At the start of the year, it can be a worthwhile exercise to remind yourself how precious your time on this planet is.
While I wish you nothing but a long, healthy, and successful life, it’s also an unavoidable fact that nobody is going to live forever.
When you start understanding the true value of time, it can lead you to do incredible things.
Why You Should Read Life Is Short Quotes
As mentioned, nobody lives forever, but realizing that life is short isn’t about grimly accepting death, it’s about joyfully acknowledging how precious life truly is, and the power of understanding the value of time can’t be understated.
When things are tough it’s easy to lose track of the broader perspective – no matter what you’re going through now or have gone through in the past, things change.
These “life is short quotes” can help you develop this perspective. It takes conscious effort to understand that time is limited, the younger you are the more this is so. This is why older people are often reminiscing on how quickly their younger years passed.
Realizing that your time is limited is the key to reaching a fulfilling life, it can help motivate you to achieve your goals, and it’s an antidote against procrastination. If we were all immortal, what would be the point in setting goals or even thinking about the future?
Life is short, so in 2024 make time for your loved ones, and your hobbies, look after your health and make this another year that you can look back on with fond memories.
77 Life is Short Quotes to Help You Enjoy 2024
- “Time is a companion who goes with us on the journey, and reminds us to cherish every moment because they'll never come again. What we leave behind is not as important as how we lived.” – Captain Picard
- “Life is short. Do whatever you can to help people—not for status, but because the 95-year-old you will be proud if you did help people and disappointed if you didn’t.” – Marshall Goldsmith
- “You may delay, but time will not” – Benjamin Franklin
- You can’t put a limit on anything. The more you dream, the farther you get.” – Michael Phe
- “One clear moment, one of trance One missed step, one perfect dance. One missed shot, one and only chance. Life is all…but one fleeting glance.” – Sanober Khan
- “We cannot waste time. We can waste only ourselves.” – George M. Adams
- “Time is the most valuable thing that a man can spend.” – Diogenes
- “Make each day your masterpiece.” – John Wooden
- “Why do they not teach you that time is a finger snap and an eye blink, and that you should not allow a moment to pass you by without taking joyous, ecstatic note of it, not wasting a single moment of its swift, breakneck circuit?” – Pat Conroy
- “If you want to be happy, be.” – Leo Tolstoy
- “Light tomorrow with today!” – Elizabeth Barrett Browning
- “Life is a first impression. You get one shot at it. Make it everlasting” – J.R. Rim
- “Life is too short to have anything but delusional notions about yourself.” – Gene Simmons
- “Nobody who ever gave his best regretted it.” – George Halas
- “Don't be afraid to make mistakes. But if you do, make new ones. Life is too short to make the wrong choice twice.” – Joyce Rachelle
- “Begin doing what you want to do now. We are not living in eternity. We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand and melting like a snowflake.” – Sir Francis Bacon
- “It is not length of life, but depth of life.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
- “Today, you have 100% of your life left.” – Tom Landry
- “Life is short, and it's up to you to make it sweet.” – Sarah L. Delaney
- “I believe you make your day. You make your life.” – Brad Pitt
- “Let’s not allow ourselves to be upset by small things we should despise and forget. Remember ‘Life is too short to be little.” – Dale Carnegie
- “Realize deeply that the present moment is all you will ever have.” – Eckhart Tolle
- “There’s more to life than basketball. The most important thing is your family and taking care of each other and loving each other no matter what.” – Stephen Curry
- “Life is so transient and ephemeral; we will not be here after a breath. So think better, think deeply, think with kindness, and write it with love so that it may live a little longer.” – Debasish Mridha
- “Turn every life situation into a positive one.” – Rhonda Byrne
- “Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.” – Lao Tzu
- “I enjoy life when things are happening. I don’t care if it’s good things or bad things. That means you’re alive.” – Joan Rivers
- “Life is too short to stuff a mushroom.” – Shirley Conran
- “The greatest pleasure of life is love.” – Euripides
- “Life is too short for long-term grudges.” – Elon Musk
- “Life is too short to live on low-fat everything.” – Kristin Scott Thomas
- “Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass, it’s about learning to dance in the rain.” – Vivian Greene
- “Enjoy life while you can. It can be taken in a heart beat.” – Jasmin Morin
- “Live for each second without hesitation.” – Elton John
- “Time moves slowly, but passes quickly.” – Alice Walker
- “What is the secret to the art of life? The secret is this – live in full awareness. Don’t grope in the darkness; don’t walk in sleep; walk in awareness.” – Osho
- “You choose the life you live. If you don’t like it, it’s on you to change it because no one else is going to do it for you.” – Kim Kiyosaki
- “You’re only human. You live once and life is wonderful, so eat the damned red velvet cupcake.” – Emma Stone
- “Tomorrow is promised to no one. Prioritize today accordingly.” – Gina Greenlee
