80+ Vintage Quotes About Life That are Relatable

Vintage quotes about life offer us the wisdom and perspectives of the past, these life quotes carry the echoes of life, sharing insights that remain relevant across generations. They capture the essence of experiences, values, and lessons from eras long gone, reminding us that while times may change, the fundamental aspects of life continue to hold true.

These quotes were said by people from a long time ago, and they can teach you interesting things about life. Just like finding a hidden treasure, reading these vintage quotes can help us discover wise and thoughtful ideas that people believed in a long time ago. Let’s take a journey into past life experiences and explore the wisdom of these old words!

Imagine taking a trip back in time, like looking at old pictures or listening to stories from your grandparents. Vintage quotes about life are a bit like that – they’re wise words from a long time ago that still make a lot of sense today.

These vintage quotes about life are like little pieces of advice or thoughts about life struggles and trumps that people from the past wanted to share. They’re like hidden treasures that can teach us things about how to live our lives in a good way. Let’s explore these vintage quotes about life and see what they can teach us about life!

Vintage quotes about life

• “Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.” ― Marcus Aurelius
• “If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.” ― Jim Rohn
• “The minute you think that the past was better, your present is second hand, and yourself becomes vintage – it’s okay for clothes not that great for people.” ― Karl Lagerfeld
• “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.” ― Mark Twain
• “Advice of a loser, experience of a winner and your own decisions will never let you fail in life.” ― Margaret Nwali
• “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?.” ― Martin Luther King, Jr.

• “My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humour, and some style.” ― Maya Angelou
• “There is no passion to be found playing small-in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.” ― Nelson Mandela

• “The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are.” ― Arimedes
• “Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.” ― Marcus Aurelius
• “People hide their truest nature. I understood that; I even applauded it. What sort of world would it be if people bled all over the sidewalks, if they wept under trees, smacked whomever they despised, kissed strangers, revealed themselves?” ― Alice Hoffman

• “The secret of success is learning how to use pain and pleasure instead of having pain and pleasure use you. If you do that, you’re in control of your life. If you don’t, life controls you.” ― Tony Robbins

• “Two things define you: Your patience when you have nothing and your attitude when you have everything.” ― George Bernard Shaw
• “Do not act as if you were going to live ten thousand years. Death hangs over you. While you live, while it is in your power, be good. – Margaret Nwali
• Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.” ― Henry Ford

• “If you don’t stand your ground, then all that happens is people push you backwards. And they will push you, and push you, and push you, until you fall off a cliff.” ― James Ato
• He whose life has a why can bear almost any how.” ― Friedrich Nietzsche
• “Today is life-the only life you are sure of. Make the most of today. Get interested in something. Shake yourself awake. Develop a hobby. Let the winds of enthusiasm sweep through you. Live today with gusto.” ― Dale Carnegie

• “Remember two things: i. that everything has always been the same, and keeps recurring, and it makes no difference whether you see the same things recur in a hundred years or two hundred, or in an infinite period; ii. that the longest-lived and those who will die soonest lose the same thing. The present is all that they can give up, since that is all you have, and what you do not have you cannot lose.” ― Epictetus
• “Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.” ― Marcus Aurelius

Check out the short vintage quotes about life below!

Short vintage quotes about life

• “While we wait for life, life passes.” ― Seneca
• “No loss should be more regrettable to us than losing our time, for it’s irretrievable.” ― Zeno
• “Dogs and philosophers do the greatest good and get the fewest rewards.” ― Diogenes
• “If you want to see the rainbow, be ready to face the rain first.” ― Plato
• “The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.” ― Marcus Aurelius
• “To be everywhere is to be nowhere.” ―  Seneca
• “You might well remember that nothing can bring you success but yourself.” ― Napoleon Hill

• “Face the demands of life voluntarily. Respond to a challenge, instead of bracing for catastrophe.” ― Plato
• “Some people are so poor, all they have is money.” ― Jack Kerouac

