95 Great sayings about life and its facets

Sayings about life are as multifaceted as life itself. They deal with its ups and downs and help you get to know yourself a little better. We have put together a selection of sayings for you.

Sayings about life are not only suitable for thinking about life yourself. You can also send them wonderfully on special occasions like birthdays or other celebrations.

Life with all its facets

Sayings and quotes about life can address a wide variety of topics. They offer a high identification potential, since every person feels somehow addressed by them and can relate to them.

To occupy yourself with life and its facets always helps you a little to get to know yourself and your view of the world better.

But others also benefit if you help them through difficult times with a few kind words or reinforce them in their decisions by having an appropriate saying ready. If you take a closer look at our sayings, you will find some good phrases that pick up important aspects of life and express them in the right words.

Occasions for life sayings

It doesn’t always take an occasion to get busy with life. It is good for everyone to think about the meaning of life and their own life goals from time to time.

Self-awareness is always a good way to gain self-confidence and to learn to appreciate your self-worth. Nevertheless, there are certain occasions on which you can especially suggest a suitable saying about life to other people.

Especially the kind of sayings that are formulated like aphorisms and life wisdoms are wonderful for a greeting card. On occasions that require reverence, such as a condolence message or a congratulatory card to a professional contact, the more seriously worded life sayings that leave a positive thought are more appropriate.

On the other hand, on a happy, relaxed occasion, such as a birthday or a wedding, it may also be a funny saying. Our sayings are both serious and funny, short and long, from great thinkers or from movies, in German and in English.

Beautiful sayings about life

The following sayings deal with the beautiful sides of life. They are suitable to cheer someone up or simply to express your positive attitude towards life.

Use them for WhatsApp or print them out and hang them on your wall as a motto for life. So you’ll always be reminded how beautiful life can be. Make also friends and family a joy with one of these life-affirming sayings.

You are like a color. Not everyone will like you. But there will always be someone whose favorite color you are.
If you have the impression that life is theater, choose a role that you really enjoy.
(William Shakespeare)
Happiness is already here. It is in us. We just forgot and need to remember again.
(Socrates)
The meaning of life is a life with meaning.
(Robert Burns)
We do not live to believe, but to learn.
(Dalai Lama)
Yesterday I was in a bad mood and everything went wrong. Today I am quite amazed how beautiful it is to live.
(Frantz Wittkamp)
In life it is not important to have a good hand in hand, but to play well with bad cards.
(Robert Louis Stevenson)
The goal of life is not to be a successful person, but a valuable one.
(Albert Einstein)
What would life be, if we didn’t have the courage to take a risk?
(Vincent van Gogh)
There is a fulfilled life in spite of many unfulfilled wishes.
(Dietrich Bonhoeffer)
Happiness consists in living like the rest of the world and yet being like no one else.
(Simone de Beauvoir)
Give every day the chance to be the most beautiful one of your life.
(Mark Twain)
Pay attention to the small things in the world, this makes life richer and more content.
(Carl Hilty)
One sees well only with the heart. The essential is invisible to the eyes.
(Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
Even from stones, which are put in one’s way, one can build beautiful things.
(Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)

Sayings for a successful and happy life

Proverbs for a successful and happy life

Here we have compiled some sayings and quotes for you, which deal with the topic successful life employ. Since success means different things to different people, you will find below sayings about professional success as well as sayings about the goal of life.

For many people, success also includes being happy. But happiness can also mean something different for everyone. Often the basic attitude to the life plays a large role here. Sayings for a successful life are suitable as good advice for the further way of life, for example for confirmations or youth dedications as well as for birthdays or school graduations.

You have a head start in life if you tackle where the others talk first.
(John F. Kennedy)
Wealth is for the comfort of life, not life for the accumulation of wealth.
(Saadi)
The greatest glory in life is not to never fall, but to get up again every time.
(Nelson Mandela)
The greatest decision of your life lies in the fact that you can change your life by changing your mindset.
(Albert Schweitzer)
The most important thing on the way of our life is that we do not avoid life and love.
(Ernst Ferstl)
Choose a profession you love and you will never have to work another day in your life.
(Confucius)
True happiness comes not from preoccupation with oneself, but from devotion to a goal worth living for.
(Helen Keller)
The art of living is 90 percent the ability to get along with people you don’t like.
(Samuel Goldwyn)
More than the past I am interested in the future, because in it I intend to live.
(Albert Einstein)
The happiness of life is not to have few or no difficulties, but to overcome them all victoriously and gloriously.
(Carl Hilty)
It is a great advantage in life to make the mistakes you can learn from as early as possible.
(Winston Churchill)
Everyone is a genius! But if you judge a fish by whether it can climb a tree, it will spend its whole life thinking it is stupid.
(Albert Einstein)
He who ceases to want to be better, ceases to be good.
(Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach)
It is difficult to find happiness within ourselves, and it is quite impossible to find it elsewhere.
(Nicolas Chamfort)
Happiness is self-sufficiency.
(Aristotle)

