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The School of Life: Quotes to Live By: A collection to revive and inspire
A collection of enlightening quotes, delivering some of the most important lessons The School of Life has to offer.
This is a selection of the very best and most psychologically acute quotations from The School of Life, covering such large and diverse topics as relationships, regret, anxiety, work, friends, family, travel and, not least, the meaning of life. Some of these quotations elicit an immediate nod of recognition, others leave us thoughtful and a few are just plain funny.
The book is organized by The School of Life’s key themes – Relationships, Self-Knowledge, Sociability, Work, Calm and Leisure – that together amount to a tour around the most profound sorrows and joys of the human mind and heart. Offering comfort and consolation in a compact format with quirky illustrations by Avi Ofer, The School of Quotes to Live By is ideally suited to our impatient, anxious and searching times.
This is a selection of the very best and most psychologically acute quotations from The School of Life, covering such large and diverse topics as relationships, regret, anxiety, work, friends, family, travel and, not least, the meaning of life. Some of these quotations elicit an immediate nod of recognition, others leave us thoughtful and a few are just plain funny.
The book is organized by The School of Life’s key themes – Relationships, Self-Knowledge, Sociability, Work, Calm and Leisure – that together amount to a tour around the most profound sorrows and joys of the human mind and heart. Offering comfort and consolation in a compact format with quirky illustrations by Avi Ofer, The School of Quotes to Live By is ideally suited to our impatient, anxious and searching times.
208 pages, Hardcover
Published April 4, 2023
43 people are currently reading
203 people want to read
About the author
The School of Life
173 books3,142 followersThe School of Life is a global organisation helping people lead more fulfilled lives.
We believe that the journey to finding fulfilment begins with self-knowledge. It is only when we have a sense of who we really are that we can make reliable decisions, particularly around love and work.
Sadly, tools and techniques for developing self-knowledge and finding fulfilment are hard to find – they’re not taught in schools, in universities, or in workplaces. Too many of us go through life without ever really understanding what’s going on in the recesses of our minds.
That’s why we created The School of Life; a resource for helping us understand ourselves, for improving our relationships, our careers and our social lives - as well as for helping us find calm and get more out of our leisure hours. We do this through films, workshops, books and gifts - as well as through a warm and supportive community.
We believe that the journey to finding fulfilment begins with self-knowledge. It is only when we have a sense of who we really are that we can make reliable decisions, particularly around love and work.
Sadly, tools and techniques for developing self-knowledge and finding fulfilment are hard to find – they’re not taught in schools, in universities, or in workplaces. Too many of us go through life without ever really understanding what’s going on in the recesses of our minds.
That’s why we created The School of Life; a resource for helping us understand ourselves, for improving our relationships, our careers and our social lives - as well as for helping us find calm and get more out of our leisure hours. We do this through films, workshops, books and gifts - as well as through a warm and supportive community.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
June 10, 2023
Reflections and lessons learned/the content of this book made me feel…
“If we are not regularly and very deeply embarrassed about who we are, it can only be because we haven't begun to understand ourselves”
A book where the title and subtitle represent it so perfectly - after reading I did feel inspired and revived! Everything about this book appealed to me - the vibrant colours on covers, illustrations and parts of the text; the muted internal cover colours, the chapter headings, and then of course the actual content! Some quotes I had to read a few times in order to properly understand, but quick life lessons through quotes don’t need to be rushed.
I’ve read it from cover to cover to start with, but look forward to also digesting it in chunks, and sharing copies with people that I love and cherish. A book for next to the desk, toilet and bedside - and anyone that wants to learn and empathise rather than keep charging through life without a second thought
“If we are not regularly and very deeply embarrassed about who we are, it can only be because we haven't begun to understand ourselves”
A book where the title and subtitle represent it so perfectly - after reading I did feel inspired and revived! Everything about this book appealed to me - the vibrant colours on covers, illustrations and parts of the text; the muted internal cover colours, the chapter headings, and then of course the actual content! Some quotes I had to read a few times in order to properly understand, but quick life lessons through quotes don’t need to be rushed.
