To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all
Source: Miscellaneous Aphorisms (1911)
Topic
The collection asks the simplest and hardest question: what does it mean to actually live, rather than merely exist? Socrates gives the standard — not life but good life is chiefly valued; Fuller reverses it: men forget to live in order to make a living. Chekhov finds day-to-day existence more wearing than any crisis. Conrad calls life a dream and a fear. Cicero: while there's life, there's hope. White on people who live only for the future and miss today entirely. The best piece may be the observation that journalism announces the death of people no one knew were alive — a compressed study of how much living goes unnoticed and uncounted.
To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all
Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact
To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.
If you observe, people always live for ever when there is an annuity to be paid them.