Life and death quote

The reason death sticks so closely to life isn`t biological necessity- it`s envy. Life is so beautiful that death has fallen in love with it, a jealous possessive love that grabs at what it can. But life leaps over oblivion lightly, losing only a thing or two of no importance, and gloom is but the passing shadow of a cloud.

Life of Pi by Yann Martel 

How little repining there would be …

How little repining there would be among mankind, at any condition of life, if people would rather compare their condition with those that are worse, in order to be thankful, than be always comparing them with those which are better, to assist their murmurings and complainings.

The life and adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe 

O, what ridiculous resolutions men take …

O, what ridiculous resolutions men take, when possessed with fear ! It deprives them of the use of those means which reason offers for their relief.

The life and adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe 

How strange a chequer work of …

How strange a chequer-work of Providence is the life of man ! And by what secret different springs are the affections hurried about, as differing circumstances present ! Today we love what tomorrow we hate; today we seek what tomorrow we shun; today we desire what tomorrow we fear; nay, even tremble at the apprehensions of. 

The life and adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe 

We never see the true state of …

We never see the true state of our condition, till it is illustrated to us by its contraries; nor know how to value what we enjoy, but by the want of it.

The life and adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe 

As reason is the substance …

As reason is the substance and original of the mathematics, so by stating and squaring everything by reason, and by making the most rational judgment of things, every man may be in time master of every mechanic art. 

The life and adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe 

There was scarce any condition in the world so miserable, but there was something negative or something positive to be thankful for in it; and let this stand as a direction from the experience of the most miserable of all conditions in this world, that we may always find in it something to comfort ourselves from, and to set, in the description of good and evil, on the credit side of the account.

The life and adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

The calamities of life were shared among the …

The calamities of life were shared among the upper and lower part of mankind; but that the middle station had the fewest disasters, and was not exposed to so many vicissitudes as the higher or lower part of mankind; nay, they were not subjected to so many distempers and uneasinesses, either of body or mind, as those were, who by vicious living, luxury, and extravagances, on one hand, or by hard labour, want of necessaries, and mean or insufficient diet, on the other hand, bring distempers upon themselves by the natural consequences of the their way of living; that the middle station of life was calculated for all kind of virtues and all kind of enjoyments; that peace and plenty were the handmaids of a middle fortune; that temperance, moderation, quietness, health, society, all agreeable diversions, and all desirable pleasures, were the blessings attending the middle station of life; that this way men went silently and smoothly through the world, and comfortably out of it, not embarassed with the labours of the hands or of the head, not sold to the life of slavery for daily bread, or harassed with perplexed circumstances, which rob the soul of peace, and the body of rest; not enraged with the passion of envy, or secret burning lust of ambition for great things; but in easy circumstances sliding gently through the world, and sensibly tasting the sweets of living, without the bitter, feeling that they are happy, and learning by every day`s experience to know it more sensibly. 

The life and adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe 

It was for men of desperate fortunes on …

It was for men of desperate fortunes on one hand, or of aspiring superior fortunes on the other, who went abroad upon adventures, to rise by enterprise, and make themselves famous in undertakings of a nature out of the common road.

The life and adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe