Life (cf. biota
) is a characteristic that distinguishes objects
that have signaling and self-sustaining processes
(i.e., living organisms
) from those that do not, either because such functions have ceased (death
), or else because they lack such functions and are classified as inanimate. Biology
is the science concerned with the study of life.
Living organisms undergo metabolism
, maintain homeostasis
, possess a capacity to grow
, respond to stimuli
, reproduce and, through natural selection
, adapt to their environment in successive generations.
Brief and powerless is man's life; on him and all his race the slow, sure doom falls pitiless and dark.
I compare human life to a large mansion of many apartments, two of which I can only describe, the doors of the rest being as yet shut upon me.
Life is a pill which none of us can bear to swallow without gilding.
Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death.
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.
Life is the distance between dreams and reality.
Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.
Life shrinks or expands according to one's courage.