I’ve read it from cover to cover to start with, but look forward to also digesting it in chunks, and sharing copies with people that I love and cherish. A book for next to the desk, toilet and bedside - and anyone that wants to learn and empathise rather than keep charging through life without a second thought
April 4, 2024
Every now and then I pick up this book to be inspired by one of the quotes or read a few pages and was never disappointed. A book full of food for thoughts, and friendly reminders with a cute, appealing design.
January 8, 2023
Thank you as always to the School of Life for allowing me to access their ARCs! While these are not the quotes I expected, these aphorisms from the School of Life are still stirring and intriguing to read through. These remind me a bit of the "Poetry Pharmacy" in that they are pieces of wisdom split by category in which they could provide insight and guidance. Read through Kindle this was enjoyable, I wish to have a physical copy in the future.
March 28, 2023
I am absolutely loving it!
I'm really into quotes. Sometimes I don't have the energy to read something heavy. A short book that covers many issues including relationships, self-knowledge, sociability, work, calm, and leisure.
I'll share some of my favorites:
Relationships: "Love is a skill, not just an enthusiasm."
Self-knowledge: "Depression is sadness that has forgotten its true causes."
Sociability: "So many of life’s problems would be softened if we had three or four exceptional friends living within a two-minute radius."
Work:
-"A so-called ‘meaningful’ job is any occupation that leaves us feeling, at the close of the day, that we have somehow either decreased the suffering or increased the satisfaction of another human being."
-"Sunday angst is trying in its own confused way to tell us something worth listening to: we must change our lives."
Calm: "Almost all of us end up drinking equal amounts from the cup of human sorrow – just at different points, in different-sized sips."
Leisure: "It is extremely rare to properly delight in flowers when one is under twenty-two; it is rare to be left entirely indifferent by flowers after the age of fifty."
I wish there are more bites-size books full of wisdom like this. I like how their quotes are not sugar-coated. raw, sometimes harsh, but that's the truth we need. I feel more content and hopeful after reading this.
Thank you, NetGalley for letting me read the digital ARC of The School of Life: Quotes to Live By: A collection to revive and inspire. Love to read more books from The School of Life!
I'm really into quotes. Sometimes I don't have the energy to read something heavy. A short book that covers many issues including relationships, self-knowledge, sociability, work, calm, and leisure.
I'll share some of my favorites:
Relationships: "Love is a skill, not just an enthusiasm."
Self-knowledge: "Depression is sadness that has forgotten its true causes."
Sociability: "So many of life’s problems would be softened if we had three or four exceptional friends living within a two-minute radius."
Work:
-"A so-called ‘meaningful’ job is any occupation that leaves us feeling, at the close of the day, that we have somehow either decreased the suffering or increased the satisfaction of another human being."
-"Sunday angst is trying in its own confused way to tell us something worth listening to: we must change our lives."
Calm: "Almost all of us end up drinking equal amounts from the cup of human sorrow – just at different points, in different-sized sips."
Leisure: "It is extremely rare to properly delight in flowers when one is under twenty-two; it is rare to be left entirely indifferent by flowers after the age of fifty."
I wish there are more bites-size books full of wisdom like this. I like how their quotes are not sugar-coated. raw, sometimes harsh, but that's the truth we need. I feel more content and hopeful after reading this.
Thank you, NetGalley for letting me read the digital ARC of The School of Life: Quotes to Live By: A collection to revive and inspire. Love to read more books from The School of Life!
February 4, 2023
Thanks to Netgalley for providing a free review copy.
Um, yeah. I'm not familiar with The School of Life as an organization. But what, I ask you, is the point of a book of "quotes" that are not attributed to any particular author or resource? There whole book is just a collection of "aphorism or maxims" without any mention of who wrote/said them as a cover for the laziest research I've ever seen, and i work with children. Skip this one, just go use Bartlett's Quotations.
