biography living meaning

What Is a Biography? Definition & 25+ Examples

Have you ever wondered what lies beneath the surface of history’s most influential figures?

Imagine a chance to delve into the intricate tapestry of their lives, unraveling the threads that have woven together the very essence of their character, and unearthing the pivotal moments that shaped their destinies.

Welcome to the enthralling world of biographies, where you are invited to embark on a captivating journey into the lives of the extraordinary. Prepare to be captivated by the compelling tales of human resilience, ingenuity, and ambition that lie at the heart of each biography.

Table of Contents

Defining Biography

A biography is a detailed account of a person’s life, written by someone other than the subject. The term “biography” is derived from two Greek words: “bio,” which means life, and “graphy,” which signifies writing. Thus, a biography is the written history of someone’s life, offering an in-depth look at their experiences, achievements, and challenges.

Biographies typically focus on the life of notable individuals, such as historical figures or celebrities, and provide a comprehensive view of their personal and professional journey.

Biographers, the authors of these works, aim to offer an accurate, well-researched portrayal of their subjects by studying various sources and conducting interviews if possible. This thorough research and attention to detail ensure that the resulting narrative is both informative and engaging.

Biographies are a subgenre of non-fiction literature, as they chronicle the lives of real people. However, not all life stories fall under the category of biography.

Autobiographies and memoirs, for instance, focus on the author’s own experiences and are written from a first-person perspective. While autobiographies aim to present an overarching narrative of the author’s life, memoirs tend to focus on specific incidents or periods.

When crafting a biography, it is essential for the biographer to maintain a neutral tone, avoiding any judgment or personal bias. This objectivity allows readers to form their opinions based on the presented facts, gaining a broader understanding of the subject.

Elements of a Biography

A well-crafted biography contains several key elements that provide a comprehensive picture of the subject’s life. These elements help readers gain a deeper understanding of the subject while fostering an emotional connection. Below are some essential aspects of a biography:

Personal and Family Background

The personal and family background section of a biography provides an essential foundation for understanding the subject’s journey and the factors that shaped their life. By exploring the subject’s early years, readers gain insight into the environment and experiences that influenced their character, values, and aspirations.

This section typically begins with an overview of the subject’s birthplace, family origins, and cultural heritage. It delves into the family dynamics, including descriptions of the subject’s parents, siblings, and extended family, shedding light on the relationships that played a crucial role in their development.

The personal and family background section also addresses significant life events, challenges, and milestones that occurred during the subject’s upbringing. These formative experiences may include pivotal moments, such as moving to a new city, attending a particular school, or encountering a mentor who had a lasting impact on their life.

Education and Career

The education and career section of a biography is crucial for understanding the intellectual and professional development of the subject. By tracing the subject’s academic journey and career progression, readers gain a clearer picture of the knowledge, skills, and experiences that shaped their path and contributed to their success.

This section begins by outlining the subject’s educational background, including the schools they attended, the degrees or qualifications they obtained, and any specialized training they received. It also highlights the subject’s academic achievements, such as scholarships, awards, or distinctions, and any influential mentors or teachers who played a significant role in their intellectual growth.

The education and career section also delves into the subject’s professional life, chronicling their work history, job titles, and key responsibilities. It explores the subject’s career trajectory, examining how they transitioned between roles or industries and the factors that influenced their choices.

Major Events and Turning Points

The major events and turning points section of a biography delves into the pivotal moments and experiences that significantly influenced the subject’s life, shaping their character, values, and destiny.

By exploring these transformative events, readers gain a deeper understanding of the forces and circumstances that drove the subject’s actions and choices, as well as the challenges and triumphs they faced along the way.

This section encompasses a wide range of events, which could include personal milestones, such as marriage, the birth of children, or the loss of a loved one.

These personal events often provide insights into the subject’s emotional landscape and reveal the support systems, relationships, and personal values that sustained them through difficult times or propelled them to greater heights.

Influences and Inspirations

The influences and inspirations section of a biography delves into the individuals, ideas, and events that had a profound impact on the subject’s beliefs, values, and aspirations.

By understanding the forces that shaped the subject’s worldview, readers gain a deeper appreciation for the motivations driving their actions and decisions, as well as the creative and intellectual foundations upon which their accomplishments were built.

This section often begins by identifying the key figures who played a significant role in the subject’s life, such as family members, mentors, peers, or historical figures they admired.

It explores the nature of these relationships and how they shaped the subject’s perspectives, values, and ambitions. These influential individuals can provide valuable insights into the subject’s personal growth and development, revealing the sources of inspiration and guidance that fueled their journey.

The influences and inspirations section also delves into the ideas and philosophies that resonated with the subject and shaped their worldview. This could include an exploration of the subject’s religious, political, or philosophical beliefs, as well as the books, theories, or artistic movements that inspired them.

This section examines the events, both personal and historical, that impacted the subject’s life and inspired their actions. These could include moments of personal transformation, such as a life-altering experience or an epiphany, or broader societal events, such as wars, social movements, or technological innovations.

Contributions and Impact

The contributions and impact section of a biography is pivotal in conveying the subject’s lasting significance, both in their chosen profession and beyond. By detailing their achievements, innovations, and legacies, this section helps readers grasp the extent of the subject’s influence and the ways in which their work has shaped the world around them.

This section begins by highlighting the subject’s key accomplishments within their profession, such as breakthroughs, discoveries, or innovative techniques they developed. It delves into the processes and challenges they faced along the way, providing valuable insights into their creativity, determination, and problem-solving abilities.

The contributions and impact section also explores the subject’s broader influence on society, culture, or the world at large. This could include their involvement in social or political movements, their philanthropic endeavors, or their role as a cultural icon.

In addition to discussing the subject’s immediate impact, this section also considers their lasting legacy, exploring how their work has continued to inspire and shape subsequent generations.

This could involve examining the subject’s influence on their successors, the institutions or organizations they helped establish, or the enduring relevance of their ideas and achievements in contemporary society.

Personal Traits and Characteristics

The personal traits and characteristics section of a biography brings the subject to life, offering readers an intimate glimpse into their personality, qualities, and views.

This section often begins by outlining the subject’s defining personality traits, such as their temperament, values, and passions. By exploring these attributes, readers gain insight into the subject’s character and the motivations driving their actions and decisions.

These qualities could include their perseverance, curiosity, empathy, or sense of humor, which may help explain their achievements, relationships, and outlook on life.

The personal traits and characteristics section also delves into the subject’s views and beliefs, offering a window into their thoughts and opinions on various topics. This could include their perspectives on politics, religion, culture, or social issues, providing readers with a clearer understanding of the context in which they operated and the factors that shaped their worldview.

Anecdotes and personal stories play a crucial role in illustrating the subject’s personality and characteristics, as they offer concrete examples of their behavior, actions, or interactions with others.

Quotes and first-hand accounts from the subject or those who knew them well can also be invaluable in portraying their personal traits and characteristics. These accounts offer unique insights into the subject’s thoughts, feelings, and experiences, allowing readers to see the world through their eyes and better understand their character.

Types of Biographies

Biographies come in various forms and styles, each presenting unique perspectives on the lives of individuals. Some of the most common types of biographies are discussed in the following sub-sections.

Historical Fiction Biography

Historical fiction biographies artfully weave together factual information with imaginative elements, creating a vibrant tapestry of the past. By staying true to the core of a historical figure’s life and accomplishments, these works offer a unique window into their world while granting authors the creative freedom to delve deeper into their emotions, relationships, and personal struggles.

Such biographies strike a delicate balance, ensuring that the essence of the individual remains intact while allowing for fictional embellishments to bring their story to life. This captivating blend of fact and fiction serves to humanize these iconic figures, making their experiences more relatable and engaging for readers who embark on a journey through the pages of history.

Here are several examples of notable historical fiction biographies:

• “Wolf Hall” by Hilary Mantel (2009)
• “The Paris Wife” by Paula McLain (2011)
• “Girl with a Pearl Earring” by Tracy Chevalier (1999)
• “The Other Boleyn Girl” by Philippa Gregory (2001)
• “Loving Frank” by Nancy Horan (2007)

Academic Biography

Academic biographies stand as meticulously researched and carefully crafted scholarly works, dedicated to presenting an accurate and comprehensive account of a subject’s life.

Authored by experts or researchers well-versed in their field, these biographies adhere to rigorous standards of accuracy, sourcing, and objectivity. They delve into the intricacies of a person’s life, achievements, and impact, scrutinizing every aspect with scholarly precision.

Intended for an educated audience, academic biographies serve as valuable resources for those seeking a deeper understanding of the subject’s contributions and influence. By placing the individual within the broader context of their time, these works illuminate the complex web of factors that shaped their lives and legacies.

While academic biographies may not always carry the same narrative flair as their fictional counterparts, their commitment to factual integrity and thorough analysis make them indispensable resources for scholars, students, and enthusiasts alike

Here are several examples of notable academic biographies:

• “Einstein: His Life and Universe” by Walter Isaacson (2007)
• “Steve Jobs” by Walter Isaacson (2011)
• “John Adams” by David McCullough (2001)
• “Alexander the Great” by Robin Lane Fox (1973)
• “Marie Curie: A Life” by Susan Quinn (1995)

Authorized Biographies

Authorized biographies offer a unique perspective on the lives of their subjects, as they are written with the explicit consent and, often, active participation of the individual in question.

This collaboration between the biographer and the subject can lead to a more accurate, detailed, and intimate portrayal of the person’s life, as the author is granted access to a wealth of personal information, documents, and anecdotes that might otherwise be inaccessible.

When working on an authorized biography, the biographer is typically given permission to access personal documents, such as letters, diaries, and photographs, which can provide invaluable insights into the subject’s thoughts, emotions, and experiences.

This primary source material allows the biographer to construct a narrative that is grounded in fact and captures the essence of the individual’s life and personality.

Here are several examples of notable authorized biographies:

• “Mandela: The Authorized Biography” by Anthony Sampson (1999)
• “Marilyn Monroe: The Biography” by Donald Spoto (1993)
• “Joni Mitchell: In Her Own Words” by Malka Marom (2014)
• “The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life” by Alice Schroeder (2008)
• “Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg” by Irin Carmon and Shana Knizhnik (2015)

Fictionalized Academic Biography

Fictionalized academic biographies merge the best of both worlds, combining the rigorous research and scholarly integrity of academic biographies with the engaging storytelling of historical fiction.

Authors of these works expertly navigate the delicate balance between maintaining factual accuracy and venturing into the realm of imagination.

This approach allows them to explore the subject’s personal life, relationships, and the broader historical context in a compelling manner, while ensuring the narrative remains firmly rooted in well-researched facts.

Here are several examples of notable fictionalized academic biographies:

• “The Women” by T.C. Boyle (2009)
• “Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald” by Therese Anne Fowler (2013)
• “The Marriage of Opposites” by Alice Hoffman (2015)
• “Vanessa and Her Sister” by Priya Parmar (2014)
• “The Last Days of Night” by Graham Moore (2016)

Prophetic Biography

Prophetic biographies delve into the rich and profound narratives of religious figures or prophets, meticulously weaving together insights from sacred texts, religious traditions, and historical accounts.

By providing a comprehensive portrayal of the individual’s life, teachings, and impact on society, these biographies serve as an invaluable resource for understanding the pivotal role these figures played in shaping the course of religious history and the lives of the faithful.

Here are several examples of notable prophetic biographies:

• “Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources” by Martin Lings (1983)
• “The Life of Moses” by F.B. Meyer (1893)
• “The Life of the Buddha: According to the Pali Canon” by Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli (1972)
• “The Quest of the Historical Jesus” by Albert Schweitzer (1906)
• “The Lives of the Saints” by Alban Butler (1756)

Biography Development Process

A biography is a comprehensive written account of an individual’s life, and the development process involves several essential components to ensure the biography’s accuracy and readability.

A biographer’s primary responsibility is to conduct extensive research in order to gather a comprehensive array of facts about the subject. This meticulous process involves reviewing various documents and sources that shed light on the individual’s life and experiences, as well as the historical context in which they lived.

Key documents, such as birth and death certificates, provide essential information about the subject’s origins and family background. Personal correspondence, letters, and diaries offer invaluable insights into the subject’s thoughts, emotions, relationships, and experiences. News articles, on the other hand, can reveal public perceptions of the subject, as well as their impact on society and culture.

