Many interesting things have been said about life and the meaning of it all, so we have put together a list of all the best short quotes about life for you to share. And if you’re looking for short quotes about life for Instagram, we also have you covered.
Now go ahead and browse through to find your favorite.
Short Quotes About Life
“Life is short and the older you get, the more you feel it. Indeed, the shorter it is.” – Viggo Mortensen
“Enjoy every moment because life is too short to fret over hardships.” – Himaja Sirigiri
“Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive.” – Elbert Hubbard
“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more.” – Melody Beattie
“In order to write about life first you must live it.”– Ernest Hemingway
“Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life.” – Omar Khayyam
“Curiosity about life in all of its aspects, I think, is still the secret of great creative people.” – Leo Burnett
“Life is about making an impact, not making an income.” — Kevin Kruse
“Life is 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent how you respond to it.” – Lou Holtz
“Life is too short, and the time we waste in yawning never can be regained.” – Stendhal
“If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things.”– Albert Einstein
“Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact.” – William James
“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” – Anais Nin
“If you want something, don’t wish for it. Life is too short to wait.” – Stephen Hines
“You only pass through this life once, you don’t come back for an encore.” — Elvis Presley
“If life were predictable it would cease to be life, and be without flavor.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” – Confucius
“Life is short. Stop worrying so much. Have fun. Be grateful. Be yourself.” – Karen Salmansohn
“Know yourself.” – Greek Proverb
“Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness.” – Carl Jung
“Life is short, and it is here to be lived.” —Kate Winslet
“Everyone has a purpose in life. Perhaps yours is watching television.” – David Letterman
“Life would be tragic if it weren’t funny.” — Stephen Hawking
“Life is hard; it’s harder if you’re stupid.” – John Wayne
“The art of life is to know how to enjoy a little and to endure very much.” – William Hazlitt
“Growth is the only evidence of life.” – John Henry Newman
“Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“If life was fair, Elvis would be alive and all the impersonators would be dead.” – Johnny Carson
“Life’s tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late.” — Benjamin Franklin
“Live for each second without hesitation.” — Elton John
“Life is an opportunity, benefit from it. Life is beauty, admire it. Life is a dream, realize it.” – Mother Teresa
“Life is the flower for which love is the honey.” – Victor Hugo
“Life is short it is up to you to make it sweet.” – Sarah Louise
The best way to prepare for life is to begin to live.”- Elbert Hubbard
“Today, you have 100% of your life left.” – Tom Landry
“Life is really simple, but men insist on making it complicated.” — Confucius
“This has been my life; I found it worth living.” – Bertrand Russell
“Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood.” — Helen Keller
“Enjoy the little things in life.” – Robert Breault
“Life doesn’t require that we be the best, only that we try our best.” – H. Jackson Brown Jr.
“Life is short, and we should respect every moment of it.” – Orhan Pamuk
“I’ve been around a long time, and life still has a whole lot of surprises for me.”- Loretta Lynn
“Not how long, but how well you have lived is the main thing.” — Seneca
“The greatest pleasure of life is love.” — Euripides
“Be where you are; otherwise you will miss your life.” — Buddha
“Life is what we make it, always has been, always will be.” — Grandma Moses
“When you cease to dream you cease to live.” —Malcolm Forbes
“It is not length of life, but depth of life.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“The unexamined life is not worth living.” — Socrates
“You choose the life you live.” – Kim Kiyosaki
“Life is way too short to continue thinking you’re not worthy or good enough.” – Kevin Ngo
“If we don’t change, we don’t grow. If we don’t grow, we aren’t really living.” – Gail Sheehy
“Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.” – Soren Kierkegaard
“Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact.” – William James
“It is more fitting for a man to laugh at life than to lament over it.” – Seneca
“Life is like a coin. You can spend it any way you wish, but you only spend it once.” — Lillian Dickson
“The purpose of our lives is to be happy.” — Dalai Lama
“Life is really simple, but men insist on making it complicated.” — Confucius
“A life of sacrifice is the pinnacle of art, and is full of true joy.” –Mahatma Gandhi
“The joy of life is becoming a person you are proud of.” —Bill Orender
“Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.” – Albert Einstein
“I think if you live in a black-and-white world, you’re gonna suffer a lot.” – Bradley Cooper
“If you want to be happy, be.” – Leo Tolstoy
“Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.” — John Lennon
“Enjoy every moment you have. Because in life, there are no rewinds, only flashbacks.” –Anmol Andore
“In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.”- Robert Frost
