“Life is not Death – It is everything else!” (Davidoff)

What the Dictionary says

The condition that distinguishes animals and plants from inorganic matter, including the capacity for growth, reproduction, functional activity, and continual change preceding death.

In Terms of Energy

“life uses energy for physical and conscious development”

“Life is also a process through which energy and materials are transformed;” Nicholas Taylor, Little Sandhurst, Berkshire

In Biological Terms

‘Life is an arrangement of molecules with qualities of self-sustenance and self-replication’. 

John Talley, Rutherfordton, NC

In Chemical Terms

“Life is self-organising chemistry which reproduces itself and passes on its evolved characteristics, encoded in DNA”.   

Dr Harry Fuchs, Warwickshire

In Thermodynamic terms

Life has the ability “to reduce local entropy or disorganisation, thus locally contravening the third law of thermodynamics”.   

Dr Harry Fuchs, Warwickshire

The Spark of Life

“We seek the fire of the spark that is already within us.”  Kamand Kojouri -writer

“A living man of great deeds, in whose chest beats a heart,
In whose heart burns a spark, a spark to boil the blood,
In whose head flares a gleam that would lighten the path;” Chaim Bialik – Surely, This Nation is Grass

“Each of us has a spark of life in us, and our highest endeavor ought to be to set off that spark in one another.”  Kenny Ausubel social entrepreneur

The Soul

“Have you ever sensed that our soul is immortal and never dies?”
― Plato, The Republic

Plato

“A room without books is like a body without a soul.” 
― Marcus Tullius Cicero

The Young Cicero

“The soul is placed in the body like a rough diamond, and must be polished, or the luster of it will never appear.” 
― Daniel Defoe English Writer most famous for Robinson Crusoe

“Hollywood is a place where they’ll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss and fifty cents for your soul. I know, because I turned down the first offer often enough and held out for the fifty cents.” 
― Marilyn Monroe

“Inside us there is something that has no name, that something is what we are.” 
― José Saramago, Blindness Recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature

“Whatever satisfies the soul is truth.” 
― Walt Whitman – American Poet, Humanist

“Beauty of whatever kind, in its supreme development, invariably excites the sensitive soul to tears.” 
― Edgar Allan Poe

 

When great souls die,
the air around us becomes
light, rare, sterile. Maya Angelou

 

“Music is an outburst of the soul.” 
― Frederick Delius

 

“I’m not a body with a soul, I’m a soul that has a visible part called the body.” 
― Paulo Coelho, Eleven Minutes Lyricist and Novelist

Image by Ricardo Stucker

 

“Once the soul awakens, the search begins and you can never go back.” 
― John O’Donohue, Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom

“Beauty is the illumination of your soul.” 
― John O’Donohue,

“It is very hard for evil to take hold of the unconsenting soul.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin,

By K. Kendall 

“There may be a great fire in our soul, yet no one ever comes to warm himself at it, and the passers-by see only a wisp of smoke.”
― Vincent van Gogh

 

“You are one thing only. You are a Divine Being. An all-powerful Creator. You are a Deity in jeans and a t-shirt, and within you dwells the infinite wisdom of the ages and the sacred creative force of All that is, will be and ever was.” 
― Anthon St. Maarten, Divine Living

 

“Whatever happens to your body, your soul will survive, untouched…” 
― J.K. Rowling,

by John Mathew Smith & www.celebrity-photos.com

 

“I drink to separate my body from my soul.” 
― Oscar Wilde

 

“Seek out that particular mental attribute which makes you feel most deeply and vitally alive, along with which comes the inner voice which says, ‘This is the real me,’ and when you have found that attitude, follow it.” 
― William James – Philosopher and Psychologist

 

“What keeps life fascinating is the constant creativity of the soul.” 
― Deepak Chopra, Life After Death: The Burden of Proof

Mitchell Aidelbaum –

“Idris: Are all people like this?
The Doctor: Like what?
Idris: So much bigger on the inside.” 
― Neil Gaiman – English Author