Archives often serve as treasure troves of information for biographers, as they contain a wealth of primary sources that can help illuminate the subject’s life and times. These archives may include collections of personal papers, photographs, audio recordings, and other materials that offer first-hand accounts of the individual’s experiences or shed light on their accomplishments and impact.

Consulting relevant books and articles is another crucial aspect of a biographer’s research process, as these secondary sources provide context, analysis, and interpretation of the subject’s life and work.

By delving into the existing scholarship and engaging with the works of other researchers, biographers can solidify their understanding of the individual and the historical circumstances in which they lived.

Interviewing people who knew the subject personally is a vital component of a biographer’s research process, as it allows them to access unique insights, personal stories, and firsthand accounts of the individual’s life.

Friends, family members, co-workers, and colleagues can all offer valuable perspectives on the subject’s character, relationships, achievements, and challenges, thereby enriching the biographer’s understanding of their life and experiences.

While subjective anecdotes offer a more intimate glimpse into the subject’s personality and personal life, it is essential for biographers to balance these accounts with factual research.

By corroborating and contextualizing personal stories with objective information gleaned from primary and secondary sources, biographers can ensure that their portrayal of the individual’s life remains accurate and well-rounded.

This process of balancing subjective anecdotes with factual research also allows biographers to present a more nuanced and comprehensive view of their subject. By weaving together personal stories with historical context, biographers can create a richer and more engaging narrative that captures the complexity and multifaceted nature of the individual’s life.

In addition, by considering various perspectives and sources of information, biographers can address potential biases or discrepancies in their account, resulting in a more reliable and credible portrayal of the subject.

This careful attention to detail and commitment to accuracy not only enhances the quality of the biography but also helps establish trust between the biographer and their readers.

Chronological Narration

Organizing a biography in a chronological manner is a highly effective approach, as it allows readers to follow the subject’s life events in a logical and coherent sequence.

By presenting the information in a linear fashion, the biographer enables readers to trace the subject’s journey from their early years to their later accomplishments, making it easier to understand the context and progression of their life.

To effectively arrange a chronological narrative, the biographer should begin by highlighting significant milestones and accomplishments in the subject’s life. These key events serve as anchor points in the story, helping to structure the narrative and maintain the reader’s interest.

By focusing on these pivotal moments, the biographer can illustrate the subject’s growth, development, and achievements over time, providing a clear and engaging overview of their life’s trajectory.

Contextualization

Contextualizing the subject within their historical and cultural framework is a crucial aspect of biographical writing, as it enables readers to gain a deeper understanding of the individual’s life, choices, and significance.

Embedding the subject within their historical context involves examining the political, social, and economic landscape of the time. This includes exploring major events, trends, and issues that affected the subject’s life and decisions, such as wars, social movements, technological advancements, or cultural shifts.

Additionally, considering the subject’s cultural context is essential for understanding their beliefs, values, and creative expression. This involves examining the artistic, intellectual, and philosophical currents of the time, which may have influenced the subject’s work, ideas, or relationships.

Moreover, contextualizing the subject within their historical and cultural framework can help to humanize them, revealing the complexities, contradictions, and struggles that are often inherent in the human experience.

This approach offers readers a more nuanced and empathetic understanding of the subject, allowing them to see the person as a product of their time and circumstances, rather than as an isolated figure.

Famous Biographies and Biographers

The life of samuel johnson, ll.d. by james boswell (1791).

“The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.” is a biography of the English writer and literary critic Samuel Johnson, written by his friend and contemporary James Boswell. Published in 1791, it is often considered one of the greatest biographies in the English language and a pioneering work in the development of modern biography as a literary genre.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) was a prominent figure in 18th-century English literature, known for his wide-ranging knowledge, wit, and moral authority. He is best remembered for his dictionary, “A Dictionary of the English Language,” published in 1755, which became the standard English dictionary for over a century. He was also a prolific essayist, poet, and critic.

James Boswell (1740-1795) was a Scottish lawyer, diarist, and author who became friends with Johnson in 1763. Over the course of their friendship, Boswell made detailed notes of their conversations and observations, which he later used as the basis for his biography.

“The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.” is a comprehensive and vivid portrait of Johnson’s life, character, and work. Boswell covers Johnson’s early years, education, and struggles with poverty and illness, as well as his rise to prominence as a writer and his involvement in the vibrant literary circles of 18th-century London.

The biography also delves into Johnson’s friendships and relationships, including his long association with Hester Thrale, a prominent society hostess, and writer.

What sets Boswell’s biography apart is his skill in capturing Johnson’s personality, wit, and conversation. By presenting Johnson’s thoughts and opinions on a wide range of topics, as well as anecdotes and reminiscences from those who knew him, Boswell creates a vivid and engaging portrait of his subject.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (2010)

“The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” is a non-fiction book written by Rebecca Skloot, published in 2010. The book tells the story of Henrietta Lacks, an African American woman whose cancer cells were taken without her knowledge or consent during a biopsy in 1951. These cells, known as HeLa cells, became the first immortal human cell line, reproducing indefinitely under laboratory conditions.

HeLa cells have been used extensively in medical research, contributing to significant scientific breakthroughs, such as the development of the polio vaccine, gene mapping, and cancer research.

Henrietta Lacks was a young mother of five when she was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cervical cancer at the age of 31. She received treatment at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, where a sample of her cancerous tissue was taken without her knowledge. Henrietta passed away in 1951, but her cells continued to live on, revolutionizing medical research.

Rebecca Skloot spent more than a decade researching Henrietta Lacks’ life and the scientific history of HeLa cells. Skloot also interviewed Lacks’ surviving family members, who were unaware of Henrietta’s contribution to science until the 1970s.

The book explores the ethical issues surrounding the use of human tissue in research, the question of consent, and the lack of compensation for the Lacks family.

Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow (2004)

“Alexander Hamilton” is a comprehensive biography of the American Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, written by historian and biographer Ron Chernow. Published in 2004, the book provides an in-depth look into Hamilton’s life, from his humble beginnings in the West Indies to his significant contributions as a statesman, economist, and influential figure in early American history.

Chernow’s biography delves into Hamilton’s early life as an orphan in the Caribbean, his immigration to the American colonies, and his education. It also explores his involvement in the American Revolutionary War, where he served as an aide to General George Washington and later as an artillery officer.

The book details Hamilton’s role in the development of the United States Constitution and his work as the first Secretary of the Treasury under President Washington, where he was instrumental in establishing the nation’s financial system.

“Alexander Hamilton” also examines Hamilton’s personal life, including his relationships, marriage, and infamous extramarital affair, as well as his longstanding political rivalries with figures such as Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Aaron Burr. The biography concludes with the story of Hamilton’s tragic death in a duel with Burr in 1804.

It received critical acclaim and won several awards, including the George Washington Book Prize. The biography also inspired Lin-Manuel Miranda to create the hit Broadway musical “Hamilton,” which premiered in 2015 and went on to achieve widespread popularity and numerous accolades, further solidifying Alexander Hamilton’s place in popular culture and history.

Notable Biographies in Different Fields

Science and technology.

Biographies in the field of science and technology offer fascinating insights into the lives and minds of extraordinary individuals who have made significant advancements in their respective fields.

These biographies often provide an in-depth look at the personal and professional lives of scientists, inventors, engineers, and other innovators, highlighting their discoveries, inventions, and contributions to human knowledge and progress.

Arts and Literature

Biographies of artists, actors, and writers often provide captivating and inspiring accounts of the lives of these creative individuals. By examining their personal and professional journeys, these biographies allow readers to gain a deeper understanding of the inspirations, motivations, and challenges that have shaped their subjects’ artistic achievements.

These biographies often delve into the early lives of their subjects, exploring formative experiences that may have influenced their creative paths. They also examine the artistic processes and the development of the subjects’ distinctive styles, providing valuable insights into their creative methodologies, influences, and inspirations.

Sports and Athletics

Biographies of athletes provide riveting accounts of the lives and careers of remarkable individuals who have achieved greatness in the world of sports. These stories often serve as powerful sources of inspiration, showcasing the dedication, perseverance, and triumphs of athletes who have overcome obstacles and pushed the boundaries of human potential.

These biographies delve into the formative experiences of their subjects, exploring how early influences, innate talent, and personal motivations led them to pursue athletic excellence. They also provide insights into the rigorous training regimens, discipline, and sacrifices that athletes make to achieve their goals, highlighting the incredible determination and work ethic that underpin their success.

Additionally, biographies of athletes often touch on the personal challenges and setbacks these individuals have faced, such as injuries, controversies, or personal struggles.

Historical Figures

Biographies of historical figures offer a unique window into the lives, personalities, and experiences of individuals who have left lasting impacts on the world. By delving into the stories of these influential people, readers can gain a deeper understanding of the political, social, and cultural contexts that shaped their actions and decisions, as well as the lasting legacies they left behind.

These biographies often provide richly detailed accounts of their subjects’ lives, including their upbringing, education, relationships, and personal struggles. By exploring the complex facets of these individuals, biographies help to humanize historical figures, providing a more comprehensive and nuanced understanding of their motivations, beliefs, and actions.

In addition to personal narratives, biographies of historical figures often weave together broader historical contexts and events. This allows readers to gain valuable insights into the social, political, and cultural forces that influenced their subjects’ lives and decisions.

Writing a Compelling Biography

A captivating biography requires more than just a simple retelling of a person’s life events. It delves into their personal experiences, relationships, and accomplishments, while maintaining an objective and authentic approach.

Being Objective and Authentic

An essential aspect of a well-written biography is its objectivity. The narrative should portray the real person, depicting their experiences and beliefs accurately.

While it can be tempting to embellish facts or minimize flaws, striving for authenticity is crucial in presenting a credible account. This involves thorough research and verification of facts, even when they contradict the author’s initial assumptions.

Authenticity also extends to the respectful portrayal of a subject’s relationships and exploration of their inner world, while avoiding speculation or gossip.

Balancing Personal and Public Life

When writing a biography, one must strike a balance between the subject’s personal and public life. This includes weaving together stories from their childhood, personal relationships, and major life events that may have shaped their character. The integration of both personal and public aspects contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of their vita.

However, careful consideration must be given to privacy concerns, and it is important to determine which aspects of the individual’s life are appropriate to disclose. Ultimately, the reader should gain insight into the person’s journey without feeling intrusive.

Creating Engaging Storylines

Just as in a novel, a great biography should feature engaging storylines that keep readers interested. This can be achieved by organizing the narrative around important events, challenges, and accomplishments that are relevant and compelling. To maintain a smooth flow, strategically transitioning between these key moments helps maintain reader interest.

The use of different perspectives, anecdotes, and historical context can also enhance the storyline. Paint vivid pictures of the settings, allowing readers to immerse themselves in the subject’s world. Furthermore, showcasing the subject’s resilience, growth, and impact, can contribute to a powerful and memorable biography.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can biographies be fictional or purely factual.

Biographies usually aim to present an accurate and factual representation of someone’s life. However, some authors might take creative liberties and incorporate fictionalized elements for dramatic or storytelling purposes.

It is crucial for readers to be aware of the author’s intentions and approach when reading such biographical works.

Can biographies be biased?

Biographies, like any form of writing, can be subject to biases depending on the author’s perspective, beliefs, or intentions.

It is essential for readers to critically evaluate biographies by considering factors such as the author’s credentials, potential biases, and the sources used in the research process.

By comparing multiple biographies on the same subject or cross-referencing with other sources, readers can develop a more comprehensive and balanced understanding of the individual’s life and achievements.

Are biographies always based on famous or historical figures?

While biographies often focus on famous or historical figures, they can also be written about lesser-known individuals with compelling stories or unique experiences.

These “everyday” biographies can provide valuable insights into the lives of ordinary people and the challenges they face, offering a broader understanding of the human experience and fostering empathy and connection among readers.

Are there any ethical considerations when writing a biography?

Yes, ethical considerations play a significant role in writing biographies.

Biographers must respect the privacy and dignity of their subjects, particularly when dealing with sensitive or personal information. They should also strive for accuracy and fairness, avoiding sensationalism or misrepresentation of facts.

Additionally, biographers should acknowledge and address any potential biases or conflicts of interest that may affect their portrayal of the subject.

