Life can be very beautiful and surprising, but it also has sad, prosaic and even boring moments. Therefore, it is advisable not to romanticize or idealize it excessively. Each person has their own way of seeing it and living it, the most important thing is to face it from a constructive mentality.
In this article you will find a selection of phrases about real life in which we talk about the life journey we take without assuming that it has to be perfect or fit into a specific narrative.
Many relevant historical figures have shared their thoughts about the importance of living the best way and knowing how to take advantage of life, but without idealizing it. Here you will find some of the best quotes and reflections on real life, commented.
1. Nowadays we know how to do everything, except live. (Jean-Paul Sartre)
We have acquired a lot of knowledge, but many times we lack the wisdom to know how to live.
2. Men incapable of thinking for themselves do not think at all. (Oscar Wilde)
It is important that we know how to think for ourselves.
3. You can’t do anything to change what has already happened, but you can do a lot to change what is coming.
We should not only focus on the past, we must also look to the future.
4. Don’t waste your time, because that’s what life is made of. (Benjamin Franklin)
We must not waste time since it does not recover.
5. We act correctly because we as people have a virtue and excellence of respecting others.
Respect for others is a value that we must all put into practice.
6. In life sometimes you win, other times you learn. (John Maxwell)
Failures are only a learning experience.
7. Writing is the antidote to confusion. (James Clear)
Writing is a great medicine for many ills.
8. To live is to deviate incessantly. We deviate in such a way that confusion prevents us from knowing what we are deviating from. (Franz Kafka)
Life is full of difficult situations that we must face.
9. They say that luck arises proportionally to your sweat. The more you sweat, the luckier you will be. (Ray Kroc)
Continuous work and effort is what is really true, luck is not.
10. It is easy to make things complicated, but difficult to make them simple. (Friedrich Nietzsche)
We always see things from the wrong perspective.
11. The destiny of men is not made of happy moments, all of life has them, but of happy times. (Friedrich Nietzsche)
Life gives us times of true happiness.
12. If you are conceited it is your first mistake to be ignorant.
Vanity comes hand in hand with ignorance.
13. Do not measure your wealth by the money you have, measure it by those things you have and that you would not exchange for money. (Paulo Coelho)
Money does not determine happiness.
14. There are two rules for success. 1: Never reveal everything you know. (Roger H. Lincoln)
Always keep something for yourself, don’t give it all away.
15. Those who do not know how to govern themselves are constantly looking for a leader to worship. (Hermann Hesse)
If you learn to manage your feelings, you are already guaranteed success.
16. The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up. (Paul Valery)
Work to make your dreams come true.
17. You will never reach success by taking the elevator, but by using the stairs. (Joe Girard)
There are no easy paths to success.
18. You are a story you tell yourself. (Naval)
You are the image of your decisions.
19. Self-realization is only achieved by moving forward despite emotional shocks.
Don’t allow your fears, anger and fears to take over your life.
20. The best revenge is massive success. (Frank Sinatra)
Being successful is a great way to tell life I did it!
21. Live as if you were going to die tomorrow, learn as if you were going to live forever. (Mahatma Gandhi)
Knowledge allows you to have a full life.
22. Indecision is the thief of opportunity. (Cicero)
Don’t let doubt and indecision take over you.
23. Only patience is the key to getting what you want.
Patience is something that we must implement daily.
24. If you love you will find the first ingredient for your secret love formula.
Love everything you do.
25. When man does not find himself, he finds nothing. (Goethe)
If you don’t know what you really want, then nothing will make sense.
26. Asking for forgiveness is intelligent, forgiving is noble and forgiving oneself is wise. (Anonymous)
Asking for forgiveness is as important as forgiving, but what is truly significant is learning to forgive yourself.
27. Blaming someone else for your mistakes is the ease of detaching yourself from your mistake.
Accept your mistakes, no one is responsible for that.
28. There is no better teacher than one’s most bitter experience. (Kovo)
Bad experiences are what truly teach.
29. You have to be intelligent to be able to respectfully disagree.
To argue you have to implement intelligence.
30. Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It is the transition that is problematic. (Isaac Asimov)
We have to know how to live to learn how to die.
31. If your most hidden secrets are revealed to another person, you will be a slave for life to that man or woman.
You have to be very careful who you trust with your secrets.
32. Freedom, to be realized, must come down to earth and incarnate among men. It doesn’t need wings but roots. (Octavio Paz)
Being free is a decision of each person.
33. Getting involved is the best way to learn, teaching me serves to memorize memories, if you only tell me in words I will forget it.
Having knowledge is what makes us completely free.
34. Just as courage endangers life, fear protects it. (Leonardo da Vinci)
Fear also has a positive side.
35. Life is what happens while you’re busy making other plans. (John Lennon)
It’s okay to make plans, but not to spend all our time seeking perfection and controlling things around us.
36. Many of our dreams seem impossible at first, then they may seem improbable, and then, when we firmly commit, they become inevitable. (Christopher Reeve)
You have to fight hard for what you want.
37. If you don’t want to feel frustrated, don’t set impossible goals.
The goals must be possible to achieve, otherwise failure will be present.
38. I have committed the worst sin one can commit. I haven’t been happy. (Jorge Luis Borges)
Being happy is a goal that we should all have.
39. Never lose your sense of humor and learn to laugh at your own flaws.
It is always healthy to laugh at things and have a positive mood.
40. Happiness is not achieved by not having problems, but by facing them. (Steve Maraboli)
Life comes with problems, you just have to face them to be happy.
41. The ability to withstand anxiety is important for the individual’s self-realization and for conquering his or her environment.
If you are able to cope with anguish and anxiety, then you are capable of anything.
42. The real question is not whether life exists before death. The real question is whether you are alive before death. (Osho)
People pay more attention to death than to life itself.
43. The past is to learn, the present to live and the future to dream about.
An excellent guide to seeing and living life.
44. An intelligent man would never get irritated if he always had a mirror in front of him and saw himself when he argued. (Anonymous)
The knowledgeable person knows exactly how to talk to others.
45. He who has never fallen does not have a fair idea of the effort that must be made to stay upright. (Multatuli)
There is nothing wrong with falling, you just have to get up and learn from it.
46. Being rich is of no use if you are not healthy and having all the power in what you like is of no use if you do not have freedom.
Freedom and health are what really bring happiness.
47. What you do for yourself fades away when you die. What you do for others makes up your legacy. (Kalu Ndukwe Kalu)
What you do for others is the mark that will remain of you.
48. If you want something you never had, you should do something you never did (Anonymous)
Dare to do new things.
49. Not being loved is a simple misfortune. The true fatality is to not know how to love. (Albert Camus)
He who does not know how to love, does not know how to live.
50. Happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected. (G. Washington)
Being happy lies in helping others.
51. What we do may not always bring happiness, but if we do nothing, there will be no happiness. (Albert Camus)
Life is not to sit back and let it pass, but to fight, work and share.
52. No one can advise and help you, no one. There is only one way, go inside. (Rainer Maria Rilke)
You yourself are the only one who can help you.
53. Life is very simple, but we insist on making it difficult. (Confucius)
Sometimes we let our worries complicate our daily lives.
54. The oppressor would not be so strong if he did not have accomplices among the oppressed themselves. (Simone de Beauvoir)
There are people who prefer to be controlled than to take action on their own to face their life.
55. Life is an opportunity, benefit from it. Life is beauty, admire it. Life is a dream, achieve it. Life is a challenge, face it. Life is a game, play it. (Mother Teresa of Calcutta)
Life is wonderful so you have to enjoy it every day.
56. Through work, women have been able to bridge the distance that separates them from men. Work is the only thing that can guarantee you complete freedom. (Simone de Beauvoir)
Work is the only thing that can guarantee complete freedom.
57. Work gives you meaning and purpose and life is empty without it. (Stephen Hawking)
Work is essential in life and is the engine that drives it.
58. Our goal should not be to become someone else, but rather to recognize others, to honor others for the simple fact of being who they are. (Hermann Hesse)
Each person is unique and different.
