“How wonderful to be alive,” he thought. “But why does it always hurt?”
Boris Pasternak (1890-1960) Russian poet, novelist, and literary translator
Doctor Zhivago [До́ктор Жива́го], Part 1, ch. 1 “The Five O’Clock Express,” sec. 4 [Nika] (1955) [tr. Hayward & Harari (1958), US ed.]
(Source)
Alternate translations:"How wonderful to be alive," he thought. "But why does it always have to be so painful?"
[tr. Hayward & Harari (1958), UK ed.]"How good it is in this world!" he thought. "But why does it always come out so painful?"
[tr. Pevear & Volokhonsky (2010)]
Quotations about:
alive
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The first fact about the celebration of a birthday is that it is a way of affirming defiantly, and even flamboyantly, that it is a good thing to be alive.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
“Our Birthday,” G. K.’s Weekly (1935-03-21)
(Source)
There is said to be hope for a sick man, as long as there is life.
[Ut aegroto dum anima est, spes esse dicitur.]
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
Epistulae ad Atticum [Letters to Atticus], Book 9, Letter 10, sec. 3 (9.10.3) (49 BC) [tr. Shackleton Bailey (1968), # 177]
(Source)
Cicero says this was his feeling of hope for how things would turn out, as long as Pompey was in Italy -- which he had just evacuated from. Cicero makes it clear this is a common phrase at the time, usually expressed more straightforwardly as "While there is life there is hope" [Dum anima est, spes est.]
(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:But as we say of sick people, "while there is life there is hope."
[tr. Jeans (1880), # 63]As in the case of a sick man one says, "While there is life there is hope."
[tr. Shuckburgh (1900), # 364]As a sick man is said to have hope, so long as he has breath.
[tr. Winstedt (Loeb) (1913)]
Do I seem to say, “Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die?” Far from it; on the contrary, I say, “Let us take hands and help, for this day we are alive together.”
William Kingdon Clifford (1845-1879) English mathematician and philosopher
“The First and the Last Catastrophe,” Popular Science Monthly (Jul 1875)
(Source)
… believe us, they say,
it is a serious thing
just to be alive
on this fresh morning
in this broken world.Mary Oliver (1935-2019) American poet
“Invitation,” Red Bird: Poems (2008)
(Source)
On goldfinches singing.
If you ever want to feel like you’re on the verge of total, abject bowel-releasing terror, try making your way a klick or two out of a forest, at night, with the certain feeling you’re being hunted. It makes you feel alive, it really does, but not in a way you want to feel alive.
John Scalzi (b. 1969) American writer
Zoe’s Tale (2008)
While an author is yet living we estimate his powers by his worst performance, and when he is dead we rate them by his best.
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
The Plays of William Shakespeare, Preface (1765)
