“Things go right all the time. We just don't write laws about those.”
Original
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Life is what happens to us while we are making other plans.
About this quote
Meaning
This line captures the gap between the life we plan and the life we actually live. We spend considerable energy mapping out futures, setting goals, and arranging circumstances, yet the moments that truly define us tend to arrive unannounced and unscheduled. The quote is a gentle nudge to pay attention to the present rather than treating each day as a stepping stone to some imagined later point.
Context
The line appeared in a 1957 issue of Reader's Digest, attributed to Allen Saunders, an American cartoonist and writer best known for his work on comic strips. It circulated widely from that point onward and later became strongly associated with John Lennon, who used a version of it in a song released in 1980. This kind of migration is common for quotable lines: a pithy phrase finds a larger audience through a more famous voice, and the original source gradually fades. Tracing it back to Saunders is now the accepted scholarly consensus among quote researchers.
About the author
Allen Saunders worked for decades as a writer and artist in American comic strips during the mid-twentieth century, contributing to long-running serialized stories aimed at a general newspaper readership. He was a working professional in popular media rather than a literary figure, which makes it all the more fitting that one offhand observation outlasted nearly everything else he produced. His career reflects the broader culture of mid-century American journalism and entertainment, where wit and brevity were highly valued craft skills.
Up next
“The optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty. The coin is the same. It just depends which side you're watching.”
Original
“I've been making a list of the things they don't teach you at school. They don't teach you how to love somebody. They don't teach you how to be famous. They don't teach you how to be rich or how to be poor. They don't teach you how to walk away from someone you don't love anymore. They don't teach you how to know what's happening in someone else's mind. They don't teach you what to say to someone who's dying. They don't teach you anything worth knowing.”
Neil Gaiman · The Sandman, 1989
Share this quote
“I've been making a list of the things they don't teach you at school. They don't teach you how to love somebody. They don't teach you how to be famous. They don't teach you how to be rich or how to be poor. They don't teach you how to walk away from someone you don't love anymore. They don't teach you how to know what's happening in someone else's mind. They don't teach you what to say to someone who's dying. They don't teach you anything worth knowing.”
“Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.”
Douglas Adams · The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, 1979
“The trouble with being punctual is that nobody's there to appreciate it.”
Franklin P. Jones · widely attributed
“I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me.”
Fred Allen · widely attributed
“I love sleep. My life has the tendency to fall apart when I'm awake, you know?”
Ernest Hemingway · widely attributed
“I wake up every morning at nine and grab for the morning paper. Then I look at the obituary page. If my name is not on it, I get up.”
Benjamin Franklin · widely attributed
“Get up, stand up, stand up for your rights.”
Bob Marley · Get Up, Stand Up, 1973
“If it's your job to eat a frog, it's best to do it first thing in the morning. And if it's your job to eat two frogs, it's best to eat the biggest one first.”
Mark Twain · widely attributed to Twain
“I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying.”
Oscar Wilde · The Happy Prince and Other Tales, 1888
“I'm always late on principle, my principle being that punctuality is the thief of time.”
Oscar Wilde · The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1890