Um, yeah. I'm not familiar with The School of Life as an organization. But what, I ask you, is the point of a book of "quotes" that are not attributed to any particular author or resource? There whole book is just a collection of "aphorism or maxims" without any mention of who wrote/said them as a cover for the laziest research I've ever seen, and i work with children. Skip this one, just go use Bartlett's Quotations.
August 17, 2024
Nesitikėjau daug, ir vistik, tebeskaitant supratau, kad knyga pranoko lūkesčius. Paprasta, bet kartu geniali. Daug minčių, kurios paklibina ir verčia susimąstyti. Liks namų bibliotekoje ir dar ne kartą bus atversta.
July 20, 2023
Nonsense.
March 28, 2024
Some of these quotes are good and some are terrible. This feels more like the results of an extensive internet search than a curated collection.
August 4, 2024
Some of the quotes have the potential to be a game changer....
August 10, 2024
It is like a good coffee table book, but for your mind. I must admit that some of the quotes stayed with me. But like all coffee table books there is a big question mark, whether it's worth what one pays for.
January 18, 2025
Lost the plot a bit
July 25, 2025
My 12th The School of Life read. 🩷 Unlike the typical feel good quotes, this actually has more depth. 🙌🏻
February 26, 2023
My thanks to both NetGalley and The School of LIfe for an advanced copy of this book on quotes about life and love and how we can make ourselves a little bit better in both.
I have always been one of those readers who use a file card for a bookmark, sometimes two or three. I write down words I am unfamiliar with, historical events that I was unaware of and helpful hints that a lot of writers love to share. And quotes. I write down line, sentences, whole paragraphs, sometimes just a phrase. I have a dream of one day going through all my cards and seeing what took my fancy here, what I thought was profound there. Words can be a solace sometimes, or convey a meaning to others that shows what a person is thinking, but can't articulate. So I love quotes, as much as it seems as these editors do. The School of Life: Quotes to Live By: A collection to revive and inspire by The School of Life and its team is a compendium of aphorisms detailing the human condition and how others share those feeling we all have, but are better at writing it down.
The quotes here are taken from previous books in The School of Life series. As there reason for being is to help people lead more fulfilled lives, the quotes deal with the things that make humans be what we are, and the most crazy. Relationships, work, sociability, leisure and more. Some are very pithy, some are very telling. A seem lost in meaning or translation, and one or two defy understanding. There is a certain zen koan to quite a few, upon reading the quote becomes a mental earworm running around the head, a Möbius strip of meanings that keep the mind occupied all day.
The book is illustrated with a sort of New Yorker style, and like the New Yorker can hit or miss. My biggest pet peeve is that the quotes exist in a vaccum. There is no mention of what books they came from, and while I understand the authors are part of The School of Life, still I would have liked to know who wrote something, especially if I wanted to read more by that person later. There is a section, Others, whose authors and works are cited like in a Bartlett's, and the mix of anonymous and familiar can be a little jarring. Still there is a lot of truth here, and the names might not be as important as the words they left behind.
A good gift for a person you know that is having a rough time in life, and to remind them that they are loved. Also this would be a good entry for a lot of people into The School of Life and they many publications they have. I've been a fan for a while, and look forward to a second volume of quotes.
I have always been one of those readers who use a file card for a bookmark, sometimes two or three. I write down words I am unfamiliar with, historical events that I was unaware of and helpful hints that a lot of writers love to share. And quotes. I write down line, sentences, whole paragraphs, sometimes just a phrase. I have a dream of one day going through all my cards and seeing what took my fancy here, what I thought was profound there. Words can be a solace sometimes, or convey a meaning to others that shows what a person is thinking, but can't articulate. So I love quotes, as much as it seems as these editors do. The School of Life: Quotes to Live By: A collection to revive and inspire by The School of Life and its team is a compendium of aphorisms detailing the human condition and how others share those feeling we all have, but are better at writing it down.
The quotes here are taken from previous books in The School of Life series. As there reason for being is to help people lead more fulfilled lives, the quotes deal with the things that make humans be what we are, and the most crazy. Relationships, work, sociability, leisure and more. Some are very pithy, some are very telling. A seem lost in meaning or translation, and one or two defy understanding. There is a certain zen koan to quite a few, upon reading the quote becomes a mental earworm running around the head, a Möbius strip of meanings that keep the mind occupied all day.
