be willing to repeat the same life eternally ~ Irvin D. Yalom

In a world threatened by pain and death, stories of miracle workers are a psychological necessity, because the alternative is unmitigated horror and despair. ~ Philip Ball

I usually say the aim of life is to be happy. Our existence is based on hope. Our life is rooted in the opportunity to be happy, not necessarily wealthy, but happy within our own minds. If we only indulge in sensory pleasure, we'll be little different from animals. In fact, we have this marvellous brain and intelligence; we must learn to use it. ~ Dalai Lama

I would agree with your statement that many of my protagonists are outsiders. I wonder if we all are, and even people who don't think they are, and they're just better at masking it. When we shut our bedroom door at night, however well-integrated we think we are with the rest of society, maybe there's something illusory about that ... ~ David Mitchell

Here was the rub: one must be more zealous to please God than to avoid sin. One must sacrifice oneself utterly to God's purposes, even to the point of possibly making moral mistakes. One's obedience to God must be forward-oriented and zealous and free, and to be a mere moralist or pietist would make such a life impossible. ~ Eric Metaxas

When I look over my past, I see that the stages in my life are like the phases of the moon. I've had periods where I was the waxing gibbous: fat with wealth and success. There have been other seasons when my happiness was like the waning crescent and I watched my joy fade away slowly, merging with the atmosphere around me as if it never existed. Then I felt as if I was left with nothing more than an illusion, but happiness returns in time and glows once more in corpulent fullness. It's time that makes the difference. ~ Amy Neftzger

There is a great deal more to evolutionary biology than survival of the fittest - although that's all anyone seems to remember. One of Darwin's contemporaries was Alfred Russel Wallace, who had even more profound lessons about evolution - that humans are social creatures. That we coevolve with other species as part of a fabric of interwoven and interdependent life-forms. The world isn't entirely about competition and dominance. And species that cooperate with others succeed better than those who do not. That's what civilization is, cooperation." "And ~ Daniel Suarez

Edit your life frequently and ruthlessly. It's your masterpiece after all. ~ Nathan W. Morris

It depends what you want your life to be like... if you're thirsty for water, then don't settle with the finest wine. ~ Efrat Cybulkiewicz

So when bad things are happening to you, embrace the funk. That, too, is cultivating positive outlook. When something is hard or difficult and adversity is at your front door, embrace it, because it will make you stronger and your life richer. You can't know happiness unless you feel sadness. If you embrace it as part of the process, it can be life-altering. Life is going to get you down and the funk is going to get you. Embrace it and fight through it and know you are not alone. Take baby steps, remember all the slight edge allies you have, and know that there is a path out of the funk. ~ Jeff Olson

Success creates momentum for the next success. ~ Debasish Mridha

Water Lilies' is an extension of my life. Without the woter the lilies cannot live, as I am without art. ~ Claude Monet

All my life, until today, I have been content to ask questions. All the while knowing that the real questions, those that concern the creator and his creation, have no answers. I'll go even farther and say that there is a level at which only the questions are eternal, the answers never are. And so, the patient that I am, more charitable, repeats: 'Since God is, He is to be found in the questions as well as in the answers. ~ Elie Wiesel

Your life will be a great and continuous unfolding ~ Cheryl Strayed

Cowgirl is a spirit, a special brand of courage. The cowgirl faces life head on, lives by her own lights, and makes no excuses. Cowgirls take stands. They speak up. They defend the things they hold dear. A cowgirl might be a rancher, or a barrel racer, or a bull rider, or an actress. But she's just as likely to be a checker at the local Winn Dixie, a full-time mother, a banker, an attorney, or an astronaut. ~ Dale Evans

Fear of self is the greatest of all terrors, the deepest of all dread, the commonest of all mistakes. From it grows failure. Because of it, life is a mockery. Out of it comes despair. ~ David Seabury

One day, you will stand at the summit of a figurative mountain and look back on your life's journey. And, to your utter amazement, you will see how your experiences with depression, dark and painful as they were, only added to the overall beauty of your life. ~ Seth Adam Smith