Biographies offer us unparalleled access to the lives and legacies of remarkable individuals, spanning diverse genres and approaches.

From historical fiction to academic rigor, prophetic accounts to fictionalized narratives, biographies captivate our imagination and enrich our understanding of the human experience. These literary gems remind us that behind every great achievement lies a story of struggle, triumph, and unwavering determination.

So, let us continue to explore these remarkable journeys, as we delve deeper into the pages of history and the hearts of those who have shaped our world.

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Home » Writing » Autobiography vs. Biography vs. Memoir

What is a Biography?

A biography, also called a bio, is a non-fiction piece of work giving an objective account of a person’s life. The main difference between a biography vs. an autobiography is that the author of a biography is not the subject. A biography could be someone still living today, or it could be the subject of a person who lived years ago.

Biographies include details of key events that shaped the subject’s life, and information about their birthplace, education, work, and relationships. Biographers use a number of research sources, including interviews, letters, diaries, photographs, essays, reference books, and newspapers. While a biography is usually in the written form, it can be produced in other formats such as music composition or film.

If the target person of the biography is not alive, then the storytelling requires an immense amount of research. Interviews might be required to collect information from historical experts, people who knew the person (e.g., friends and family), or reading other older accounts from other people who wrote about the person in previous years. In biographies where the person is still alive, the writer can conduct several interviews with the target person to gain insight on their life.

The goal of a biography is to take the reader through the life story of the person, including their childhood into adolescence and teenage years, and then their early adult life into the rest of their years. The biography tells a story of how the person learned life’s lessons and the ways the person navigated the world. It should give the reader a clear picture of the person’s personality, traits, and their interaction in the world.

Biographies can also be focused on groups of people and not just one person. For example, a biography can be a historical account of a group of people from hundreds of years ago. This group could have the main person who was a part of the group, and the author writes about the group to tell a story of how they shaped the world.

Fictional biographies mix some true historical accounts with events to help improve the story. Think of fictional biographies as movies that display a warning that the story is made of real characters, but some events are fictional to add to the storyline and entertainment value. A lot of research still goes into a fictional biography, but the author has more room to create a storyline instead of sticking to factual events.

Examples of famous biographies include:

• His Excellency: George Washington  by Joseph J. Ellis
• Einstein: The Life and Times  by Ronald William Clark
• Princess Diana – A Biography of The Princess of Wales  by Drew L. Crichton

What is an Autobiography?

An autobiography is the story of a person’s life written by that person. Because the author is also the main character of the story, autobiographies are written in the first person. Usually, an autobiography is written by the person who is the subject of the book, but sometimes the autobiography is written by another person. Because an autobiography is usually a life story for the author, the theme can be anything from religious to a personal account to pass on to children.

The purpose of an autobiography is to portray the life experiences and achievements of the author. Therefore, most autobiographies are typically written later in the subject’s life. It’s written from the point of view of the author, so it typically uses first person accounts to describe the story.

An autobiography often begins during early childhood and chronologically details key events throughout the author’s life. Autobiographies usually include information about where a person was born and brought up, their education, career, life experiences, the challenges they faced, and their key achievements.

On rare occasions, an autobiography is created from a person’s diary or memoirs. When diaries are used, the author must organize them to create a chronological and cohesive story. The story might have flashbacks or flashforwards to describe a specific event, but the main storyline should follow chronological order from the author’s early life to their current events.

One of the main differences between an autobiography vs. a biography is that autobiographies tend to be more subjective. That’s because they are written by the subject, and present the facts based on their own memories of a specific situation, which can be biased. The story covers the author’s opinions on specific subjects and provides an account of their feelings as they navigate certain situations. These stories are also very personal because it’s a personal account of the author’s life rather than a biography where a third party writes about a specific person.

Examples of famous autobiographies include:

• The Story of My Life  by Helen Keller
• The Diary of a Young Girl  by Anne Frank
• Losing My Virginity  by Richard Branson

What is a Memoir?

Memoir comes from the French word  mémoire , meaning memory or reminiscence. Similar to an autobiography, a memoir is the story of a person’s life written by that person. These life stories are often from diary entries either from a first-person account or from a close family member or friend with access to personal diaries.

The difference between a memoir vs. an autobiography is that a memoir focuses on reflection and establishing an emotional connection, rather than simply presenting the facts about their life. The author uses their personal knowledge to tell an intimate and emotional story about the private or public happenings in their life. The author could be the person in the story, or it can be written by a close family member or friend who knew the subject person intimately. The topic is intentionally focused and does not include biographical or chronological aspects of the author’s life unless they are meaningful and relevant to the story.

Memoirs come in several types, all of which are written as an emotional account of the target person. They usually tell a story of a person who went through great struggles or faced challenges in a unique way. They can also cover confessionals where the memoir tells the story of the author’s account that contradicts another’s account.

This genre of writing is often stories covering famous people’s lives, such as celebrities. In many memoir projects, the celebrity or person of interest needs help with organization, writing the story, and fleshing out ideas from the person’s diaries. It might take several interviews before the story can be fully outlined and written, so it’s not uncommon for a memoir project to last several months.

Memoirs do not usually require as much research as biographies and autobiographies, because you have the personal accounts in diary entries and documents with the person’s thoughts. It might require several interviews, however, before the diary entries can be organized to give an accurate account on the person’s thoughts and emotions. The story does not necessarily need to be in chronological order compared to an autobiography, but it might be to tell a better story.

Examples of famous memoirs include:

• Angela’s Ashes  by Frank McCourt
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings  by Maya Angelou
• Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S.  Grant by Ulysses S. Grant

Autobiography vs. Biography vs. Memoir Comparison Chart

Check out some of our blogs to learn more about memoirs:

• What is a memoir?
• 5 tips for writing a memoir
• Your memoir is your legacy

Ready to get started on your own memoir, autobiography, or biography? Download our free desktop book-making software, BookWright .

Autobiographies , Biographies , memoirs

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Realizing Your Meaning: 5 Ways to Live a Meaningful Life

If you have ever had this thought, then take comfort that you are not alone. There is ample anecdotal evidence that people are looking for ways to live a more meaningful life.

Living a meaningful life and deciding what is meaningful are age-old questions (e.g., Marcus Aurelius wrestled with this question when he was Emperor of Rome from 161 to 180 AD).

If you are reading this article, then living a meaningful life must be of interest to you. You might be wondering what we mean by ‘meaningful,’ and whether there are any benefits to striving toward such a way of living. Are there any practical suggestions for how to achieve a meaningful life?

Here we will summarize the existing psychological research that examines this question and provide you with a starting point on your journey.

Before we get to the practical suggestions about how to live a meaningful life, we first define what ‘meaningful’ means, explore why living a meaningful life is worthwhile, and detail the benefits that are associated with this type of experience.

Before you continue, we thought you might like to download our three Meaning and Valued Living Exercises for free . These creative, science-based exercises will help you learn more about your values, motivations, and goals and will give you the tools to inspire a sense of meaning in the lives of your clients, students, or employees.

This Article Contains:

The big questions: how to find meaning in life, a psychological take, 5 ways to realize your meaning, finding meaning as you age, 9 inspiring quotes about finding meaning, positivepsychology.com resources, a take-home message.

The question of finding meaning in life has its roots in two fields: philosophy and psychology.

The philosophical question is aimed at understanding the meaning of life in general, as well as our role in that meaning. For the purposes of this article, we’re putting the philosophical perspective on this issue to the side. As psychologists, we can’t contribute to this answer.

However, the second variation of this question – how we find meaning in life – is psychological and of more interest to us.

• Why am I doing this?
• Do I want to do this?
• What do I want to do?

These questions are also repackaged in popular psychology and leadership self-help books, such as Find Your Why (Sinek, Mead, & Docker, 2017) and How to Find Your Passion and Purpose (Gaisford, 2017).

Observant readers might comment that these are questions typically asked about our vocations or professional activities. However, people who are unemployed or employed part time also ask questions such as these and seek a meaningful life. These questions are easily repurposed for other spheres of our lives.

Before we can answer the question of how to find meaning, we first need to consider what is meant by ‘meaning.’

Psychological researchers conduct research and measure psychological constructs such as happiness, depression, and intelligence. However, constructs first need to be defined before they can be measured.

Although ‘meaningfulness’ is often confounded with other constructs such as purpose, coherence, and happiness, some researchers argue that these constructs are not interchangeable, but instead form a complex relationship and exist separately.

For example, Steger, Frazier, Oishi, and Kaler (2006) posit that meaning consists of two separate dimensions: coherence and purpose. Coherence refers to how we understand our life, whereas purpose relates to the goals that we have for our life.

Reker and Wong (1988) argue that meaningfulness is better explained and understood using a three-dimensional model consisting of coherence, purpose, and a third construct: significance. Significance refers to the sense that our life is worth living and that life has inherent value. Together, these three constructs contribute to a sense of meaningfulness.

In some research, coherence, purpose, and significance have been reframed as motivational and cognitive processes. Specifically, Heintzelman and King (2014) suggest a model with three components: goal direction, mattering, and one’s life making sense.

Goal direction and mattering  are both motivational components and synonymous with purpose and significance, respectively. The third component – one’s life making sense – is a cognitive component, akin to significance.

Together, these three components – coherence, purpose, and significance – result in feelings of meaningfulness. Knowing that meaningfulness is derived from three distinct fields, let’s look at ways in which we can find our meaning.

Finding something to live and die for – Einzelganger

How can we go about finding our meaning? First, there is no single panacea to the sense of living without meaning. Finding meaning is ultimately a personal journey. What brings me meaning might not bring you meaning. However, this doesn’t mean that the techniques used to find meaning won’t be helpful. Viktor Frankl (1959, p. 99) supported the notion that finding meaning is a unique journey when he wrote in  Man’s Search for Meaning :

Man’s search for meaning is the primary motivation in his life and not a “secondary rationalization” of instinctual drives. This meaning is unique and specific in that it must and can be fulfilled by him alone; only then does it achieve a significance that will satisfy his own will to meaning.

With this mind, consider the following suggestions in your quest to find meaning:

1. Foster a passion (purpose)

Vallerand (2012) argues that either motivation or passion drives our desire and interest in activities.

Motivation is useful for activities that are considered dull (e.g., washing the dishes), whereas passion is the driving force for activities that have significance for us.

Passion can be negative or positive, however. Negative passions, referred to as obsessive passions, are maladaptive and lead to unhealthy behaviors; these types of passions should be avoided. On the other hand, positive, harmonious passions improve our behavior and lead to optimal functioning.

Vallerand (2012) found that people who had more harmonious relationships with their passions also had stronger relationships with the people who shared their passions.

2. Develop and foster social relationships (purpose, significance)

Making connections with other individuals and maintaining these relationships are reliable ways to develop a sense of meaningfulness (Heintzelman & King, 2014).

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These detailed, science-based exercises will equip you or your clients with tools to find meaning in life help and pursue directions that are in alignment with values.

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3. Relationships that increase your sense of belonging (significance)

Although social connections are important, not all social relationships are equal. Make sure to focus on relationships that make you feel like you ‘belong’ (Lambert et al., 2013), where you feel like you fit in with the members of that group, and where there is group identification.

Participants who were asked to think of people with whom they felt that they belonged reported higher ratings of meaningfulness compared to participants who remembered instances when they received help or support, or instances when they received positive compliments or statements of high social value (Lambert et al., 2013).

These findings also tie in with the negative impact of ostracism on the sense of meaning (Williams, 2007). If you feel like you don’t belong, then you have a lower sense of meaningfulness.

4. Monitor your mood (coherence)

Experimental laboratory studies have demonstrated a temporal relationship between positive mood and sense of meaning. Inducing a positive mood results in higher reports of meaning (for a review, see Heintzelman & King, 2014).

Managing your mood can be difficult. However, there are some techniques that you can use; for example, make time for interests and hobbies, get enough sleep, exercise regularly, eat healthily, and consider developing a mindfulness practice (e.g., through meditation).

5. Take control of your environment (coherence)

A cognitively coherent environment can boost ratings of meaningfulness (Heintzelman & King, 2014).

Heintzelman and King (2014) suggest that routines, patterns (which could refer to your behavior and the behavior of your family), time blocking, and clean environments can all contribute to an increased ability to make sense of one’s environment, which in turn can lead to an increased sense of meaningfulness.