• “What comes easy won’t last long, and what lasts long won’t come easy.” ~ Zeneca
• “For many men, the acquisition of wealth does not end their troubles, it only changes them.” ― Aristotle
• “Truth, virtue, and courage are not necessarily enough, but they are our best bet.” ― Jordan Peterson

• “If you fulfil your obligations every day you don’t need to worry about the future.” ― Roy Bennet
• “The successful among us delay gratification and bargain with the future.” ― Nelson Mandela
• “When you have something to say, silence is a lie.” ― Jordan Peterson

• “I hear my silence talked of in every lane; The suppression of a cry is itself a cry of pain.” ― Darshan Singh
• “If you cannot bring peace to your own household, how dare you try and rule a city?” ― Plato
• “It’s better to do something badly than to not do it at all.” ― Jack Kerouac
• “Don’t be a slave to stupid rules.” ― Diogenes

• “You’re not everything you could be, and you know it.” ― Margaret Nwali

Check out these inspirational vintage quotes about life!

Inspirational vintage quotes about life

• “I have often wondered how it is that every man loves himself more than all the rest of men, but yet sets less value on his own opinion of himself than on the opinion of others.” ― Marcus Aurelius
• “There is one quality which one must possess to win, and that is definiteness of purpose, the knowledge of what one wants, and a burning desire to possess it.” ― Napoleon Hill
• “Can you imagine yourself in 10 years if instead of avoiding the things you know you should do, you did them every single day, that’s powerful.” ― Jordan Peterson
• “Wise men, when in doubt whether to speak or to keep quiet, give themselves the benefit of the doubt, and remain silent.” ― Napoleon Hill
• “So, listen, to yourself and to those with whom you are speaking. Your wisdom then consists not of the knowledge you already have, but the continual search for knowledge, which is the highest form of wisdom.” ― J Kennedy

• “You cannot be protected from the things that frighten you and hurt you, but if you identify with the part of your being that is responsible for transformation, then you are always the equal, or more than the equal of the things that frighten you.” ― Jordan Peterson
• “Those who educate children well are more to be honoured than they who produce them; for these only gave them life, those the art of living well.” ― Aristotle

• “The better ambitions have to do with the development of character and ability, rather than status and power. Status you can lose. You carry character with you wherever you go, and it allows you to prevail against adversity.” ― Homer
• “You must determine where you are going in your life, because you cannot get there unless you move in that direction. Random wandering will not move you forward. It will instead disappoint and frustrate you and make you anxious and unhappy and hard to get along with (and then resentful, and then vengeful, and then worse.” ― Micheal Jordan

• “Moral excellence comes about as a result of habit. We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts.” ― Aristotle
• “Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.” ― Epicurus
• “You can start right where you stand and apply the habit of going the extra mile by rendering more service and better service than you are now being paid for.” ― Napoleon Hill

• “Until we have begun to go without them, we fail to realise how unnecessary many things are. We’ve been using them not because we needed them but because we had them.” ― Seneca
• “Complaining does not work as a strategy. We all have finite time and energy. Any time we spend whining is unlikely to help us achieve our goals. And it won’t make us happier.” ― Randy Pausch

• “When you are visited by chaos and swallowed up; when nature curses you or someone you love with illness; or when tyranny rends asunder something of value that you have built, it is salutary to know the rest of the story. All of that misfortune is only the bitter half of the tale of existence, without taking note of the heroic element of redemption or the nobility of the human spirit requiring a certain responsibility to shoulder. We ignore that addition to the story at our peril, because life is so difficult that losing sight of the heroic part of existence could cost us everything.” ― Jordan Peterson
• “The secret to your existence is right in front of you. And it manifests itself as all those things you know you should do but you’re avoiding” ― Epicurus

• It took untold generations to get you where you are. A little gratitude might be in order. If you’re going to insist on bending the world to your way, you better have your reasons.” ― Thomas Jefferson
• “Adopt responsibility for your own well-being, try to put your family together, try to serve your community, try to seek for eternal truth. That’s the sort of thing that can ground you in your life, enough so that you can withstand the difficulty of life.” ― Randy Pausch