“As you know, life is an echo; we get what we give.” — David DeNotaris
“Life is short, and truth works far and lives long: let us then speak the truth.” – Arthur Schopenhauer
“Life is 10 percent what you make it, and 90 percent how you take it.” – Irving Berlin
“Get busy living or get busy dying.” — Stephen King
“Life is hard. After all, it kills you.” – Katharine Hepburn
“Be patient and understanding. Life is too short to be vengeful or malicious.” – Phillips Brooks
“One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life: that word is love.” – Sophocles
“Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith.” – Steve Jobs
“There are no regrets in life, just lessons.” — Jennifer Aniston
“Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forward.” – Soren Kierkegaard
“Life is too short to be unhappy.” – Roy T. Bennett
“Light tomorrow with today!” – Elizabeth Barrett Browning
“Turn every life situation into a positive one.” – Rhonda Byrne
“Life was meant to be lived, and curiosity must be kept alive.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
“Your life only gets better when you get better.”- Brian Tracy
“Enjoy your own life without comparing it with that of another.” – Marquis de Condorcet
“Life will bring you pain all by itself. Your responsibility is to create joy.” – Milton Erickson
“We can’t plan life. All we can do is be available for it.” – Lauryn Hill
“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Pleasure of love lasts but a moment. Pain of love lasts a lifetime.” – Bette Davis
“Life is too short and happiness is too rare.” – A.R.Lucas
“After all, life is too short to be anything but happy.” – Karl Marx
“Let go. Surrender. Go for the ride of your life. Do it every day.” – Melody Beattie
“Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.” — Forrest Gump
“Life is too short to wake up in the morning with regrets.” – Dr. Suess
“The only mystery in life is why the kamikaze pilots wore helmets.” – Al McGuire
“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” – Anaïs Nin
“Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life.” – Omar Khayyam
“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” —Mahatma Gandhi
“The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved.” – Victor Hugo
“Life is never easy.” — John F. Kennedy
“Life is the first gift, love is the second, and understanding the third.” – Marge Piercy
“I have found that if you love life, life will love you back.” – Arthur Rubinstein
“Where there is love there is life.” – Mahatma Gandhi
“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.” — Mae West
“Life is as easy or as hard as you think it is.”– Jonathan Lockwood Huie
“Where there is love there is life.” – Mahatma Ghandi
“Spread love everywhere you go.” – Mother Teresa
“I enjoy life when things are happening. I don’t care if it’s good things or bad things.” – Joan Rivers
“You get in life what you have the courage to ask for.” —Oprah Winfrey
“Living an experience, a particular fate, is accepting it fully.” — Albert Camus
“Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.” — Mark Twain
“Life is precious, and when you’ve lost a lot of people, you realize each day is a gift.” – Meryl Streep
“Every moment of life is precious and can never happen again.” – Zelig Pliskin
“Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot.” – Charlie Chaplin
“Love who you want to love. Life is short. Nobody’s going to hate you for it.” – Shane Dawson
“Life is a first impression. You get one shot at it. Make it everlasting.” – J.R. Rim
“Maybe that’s what life is… a wink of the eye and winking stars.” — Jack Kerouac
“Life is too short to harbor any hostilities towards anybody.” – Peabo Bryson
“The most important thing is to enjoy your life—to be happy—it’s all that matters.” – Audrey Hepburn
“The meaning of life is to give life meaning.” – Ken Hudgins
“Believe you can and you’re halfway there.”- Theodore Roosevelt
“A life lived in love will never be dull.” – Leo Buscaglia
“Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood.” – Marie Curie
“Embrace your uniqueness, time is much too short to be living someone elses life.” – Kobi Yamada
“I believe you make your day. You make your life.” – Brad Pitt
“When you’re in love it’s the most glorious two and a half days of your life.” – Richard Lewis
So that is it for our list of Short Quotes About Life. We hope you found the perfect one for you!
For more great ideas, check out our other lists of Monday Morning Quotes, Daily Inspiration Quotes, Thinking of You Messages and Funny Happy Anniversary Messages.
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About the Author
Laynni Deir
I am Laynni Deir, writer and editor of Purely Lists. There are times when you are looking for inspiration or aren’t sure what to say and I am committed to providing lists of the best quotes, sayings, messages, puns or captions for any occasion. Whether you are looking for a positive quote, a message for a card, a fun saying for a letter board or caption for your next post or story, you will find the perfect option here.
The goal of Purely Lists is to provide a comprehensive and diverse set of lists to cover every situation from holidays and celebrations to uplifting quotes and general motivation. Whether you are looking for something deep and profound, funny and foolish or positive and encouraging, we strive to offer easy, fast and accessible options.

