Careful Words

live (n.)

live (v.)

live (adv.)

live (adj.)

  May you live all the days of your life.

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745): Polite Conversation. Dialogue ii.

Why should we faint and fear to live alone,

Since all alone, so Heaven has willed, we die?

Nor even the tenderest heart, and next our own,

Knows half the reasons why we smile and sigh.

John Keble (1792-1866): The Christian Year. Twenty-fourth Sunday after Trinity.

I would not live alway: I ask not to stay

Where storm after storm rises dark o'er the way.

William A. Muhlenberg (1796-1877): I would not live alway.

  I would not live alway.

Old Testament: Job vii. 16.

  It is good to live and learn.

Miguel De Cervantes (1547-1616): Don Quixote. Part ii. Chap. xxxii.

  They do not live but linger.

Robert Burton (1576-1640): Anatomy of Melancholy. Part i. Sect. 2, Memb. 3, Subsect. 10.

  Man shall not live by bread alone.

New Testament: Matthew iv. 4; Deuteronomy viii. 3.

  Man doth not live by bread only.

Old Testament: Deuteronomy viii. 3.

  That to live by one man's will became the cause of all men's misery.

Richard Hooker (1553-1600): Ecclesiastical Polity. Book i.

I 'll purge, and leave sack, and live cleanly.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King Henry IV. Part I. Act v. Sc. 4.

O happiness! our being's end and aim!

Good, pleasure, ease, content! whate'er thy name:

That something still which prompts the eternal sigh,

For which we bear to live, or dare to die.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Essay on Man. Epistle iv. Line 1.

  It is better not to live at all than to live disgraced.

Sophocles (496-406 b c): Peleus. Frag. 445.

  Socrates said, "Bad men live that they may eat and drink, whereas good men eat and drink that they may live."

Plutarch (46(?)-120(?) a d): How a Young Man ought to hear Poems. 4.

It is a very good world to live in,

To lend, or to spend, or to give in;

But to beg or to borrow, or to get a man's own,

It is the very worst world that ever was known.

Earl Of Rochester (1647-1680):

Men's evil manners live in brass; their virtues

We write in water.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King Henry VIII. Act iv. Sc. 2.

We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths;

In feelings, not in figures on a dial.

We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives

Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best.

Life's but a means unto an end; that end

Beginning, mean, and end to all things,—God.

Philip James Bailey (1816-1902): Festus. Scene, A Country Town.

To live in hearts we leave behind

Is not to die.

Thomas Campbell (1777-1844): Hallowed Ground.

There, take (says Justice), take ye each a shell:

We thrive at Westminster on fools like you;

'T was a fat oyster,—live in peace,—adieu.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Verbatim from Boileau.

Live while you live, the epicure would say,

And seize the pleasures of the present day;

Live while you live, the sacred preacher cries,

And give to God each moment as it flies.

Lord, in my views, let both united be:

I live in pleasure when I live to thee.

Philip Doddridge (1702-1751): Epigram on his Family Arms.

Cowards [may] fear to die; but courage stout,

Rather than live in snuff, will be put out.

Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618): On the snuff of a candle the night before he died.—Raleigh's Remains, p. 258, ed. 1661.

  It matters not how long you live, but how well.

Publius Syrus (42 b c): Maxim 829.

Gon.  Here is everything advantageous to life.

Ant.  True; save means to live.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): The Tempest. Act ii. Sc. 1.

You take my house when you do take the prop

That doth sustain my house; you take my life

When you do take the means whereby I live.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): The Merchant of Venice. Act iv. Sc. 1.

Underneath this stone doth lie

As much beauty as could die;

Which in life did harbour give

To more virtue than doth live.

Ben Jonson (1573-1637): Epitaph on Elizabeth, L. H.

I live not in myself, but I become

Portion of that around me; and to me

High mountains are a feeling, but the hum

Of human cities torture.

Lord Byron 1788-1824: Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iii. Stanza 72.

Angels listen when she speaks:

She's my delight, all mankind's wonder;

But my jealous heart would break

Should we live one day asunder.

Earl Of Rochester (1647-1680): Song.

  Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish, I give my hand and my heart to this vote.

Daniel Webster (1782-1852): Eulogy on Adams and Jefferson, Aug. 2, 1826. P. 133.

When I consider life, 't is all a cheat.

Yet fool'd with hope, men favour the deceit;

Trust on, and think to-morrow will repay.

To-morrow's falser than the former day;

Lies worse, and while it says we shall be blest

With some new joys, cuts off what we possest.