The book is illustrated with a sort of New Yorker style, and like the New Yorker can hit or miss. My biggest pet peeve is that the quotes exist in a vaccum. There is no mention of what books they came from, and while I understand the authors are part of The School of Life, still I would have liked to know who wrote something, especially if I wanted to read more by that person later. There is a section, Others, whose authors and works are cited like in a Bartlett's, and the mix of anonymous and familiar can be a little jarring. Still there is a lot of truth here, and the names might not be as important as the words they left behind.
A good gift for a person you know that is having a rough time in life, and to remind them that they are loved. Also this would be a good entry for a lot of people into The School of Life and they many publications they have. I've been a fan for a while, and look forward to a second volume of quotes.
October 17, 2024
“We crave the validation of others in inverse proportion to how well we think of ourselves. If we could truly accept ourselves as decent, public opinion would be of no interest whatsoever.” 😌
“Getting to the top always has an unfortunate tendency to persuade people that the system is OK after all.” 🏆
“The more we like what we’ve written, the less we need others to approve.” 💯
“Most of what makes a book ‘good’ is that we’re reading it at the right moment for us.” ⏰
“You have to be bashed about a bit by life to see the point of flowers, pretty skies and uneventful ‘boring’ days.” 👊
Embedded within the striking neon-orange covers of The School of Life: Quotes to Live By are pithy quotes from the series that serve as psychologically astute observations of the human condition. 🫀
It is hard to rate a book that relies so much on the reader’s ability to extract value from philosophically dense quotes. For me, I like how these quotes make me think and reflect on my own life, though I am confident that time and multiple readings are required to fully excavate the intrinsic value of the collection. 🧐
After all, perusing these quotes feels more like an intellectual exercise that a deeply engaging experience, largely attributable to the turns of phrase used that seem to impede the reader’s ease of understanding. Who knows, though—perhaps that is part of the editor’s intention! 🤔
3.5/5
“Getting to the top always has an unfortunate tendency to persuade people that the system is OK after all.” 🏆
“The more we like what we’ve written, the less we need others to approve.” 💯
“Most of what makes a book ‘good’ is that we’re reading it at the right moment for us.” ⏰
“You have to be bashed about a bit by life to see the point of flowers, pretty skies and uneventful ‘boring’ days.” 👊
Embedded within the striking neon-orange covers of The School of Life: Quotes to Live By are pithy quotes from the series that serve as psychologically astute observations of the human condition. 🫀
It is hard to rate a book that relies so much on the reader’s ability to extract value from philosophically dense quotes. For me, I like how these quotes make me think and reflect on my own life, though I am confident that time and multiple readings are required to fully excavate the intrinsic value of the collection. 🧐
After all, perusing these quotes feels more like an intellectual exercise that a deeply engaging experience, largely attributable to the turns of phrase used that seem to impede the reader’s ease of understanding. Who knows, though—perhaps that is part of the editor’s intention! 🤔
3.5/5
February 3, 2023
I received a copy of The School of Life: Quotes to Live By from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.
This book is sorted by The School of Life’s key themes – relationships, self-awareness/knowledge, sociability, work, calm and leisure. It's inspiring, insightful, and comforting. Some quotes are profound, and some are profoundly funny. There's something for everyone here and would recommend as a gift.
This book is sorted by The School of Life’s key themes – relationships, self-awareness/knowledge, sociability, work, calm and leisure. It's inspiring, insightful, and comforting. Some quotes are profound, and some are profoundly funny. There's something for everyone here and would recommend as a gift.
January 4, 2023
A very enlightening book. There were parts I found profound, meaningful and amusing. So did my husband but on a totally different selection. This either says that men ( or maybe just the hubby) are strange or this book offers many things to different people.
March 24, 2025
A very thought-provoking and insightful collection of quotations and reflections. I'll be reading this again for sure.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews