„Many childless single woman would be at my age already in panic. Also I have been thinking for the last 3 years, why I have been sacrificing so much time for my work. But, I have ended up to a thought that I would never change a single day out of my life. It would be lovely to get a family one day, but my life doesn't end even if that would not happen.“

„My Mama would never have to work another day of her life.“

—  Deion Sanders All-American college football player, professional football player, defensive back, cornerback, wide receiver 1967

speech at Pro Football Hall of Fame induction ceremony A quote repeatedly said during Sanders' Hall of Fame speech https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmZc1zb32n4 (8 August 2011)

„My life and work have been far from free of blemish, and so I think it would be unpardonable for a biographer not to dish up the dirt.“

—  William Styron American novelist and essayist 1925 - 2006

"A Conversation with William Styron", Humanities (May/June 1997)

„I think journalism was the most important thing I could have done with my life. I just can't think of anything I could have done with my life that would have been more meaningful.“

—  John Seigenthaler American journalist, writer, and political figure 1927 - 2014

Reported in his Tennessean's obituary; quoted in "John Seigenthaler dies at 86" http://www.poynter.org/2014/john-seigenthaler-dies-at-86/258597/ by Andrew Beaujon, poynter.org (11 July 2014)

„I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.“

—  Steve Jobs American entrepreneur and co-founder of Apple Inc. 1955 - 2011

2005-09, Address at Stanford University (2005)
Kontext: When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

„If I had followed my better judgment always, my life would have been a very dull one.“

—  Edgar Rice Burroughs American writer 1875 - 1950

„I have to fight every single day to live my true life.“

—  Sandra Bullock American actress and producer 1964

Parade interview (2009)
Kontext: I have to fight every single day to live my true life. I don't ever want to come home saying, "I should have spoken my mind. I shouldn't have let someone say something that I didn't feel was right." … [But] I have to remember that there's a balance. I'm in the entertainment business. We're here to entertain people, to make them laugh and forget.

„but our Lord was not silent. Even if he had been silent, my life until this day would have spoken of Him.“

—  Shūsaku Endō, buch Silence

Quelle: Silence

„… a lot of kids do get married at 15. I would have had my family ten years younger. Instead of starting the Revolution at 50, I would have been 40. And man, did I have a lot of sex drive at 40! Whew! I was out on the road chasing women most of the time!“

—  David Berg Children of God founder 1919 - 1994

Child Brides!

„I am not the type of person who thinks in terms of "if only" or "could have, would have, should have". It is what it is and everything happens for a reason. When a person thinks "if only I would have known such and such" it shows a certain amount of fear or lack of trust that everything is as it should be. I try to always do my best and if I look back and think I didn't do my best, then that is the only thing I acknowledge and then try to change. One of my favorite expressions is, "Everything is okay in the end and if it's not okay, it's not the end."“

—  Charlene Wong Canadian figure skater 1966

" Charlene Wong: Everything is okay in the end and if it's not okay, it's not the end", in Lifeskate.com (15 December 2008) http://www.lifeskate.com/skate/2008/12/charlene-wong-everything-is-okay-in-the-end-and-if-its-not-okay-its-not-the-end.html

„I love my profession. I would never stop. Relax? I relax when I work. It's my life.“

—  Bette Davis film and television actress from the United States 1908 - 1989

Nina J. Easton, Los Angeles Times (January 4, 1989) "Bette Davis smoking over `Stepmother' role", Houston Chronicle, p. 10.

„If we'd never met, I think I would have known my life wasn't complete. And I would have wandered the world in search of you, even if I didn't know who I was looking for“

—  Nicholas Sparks, buch The Longest Ride

Variante: If we'd never met, I think I would have known my life wasn't complete. And I would have wandered the world in search of you, even if I didn't know who I was looking for.
Quelle: The Longest Ride

„More men than I have put men to death, but I am the last man in the world that would take a man's life. Two years ago—even if my own life was at stake—and I am confident, if I thought a man would shoot me—I would give him a chance of keeping his life, and would part with my own; but if I knew that through him innocent persons' lives were at stake, I certainly would have to shoot him if he forced me to do so; but I would want to know that he was really going to take my innocent life.“

—  Ned Kelly Australian bushranger 1855 - 1880

Sentencing (1880)

„If someone were to harm my family or a friend or somebody I love, I would eat them. I might end up in jail for 500 years, but I would eat them.“

—  Johnny Depp American actor, film producer, and musician 1963

„The last days of my childhood were also the last days of the village.  I belonged to that generation which saw, by chance, the end of a thousand years' life.“

—  Laurie Lee, buch Cider with Rosie

Quelle: Cider with Rosie (1959), p. 262.

„I have had so much trouble with emotion in my life I thought it just would be fun to write someone who didn't have that problem.“

—  Gene Roddenberry American television screenwriter and producer 1921 - 1991

„‘ He doesn't understand. The navy is my life. My only life, now. The war will not last for ever, but until it ends I shall stand in the line-of-battle as I have been entrusted to!’“

—  Douglas Reeman British author 1924 - 2017

For My Country's Freedom, Cap 13 "Loneliness"

„It is not a simple life to be a single cell, although I have no right to say so, having been a single cell so long ago myself that I have no memory at all of that stage in my life.“

—  Lewis Thomas American physician, poet and educator 1913 - 1993

A Long Line of Cells : Collected Essays (1990), p. 244

„If those papers had been in my pocket I would have never lived to be seventy. I have led a strange life, a set of complete coincidences.“

—  Abraham Pais American Physicist 1918 - 2000

On the fate of his friend Lion Nordheim, who was executed ten days before the end of the war, and his own release at around the same time, p. 52
To Save a Life: Stories of Holocaust Rescue (2000)
Kontext: On the day we were caught, Lion and I had been talking about writing a memorandum on the fate of the Jewish war children living in hiding or among Dutch families … we were the representatives of the Zionist youth organization. … Lion who had been taking notes of the discussion, put these papers in his jacket pocket when he took a break from lunch. When the Germans caught us they discovered his notes. If those papers had been in my pocket I would have never lived to be seventy. I have led a strange life, a set of complete coincidences.

„As summer neared, my mother suffered yet another stroke of paralysis and again I had to watch her suffer, listen to her groans, powerless to help. I used to lie awake nights and think back to the early days in Arkansas, tracing my mother’s life, reliving events, wondering why she had apparently been singled out for so much suffering, meaningless suffering, and I would feel more awe than I had ever felt in church. My mind could find no answer and I would feel rebellious against all life. But I never felt humble.“

—  Richard Wright, buch Black Boy

Black Boy (1945)