By Kyle Cassidy 

“A single day spent doing things which fail to nourish the soul is a day stolen, mutilated, and discarded in the gutter of destiny.” 
― Michel Faber, The Crimson Petal and the White

By WanderingTrad

“If my eyes have pain, I close them; If my body aches, I rest it; If my heart breaks, I mend it; If my soul is lost, I pray for it” 
― Jeremy Aldana

 

“How can you hear your soul if everyone is talking?” 
― Mary Doria Russell, Children of God

By Jeffrey Beal

“I am not my body. My body is nothing without me.” 
― Tom Stoppard, Rock ‘n’ Roll British Playwright Screenwriter

By Кондрашкин Б. Е.

“Just as in the body, eye and ear develop as organs of perception, as senses for bodily processes, so does a man develop in himself soul and spiritual organs of perception through which the soul and spiritual worlds are opened to him. For those who do not have such higher senses, these worlds are dark and silent, just as the bodily world is dark and silent for a being without eyes and ears.” 
― Rudolf Steiner, Theosophy: An Introduction to the Spiritual Processes in Human Life and in the Cosmos Austrian Philosopher

“How it is that animals understand things I do not know, but it is certain that they do understand. Perhaps there is a language which is not made of words and everything in the world understands it. Perhaps there is a soul hidden in everything and it can always speak, without even making a sound, to another soul.” 
― Frances Hodgson Burnett, A Little Princess Novelist and Playwright

 

What Scientists Say

“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”   Albert Einstein

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.” 
Albert Einstein

“Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.” 
― Marie Curie

What Physicians Say

About death  2 aspects

Irreversible breakdown in the functioning of the human organism as a whole.

Brain Death

Fetal Demise – Spalding Sign

“Sometimes our light goes out, but is blown again into instant flame by an encounter with another human being.” 
― Albert Schweitzer

By Bundesarchiv,

 

What Actors and Actresses Say

“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”
Mae West

“.. life’s a beautiful thing and there’s so much to smile about.”             Marilyn Monroe

“Hollywood is a place where they’ll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss and fifty cents for your soul. I know, because I turned down the first offer often enough and held out for the fifty cents.” 
― Marilyn Monroe

What Politicians Say

“Where there is love there is life.” 
― Mahatmia Gandhi

“Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.” 
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“I can see how it might be possible for a man to look down upon the earth and be an atheist, but I cannot conceive how a man could look up into the heavens and say there is no God.” 
Abraham Lincoln

 

What Inspirational People Say

“You’ve gotta dance like there’s nobody watching,
Love like you’ll never be hurt,
Sing like there’s nobody listening,
And live like it’s heaven on earth.”   

William W. Purkey

 

What Comedians Cartoonists and Comic Book Writers Say

“The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made.” 
Groucho Marx

“Reality continues to ruin my life.” 
Bill Watterson

“Life is what happens to us while we are making other plans.” 
 Allen Saunders

“Ordinary life is pretty complex stuff.” 
― Harvey Pekar

“I think I’ve discovered the secret of life — you just hang around until you get used to it.” 
Charles M. Schulz

“If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans.” 
Woody Allen

“My one regret in life is that I am not someone else.” 
― Woody Allen

What Poets say

“In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.”   Robert Frost 

“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.”   Oscar Wilde

“Life’s a bitch. You’ve got to go out and kick ass.” 
― Maya Angelou

“Unbeing dead isn’t being alive.” 
 E.E. Cummings

“Life is for the living.
Death is for the dead.
Let life be like music. 
And death a note unsaid.” 
― Langston Hughes

