Life is an exciting business and most exciting when it is lived for others. Helen Keller
Life is not a having and getting, but a being and a becoming. Life is fruitful in the ratio in which it is laid out in noble action or patient perseverance. Life is a journey, not a home; a road, not a city of habitation; and the enjoyments and blessings we have are but little inns on the roadside of life, where we may be refreshed for a moment that we may with new strength press on to the end, to the rest that remaineth for the people of God. It is not for man to trifle; life is brief. We have no time to sport away the hours; all must be earnest in a world like ours. Life is currently described in one of four ways: a journey, a battle, a pilgrimage, or a race. For life is a journey, it must be completed, if life is a battle, it must be finished. If life is a pilgrimage, it must be concluded. And if life is a race, it must be won.
A life spent worthily should be measured by deeds, not by years. Live your life each day as you would climb a mountain. An occasional glance toward the summit keeps the goal in mind but many beautiful scenes are to be observed from each new vantage point. Climb slowly, steadily; enjoying each passing moment; and the view from the summit will serve as a fitting climax for the journey. The art of living successfully consists of being able to hold two opposite ideas in tension at the same time; first to make long-term plans as if we were going to live forever, and second, to conduct ourselves daily as if we were going to die tomorrow.
If you have known how to compose your life, you have accomplished great deal more than the man who knows how to compose a book. Have you been able to take your stride? You have done more than the man who has taken cities and empires. The great glorious masterpiece of man is to live to the point. All other things---to reign, to hoard, to build—are, at most, but inconsiderate props and appendages.
Your life is a book. The title page is your name; the preface is your introduction to the world. The pages are a daily record of your efforts, trials, pleasures, discouragements. Your life is what you make it. Your life can be simple if you will set it up with simplicity as a goal. It will take courage to cut away from the thousand and one hindrances that make life complex, but it can be done.
Life is like a mirror: we get the best results when we smile at it.