Simple ways to induce a cognitively coherent environment would be to implement a fixed routine, schedule time for unexpected tasks (e.g., “emergencies” delivered via email), formally schedule downtime for exercise and passions, and maintain a tidy environment (in other words, your desk is not the place for all those dirty coffee mugs).

However, do not be unreasonable with your expectations of your environment. Unexpected challenges will pop up. Your child might have a meltdown, or you might drop a box of eggs on the floor, but these experiences will have less of a negative impact if you already have a sense of control over your environment.

We are also likely to experience multiple losses as we age. We may lose our parents, our partners, face layoffs, or develop an illness. The stereotypical concept of an older adult is of someone who is frail and requires care; however, older age is not synonymous with a less meaningful or valuable life.

In fact, many older adults live incredibly long, busy lives, and their positive psychological profiles act as a buttress against illness, loneliness, and depression. There is vast evidence that centenarians have very positive attitudes and psychological traits and few negative personality traits.

Centenarians are more relaxed and easygoing (Samuelsson et al., 1997), place a great deal of importance on social relationships and events (Wong et al., 2014), have a more positive life attitude in general (Wong et al., 2014), and report low anxiety (Samuelsson et al., 1997).

These positive aging traits and attitudes, coupled with the few negative traits, act as a protective buffer against depression, illness, and loneliness (Jopp, Park, Lehrfeld, & Paggi, 2016; Keyes, 2000), and contribute to the longevity of centenarians.

It is difficult to change your personality traits suddenly; however, it is possible to change your thinking patterns by working with a therapist trained in Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy. Your therapist can help you identify and change negative patterns of thinking and behavior, and help you to adopt a positive pattern of thinking.

Centenarians greatly value their social experiences and are actively involved in social events (Wong et al., 2014).

It can be difficult for older adults to make new social connections, especially after retirement, because the ‘natural environment’ for meeting new people, such as the workplace, is removed. However, this doesn’t mean that there aren’t ways for older adults to meet new people and form new relationships.

With retirement comes more free time and possibly an opportunity to develop a new hobby or passion. And as we previously mentioned, finding a passion is one way to develop meaning. Vallerand (2012) provides an excellent summary of the role that motivation plays in developing passion and how passion leads to a meaningful life.

If you are an older adult, then perhaps this is good time in your life to start. Remember that positive (rather than negative/obsessive/maladaptive) passions are born from the positive association made with particular activities (Vallerand, 2012). These passions are activities that we find time for, that we invest in, and that we embody.

For example, if you have a passion for painting, you will carve out time to paint, experience a great deal of happiness when you complete the activity, and may embody that passion in your understanding of your identity (e.g., you may consider yourself a ‘painter’). Embodying the activity into your understanding of your self-concept is one of the first steps toward laying habits (Clear, 2018).

Harmonious passions (Vallerand, 2012) play a vital role in how we find meaning in our lives.

These positive passions are worth developing. Not only do they help us find meaning in our lives, but older adults who do have a ‘passion’ also score higher on measures of psychological wellbeing. They report higher life satisfaction, better health, more meaning in their lives, and lower anxiety and lower depression than adults without a passion (Rosseau & Vallerand, 2003, as cited in Vallerand, 2012).

To summarize, it appears that centenarians adopt a positive mindset and psychological traits and value their social relationships. These factors may contribute to a longer, more meaningful life and protect against illness and depression. Fostering interests and hobbies is another way to find meaning in your life, buttressing against negative feelings and thoughts.

So, what can you do to find meaning in your life as you age? The following list can give you some guidance:

1. Make time for friends, family, and social events

It’s easy to neglect social relationships in favor of alone time (which is also important) or work deadlines, but promoting these relationships will have a more positive impact in the long term. If you are the type of person who forgets to see friends or family, add a reminder to your calendar.

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2. Start now to develop a new hobby or interest

Carve out some time for your own interest and commit to that time. If you have a partner, ask your partner to shoulder other responsibilities during that time so that you can indulge your interests.

3. Express what makes you happy

If you’re in the early stages of developing a new hobby, it might help to express what you enjoy about the hobby. Consider writing a journal entry about what you enjoyed or tell your partner/friends/family members about your new hobby.

Expressing why you enjoy the hobby helps to build and strengthen positive associations with the hobby.

4. Share your hobby

Try to find a group of like-minded individuals who enjoy the same interest that you do. If you like painting, consider joining an art class.

Or perhaps you want to learn a new language. Try to find people who are also learning this language and watch a film in that language together.

5. Aim to engage and invest in your community

Simple acts such as greeting and chatting to your neighbors, talking to the vendors at your local stores and neighborhood markets, and participating in neighborhood events will help you to develop relationships with your community members.

With time, these relationships will deepen and become more meaningful. Furthermore, recognize that as an older adult, you can offer a great deal to your community. You have lived through numerous life experiences, career/professional/vocational decisions, and family decisions. You have a wealth of knowledge that you can share with your community.

Older adults who regularly engage in their favorite pastimes and who have a healthy, positive relationship with their favorite activity have better psychological functioning.

Each of us must become impassioned, finding meaning and self-fulfillment in our own life’s journey.

Alexandra Stoddard

Life is difficult. Not just for me or other ALS patients. Life is difficult for everyone. Finding ways to make life meaningful and purposeful and rewarding, doing the activities that you love and spending time with the people that you love – I think that’s the meaning of this human experience.

Steve Gleason

For the meaning of life differs from man to man, from day to day and from hour to hour. What matters, therefore, is not the meaning of life in general but rather the specific meaning of a person’s life at a given moment.

Viktor E. Frankl

I don’t like work – no man does – but I like what is in the work – the chance to find yourself. Your own reality – for yourself not for others – what no other man can ever know. They can only see the mere show, and never can tell what it really means.

Joseph Conrad

There is something infantile in the presumption that somebody else has a responsibility to give your life meaning and point… The truly adult view, by contrast, is that our life is as meaningful, as full and as wonderful as we choose to make it.

Richard Dawkins

Old friends pass away, new friends appear. It is just like the days. An old day passes, a new day arrives. The important thing is to make it meaningful: a meaningful friend – or a meaningful day.

Dalai Lama XIV

I believe that I am not responsible for the meaningfulness or meaninglessness of life, but that I am responsible for what I do with the life I’ve got.

Hermann Hesse

It’s not how much money we make that ultimately makes us happy between nine and five. It’s whether or not our work fulfills us. Being a teacher is meaningful.

Malcolm Gladwell

My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.

Maya Angelou

17 Tools To Encourage Meaningful, Value-Aligned Living

This 17 Meaning & Valued Living Exercises [PDF] pack contains our best exercises for helping others discover their purpose and live more fulfilling, value-aligned lives.

Created by Experts. 100% Science-based.

We have different types of resources that you will find useful in helping you live a meaningful life:

1. From Our Worksheet Library

In Japanese culture, to find meaning and purpose in life is to find one’s  ikigai . We have a fantastic and in-depth exercise called Identifying Your Ikigai , which takes you through a series of steps to assess and help you find your fulfilling meaning in life.

Living a life with meaning and value can make you happier, more content, more resilient through hard times, and more likely to influence the lives of others.

If you are filled with questions about what you should do with your life and what really matters, then the Uncover Your Purpose worksheet is for you. It has several tough questions, but if you can answer them honestly and comprehensively, it will shine a light on the path you are meant to follow.

2. 17 Meaning & Valued Living Exercises

If you’re looking for more science-based ways to help others discover meaning, this collection contains 17 validated meaning tools for practitioners. Use them to help others choose directions for their lives in alignment with what is truly important to them.

Finding meaning in life is a journey that could start with something as simple as a pen and paper, deep reflection, and one of our tools mentioned above. Or your journey could start by stepping out the door and connecting with a neighbor, making a newfound friend, or starting a hobby you have wanted to explore but never got around to.

During your journey, you might that having meaning in life is not about yourself, but serving others.

Selfless service is often discovered to be the ultimate pinnacle of having a meaningful life, and many intriguing conversations with service workers, nurses, aid workers, and volunteers illustrate how they enjoy a meaningful life by serving others.

We hope that after reading this article you will also embark on this journey to find meaning in your life. We shared many different strategies you can implement when looking for that ultimate answer, and we sincerely hope that when you have found your  ikigai , you will make changes to actively live that life of meaning. If some of the strategies do not work for you, try another suggestion from the list.

Most important is to find a meaning that makes sense to you and recognize that this meaning might change as you go through different stages of your life.

We hope you enjoyed reading this article. Don’t forget to download our three Meaning and Valued Living Exercises for free .

• Clear, J. (2018). Atomic habits: An easy & proven way to build good habits & break bad ones. Random House.
• Frankl, V. (1959). Man’s search for meaning . Beacon Press.
• Gaisford, C. (2017). How to find your passion and purpose: Four easy steps to discover a job you want and live the life you love (The art of living) . Blue Giraffe Publishing.
• Heintzelman, S. J., & King, L. A. (2014). Life is pretty meaningful. American Psychologist , 69 (6), 561–574.
• Jopp, D. S., Park, M. K. S., Lehrfeld, J., & Paggi, M. E. (2016). Physical, cognitive, social, and mental health in near-centenarians and centenarians living in New York City: Findings from the Fordham Centenarian Study. BMC Geriatrics , 16 .
• Keyes, C. L. M. (2000). Promoting and protecting mental health as flourishing: A complementary strategy for improving national mental health. American Psychology, 62 (2), 92–108.
• Lambert, N. M., Stillman, T. F., Hicks, J. A., Kamble, S., Baumeister, R. F., & Fincham, F. D. (2013). To belong is to matter: Sense of belonging enhances meaning in life. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 39 (11), 1418–1427.
• Reker, G. T., & Wong, P. T. P. (1988). Aging as an individual process: Toward a theory of personal meaning. In J. E. Birren & V. L. Bengston (Eds.), Emerging theories of aging (pp. 214–246). Springer.
• Samuelsson, S. M., Alfredson, B. B., Hagberg, B., Samuelsson, G., Nordbeck, B., Brun, A., … Risberg, J. (1997). The Swedish centenarian study: A multidisciplinary study of five consecutive cohorts at the age of 100. International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 45 (3), 223–253.
• Sinek, S., Mead, D., & Docker, P. (2017). Find your why: A practical guide for discovering purpose for you and your team. Portfolio.
• Steger, M. F., Frazier, P., Oishi, S., & Kahler, M. (2006). The meaning in life questionnaire: Assessing the presence of and search for meaning in life. Journal of Counseling Psychology , 53 , 80–93.
• Vallerand, R. J. (2012). From motivation to passion: In search of the motivational processes involved in a meaningful life. Canadian Psychology/ Psychologie Canadienne, 51 (1), 42–52.
• Williams, K. D. (2007). Ostracism. Annual Review of Psychology, 58 , 425–452.
• Wong, W. C., Lau, H. P., Kwok, C. F., Leung, Y. M, Chan, M. Y., & Cheung, S. L. (2014). The well-being of community-dwelling near-centenarians and centenarians in Hong Kong: A qualitative study. BMC Geriatrics, 14 (63), 1–8.

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What our readers think.

This post was truly worthwhile to read. I wanted to say thank you for the key points you have pointed out as they are enlightening.

As an elder stateman I congratulate you all on a job well done.

God Bless you all. Yours Sincerely Thomas A Mc Henry (Ret ‘d) ( Yesterday’s Man)

This concept of Ikigai is the best. It set apart this article from others that just say “Find something you like” and gave a visual representation of what finding meaning is. I recently discovered something I am passionate about, am good at in some ways (although I need professional training and knowledge), and would like to work in as a career. In fact, this site led me to the realization that I would like to pursue that occupation. There’s an endless goldmine of useful information on this site.

Really great article thank you. As an Occupational Therapist in mental health ‘meaningful occupation ‘ is at the core of my philosophy. Your article puts the concept very concisely and has some excellent quotes and explanations to illustrate a meaningful life that so many people struggle to comprehend.