- “Life is short, and if we enjoy every moment of every day, then we will be happy no matter what happens or what changes along the way.” – Gretchen Bleiler
- “So have adventures. Go exploring. Drive around at midnight. Feel the wind running through your hair. Life is so short, my darling. And there's no day like today.” – Morgan Matson
So have adventures. Go exploring. Drive around at midnight. Feel the wind running through your hair. Life is so short, my darling. And there's no day like today.” – Morgan Matson
- “Life is too short to spend in negativity. So I have made a conscious effort to not be where I don’t want to be.”- Hugh Dillon
- “My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.” – Maya Angelou
- “Get busy living or get busy dying.” – Stephen King
- “Life is too short not to do a little practical joking.”- Krista Allen
- “The span of Life is too short to be trifled away in unconcerning and unprofitable Matters.” – Mary Astell
- “Don’t allow your past or present condition to control you. It’s just a process that you’re going through to get you to the next level.” – T.D. Jakes
- “I’m thankful that everything sweet is sweet because it is finite.” – Anthony Doerr
- “Waste your money and you’re only out of money, but waste your time and you’ve lost a part of your life.” – Michael Leboeuf
- “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.” – Mark Twain
- “The future starts today, not tomorrow.” – Pope John Paul II
- “I don’t have a bad relationship. I’m 48 years old. I think life is too short for that. To me, life is… you open the shutters, you see the dogs outside, you look left, you look right, in, what, a second and a half? And that’s a life.” – Jean Claude Van Damme
- “There are no regrets in life, just lessons.” – Jennifer Aniston
- “You will face many defeats in life, but never let yourself be defeated.” – Maya Angelou
- “Life is too short for unreality and you don’t owe anybody anything – especially your time, energy, and attention.” – Oli Anderson
- “Life is short and the older you get, the more you feel it. Indeed, the shorter it is.”- Viggo Mortensen
- “The unexamined life is not worth living.” – Socrates
- “Life is a flash of lightning in the dark of night. It is a brief time of tremendous potential.” – B. Alan Wallace
- “As you know, life is an echo; we get what we give.” – David DeNotaris
- “Loss comes in every moment. Second by second our lives are stolen from us. What is last will never come again.” – William Kent Krueger
- “Is life not a thousand times too short for us to bore ourselves?” – Friedrich Nietzsche
- “Be where you are; otherwise you will miss your life.” – Buddha
- “I am 1324512000 seconds old. In the cosmic blink of an eye, I will become once again cosmic dust.” – Bangambiki Habyarimana
- “Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith.” – Steve Jobs
- “Enjoy life. There’s plenty of time to be dead.” – Hans Christian Andersen
- “Seize the time… Live now! Make now always the most precious time. Now will never come again.” – Jean-Luc Picard
- “You're not defined by your past; you're prepared by it. You're stronger, more experienced, and you have greater confidence.” – Joel Osteen
- “Be patient and understanding. Life is too short to be vengeful or malicious.” – Phillips Brooks
- “You only pass through this life once, you don't come back for an encore.” – Elvis Presley
- “Life goes by fast. Enjoy it. Calm down. It’s all funny.” – Joan Rivers
- “There are three things you can do with your life: You can waste it, you can spend it, or you can invest it. The best use of your life is to invest it in something that will last longer than your time on Earth.” – Rick Warren
- “Life lies in the blink of an eye.” – Mike Skinner
- “Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.” – Soren Kierkegaard
- “Never waste a minute thinking about people you don’t like.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower
- “I don't spend time wondering what might be next; I just focus on trying to savor every day.” – Trisha Yearwood
- “With life as short as a half-taken breath, don’t plant anything but love” – Rumi
- “If you spend your whole life waiting for the storm, you’ll never enjoy the sunshine.” – Morris West
Final Thoughts on Life is Short Quotes
Your time on earth is the most precious gift you have and how you choose to spend it from moment to moment determines the quality of your life. The tricky thing is that this is so easy to forget if we don’t occasionally remind ourselves.
There’s one thing we can do to really make the most of our time – check out this guide on how to be present in the moment.
And if you want more eye-opening quotes, be sure to check out these blog posts:
- 43 Patience Quotes to Inspire You Through Difficult Challenges
- 55 Quotes About Honesty and Having Integrity Throughout Life
- 39 Famous Yoda Quotes To Do Or Do Not Try In Your Life
Finally, if you want to use these quotes to make a lasting change to your life, then watch this free video that details the 7-minute habit for planning your day to focus on what's truly important to you..
Tom Smith is a creative writer with over 6 years of professional experience. He discovered the joy of writing after covering some furniture in his childhood home with graffiti. In later years, he got himself a BA in creative writing and hasn’t looked back. After discovering the power of positive thinking and discovering the spiritual side of life, he believes it's a huge privilege to be able to write about all things personal development.