Sayings about the ups and downs of life

The ups and downs of life are usually mentioned in the same breath. Nevertheless, sayings about these ups and downs usually deal more with the downs. They are part of life and should be accepted.

However, our sayings and quotes should remind you that there is always the counterpart of the good times to the bad times. Without good there is no bad and vice versa.

Whether it’s moral values, failed dreams, or purely philosophical thoughts, being aware of the negative aspects of life makes you appreciate the positives more.

For this reason, the following sayings are also particularly suitable for helping people out of a situation from which they can only get out if they change their view of life. Often one cannot do anything concrete oneself, but one can support people with well-considered words.

Life is a staircase: we never know if we are going up or down.
(Ernst R. Hauschka]
You will never be able to get a man out who is trapped in his world of suffering unless he himself begins to look for the way out.
(Ana Blom)
What the meaning of life is, nobody knows exactly. In any case, there is little point in being the richest man in the graveyard.
(Peter Ustinov)
Happiness does not depend on the outer circumstances, but on the inner attitude. It is not what you have or who you are or where you are or what you do that makes you happy or unhappy. What matters is how you think about it.
(Dale Carnegie)
Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans.
(John Lennon)
Forgiveness is not a one-time thing, forgiveness is a lifestyle.
(Martin Luther King)
Those who are afraid of the ups and downs of their lives live extremely mediocre lives.
(Ernst Ferstl)
I can sum up what I have learned about life in three words: It goes on.
(Robert Frost)
All the coincidences of our life are materials from which we can make what we like. He who has much spirit makes much of his life.
(Novalis)
One never notices what has already been done, one always sees only what still remains to be done.
(Marie Curie)
There are no signposts at the crossroads of life.
(Charlie Chaplin)
He who no longer loves and no longer errs, let himself be buried.
(Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)
Most people are as happy as they make themselves out to be.
(Abraham Lincoln)
Even the happiest life is not conceivable without a certain amount of darkness, and the word happiness would lose its meaning if it did not have its counterpart in sadness.
(Carl Gustav Jung)
Only the spirit that believes unwaveringly in a distant and beautiful goal is able to maintain the vitality that leads it beyond the daily grind.
(Gustav Stresemann)

Funny sayings about life

If you want to counter hard times with humor, funny sayings about life will help you. They can cheer you up, your friends or family members or are just good for a laugh. A self-deprecating view of life makes many situations easier.

The funny sayings we’ve selected here don’t necessarily carry less truth, but they appeal to our sense of humor through their wordplay, clumsy phrasing, or apparent banality. They can all be interpreted and applied to life in the same way as serious sayings.

Example:

"I have not failed. I have 10.find 000 ways how something does not work."
(Thomas A. Edison)

Through this quote from Thomas Edison, it becomes clear that every failure takes you a little further towards your goal. Failures should not be considered as such, so that you can always go on.

I have not failed. I have 10.000 ways found how something does not work.
(Thomas A. Edison)
The stupid thing about real life is that there is no danger music.
Most problems solve themselves. You just must not disturb them in the process.
If you want to be successful in life, you have to be able to deal wisely with your feelings and master the emotional alphabet. What good is a high IQ if you are an emotional fool?
(Daniel Goleman)
Fate will already have its reasons.
(Voltaire)
I believe the purpose of our life is to be happy.
(Albert Hofmann – discoverer of LSD)
He who does not love woman, wine and song, remains a fool all his life long.
(Martin Luther)
You should borrow money only from a pessimist – he doesn’t expect it back.
People throw all their stupidities into a pile, construct a monster and call it fate.
(Thomas Hobbes)
A girl and a glass of wine cures all ills. And if you don’t drink and you don’t kiss, you’re as good as dead!
(Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)

Quotes about life from movies

Movies deal with life and always have a message. In some it is hidden, in some it is obvious. While watching the movie, valuable statements about life are often not grasped as quickly because the plot keeps moving and you don’t have time to dwell on them for any length of time. For this reason, we’ve selected a few great quotes for you that are worth reading twice.