Please correct the dates of Marcus Aurelius’ reign. Thank you for the article. Agape

Hi Agape, Good spotting! We’ll pass this onto our editing team. Kind regards, Nicole

Thank you! This is a very informative article. Here are very detailed steps to identify your calling, your life purpose. Unfortunately, life can’t be that simple, and to realize your meaning, you need to gain and comprehend life experience. I can’t rationally think things over when I don’t feel it emotionally. I hope you know what I mean. I can’t find my calling because I don’t feel that’s what I want to do. And I can’t answer the rest of the questions at the beginning of this article unambiguously. Well, it turns out I have a lot of work to do on myself…

Hey mate 🙂 , How are you ? Spinoza states something like that : “to realize your meaning, you need to gain and comprehend life experience.” Check out this guy Spinoza, Ethics ” For the meaning of life differs from man to man, from day to day and from hour to hour. What matters, therefore, is not the meaning of life in general but rather the specific meaning of a person’s life at a given moment. ” I guess the point is to try doing things to find out what makes you happy and your life meaningfull: “I believe that I am not responsible for the meaningfulness or meaninglessness of life, but that I am responsible for what I do with the life I’ve got.” So if u want to know more about it u can search for SPINOZAS theory

I have the same work I need to do myself. This has opened up alot of questions that I don’t have easy answers to. I will take steps, small steps but I must fulfill this in my life in some way. I believe this will help me in great ways.

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• This biography offers a few glimpses of his life before he became famous .
• Her biography revealed that she was not as rich as everyone thought .
• The biography was a bit of a rush job .
• The biography is an attempt to uncover the inner man.
• The biography is woven from the many accounts which exist of things she did.
• multi-volume
• young adult

biography | American Dictionary

• biographical

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What Is a Biography?

Learning from the experiences of others is what makes us human.

At the core of every biography is the story of someone’s humanity. While biographies come in many sub-genres, the one thing they all have in common is loyalty to the facts, as they’re available at the time. Here’s how we define biography, a look at its origins, and some popular types.

“Biography” Definition

A biography is simply the story of a real person’s life. It could be about a person who is still alive, someone who lived centuries ago, someone who is globally famous, an unsung hero forgotten by history, or even a unique group of people. The facts of their life, from birth to death (or the present day of the author), are included with life-changing moments often taking center stage. The author usually points to the subject’s childhood, coming-of-age events, relationships, failures, and successes in order to create a well-rounded description of her subject.

Biographies require a great deal of research. Sources of information could be as direct as an interview with the subject providing their own interpretation of their life’s events. When writing about people who are no longer with us, biographers look for primary sources left behind by the subject and, if possible, interviews with friends or family. Historical biographers may also include accounts from other experts who have studied their subject.

The biographer’s ultimate goal is to recreate the world their subject lived in and describe how they functioned within it. Did they change their world? Did their world change them? Did they transcend the time in which they lived? Why or why not? And how? These universal life lessons are what make biographies such a meaningful read.

Origins of the Biography

Greco-Roman literature honored the gods as well as notable mortals. Whether winning or losing, their behaviors were to be copied or seen as cautionary tales. One of the earliest examples written exclusively about humans is Plutarch’s Parallel Lives (probably early 2 nd century AD). It’s a collection of biographies in which a pair of men, one Greek and one Roman, are compared and held up as either a good or bad example to follow.

In the Middle Ages, Einhard’s The Life of Charlemagne (around 817 AD) stands out as one of the most famous biographies of its day. Einhard clearly fawns over Charlemagne’s accomplishments throughout, yet it doesn’t diminish the value this biography has brought to centuries of historians since its writing.

Considered the earliest modern biography, The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791) by James Boswell looks like the biographies we know today. Boswell conducted interviews, performed years of research, and created a compelling narrative of his subject.

The genre evolves as the 20th century arrives, and with it the first World War. The 1920s saw a boom in autobiographies in response. Robert Graves’ Good-Bye to All That (1929) is a coming-of age story set amid the absurdity of war and its aftermath. That same year, Mahatma Gandhi wrote The Story of My Experiments with Truth , recalling how the events of his life led him to develop his theories of nonviolent rebellion. In this time, celebrity tell-alls also emerged as a popular form of entertainment. With the horrors of World War II and the explosion of the civil rights movement, American biographers of the late 20 th century had much to archive. Instantly hailed as some of the best writing about the war, John Hersey’s Hiroshima (1946) tells the stories of six people who lived through those world-altering days. Alex Haley wrote the as-told-to The Autobiography of Malcom X (1965). Yet with biographies, the more things change, the more they stay the same. One theme that persists is a biographer’s desire to cast its subject in an updated light, as in Eleanor and Hick: The Love Affair that Shaped a First Lady by Susan Quinn (2016).

Types of Biographies

Contemporary Biography: Authorized or Unauthorized

The typical modern biography tells the life of someone still alive, or who has recently passed. Sometimes these are authorized — written with permission or input from the subject or their family — like Dave Itzkoff’s intimate look at the life and career of Robin Williams, Robin . Unauthorized biographies of living people run the risk of being controversial. Kitty Kelley’s infamous His Way: The Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra so angered Sinatra, he tried to prevent its publication.

Historical Biography

The wild success of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton is proof that our interest in historical biography is as strong as ever. Miranda was inspired to write the musical after reading Ron Chernow’s Alexander Hamilton , an epic 800+ page biography intended to cement Hamilton’s status as a great American. Paula Gunn Allen also sets the record straight on another misunderstood historical figure with Pocahontas: Medicine Woman, Spy, Entrepreneur, Diplomat , revealing details about her tribe, her family, and her relationship with John Smith that are usually missing from other accounts. Historical biographies also give the spotlight to people who died without ever getting the recognition they deserved, such as The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks .

Biography of a Group

When a group of people share unique characteristics, they can be the topic of a collective biography. The earliest example of this is Captain Charles Johnson’s A General History of the Pirates (1724), which catalogs the lives of notorious pirates and establishes the popular culture images we still associate with them. Smaller groups are also deserving of a biography, as seen in David Hajdu’s Positively 4th Street , a mesmerizing behind-the-scenes look at the early years of Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Mimi Baez Fariña, and Richard Fariña as they establish the folk scene in New York City. Likewise, British royal family fashion is a vehicle for telling the life stories of four iconic royals – Queen Elizabeth II, Diana, Kate, and Meghan – in HRH: So Many Thoughts on Royal Style by style journalist Elizabeth Holmes.

Autobiography

This type of biography is written about one’s self, spanning an entire life up to the point of its writing. One of the earliest autobiographies is Saint Augustine’s The Confessions (400), in which his own experiences from childhood through his religious conversion are told in order to create a sweeping guide to life. Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is the first of six autobiographies that share all the pain of her childhood and the long road that led to her work in the civil rights movement, and a beloved, prize-winning writer.

Memoirs are a type of autobiography, written about a specific but vital aspect of one’s life. In Toil & Trouble , Augusten Burroughs explains how he has lived his life as a witch. Mikel Jollett’s Hollywood Park recounts his early years spent in a cult, his family’s escape, and his rise to success with his band, The Airborne Toxic Event. Barack Obama’s first presidential memoir, A Promised Land , charts his path into politics and takes a deep dive into his first four years in office.

Fictional Biography

Fictional biographies are no substitute for a painstakingly researched scholarly biography, but they’re definitely meant to be more entertaining. Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler constructs Zelda and F. Scott’s wild, Jazz-Age life, told from Zelda’s point of view. The Only Woman in the Room by Marie Benedict brings readers into the secret life of Hollywood actress and wartime scientist, Hedy Lamarr. These imagined biographies, while often whimsical, still respect the form in that they depend heavily on facts when creating setting, plot, and characters.

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Look up a word, learn it forever.

/baɪˈɑgrəfi/, /baɪˈɒgrəfi/.

Other forms: biographies

A biography is an account of somebody's life written by somebody else, complete with details of the most important parts.

These days, anyone, of any age, can be the subject of a biography: Justin Bieber, at the tender age of 17, had one written about his life. A biography is not to be confused with an autobiography, an account of someone's life written by the subject himself. You'll find biographies in printed form (remember books?), but also increasingly in the form of e-books, TV dramatizations, and cinematic "bio-docs."

• noun an account of the series of events making up a person's life synonyms: life , life history , life story see more see less examples: Parallel Lives a collection of biographies of famous pairs of Greeks and Romans written by Plutarch; used by Shakespeare in writing some of his plays types: show 4 types... hide 4 types... autobiography a biography of yourself hagiography a biography that idealizes or idolizes the person (especially a person who is a saint) profile biographical sketch memoir an account of the author's personal experiences type of: account , chronicle , history , story a record or narrative description of past events

Vocabulary lists containing biography

Are you ready to learn the facts of life? Then review these words from the Greek root bio , meaning "life" or "way of living."

Practice this vocabulary list and explore words that contain the Greek roots graph ("write/writing") and gram ("written thing").

To improve your fluency in English Language Arts and Reading (ELAR), learn this academic vocabulary list that includes words selected from the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) state standards.

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Whether you’re a teacher or a learner, vocabulary.com can put you or your class on the path to systematic vocabulary improvement..

Definition of Biography

Common examples of biographical subjects, famous examples of biographical works, difference between biography, autobiography, and memoir, examples of biography in literature, example 1:  savage beauty: the life of edna st. vincent millay  (nancy milford).

One of the first things Vincent explained to Norma was that there was a certain freedom of language in the Village that mustn’t shock her. It wasn’t vulgar. ‘So we sat darning socks on Waverly Place and practiced the use of profanity as we stitched. Needle in, . Needle out, piss. Needle in, . Needle out, c. Until we were easy with the words.’

Example 2:  The Invisible Woman: The Story of Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens  (Claire Tomalin)

The season of domestic goodwill and festivity must have posed a problem to all good Victorian family men with more than one family to take care of, particularly when there were two lots of children to receive the demonstrations of paternal love.

Example 3:  Virginia Woolf  (Hermione Lee)

‘A self that goes on changing is a self that goes on living’: so too with the biography of that self. And just as lives don’t stay still, so life-writing can’t be fixed and finalised. Our ideas are shifting about what can be said, our knowledge of human character is changing. The biographer has to pioneer, going ‘ahead of the rest of us, like the miner’s canary, testing the atmosphere , detecting falsity, unreality, and the presence of obsolete conventions’. So, ‘There are some stories which have to be retold by each generation’. She is talking about the story of Shelley, but she could be talking about her own life-story.

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4 philosophical answers to the meaning of life

• Finding meaning in the face of what can feel like a meaningless universe is a daunting challenge.
• Many philosophical thinkers spent their careers finding a path to a meaningful life.
• While philosophers may disagree on the solution to the problem, they all offer interesting routes to a more meaningful existence.

A common question posed to philosophers and hermit gurus is, “What is the meaning of life?” It’s an important question. Having a sense of purpose in life is associated with  positive health outcomes ; conversely, not having one can leave a person feeling listless and lost. Friedrich Nietzsche even feared that a lack of meaning would plunge the world toward nihilism, a transition he believed would prove disastrous. 

Several philosophers have proposed answers to the age-old question. Here, we will consider four. The list is not exhaustive, however, as many thinkers from many different schools have considered the problem and proposed potential solutions.

Existentialism

Existentialism is an approach to philosophy that focuses on the questions of human existence, including how to live a meaningful life in the face of a meaningless universe. Many thinkers and writers are associated with the movement, including Nietzsche, Simone de Beauvoir, and Fyodor Dostoevsky. But perhaps the most prominent of the 20th-century existentialists was  Jean-Paul Sartre .

In  Existentialism Is a Humanism ,  Sartre lays out the fundamentals of the philosophy. He explains, “Man first of all exists, encounters himself, surges up in the world — and defines himself afterwards.” In other words, for humans, e xistence precedes essence.  Humans have to decide what it means to be human through their actions and thereby give their lives meaning.

Those choices also define humanity as a whole. As such, Sartre argues that some variation of the categorical imperative — the moral rule that states you should only act in a way that everyone could logically act in — is a vital part of decision-making. Those afraid of existentialists choosing values that would ruin society might also breathe a little easier with this knowledge. 

Absurdism is a philosophy created by Sartre’s one-time friend and later intellectual rival  Albert Camus . It is based on the idea that existence is fundamentally absurd and cannot be fully understood through reason. It is related to, but not the same as, existentialism. 

Camus argues that  absurdity  arises when humans try to impose order and meaning on an inherently irrational and meaningless world. However, the irrationality of the world and the inevitability of the end of our time in it always come together to mock our best attempts at meaning. This is the struggle we all face. 

