Modern Life quotes
122 quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
"Ours is a culture based on excess, on overproduction; the result is a steady loss of sharpness in our sensory experience. All the conditions of modern life - its material plenitude, its sheer crowdedness - conjoin to dull our sensory faculties"
"Even with all our technology and the inventions that make modern life so much easier than it once was, it takes just one big natural disaster to wipe all that away and remind us that, here on Earth, we're still at the mercy of nature."
"The conjunction of effort, concentration and balance in asana forces us to live intensely in the present moment, a rare experience in modern life."
"The only thing wrong with architecture is architects."
"What's all this fuss about plutonium? How can something named after a Disney character be dangerous?"
Explore further
Browse quotes that often appear alongside modern life — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
Quote collection
Follow a thought to its author, or read the full quote page.
"If beer got any lighter you could raise goldfish in it."
"When a lot of remedies are suggested for a disease, that means it can't be cured."
"I have grown to love secrecy. It seems to be the one thing that can make modern life mysterious or marvelous to us. The commonest thing is delightful if only one hides it."
"The trouble with the lost generation is that it didn't get lost enough."
"To be, in a word, unborable.... It is the key to modern life. If you are immune to boredom, there is literally nothing you cannot accomplish"
"If I had it [life] to do all over again, I'd have been a plumber."
"Sin is the only real colour element left in modern life."
"That's part of the requirement for me to be an artist is that you're trying to share your personal existence with others and trying to illuminate modern life, trying to understand life."
"I am constantly amazed when I talk to young people to learn how much they know about sex and how little about soap."
"Much of modern life is preventable chronic stress injury."
"Modern life ... is often a mechanical oppression and liquor is the only mechanical relief."
"Characters paralyzed by the meaninglessness of modern life still have to drink water from time to time."
"Modern life is so thin and shallow and fake. I look forward to when developers go bankrupt, Japan gets poorer and wild grasses take over."
"Oh God, modern life with all its feelings. ... We live in the most callous society ever, and all anybody talks about nowadays is getting in touch with their feelings. ... The world has become one enormous group therapy session. It's a terrible bore. My motto is, 'Thank you for not sharing!"
"There's another advantage to being poor - a doctor will cure you faster."
"When I fly, I'm never afraid the plane is going to crash. But there have often been times when I was afraid it wouldn't crash. I was just afraid it was going to circle O'Hare for the rest of my life."
"Why take pride in cooking, when they don't take pride in eating?"
"I grew up on Nickelodeon.On All That and Are You Afraid of the Dark, and Salute Your Shorts and Rocco's Modern Life and all that. That was my generation."
"Modern life cannot be constructed on . . . physically strenuous principles. A great deal of work is sedentary, and most manual work exercises only a few specialized muscles."
"All our troubles come from not being able to be alone."