59. Spend less time celebrating a success you had and spend more time understanding how to solve the problems you face.
Don’t let success cloud your mind.
60. When things go wrong, it is the best time to reinvent yourself. (George Lopez)
When situations become difficult, all you have to do is keep moving forward.
61. He who seeks a friend without defects is left without friends. (Turkish proverb)
Every person has defects.
62. It is healthy not to have an opinion about everything.
He who thinks he knows everything always has a bad time.
63. Start each day with the right attitude. Your attitude defines your success in life.
Positive attitudes are those that bring good fruit.
64. What if the solution is not to do more? What if it means wanting less? (Mark Manson)
Many times we want more, when in reality we don’t need it.
65. Everything transitory is nothing more than a metaphor. (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)
It refers to the momentary nature of things.
66. The more it matters who said it, the less it really matters. (Naval)
There are things that are not as relevant as we think.
67. When opportunities don’t knock at your door, build one. (Milton Berle)
Don’t sit around waiting for what you want to come, you have to look for it and fight for it.
68. He who knows when to fight and when not to fight will win. (Sun Tzu)
There are times when fighting is the key and there are others when you have to stay calm.
You may be interested: “The 95 best strategy phrases”
69. Worry is like a rocking chair, it keeps you busy but gets you nowhere. (Erma Bombeck)
Excessive worry gets you nowhere.
70. Ignorance in human beings is something that predominates, what happens is that some have this less developed capacity.
Ignorance is not always bad, as it invites us to investigate new things.
71. Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced. (Soren Kierkegaard)
Never waste a new opportunity.
72. If you understand something it is because you found the great mystery of this world.
Knowledge is what leads to success.
73. Success is a double-edged sword because it blinds you into thinking that you cannot fall, nullifying your intelligence if you let yourself get caught up in it.
You have to know how to manage success, so that it doesn’t manage you.
74. The will of the people is the power greater than anything else, surpassing political, economic and war power.
If you have the strength to do things, you are a powerful being.
75. Don’t find the fault, find the remedy. (Henry Ford)
Don’t focus on the problem, but on the solution.
76. Once you understand the rules of the game of what interests you, start playing them, beating everyone who wants to enter that game.
You find what you like and dedicate yourself to it.
77. There are three constants in life: change, choice and principles. (Stephen Covey)
It is good to change, choose correctly and above all have principles and values.
Related article: “The 10 types of values: principles that govern our lives”
78. If you walk alone, you will go faster. If you walk accompanied, you will go further. (Chinese proverb)
Being accompanied makes life more pleasant.
79. Before you speak, think, but before you think, read. (Frances Ann Lebowitz)
Take care of your words, but above all take care of your mind.
80. A life full of mistakes is not only more honorable, but it is wiser than a life spent doing nothing.
Mistakes make us successful professionals.
81. A day of worry is more exhausting than a day of work. (John Lubbock)
Worries are more exhausting than any activity.
82. Life is not about finding yourself, but about creating yourself. (George Bernard Shaw)
When we are happy with who we are, life begins to make sense.
83. We don’t remember days, we remember moments. (Cesare Pavese)
Moments are significant because they contain emotional charges.
84. Throughout my life I have realized that all our problems come from our inability to use clear and concise language. (Jean-Paul Sartre)
The lack of good communication is the cause of many problems.
85. Reflection is the path to immortality; lack of reflection, the path to death. (Buddha)
It refers to the importance of reflection.
86. The everyday in itself is already wonderful. I do nothing more than record it. (Franz Kafka)
Everyday life also has its charm.
87. In the practice of tolerance, the enemy is the best teacher. (Dalai Lama)
Tolerance has its detractors.
88. Freedom lies in being owners of our own life. (Plato)
If you know how to take control of your life, then you are the owner of the world.
You may be interested: “The 70 best phrases of Freedom”
89. You can’t wring your hands and roll up your sleeves at the same time. (Pat Schroeder)
Everything has its time and moment.
90. You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough. (Mae West)
You have to live in such a way that it is worth it in the end.