For Camus, the answer lies in embracing the meaninglessness. He points to Sisyphus, the character from Greek mythology who Zeus sentences to push a bolder uphill. Sisyphus can make no progress because whenever he’s near the top, the boulder rolls downhill. His task is ultimately meaningless and must be repeated for all eternity. Despite this, Camus asks us to “imagine Sisyphus happy.”

Like us, he faces an absurd situation with no hope of escape. All the order he imposes on the world will eventually come rolling down again. However, Camus tells us that Sisyphus can rebel against the meaninglessness of the situation by embracing the absurdity. He can assert the value of his life and embrace the meaninglessness of his task. By doing so, he can find meaning in the absurdity — even if his work comes to naught in the end. Sisyphus is Camus’s absurdist hero.

Religious existentialism 

While the primary existentialist thinkers were all atheists — Nietzsche raised the alarm on nihilism when he declared “ God is dead ” — the founder of the school was an extremely religious thinker by the name of S ø ren Kierkegaard . A Danish philosopher working in the first half of the 19th century, he turned his rather angsty disposition into a major philosophy. 

Kierkegaard is concerned with actually living one’s life, not just thinking about it. But in every life, there comes a point where reason runs dry. At that point, passion can help, but Kierkegaard argues that faith is required to really find meaning. That requires a “leap of faith,” and he finds an example of such a leap in the biblical figure of Abraham. As Camus has Sisyphus, so Kierkegaard has Abraham. 

In his book  Fear and Trembling,  Kierkegaard argues that Abraham simultaneously knew that sacrificing Isaac was murder, that God was to be obeyed, and that Issac would be alive and well. For his faith and for voluntarily going through with God’s demands, he was rewarded. Abraham embraced the absurd through belief. Rationality was of little use to him, but faith was. In  Either/Or , Kierkegaard also praises Diogenes as a “Knight of Faith” who earned the title through more mundane activities. 

Another religious take can be found in the works of Japanese philosopher  Keiji Nishitani . Nishitani studied early existentialism under Martin Heidegger, himself a leading existentialist thinker, but provided a Zen Buddhist approach to many of the same problems the existentialists addressed. 

Nishitani saw the modern problem of nihilism as everywhere and tied closely with the tendency for technology to allow us to become more self-centered. While we often encounter “nihility” during major life events like the death of a loved one, it can arise at any time — making the question of how to handle it all the more important. 

He describes human life as taking place in  three fields : consciousness, nihility, and emptiness (or  śūnyatā,  as it is often named in Buddhist thought). We live in the first field most of the time, and it is where we get ideas like dualism or that there is a self. However, nearly everyone eventually encounters the nihility and has to face up to the idea of death, meaninglessness, and the void inherent in our ideas.  Stopping here is what causes problems . Nishitani argues we must push through to the third field. Emptiness surrounds the other two. It allows the individual to understand the true self, how nihility is just as grounded in emptiness as consciousness, and the interrelation of all beings. 

On a more practical level, he suggests Zen meditation as a tool to understand the emptiness inherent in reality. While this is actionable, he does not think it a cure-all to addressing the problem of nihilism as it existed in Japan. 

biography (n.)

1680s, "the histories of individual lives, as a branch of literature," probably from Medieval Latin biographia , from later Greek biographia "description of life" (which was not in classical Greek, bios alone being the word there for it), from Greek bios "life" (from PIE root *gwei- "to live") + graphia "record, account" (see -graphy ).

The meaning "a history of some one person's life" is from 1791. The meaning "life course of any living being" is by 1854. No one-word verb form has become common; biographise / biographize (1800), biography (1844), biograph (1849) have been tried.

Entries linking to biography

"a memoir of a person written by himself," 1797, from auto- + biography . Related: Autobiographical ; autobiographer ; autobiographic .

"one who writes an account of the life and actions of a person," 1715, from biography + -er (1). Earlier was biographist (1660s). Biographee for the one written about is from 1841.

Of every great and eminent character, part breaks forth into public view, and part lies hid in domestic privacy. Those qualities which have been exerted in any known and lasting performances may, at any distance of time, be traced and estimated; but silent excellencies are soon forgotten; and those minute peculiarities which discriminate every man from all others, if the are not recorded by those whom personal knowledge enabled to observe them, are irrecoverably lost. [Johnson, "Life of Sir Thomas Browne," 1756]

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The Psychology of Living Life Fully

New research in psychology addresses the age-old question of how to be happy..

Posted May 24, 2018 | Reviewed by Ekua Hagan

" I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived...I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life. " Henry David Thoreau

What does it mean to live life more fully?

When Randy Pausch delivered his "Last Lecture" at Carnegie Mellon on September 18, 2007, he modeled his talk after a series of lectures by top academics asked to give a "final talk" as if it were their last opportunity to speak to the world. In Pausch's case, his providing a "last lecture" was all the more poignant given that the popular teacher and lecturer was dying of pancreatic cancer. Though he lived long enough to repeat his lecture on The Oprah Winfrey Show and to co-author a book based on his talk which became a best-seller, the message he imparted, and his central theme "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams ," continues to resonate with fans and admirers around the world.

It was one of these admirers, David Dozois of the University of Western Ontario, who was inspired by Pausch's message to write a new article about positive psychology and the art of living fully. Based on his outgoing address as president of the Canadian Psychological Association, Dozois decided to step outside the "comfort zone" of his own research (he is a clinician specializing in the cognitive roots of depression ) both with his address and the article, which was recently published in the journal, Canadian Psychology .

With that in mind, he began his article with three caveats: a) that it wasn't his area of expertise, b) that he doesn't always practice living fully (though he says he is more deliberate about it than he has ever been), and c) that his article fails to capture the full range of available research that can help people learn to live more fully (which would have made it a much longer article.)

In his article, Dozois points out that psychology has largely focused on the various things that can go wrong with the human mind, including different forms of mental illness and how we react to traumatic events in the world. While positive psychology tries to remedy that by focusing on topics such as happiness and self-fulfillment, the countless research studies exploring what it means to live more fully tend not to be known outside the academic community. Even though the popular media is now bursting with stories and articles describing how to diet effectively, have a better sex life, develop washboard abs, have a successful marriage , etc., they also seem to perpetuate various myths about happiness and how it can be attained.

As an alternative to the various quick fixes promised by media sources worldwide, Dozois instead breaks down his advice on living more fully into the following life lessons:

Engage in happiness-relevant activities . In her book, The How of Happiness: A Scientific Approach to Getting the Life You Want , psychologist Sonya Lyubomirsky argues that people often fail to attain true happiness because they are too preoccupied with what society says they should be doing and ignoring those activities that bring them genuine pleasure.

This can include the need to get the "right" job, "right" income, getting the "right" marriage, having the "right" size family, and attaining the "right" social status. Instead, she argues that true happiness often depends on the behavioural choices we make as well how we interact with other people. Happiness and well-being also depend on attaining two types of goals : hedonic goals (focusing on increasing pleasure and decreasing pain) and eudaimonic goals (increasing personal growth, finding meaning, and developing greater self-awareness). Still, given how complex our lives can be, recognizing what is really important in life often depends heavily on the next step:

Savor and simplify . Research shows that people enjoy life more when they consume less. In other words, the more you have, the harder it becomes to savor life experiences. Even people who give up something they enjoy on a temporary basis can find that they appreciate it much more afterward.

For example, a 2013 research study dividing participants examined this "absence makes the heart grow fonder" phenomenon through an interesting research design. Participants were divided into three groups: one abstained from eating chocolate for a week, a second group ate lots of it over the same period, and a third group acted as controls with no instructions. What they found was that participants who had given up chocolate savored it more after the week was over and experienced a more positive mood when eating it than participants in the other two groups. In the same way, temporarily depriving yourself of things that you otherwise take for granted can help you gain new appreciation for them.

Focus on others . While we tend to be preoccupied with making money in the hope that it will provide us with happiness and security, the greatest satisfaction we can have often comes from spending that hard-earned money on other people. Whether that spending takes the form of charitable donations, buying gifts for loved ones, or performing random acts of kindness, the sense of satisfaction that can result often does more to promote well-being than buying things for yourself. Even in toddlers, research studies showed that children who gave their own treats away to others seemed happier than if they ate the treats themselves.

Be passionate—but do so harmoniously . While we are often urged to find our "passion" in life, this can be difficult to do for many people. Of all the different activities we might engage in, only a few of them will really resonate with us to the point of making it an important part of our lives. Often defined as “a strong inclination toward any activity that people like, find important, and in which they invest time and energy,” a passion is more than just something to do. It can be a form of self- identity as well, i.e., playing a guitar makes you a musician, painting or sculpture makes you an artist, etc. But it also needs to be a harmonious passion, i.e., being a part of someone's life without crowding out other things that are just as important. Research looking at harmonious passion indicates that it can spill over into other aspects of someone's life, including better interpersonal relationships, less overall cynicism, and greater energy.

Experience humour (but in an adaptive way). While laughter is still the best medicine, research has identified different styles of humour, some of which are positive, and others that can be detrimental and aggressive. For example, affiliative humour involves using quips or jokes to defuse tensions and encourage interpersonal relationships by amusing others. Self-enhancing humour involves using humour to relieve stress and maintain a cheerful outlook on life. Then there is aggressive humour, which is pretty much the way it sounds: humour aimed at putting down or demeaning others (sarcasm, ridicule, teasing). Finally, there is self-disparaging humour, i.e., poking fun at yourself to gain approval from other people. It can also be used to avoid any constructive solutions to a problem you might be facing.

As you might expect, research shows that affiliative and self-enhancing humour are strongly linked to positive well-being, optimism , and self-esteem . Self-defeating humour, on the other hand, has been linked to depression, anxiety , and neuroticism while aggressive humour correlates with hostility and neuroticism. So don't be afraid to use humour in your life, but avoid the aggressive and self-defeating humour that can aggravate problems instead of diffusing them.

Think with evidence . While positive thinking is important, it is also important that you stay grounded in reality. Unrealistic optimism and illusions of control are often counterproductive since the inevitable disillusionment can leave people feeling depressed and hopeless afterward. This can also mean avoiding popular misconceptions that, while seeming to be true, fail to be supported by available evidence. The ability to monitor our thinking patterns and to change them when we discover that they aren't true is an essential aspect of cognitive flexibility and helps in avoiding the rigidity of thought that can reinforce feelings of depression.

Self-compassion. Since we are often our own worst critics, we have a tendency to beat ourselves up for mistakes that we would likely forgive in other people. This "double standard" can undermine our self-esteem and make us seem more flawed than we really are. In their research on perfectionism , Paul Hewitt and Gordon Flett identified three basic types : self-oriented (setting a strict standard for themselves), other-oriented (setting unrealistic standards for others), and socially prescribed perfectionism (believing that other people hold unrealistic standards that we are unable to live up to). As you might expect, self-oriented perfectionism is more likely to lead to depression and despair in people who don't think what they do is good enough. So stop beating yourself up and try being your own best friend instead.

Being present-focused and mindful. Since we often waste time ruminating about mistakes made in the past or worrying about mistakes we might make in the future, it can be life-affirming to focus on the here-and-now instead. Through mindfulness exercises , including meditation and other forms of relaxation training, people can learn to "ground" themselves in the present moment and get away from the constant worrying that that leads to depression and unhappiness. Some of the most effective psychotherapies available today use mindfulness strategies to help people come to terms with negative thinking and understand themselves better. With that understanding comes a greater acceptance of who we are and how best to live our lives.

Being uncomfortable and taking risks . How often do you step outside of your comfort zone, really? While everyone engages in a certain amount of risky (and downright dangerous) behaviour when younger, we are typically expected to "grow out of it" once we become adults. But that can often mean settling into comfortable routines and not trying out new and potentially risky activities due to our fear of the unknown. Though not everyone is cut out for skydiving, whitewater rafting, extreme sports, etc., learning to face our fears can be an important part of living life more fully. But facing your fears can also come into play whenever you do something that makes you feel uncomfortable or awkward. Whether it means learning to speak in public, overcoming shyness , or simply exploring new life options, facing your fears can help you expand your boundaries in ways you cannot even imagine.

