"In three words ...."

In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on.

Robert Frost

"Life is what I want ...."

Life is what I want; yi* is also what I want.  If I cannot have both, I would rather take yi than life.  On the other hand, though life is what I want, there is something I want more than life.  That is why I do not cling to life at all cost.   In other words, there are things a person wants more than life and there are also things he or she loathes more than death.

Mencius

* often translated as ‘meaningfulness’

"It is not the young man ...."

It is not the young man who should be considered fortunate but the old man who has lived well, because the young man in his prime wanders much by chance, vacillating in his beliefs, while the old man has docked in the harbor, having safeguarded his true happiness.

Epicurus

"Man is made God's plaything ...."

Man is made God’s plaything, and that is the best part of him. … Therefore every man and woman should live life accordingly, and play the noblest games. … What, then, is the right way of living?  Life must be lived as play.

Plato

"When his father ...."

When his father died, he could not read his father’s books – the faintly damp touch of his hand still seemed to remain.  When his mother died, he could not drink from her cups and bowls.  The faintly damp touch of her mouth and her breath still seemed to remain.

The Classic of Rites