Some of the movies you will know for sure, even if you have not seen them. Their popularity is a second reason why we’ve compiled movie quotes for you to enjoy.

They offer as much content as quotations from the great poets and thinkers. In addition, the potential for identification increases if you or the people you share the quote with know the movie. It immediately opens up an association and the information you have about the movie first influences your thoughts.

They create understanding and a sense of belonging. You could imagine scenes from the film, think about the theme of the film or you put yourself back into the situation when you saw the film for the last time.

We just have to decide what to do with the time we are given.
(Gandalf – Lord of the Rings)
In life, it’s not the small moments that count, but the big moments that take your breath away.
(Hitch – The Date Doctor)
Life is like a box of chocolates – you never know what you’re going to get.
(Forrest Gump)
Hate is ballast. Life is too short to be angry all the time.
(American History X)
What matters in life is not how much you give out, but how much you can take in.
(Rocky Balboa)
Life is about courage and setting out into the unknown.
(The Amazing Life of Walter Mitty)
Three little rules that will get you through life safely: No. 1: "Stand in for me!" Nr. 2: "Oh, good idea boss!" and Nr. 3: "It must have been someone else!"
(Homer Simpson)
Why should I live up to other people’s expectations instead of my own??
(10 things I hate about you)
True loss is only possible when you love something more than yourself.
(Sean Maguire)
If you are good at something, never do it for free.
(The Joker, Batman – The Dark Knight)
Life is like a movie. Only the genre you can not choose.
(Scream)
Talking all the time does not mean communicating.
(Don’t forget mine!)
A man who does not spend time with his family can never be a real man.
(Don Corleone)
The only currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you are uncool.
(Almost Famous)
People fear what they cannot see the most.
(Leonard Shelby – Batman Begins)

Short sayings about life

In this section we have taken care to select sayings as diverse as possible. They may be short, but you can spend as much time on them as you can on a longer saying.

Short sayings and quotes are especially popular when it comes to greeting cards. In addition to adding your own text, short sayings can not only fill the card and make it more visually appealing, a short saying about life also creates the impression that you really put some thought into writing it.

It is especially nice if your self-written text refers to your chosen saying and you perhaps explain how you understand the saying and what it means for you and for your life.

Think about some wishes for the future for the recipient or share a little bit from your own life. Personal cards are not only more interesting than the usual platitudes, opening up to you is also a nice gesture that most would probably not count on.

There are more important things in life than to constantly increase its speed.
(Mahatma Gandhi)
As you wish to have lived at the end of your life, so you can live right now.
(Marcus Aurelius)
Life is a boomerang: you get back what you give.
(Dale Carnegie)
The more you have thought, the more you have done, the longer you have lived.
(Immanuel Kant)
What would life be, if we didn’t have the courage to risk something?
(Vincent van Gogh)
There is nothing to fear in life, you just have to understand everything.
(Marie Curie)
Happiness is love, nothing else. He who can love is happy.
(Hermann Hesse)
Each of us has only one life.
(Marcus Aurelius)
It is better to enjoy and regret than to regret not enjoying.
(Giovanni Boccaccio)
In the end it is only what we have done and lived that counts – and not what we have longed for.
(Arthur Schnitzler)
Through the passions man lives, through reason he merely exists.
(Nicolas Chamfort)
The best things in life are not the ones you get for money.
(Albert Einstein)
Our point of view determines our satisfaction.
(Unknown)
Moons and years pass, but a beautiful moment shines through life.
(Franz Grillparzer)
If you want to live in peace with yourself, you have to accept yourself as you are.
(Selma Lagerlof)

Life sayings in English

English has a great language dynamic and gives many sayings about life a completely different meaning. On the one hand, English sayings have the advantage that you can also share them with your international acquaintances. On the other hand, they often seem less turgid than in German. Life and its facets remain the same anyway – whether in English or in German.

If you want to share one of the English sayings with a German native speaker, make sure that he can understand it. If you want to set it as a WhatsApp status, it is less important if everyone from your contact list can understand it.

With the translation you can convince yourself that you have understood the saying or the quote correctly and that you can translate it correctly for someone else in the case.