„If we live a life full of regret, full of things we haven't done, if we've lived an unfulfilled life, when death comes along, it's a lot worse. I think it's true for all of us.“

„We must conquer life by living it to the full, and then we can go to meet death with a certain prestige.“

—  Aleister Crowley, kniha Diary of a Drug Fiend

Zdroj: Diary of a Drug Fiend

„My life used to be full of everything. Now if you aren't with me I haven't a thing in the world.“

—  Ernest Hemingway, kniha A Farewell to Arms

Zdroj: A Farewell to Arms

„Let us learn from the lips of death the lessons of life. Let us live truly while we live, live for what is true and good and lasting.“

—  Felix Adler German American professor of political and social ethics, rationalist, and lecturer 1851 - 1933

Founding Address (1876), Life and Destiny (1913)
Kontext: Let us learn from the lips of death the lessons of life. Let us live truly while we live, live for what is true and good and lasting. And let the memory of our dead help us to do this. For they are not wholly separated from us, if we remain loyal to them. In spirit they are with us. And we may think of them as silent, invisible, but real presences in our households.

„I don't do regrets. Regrets are pointless. It's too late for regrets. You've already done it, haven't you? You've lived your life. No point wishing you could change it.“

—  Lemmy Kilmister British singer-songwriter 1945 - 2015

„I find that life is easier when it is just a blur
With no details to confuse who or what or where I was
So when the ending comes the full regret will be obscure“

—  Conor Oberst American musician 1980

The Difference In The Shades
Letting Off the Happiness (1998)

„Live life with a purpose and live it full out.“

—  Steve Maraboli 1975

Zdroj: Life, the Truth, and Being Free (2010), p. 32

„I think living well is the key: trying not to build up regrets for the things we didn't do in our lives; to try to live a regret-free life in which we feel satisfied in what we're doing; and to try to be kind to ourselves and not disappointed in ourselves.“

—  Irvin D. Yalom American psychotherapist and writer 1931

The grand old man of American psychiatry on what he has learnt about life (and death) in his still-flourishing career, The Independent http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/irvin-d-yalom-interview-the-grand-old-man-of-american-psychiatry-on-what-he-has-learnt-about-life-10134092.html

„Life is full of regrets, but it doesn't pay to look back.“

—  Zinedine Zidane French association football player and manager 1972

„It is not the things we do in life that we regret on our death bed. It is the things we do not.“

—  Randy Pausch American professor of computer science, human-computer interaction and design 1960 - 2008

CMU Graduation speech (2008)
Kontext: It is not the things we do in life that we regret on our death bed. It is the things we do not. I assure you I've done a lot of really stupid things, and none of them bother me. All the mistakes, and all the dopey things, and all the times I was embarrassed — they don't matter. What matters is that I can kind of look back and say: Pretty much any time I got chance to do something cool I tried to grab for it — and that's where my solace comes from.

„Life is only lived full-time by women with children.“

—  Marguerite Duras French writer and film director 1914 - 1996

„The life of a nation is the fullness of the measure of its will to live.“

—  Franklin D. Roosevelt 32nd President of the United States 1882 - 1945

1940s, Third Inaugural Address (1941)
Kontext: Lives of nations are determined not by the count of years, but by the lifetime of the human spirit. The life of a man is three-score years and ten: a little more, a little less. The life of a nation is the fullness of the measure of its will to live.

„You know what that reflects? Unsatisfied lives. Unfulfilled lives. Lives that haven't found meaning. Because if you’ve find meaning in your life, you don’t want to go back. You want to go forward.“

—  Mitch Albom, Tuesdays with Morrie

Tuesdays with Morrie (1997)

„We have to go along a road covered with blood. We have no other alternative. For us it is a matter of life or death, a matter of living or existing. We have to be ready to face the challenges that await us.“

—  Gamal Abdel Nasser second president of Egypt 1918 - 1970

Gamal Abdel Nasser, speech to Egypt's National Assembly, Cairo (November 6, 1969), as reported by The Washington Post (November 7, 1969), p. 1.

„You must live life with the full knowledge that your actions will remain. We are creatures of consequence.“

—  Zadie Smith, kniha White Teeth

Zdroj: White Teeth

„This life we live nowadays! It's not life, it's stagnation, death-in-life. Look at all these bloody houses, and the meaningless people inside them! Sometimes I think we're all corpses. Just rotting upright.“

—  George Orwell, kniha Keep the Aspidistra Flying

Zdroj: Keep the Aspidistra Flying (1936), Ch. 5

„We are not to retreat from life, pinning our hopes on ‘elsewhere.’ but to know that we will come to that final destination best by living full here and now, be it through joy, or pain, or a mix of both.“

—  Madeleine L'Engle American writer 1918 - 2007

The Rock that Is Higher (1993)

„I've come to believe that how we choose to live with pain, or injustice, or death…. is the true measure of the Divine within us.“

—  Alan Brennert American writer 1954

Zdroj: Moloka'i

„Music is the true breath of life. We eat so we won't starve to death. We sing so we can hear ourselves live.“

—  Yasmina Khadra Algerian writer 1955

Zdroj: Swallows of Kabul

„Life is a mystery as deep as ever death can be;
Yet oh, how dear it is to us, this life we live and see!“

—  Mary Mapes Dodge Children's writer, novelist, poet, editor 1831 - 1905

The Two Mysteries (1904).