Things I’ve Learned While Roaming the Earth

In my studies of philosophy and poetry, I’ve come across a lot of really cool quotes to live by.  And though I wanted to write them all down, instead, I gave myself a limit of 10 quotes to live by.  I really hope you enjoy them!

1) My favorite quote of all time is a simple one from Morocco:

“He who has nothing to die for has nothing to live for.”

How we often live for less than what we ought, spending our hope on things that never could really satisfy. It is my ambition, as a man who knows that life is short, to fill up my life with things worth fighting for, worth hoping for, worth dying for. Knowing that life is short, how can any of us live any other way?

2) Next is from my favorite author, Henry David Thoreau:

“When we are unhurried and wise we perceive that only great and worthy things have any absolute and permanent existence, that petty fears and petty pleasures are but the shadow of reality.”

I have often loved times of solitude, retreating out to the lonely morning places of nature to sit and ponder life, feeling connected to that grand, elusive scheme intertwining all of humankind. It is only when I am unhurried and wise that I remember what life really is. I remember that I am just a part of the powerful play, that I am no better than other men who have come before me, that my fire will burn for just a little while and then go out in this world.

3) Next is from ancient Chinese poetry, the Tao Te Ching:

“He who overcomes others is strong. He who overcomes himself is mighty.”

Who among us can boast that they have overcome themselves? Who among us can boast that they have rid themselves of the vice that often peppers the soul like grass of the field? Lord willing, I will one day be given the grace to overcome myself. It is the task assigned to each of us.

4) The next quote goes along with the previous one. From Mark 8 in the Bible:

“Whoever wants to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

Why do we hold on so hard to the foolish things we think we want? Isn’t it better to trust the One who knows us better than we know ourselves?

5) Next is a quote I found on the side of a building in Minnesota, oddly enough:

“The great privilege has been given to all to develop strength of character.”

Developing strength of character is available to all, yet who among us diligently strives after it? The old rule applies: when something is free, it’s not often valued.

6) Another old Chinese Proverb:

“Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare.”

I’ve always been a dreamer. But dreams without character, hard work, and determination, are just fanciful imaginings. One of the saddest things in life is a person with beautiful dreams who lacks the diligence and perseverance to make his dreams a reality. Dreams, in that way, can be a curse, haunting their keeper with regret all his days. I refuse to look back on my life, when I am old, with regret, realizing that I was nothing more than a daydreamer. I will strive to have both vision and action.

7) Next is an excerpt from a poem by John Greenleaf Whittier:

“Of all sad words of tongue or pen

The saddest are these ‘It might have been!’”

What is sadder in life than looking back and saying that it might have been? Regret can be one of the worst things in life. I pray often to to the Lord to help me live life to the full, without regrets.

Next is another quote by Henry David Thoreau, from his book Walden about why he went off to live by himself in the woods.

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear, nor did I wish to practice resignation unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life.”

This quote touched me deeply the first time I read it. It convicted me of all the ways I was living in resignation. It gave me the resolve to make my life something worth living.

9) A quote from one of my favorite authors C.S. Lewis, from his book The Great Divorce.

“Reality is harsh to the feet of shadows.”

People often live from the shadows, harboring secret pain or secret desires. But living from the shadows was never meant for human beings. We become the shadows we hide in, and real life no longer suits us.

10) The last and final quote is an excerpt from one of Tennyson’s poems. It needs no explanation:

“Come, my friends.
‘Tis not too late to seek a newer world…
for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars…

and tho’
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are –
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”

If you liked this post, you’ll definitely like Ben’s book Mountainside.


Check it out.


Or leave me a comment