You only live twice. Once when you are born and once when you look death in the face.
Interpretation
Life is experienced twice: at birth and when confronting death.
This quote by Ian Fleming suggests that human life is defined by two significant moments: the first is the moment of birth, which introduces us to existence, and the second is the profound moment when one confronts their own mortality. It emphasizes the depth of living and the understanding that true life involves awareness of life's fragility and the acceptance of its end.
In practice
During a graduation speech to encourage students to embrace life fully.
Above all, he liked it that everything was one's own fault. There was only oneself to praise or blame. Luck was a servant and not a master. Luck had to be accepted with a shrug or taken advantage of up to the hilt. But it had to be understood and recognized for what it was and not confused with a faulty appreciation of the odds, for, at gambling, the deadly sin is to mistake bad play for bad luck. And luck in all its moods had to be loved and not feared
Most marriages don't add two people together. They subtract one from the other.
Worry is a dividend paid to disaster before it is due
And don't get hurt,' [Dexter] added. 'There's no one to help you up there. And don't go stirring up a lot of trouble for us. This case isn't ripe yet. Until it is, our policy with Mr Big is 'live and let live'.' Bond looked quizzically at Captain Dexter In my job,' he said, 'when I come up against a man like this one, I have another motto. It's 'live and let die'.
If you interrupt the writing of fast narrative with too much introspection and self-criticism, you will be lucky if you write 500 words a day and you will be disgusted with them into the bargain. By following my formula, you write 2,000 words a day and you aren’t disgusted with them until the book is finished, which will be in about six weeks.
For optimists, human life never needs justification, no matter how much hurt piles up, because they can always tell themselves that things will get better. For pessimists, there is no amount of happiness—should such a thing as happiness even obtain for human beings except as a misconception—that can compensate us for life’s hurt.
Why should I want what's good for me?' Beatrice asked him, smiling. 'Is that what you want for yourself - only what's good for you?
Psychology is ultimately mythology, the study of the stories of the soul.
To give an accurate description of what has never occurred is not merely the proper occupation of the historian, but the inalienable privilege of any man of parts and culture.
Realists are, as a rule, only men in the rut of routine who are incapable of transcending a narrow circle of antiquated notions.
Forces of nature act in a mysterious manner. We can but solve the mystery by deducing the unknown result from the known results of similar events.
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