• “Remember that all we have is “on loan” from Fortune, which can reclaim it without our permission—indeed, without even advance notice. Thus, we should love all our dear ones, but always with the thought that we have no promise that we may keep them forever—nay, no promise even that we may keep them for long.” ― zeno
• “The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavour.” ~ Vince Lombardi

• “It is inevitable that life will be not just very short but very miserable for those who acquire by great toil what they must keep by greater toil. They achieve what they want laboriously; they possess what they have achieved anxiously; and meanwhile they take no account of time that will never more return. New preoccupations take the place of the old, hope excites more hope and ambition more ambition. They do not look for an end to their misery, but simply change the reason for it.” ― Homer

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• “I fail to remember ever having made an effort — no trace of struggle is detectable in my life, I am the opposite of a heroic nature. To “want” something, to “strive” for something, to have an “end,” a “desire” in mind — I know none of this from my experience. Even now I look out for my future — a broad one! — as upon a smooth sea: no desire ripples upon it. Not in the least do I want anything to be different from what it is; I do not want to be any different … But thus I have always lived.” ― Friedrich Nietzsche
• “Remember your dreams and fight for them. You must know what you want from life. There is just one thing that makes your dream become impossible: the fear of failure.” – Paulo Coelho

• “It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it. Life is long enough, and a sufficiently generous amount has been given to us for the highest achievements if it were all well invested. But when it is wasted in heedless luxury and spent on no good activity, we are forced at last by death’s final constraint to realize that it has passed away before we know it was passing” ― Archimedes
• “He who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or a god.” ― Aristotle

• “In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” ― Abraham Lincoln
• “Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.” ― Soren Kierkegaard

• “Life is ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you respond to it.” ― Lou Holtz
• “Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.” ― Leo Buscaglia

• “Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.” ― John F. Kennedy
• “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realise how close they were to success when they gave up.” ― Thomas A. Edison

• “When life is too easy for us, we must beware or we may not be ready to meet the blows which sooner or later come to everyone, rich or poor.” ― Eleanor Roosevelt
• “There is no passion to be found playing small – in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.” ― Nelson Mandela

• “Our greatest happiness does not depend on the condition of life in which chance has placed us, but is always the result of a good conscience, good health, occupation, and freedom in all just pursuits.” ― Thomas Jefferson
• “Today is life – the only life you are sure of. Make the most of today. Get interested in something. Shake yourself awake. Develop a hobby. Let the winds of enthusiasm sweep through you. Live today with gusto.” ― Dale Carnegie

• “My philosophy of life is that if we make up our mind what we are going to make of our lives, then work hard toward that goal, we never lose – somehow we win out.” ― Ronald Reagan
• “Transformation is a process, and as life happens there are tons of ups and downs. It’s a journey of discovery – there are moments on mountaintops and moments in deep valleys of despair.” ― Rick Warren

• “Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.” ― Henry Ford
• “In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.” ― Robert Frost

• “Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to reform (or pause and reflect).” ― Mark Twain
• “The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times.” ― Paulo Coelho
• “The best index to a person’s character is how he treats people who can’t do him any good, and how he treats people who can’t fight back.” ― Abigail Van Buren

Conclusion

Life is like a colourful journey with many different parts. There are happy and hard times in life that help us grow and learn. As we go through life ups and downs, we discover our goals, make friends, and understand what it means to be human. In the end, life is about enjoying every moment, finding value in everyday things, and understanding that time goes by quickly.

Learning, growing, and making the most of every moment. Cherish the good times, learn from the tough times, and find joy in the simple things. I hope you enjoyed the vintage quotes about life and have learnt life lessons from them? You can also check out this Quotes About How to Live Life Fully Your ability to comprehend many of the vintage quotes about life will help you make better decisions.