“That it will never come again is what makes life so sweet.” 
 Emily Dickinson

“What a strange thing!
to be alive beneath cherry blossoms.” 
 Kobayashi Issa

“The best things in life make you sweaty.” 
 Edgar Allan Poe

What Writers say

“To be, or not to be: that is the question” William Shakespeare

“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” 
 George Bernard Shaw

“Biology gives you a brain. Life turns it into a mind.” 
Jeffrey Eugenides,

“There is not a particle of life which does not bear poetry within it” 
―Gustave Flaubert

“Unexpected intrusions of beauty. This is what life is.” 
 Saul Bellow

“There are two tragedies in life. One is to lose your heart’s desire. The other is to gain it.” 
 George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman

“But how could you live and have no story to tell?” 
 Fyodor Dostoyevsky, White Nights

“The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.” 
Mark Twain

“Develop an interest in life as you see it; the people, things, literature, music – the world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures, beautiful souls and interesting people. Forget yourself.” 
Henry Miller

“The best things in life make you sweaty.” 
 Edgar Allan Poe

“Don’t be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.” 
 Ralph Waldo Emerson

What Philosophers Say

“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” 
 Søren Kierkegaard

“He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.” 
Friedrich Nietzsche

“A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.” 
Lao Tzu

“Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.” 
Lao Tzu

“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” 
 Confucius

“Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.”
Søren Kierkegaard

“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.” 
 Heraclitus

“When you arise in the morning think of what a privilege it is to be alive, to think, to enjoy, to love …” 
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“Seek out that particular mental attribute which makes you feel most deeply and vitally alive, along with which comes the inner voice which says, ‘This is the real me,’ and when you have found that attitude, follow it.” 
― William James

“There is one spectacle grander than the sea, that is the sky; there is one spectacle grander than the sky, that is the interior of the soul.”
― Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

What Religious Leaders Say

“May you live every day of your life.” 
Jonathan Swift

“Sometimes our light goes out, but is blown again into instant flame by an encounter with another human being.” 
― Albert Schweitzer

What the Old Testament Says

Deuteronomy 30:19 This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live 

20 and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Deuteronomy 30:19-20

Genesis 3:22  And the LORD God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.”  Genesis 3:22-23

Proverbs 14:27 The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, turning a person from the snares of death.

What the New Testament Says

John 14:6  Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

John 8:12  When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Love and Life

“Where there is love there is life.” 
Mahatma Gandhi

“A purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved.” 
Kurt Vonnegut Jr., The Sirens of Titan

Beauty and Life

“Unexpected intrusions of beauty. This is what life is.” 
― Saul Bellow

Poetry and Life

Music and Life

“Without music, life would be a mistake”  Friedrich Nietzsche

“Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything.”  Plato

“If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music.” Albert Einstein

“Without music, life would be a blank to me.” Jane Austen

“Music is the language of the spirit. It opens the secret of life bringing peace, abolishing strife.” ― Kahlil Gibran

“Life seems to go on without effort when I am filled with music.”       George Eliot

“Life is like a beautiful melody, only the lyrics are messed up.” ― Hans Christian Andersen

“Music is an outburst of the soul.” 
― Frederick Delius

Time and Life

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.” 
Steve Jobs

“Do not wait for the last judgment. It comes every day.” 
 Albert Camus

Death and Life

“The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.” 
Mark Twain

“I’m not afraid of death; I just don’t want to be there when it happens.” 
Woody Allen

“Get busy living or get busy dying.” 
 Stephen King, Different Seasons

“Unbeing dead isn’t being alive.” 
 E.E. Cummings

“Life is for the living.
Death is for the dead.
Let life be like music. 
And death a note unsaid.” 
 Langston Hughes

“The meaning of life is that it stops.” 
 Franz Kafka

“You can exist without your soul, you know, as long as your brain and heart are still working. But you’ll have no sense of self anymore, no memory, no . . . anything. There’s no chance at all of recovery. You’ll just — exist. As an empty shell. And your soul is gone forever . . . lost.” 
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Other References and Links

Secret to Life

Viktor Frankl Holocaust Survivor – Life Changing Quotes

 

The gift of Life and Death Emily Levine