Be connected . The final key to living fully is to be connected to the people around you. We evolved to be social beings and the quality of our relationships plays a crucial role in how satisfied we are with our lives. In his classic book, Learned Optimism , Martin Seligman argues that depression has become an epidemic because our society places a greater value on individuality than it does on being part of a greater community. Research into health psychology consistently demonstrates that people with strong social connections tend to be much healthier and live longer than those who are more isolated. Studies also show that being in a committed relationship can help protect against chronic stress, improve immune system functioning, and even help people heal from injuries more rapidly. Conversely, people with insecure attachment styles tend to be much needier and engage in frequent reassurance seeking which, in turn, can lead to greater rejection, loneliness , and depression.

While it isn't always easy to connect with other people, not every social interaction you have needs to be deep and meaningful. According to recent research, even the weak social ties that can result from having a pleasant conversation with someone you meet in passing can brighten your day (and theirs). Wouldn't that be a nice alternative to the usual silent treatment that occurs while you're on the subway or in an elevator?

As you can see in looking over the different lessons in David Dozois' article, living life fully often means finding the right balance during the course of daily life. But there is another underlying theme that we need to be aware of: Other people matter. Interacting with the people around you, even if it is something as simple as thanking the waitress who brings your food to the table, helps reaffirm that our social relationships are what truly make us happy.

While we often look for shortcuts when trying to improve our lives, there really aren't any. The different life lessons outlined in this article require time and effort to put into practice, especially when it can seem so much easier to keep living our lives the same old way. So keep practicing these lessons and, sooner or later, they may just become a habit for you.

David Dozois closes his article with the following observation that I thought I'd share: "It’s not the years in your life but the life in your years that matters most." Just something to think about...

Dozois, David J. A. Not the years in your life, but the life in your years: Lessons from Canadian psychology on living fully. Canadian Psychology/Psychologie canadienne, Vol 59(2), May 2018, 107-119

Romeo Vitelli, Ph.D. is a psychologist in private practice in Toronto, Canada.

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life , living matter and, as such, matter that shows certain attributes that include responsiveness, growth , metabolism , energy transformation , and reproduction . Although a noun, as with other defined entities, the word life might be better cast as a verb to reflect its essential status as a process. Life comprises individuals, living beings, assignable to groups (taxa). Each individual is composed of one or more minimal living units, called cells , and is capable of transformation of carbon -based and other compounds (metabolism), growth, and participation in reproductive acts. Life-forms present on Earth today have evolved from ancient common ancestors through the generation of hereditary variation and natural selection . Although some studies state that life may have begun as early as 4.1 billion years ago, it can be traced to fossils dated to 3.5–3.7 billion years ago, which is still only slightly younger than Earth, which gravitationally accreted into a planet about 4.5 billion years ago. But this is life as a whole. More than 99.9 percent of species that have ever lived are extinct. The several branches of science that reveal the common historical, functional, and chemical basis of the evolution of all life include electron microscopy , genetics , paleobiology (including paleontology ), and molecular biology .

The phenomenon of life can be approached in several ways: life as it is known and studied on planet Earth; life imaginable in principle; and life, by hypothesis , that might exist elsewhere in the universe ( see extraterrestrial life ). As far as is known, life exists only on Earth . Most life-forms reside in a thin sphere that extends about 23 km (14 miles) from 3 km (2 miles) beneath the bottom of the ocean to the top of the troposphere (lower atmosphere ); the relative thickness is comparable to a coat of paint on a rubber ball. An estimated 10–30 million distinguishable species currently inhabit this sphere of life, or biosphere .

Definitions of life

Much is known about life from points of view reflected in the various biological, or “life,” sciences. These include anatomy (the study of form at the visible level), ultrastructure (the study of form at the microscopic level), physiology (the study of function), molecular biology and biochemistry (the study of form and function at chemical levels), ecology (the study of the relations of organisms with their environments), taxonomy (the naming, identifying, and classifying of organisms), ethology (the study of animal behaviour), and sociobiology (the study of social behaviour). Specific sciences that participate in the study of life focus more narrowly on certain taxa or levels of observation—e.g., botany (the study of plants ), lichenology (the study of lichens , leafy or crusty individuals composed of permanent associations between algae or photosynthetic bacteria and fungi ), herpetology (the study of amphibians and reptiles ), microbiology (the study of bacteria, yeast , and other unicellular fungi, archaea , protists , viruses ), zoology (the study of marine and land animals ), and cytology (the study of cells ). Although the scientists, technicians, and others who participate in studies of life easily distinguish living matter from inert or dead matter, none can give a completely inclusive , concise definition of life itself. Part of the problem is that the core properties of life—growth, change, reproduction, active resistance to external perturbation, and evolution —involve transformation or the capacity for transformation. Living processes are thus antithetical to a desire for tidy classification or final definition. To take one example, the number of chemical elements involved with life has increased with time; an exhaustive list of the material constituents of life would therefore be premature. Nonetheless, most scientists implicitly use one or more of the metabolic, physiological, biochemical, genetic, thermodynamic, and autopoietic definitions given below.

Metabolic definitions are popular with biochemists and some biologists. Living systems are objects with definite boundaries, continually exchanging some materials with their surroundings but without altering their general properties, at least over some period of time. However, there are exceptions. There are frozen seeds and spores that remain, so far as is known, perfectly dormant . At low temperatures they lack metabolic activity for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years but revive perfectly well upon being subjected to more clement conditions. A candle flame has a well-defined shape with a fixed boundary and is maintained by “metabolizing” its organic waxes and the surrounding molecular oxygen to produce carbon dioxide and water . Similar reactions, incidentally, occur in animals and plants. Flames also have a well-known capacity for growth. These facts underscore the inadequacy of this metabolic definition, even as they suggest the indispensable role of energy transformation to living systems. ( See metabolism .)

Physiological definitions of life are popular. Life is defined as any system capable of performing functions such as eating, metabolizing, excreting, breathing , moving, growing, reproducing, and responding to external stimuli. But many such properties are either present in machines that nobody is willing to call alive or absent from organisms, such as the dormant hard-covered seed of a tree , that everybody is willing to call alive. An automobile, for example, can be said to eat, metabolize, excrete, breathe, move, and be responsive to external stimuli. A visitor from another planet, judging from the enormous number of automobiles on Earth and the way in which cities and landscapes have been designed for the special benefit of motorcars, might well believe that automobiles are not only alive but are the dominant life-form on the planet. ( See physiology .)

A biochemical or molecular biological definition sees living organisms as systems that contain reproducible hereditary information coded in nucleic acid molecules and that metabolize by controlling the rate of chemical reactions using the proteinaceous catalysts known as enzymes . In many respects, this is more satisfying than the physiological or metabolic definitions of life. However, even here there are counterexamples. Viruslike agents called prions lack nucleic acids, although the nucleic acids of the animal cells in which they reside may be involved in their reproduction. Ribonucleic acid ( RNA ) molecules may replicate, mutate, and then replicate their mutations in test tubes, although by themselves they are not alive. Furthermore, a definition strictly in chemical terms seems peculiarly vulnerable . It implies that, were a person able to construct a system that had all the functional properties of life, it would still not be alive if it lacked the molecules that earthly biologists are fond of—and made of. ( See biochemistry .)

What Is the Meaning of Life?

Life can take many unexpected turns. From experiencing the death of a loved one, to feeling burnt out in your career, to getting a divorce from someone you once thought you’d spend the rest of your life with. These life-altering events can cause immense pain and confusion, leaving many to wonder: what is the meaning of life, anyways?

Table of Contents

1. life has an objective meaning, 2. life has an subjective meaning, 3. life has no meaning, 4. life has a supernatural or unexplainable meaning, why do humans pursue the meaning of life, significance, questions to know if you lack purpose, questions to know if you lack coherence, questions to know if you lack significance, are you finding a purpose, are you striving for coherence, are you looking for significance.

• How to Progress with your Life's Meaning

Final Thoughts

What is the meaning of life: definition of meaning.

Understanding the meaning of life is a universal concept that people around the world question. Interestingly, both the Eastern and Western worlds have differing philosophies, with Easterners focusing on the “we” or the meaning behind humanity as a whole, while Westerners are more individualistic, focusing on the “I” or their personal sense of meaning.

Countless schools of philosophy suggest varying answers for the meaning of life. While there is no concrete answer to the meaning of life, all these philosophies regarding the meaning of life can be divided into four categories; each category with varying philosophies throughout humanity listed below:

Natural Pantheism dates back to 1675 by Baruch Spinoza, who referenced the philosophy in their book “Ethics” This philosophy believes that God is in everything, so all life itself is interconnected.

Existentialism was termed by Martin Heidegger in his work “Being and Time” in 1927 and is the belief that humans are all born with this innate urge to understand their own meaning and values in life.

Hedonism originated back around the 4th century by Democritus, who was a Greek philosopher. This belief of life is simply to avoid suffering and seek out pleasure.

Nihilism was termed by Friedrich Nietzsche back in 1862 and is the belief that simply there is nothing, or no meaning, to life itself.

Theism originated in prehistoric times and was lived out through the varying gods humans believed in. The belief is that God, or a divine being/entity, is the meaning of life.

The four above groups of meaning provide insight into how people around the world may justify life itself. No concept is right or wrong; therefore, it is the responsibility of the individual to learn and grow through their life experiences to better understand the meaning behind life itself.

Humans may ponder the question “what is the meaning of life” for a variety of reasons.

First, meaning provides a sense of purpose to our lives. According to a research study that looked at meaning in life, the study expressed the positive psychological and physiological benefits [1] linked to humans feeling meaningful. For instance, meaning reduces the risk of mental health problems and improves physical health. Besides the concept that meaning boosts one’s general well-being, the sense of purpose and that life matters and is significant are other reasons why humans look for meaning.

However, it’s important to make the distinction between finding meaning in life and happiness. Although happiness and meaning are correlated, they are not the same. This is because seeking meaning and purpose isn’t always easy, carefree, and happy. However, seeking happiness doesn’t necessarily mean you’re living a purposeful life and fulfilling your true life’s potential.

For example, someone born into a wealthy family may feel happy and comfortable; however, if they lack the initiative to experience life to their fullest potential, take risks, make mistakes, and discover their purpose besides living a well-off lifestyle, they may lack a sense of meaning.

Meanwhile, many artists that are famous today, such as Vincent Van Gogh, struggled with mental illness and/or financial security while alive. And yet, these artists pursued their passion and purpose (art) and were willing to sacrifice the potential for a comfortable, “happy” life in pursuit of providing their creative talent to the world, which is still admired years after their death.

While life isn’t necessarily choosing between meaning vs happiness, it’s essential to realize it is impossible to pursue any and everything in life. This is where you must decide and select your core values , or the guiding principles that you center your life around.

For instance, if you value creativity, self-care, learning, and your health, these are all examples of self-growth values that benefit your personal development. Yet, if you value family, community, animals, and other relationships outside of yourself, these are more service values that benefit relationships or other people outside yourself.

While core values aren’t black and white, they can be contradictory. That’s why it’s essential to be aware of your own core values. Otherwise, you risk not knowing what you want out of life and thus will struggle to make decisions. This is because core values are like a compass that can help guide your decisions to focus more on what you value, and spend less time and effort on things you don’t value.

The Three Meanings of Meaning in Life (By Frank Martela and Michael F. Steger)

A research conducted by the philosophy researcher Frank Martela and the psychology professor Michael F. Steger suggests a three-dimensional approach [2] to understanding the meaning of life: purpose, coherence, and significance.

Purpose refers to when one has future-oriented goals that provide a sense of direction in their life. People can pursue many purposes in life. The distinction between purpose and the other two facets of meaning in the model is that purpose seeks to achieve high-value goals that guide your future.

Purpose and meaning are often synonymously used, or interchanged. Yet, the two are different constructs. Researchers measured both purpose in life and the general personal meaning that people felt in life. In the study, they found both were strongly correlated, but two separate measures with differing predictors.

For example, in one instance the researchers found that spirituality was linked to meaning, but not a sense of purpose. Meanwhile, optimism or essentially having motivation was connected to purpose, but not a general meaning of life.

Having a sense of purpose is a driving motivator that helps direct your life. The great thing about purpose is that once you clarify what your purposes in life are, you can take action via goal setting to make progress towards achieving your purpose. Goal setting is essential as it directs your actions and life to focus on what matters most in your life. Plus, goals are actionable steps you can continually work on and improve upon.

