Some time ago now I came to realize that how we define particular words - success, happiness, love, etc - can have a major impact on the way in which we live our life. One term that I hear thrown around often is “good life”, eg “he lived a good life” . But what is a good life exactly? This term will mean different things to different people, and yet I believe there are some ingredients that all “good lives” share. Here are a some of these ingredients:

Being present in the moment

Life is a succession of moments. To live each one is to succeed. - Corita Kent

To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all. - Oscar Wilde

Gratefulness

Gratefulness is the key to a happy life that we hold in our hands, because if we are not grateful, then no matter how much we have we will not be happy - because we will always want to have something else or something more. - Brother David Steindl-Rast

Love

Love doesn’t make the world go ’round; love is what makes the ride worthwhile. - Franklin P. Jones

Life is the flower for which love is the honey. - Victor Hugo

A life lived for others

We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give. - Winston Churchill

Squeezing the most out of our time

And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years. - Abraham Lincoln

… we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens only a certain number of times, and a very small number, really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, some afternoon that’s so deeply a part of your being that you can’t even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four or five times more. perhaps not even that. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless. - Paul Bowles

Living with purpose

The purpose of life is a life of purpose. - Robert Byrne

Acceptance that life will bring sadness

There are as many nights as days, and the one is just as long as the other in the year’s course. Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word ‘happy’ would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. - Carl Jung

Living without fear

Only when we are no longer afraid do we begin to live. - Dorothy Thompson

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. - Mark Twain

Not taking life too seriously

Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive. - Elbert Hubbard

不久前，我認識到我們如何定義一些特定的詞－成功，快樂，愛等，就會對我們生活的方式產生重要的影響。我經常聽到的一個詞就是美好的生活，比如他有一個美好的生活，但究竟什么才算是一個美好的生活？雖然不同的人對此有不同的理解，但我相信所有的“美好的生活”中均分享著一些要素，以下就是這些要素。

活在當下

生命是時刻的連續，而活在每一刻就是成功。－柯利塔•肯特

活著是世上最珍貴的，大多數人只是存在，僅此而已。－奧斯卡•王爾德

感恩

感恩是我們握在手中的開啟快樂生活的鑰匙，因為如果我們不懂感恩，那么不管我們擁有多少，我們也不會開心－因為我們總會想要擁有其他東西或者想得到更多。－布拉德•大衛••斯泰德•賴斯特

愛

愛沒有使世界轉動，但正是它，使周游世界變得有價值。－富蘭克林•本杰明

人生是花朵，愛情是花蜜。－雨果

一種為了他人而活著的生活

我們靠獲得的東西生存，但我們靠給予的東西生活。－溫斯頓•丘吉爾

最大地壓榨我們的時間

生命，不在乎享受多少年，只在乎真正活過多少年。-亞伯拉罕•林肯

我們可以把生命視為取之不盡，用之不竭的。然而，這一切僅發生在一定數量的時代，且僅占一個很小的數目，這是真的。有多少次你會記得你童年的某一個下午，而那個下午已經成為你生命里最深的一部分以至于你認為你甚至不能設想你的生活沒有它？也許你會想起它4次到5次以上，也許甚至沒有。有多少次你會觀賞月亮的升起？也許是20次。然而，這一切似乎是無限的。-保羅•鮑爾斯

有目的地活著

生活的目的就是過一種有目的的生活。-羅伯特•拜恩

接受生活也會帶來悲傷

有多少個夜晚，就有多少個白天，并且在一年當中，這兩個的時間長度是一樣的。即使是一個愉快的生活也要有陰暗的衡量，而“快樂”如果沒有“悲傷”的對照，它也會失去了它的意義，-卡爾榮

無畏地活著

我們唯有不再害怕我們才能開始生活。-桃樂絲•托馬森

二十年后，當你回顧你所經歷的事情時，你將為沒有嘗試的事情而感到后悔。所以從現在起，仍掉你的安全套結，從安全的港口啟航，和信風一起航行，開始探險，去追求你的夢想吧！-馬克•吐溫

不要對生活太認真

別對生活太認真，否則你將永遠不能擺脫它活著。-艾伯特哈伯德