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To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.
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“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.”

Oscar Wilde

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Source
The Soul of Man under Socialism
Date
1891
Meaning

Meaning of “To live is the rarest thing in the…”

Wilde separates deliberate individual living from merely passing through existence, making self-realization and chosen purpose part of what it means to live fully.

Source context

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The Soul of Man under Socialism; Wilde develops individualism as the freedom to form a life from within rather than conform to social expectation.

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Be YourselfConfidence Quotes About Ability & Self-TrustDeepGoalsIdentityIndependenceInspirational Quotes About Hope, Courage & PossibilityLifeLoveMeaning of Life Quotes About What Makes Life MatterMotivation For LifeMotivational Quotes for Action, Effort & PersistencePurpose Quotes About Direction, Duty & Meaningful WorkSelf LoveSelf RelianceSelf TrustShortWisdom About Life
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He who lets the world, or his own portion of it, choose his plan of life for him, has no need of any other faculty than the ape-like one of imitation.
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“He who lets the world, or his own portion of it, choose his plan of life for him, has no need of any other faculty than the ape-like one of imitation.”

John Stuart Mill · On Liberty · 1859
Meaning & context

A life copied from convention leaves important human faculties unused; choosing deliberately requires observation, judgment and firmness.

Source details

On Liberty, Chapter III; Mill contrasts imitation with actively choosing one’s own plan of life.

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Life is a search after power.
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“Life is a search after power.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson · The Conduct of Life · 1860
Meaning & context

Emerson treats living as an active search for capacity and agency, so growth involves finding and using the powers that let a person act effectively.

Source details

The Conduct of Life, essay II, “Power,” Project Gutenberg #39827. “Life is a search after power” appears at the opening of Emerson’s prose discussion after the verse epigraph and introduces his account of capacity, agency and human influence. It remains nineteenth-century Transcendentalist conduct-of-life philosophy rather than an empirical law of motivation or success.

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Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist.
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“Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson · Self-Reliance · 1841
Meaning & context

Emerson argues that mature character requires enough independence to resist conformity when conviction points elsewhere.

Source details

Essays, First Series, essay II, “Self-Reliance,” Project Gutenberg #2944. “Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist” follows Emerson’s claim that society conspires against the manhood of its members through conformity. The represented Gutenberg witness prints a comma after “man,” while the frozen catalog quotation omits that punctuation; the wording is otherwise the same. It remains Transcendentalist moral rhetoric about self-trust and independence rather than a universal instruction to reject social norms or expertise.

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