Strange cozenage! none would live past years again,

Yet all hope pleasure in what yet remain;

And from the dregs of life think to receive

What the first sprightly running could not give.

John Dryden (1631-1701): Aurengzebe. Act iv. Sc. 1.

  If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.

New Testament: Romans xii. 18.

So may'st thou live, till like ripe fruit thou drop

Into thy mother's lap.

John Milton (1608-1674): Paradise Lost. Book xi. Line 535.

So wise so young, they say, do never live long.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King Richard III. Act iii. Sc. 1.

There taught us how to live; and (oh, too high

The price for knowledge!) taught us how to die.

Thomas Tickell (1686-1740): On the Death of Mr. Addison. Line 81.

Teach him how to live,

And, oh still harder lesson! how to die.

Beilby Porteus (1731-1808): Death. Line 316.

  He who should teach men to die would at the same time teach them to live.

Michael De Montaigne (1533-1592): Book i. Chap. xviii. That Men are not to judge of our Happiness till after Death.

Thus let me live, unseen, unknown,

Thus unlamented let me die;

Steal from the world, and not a stone

Tell where I lie.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Ode on Solitude.

  Shall quips and sentences and these paper bullets of the brain awe a man from the career of his humour? No, the world must be peopled. When I said I would die a bachelor, I did not think I should live till I were married.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Much Ado about Nothing. Act ii. Sc. 3.

Beware of desperate steps! The darkest day,

Live till to-morrow, will have pass'd away.

William Cowper (1731-1800): The Needless Alarm. Moral.

Well, honour is the subject of my story.

I cannot tell what you and other men

Think of this life; but, for my single self,

I had as lief not be as live to be

In awe of such a thing as I myself.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Julius Caesar. Act i. Sc. 2.

Live to be the show and gaze o' the time.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Macbeth. Act v. Sc. 8.

  Socrates said, "Bad men live that they may eat and drink, whereas good men eat and drink that they may live."

Plutarch (46(?)-120(?) a d): How a Young Man ought to hear Poems. 4.

For he who fights and runs away

May live to fight another day;

But he who is in battle slain

Can never rise and fight again.

Goldsmith: The Art of Poetry on a New Plan (1761), vol. ii. p. 147.

For he who fights and runs away

May live to fight another day;

But he who is in battle slain

Can never rise and fight again.

Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774): The Art of Poetry on a New Plan (1761). Vol. ii. p. 147.

  To live is Christ, and to die is gain.

New Testament: Philippians i. 21.

For we that live to please must please to live.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784): Prologue on the Opening of Drury Lane Theatre.

As true as I live.

Thomas Middleton (1580-1627): The Family of Love. Act v. Sc. 3.

Unblemish'd let me live, or die unknown;

O grant an honest fame, or grant me none!

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): The Temple of Fame. Last line.

Thus let me live, unseen, unknown,

Thus unlamented let me die;

Steal from the world, and not a stone

Tell where I lie.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Ode on Solitude.

We must eat to live and live to eat.

Henry Fielding (1707-1754): The Miser. Act iii. Sc. 3.

  Thus we never live, but we hope to live; and always disposing ourselves to be happy, it is inevitable that we never become so.

Blaise Pascal (1623-1662): Thoughts. Chap. v. 2.

Nor love thy life, nor hate; but what thou liv'st

Live well: how long or short permit to heaven.

John Milton (1608-1674): Paradise Lost. Book xi. Line 553.

Live while ye may,

Yet happy pair.

John Milton (1608-1674): Paradise Lost. Book iv. Line 533.

Live while you live, the epicure would say,

And seize the pleasures of the present day;

Live while you live, the sacred preacher cries,

And give to God each moment as it flies.

Lord, in my views, let both united be:

I live in pleasure when I live to thee.

Philip Doddridge (1702-1751): Epigram on his Family Arms.

Come live with me, and be my love;

And we will all the pleasures prove

That hills and valleys, dales and fields,

Woods or steepy mountain yields.

Christopher Marlowe (1565-1593): The Passionate Shepherd to his Love.

  Live with the gods.

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 a d): Meditations. v. 27.

If all the world and love were young,

And truth in every shepherd's tongue,

These pretty pleasures might me move

To live with thee, and be thy love.

Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618): The Nymph's Reply to the Passionate Shepherd.

To live with them is far less sweet

Than to remember thee.

Thomas Moore (1779-1852): I saw thy Form.

Abide with me from morn till eve,

For without Thee I cannot live;

Abide with me when night is nigh,

For without Thee I dare not die.

John Keble (1792-1866): Evening.

The live-long day.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Julius Caesar. Act i. Sc. 1.