If someone’s purpose is to serve their community, that individual can seek out opportunities to live out their purpose. For instance, volunteering in the local community. Then, the individual can take actionable steps like volunteering a couple of times a week, providing personal donations, and more ways to live out their purpose of serving others.

Coherence refers to making sense of one’s life. It is a common desire for humans to want to make sense of the world and their life. The uncertainty and unpredictability of life can make people feel stressed and anxious. From a biological perspective, humans like to observe predictable patterns and trends to learn and adapt accordingly. This is because understanding predictable patterns in the world around us is a sort of innate survival mechanism, and humans used patterns years ago to adapt to changes in their environment to survive.

This pursuit of predictability of the world by humans is a survival tactic, which is elaborated in-depth in the Meaning Maintenance Model , [3] where this model suggests humans have an innate desire to make sense of the world and their environment. And, when this continuity is disrupted, this inevitably triggers a sense of stress in humans.

Coherence is an innate urge for humans to build a greater understanding or meaning for life through patterns and other predictable experiences they may observe in their own life. Therefore, humans will adapt and change to find and follow such patterns to feel a heightened sense of predictability in their life.

Routines are a great example of coherence. Consider the example of working out. At first, when you start learning how to exercise and workout for the first time, you may feel uncertain and uneasy because you may be unsure what to do and/or how to improve your physical fitness.

Yet, with a consistent routine and following a predictable workout regime, you’ll start seeing predictable results and be more knowledgeable about how to adapt your workout routine to improve your physical health even more.

Significance is the third dimension of meaning that focuses on the inherent value and worth of one’s life. Essentially, the significance of life could be an evaluation of one’s own life and how much one feels it is valuable, or worthwhile.

This “life-worth-living” concept is related to eudaimonia, [4] which can be defined as living well or flourishing in life. However, it’s important to understand the distinction between significance and eudaimonia. Eudaimonia is focused on what specifically forms experiences in life that make life worth living. Meanwhile, significance is focused on understanding the experience of a life worth living.

Life is short and precious; thus it is essential people understand the value time has in their lives. If an individual wastes time, either through procrastination or a lack of awareness, this can increase the feeling that their life is insignificant, or not worthwhile. This is because, rather than pursuing value in your life and using your time wisely, some people may voluntarily choose to waste time. For example, sitting in front of the TV rather than pursuing experiences that will bring value to your life, such as learning a new skill or working on a passion of yours.

However, by focusing on living a life of significance, one can make choices to invest their time in something worthwhile. For instance, raising and providing for your family could be a worthwhile reason for living.

Another example could be excelling in your career and working hard to your greatest potential. Although there’s a fine balance between achieving your greatest potential and burnout, working hard to add value and not just work for a paycheck gives value to both the organization and makes your life feel more worthwhile from a career perspective.

Signs You Lack Purpose, Coherence, or Significance in Life

Here are some questions to consider whether you lack one or more of the three dimensions of meaning in life. These questions are designed to challenge whether you are aware of your meaning in life. Depending upon your answers, or if you are unable to provide an answer for any of them, these are signs you may lack purpose, coherence, and/or significance in your life.

• Do you have specific goals you are working towards?
• Where do you see your life in 5 years?
• Do you struggle to follow through with the goals you set for yourself?
• Do you live a comfortable and happy life, but feel something is still missing in your life?
• Do you find yourself facing an existential crisis ?
• Do you live life day by day?
• If you could achieve anything, what would it be and why?
• Do you feel lost or stuck in life?
• Are you excited about what the future holds?
• Do you avoid uncertainty?
• Do you fear the unknown and always stay within your comfort zone?
• Do you hate change?
• Do you follow consistent routines and habits, or not?
• Is this what you expected your life to look like at this point in time?
• Are you just “going with the flow of life”, or being intentional with your actions?
• Do you take risks?
• Do you question the trajectory of your life?
• What reasons make your life worth living?
• Are there people that rely on you? (ie. family, career, friends)
• Do big life events cause you to feel insignificant? (ie. death or divorce)
• Do you feel you benefit or provide value to society?
• Do you consistently waste time when you could be doing something productive?
• Do you feel as if you haven’t reached your potential in life?
• Do you struggle with feelings of unworthiness?

Which Dimension of the Meaning in Life Fits You?

If you’re struggling to understand the question “what is the meaning of life”, you’re not alone.

Everyone at some point in their lives constantly wrestles with this idea. Yet, it’s important to understand which one of the three dimensions of the meaning in life you value most and why.

If you strive to pursue core goals that will help guide your decision-making and direct your life, you may desire to live a purposeful life. One can have many purposes that help direct their life. For example, personal aspirations as well as goals to better help their community.

Is your purpose to live a healthier lifestyle?

To achieve this purpose, you’ll want to break down actionable items you can pursue to lead a healthy lifestyle. For example, endurance, speed, nutrition, cognitive functioning, and mental health are all areas you can work on to pursue a healthy lifestyle.

From there, you’ll want to create goals to live out your purpose. For example, part of living a healthy lifestyle is eating nutritious foods, consider goals like eating a certain amount of fruits and vegetables, reducing your intake of unhealthy foods, and more to live out your goal of living a healthy lifestyle.

Another example is if you want to feel physically stronger and have more endurance, exercising your body consistently can be an actionable step you can take towards achieving a healthier life.

Is your purpose to serve your community?

To achieve the purpose of serving your community, first, consider ways in which you can help others. For example, volunteering is one way in which you can live out this purpose. From there, you can create actionable steps like deciding where you’d want to volunteer (i.e. dog shelter, food kitchen, etc.) and actively work towards helping those in your community.

If you strive to make sense of life, you may desire to live a coherent life and try to eliminate the uncertainty of life.

In what ways can you build coherence in your life?

Habits and routine are physical ways in which you can build a greater sense of coherence in your life, and even work towards fulfilling your purpose. Consider what you value in life and try to create predictable routines you can consistently follow.

For instance, if you desire to live a healthy lifestyle, routines such as going to the gym consistently or eating three meals per day are great predictable routines.

Feedback or asking for constructive criticism at work from your boss if you are uncertain about your work performance is another example of seeking out coherence in your life.

Or, you may read to learn more about the world and help make sense of life, little by little.

If you strive to live a worthwhile life of value, you may desire to live a life of significance.

How have positive and negative experiences shaped my life?

Having a child, getting a job promotion, mastering a difficult skill, and experiencing cultural differences while traveling are all positive experiences that can add value to your life.

Meanwhile, a near-death experience, the death of a loved one, getting diagnosed with a disease, and the loss of a job are all negative experiences that can make you question if you are truly living a life worth living.

How to Progress with your Life’s Meaning

Want to progress with your life’s meaning? There’s no time like the present to do so!

Time is limited; therefore, you shouldn’t take time for granted when you could be spending it chasing your meaning in life. Furthermore, you should learn to understand how to maximize the time you have to efficiently live a fulfilling life.

Life multipliers are core skills of life you can use to essentially work smarter, not harder, to better pursue your meaning in life. These 8 life multipliers, when combined, can help you make progress towards making the most of your time to live a more meaningful life.

Learn more about life multipliers and how to live a full life here .

What is the meaning of life? Although there’s no concrete answer to this all-encompassing question, there are three dimensions in which one can strive to pursue meaning in life: purpose, coherence, and significance.

Understanding your meaning in life can be overwhelming. However, contemplating what you want in life (purpose, coherence, or significance) and taking actionable steps toward fulfilling that meaning will help you live a more meaningful life.

Don't have time for the full article? Read this.

The answer for the meaning of life varies based on different philosophies: life has an objective meaning; life has an subjective meaning; life has no meaning; life has a supernatural or unexplainable meaning .

Human beings look for meaning in life because meaning boosts our general well-being, and that life matters and is significant to us.

According to the philosophy researcher Frank Martela and the psychology professor Michael F. Steger, there are three meanings in meaning in life: Purpose, Coherance, Significance.

Purpose refers to when one has future-oriented goals that provide a sense of direction in their life.

Coherence refers to making sense of one’s life.

Significance focuses on the inherent value and worth of one’s life.

It’s important to understand which one of the three dimensions of the meaning in life you value most and why.

Life multipliers are core skills of life you can use to better pursue your meaning in life. Learn more about them here.

Featured photo credit: Donald Giannatti via unsplash.com

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Definition of living

 (Entry 1 of 2)

Definition of living  (Entry 2 of 2)

• functioning
• operational

Examples of living in a Sentence

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'living.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Phrases Containing living

• assisted living
• beat / kick the (living) shit
• beat the (living) daylights out of
• be living on borrowed time
• cost of living
• cost - of - living index
• do for a living
• earn a living
• free - living
• honest living
• in living color
• in the land of the living
• in / within living memory

living death

• living embodiment
• living fossil
• living language
• living legend
• living proof
• living quarters
• living room
• living standard
• living stone
• living trust
• living unit
• living wage
• living will
• make a living
• scratch a living
• scratch out a living
• standard of living

Dictionary Entries Near living

Cite this entry.

“Living.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/living. Accessed 26 Aug. 2024.

Kids Definition

Kids definition of living.

Kids Definition of living  (Entry 2 of 2)

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Nglish: Translation of living for Spanish Speakers

Britannica English: Translation of living for Arabic Speakers

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Fill in the form below and receive news in your email box, life is for living: definition, meaning, and origin.

The phrase "life is for living" is a popular saying emphasizing the importance of enjoying and making the most of one's life. It suggests that the purpose of life is to experience, enjoy, and embrace it rather than simply existing or surviving. This phrase is used in various contexts, from motivational talks to casual conversations, and serves as a reminder to live fully and actively.

• It emphasizes the importance of actively enjoying life.
• It serves as a reminder to make the most out of our lives.

What Does "Life is for Living" Mean?

When someone says, "Life is for living," they are expressing the idea that life should be actively enjoyed and experienced. This phrase often comes up as advice or encouragement, suggesting that one should not waste time in worries or inaction. For example, someone might say, "Don't worry too much about small problems, remember, life is for living," to someone overly stressed.

Let's dig into its core meanings and usage:

• It suggests that life should be filled with activities and experiences that bring joy and fulfillment.
• The phrase is often used to encourage taking risks or trying new things.
• It serves as a reminder not to get too caught up in the monotony or hardships of daily life.
• This saying is popular in motivational contexts and can be seen in various forms of media, including books and movies.
• Similar phrases include "seize the day" and " make the most of now.

Where Does "Life is for Living" Come From?

The phrase "life is for living" doesn't have a specific etymological origin traceable to a single point in history or literature. Instead, it's a sentiment that has been expressed in various forms and languages throughout human history. The essence of this phrase is the encouragement to embrace life actively and fully, a concept that has been a part of human philosophy, literature, and oral tradition for centuries.

10 Examples of "Life is for Living" in Sentences

To help you understand how to use this phrase in different situations, let's look at some examples:

• Taking risks might feel too close to home for some, but for him, it's a reminder tha t life is for living .
• She often says life is for living as she plans her next adventure to a new country.
• When they tried to dig the dirt on her adventurous lifestyle, she simply replied, " Life is for living , not for gossiping."
• Her grandmother's advice was always to remember that life is for living , encouraging her to enjoy every moment.
• Every time she ventures out into the unknown, she does so with the belief that life is for living to its fullest.
• Her decision to start her own business was driven by the belief that life is for living .
• Facing challenges as brave as a lion , she embodies the spirit that life is for living .
• The motivational speaker's key message was to live fully and remember that life is for living .
• After recovering from a serious illness, he often said life is for living , cherishing each day more than before.
• While trying to figure it out , they often remind each other that life is for living , and sometimes, that means taking a leap of faith .

Examples of "Life is for Living" in Pop Culture

This phrase is commonly used in pop culture, often to express the importance of enjoying life and making the most of our experiences.

Let's look at some examples:

• John Shackleton wrote a book titled “Life Is for Living.” The book is about the author’s experiences and insights in life.
• In his book “The Collected Poems,” Langston Hughes wrote: “Life is for the living. Death is for the dead. Let life be like music. And death a note unsaid.”
• The song “Life Is For Living” by Coldplay contains the lyrics: "But life is for living, we all know, and I don’t wanna live it alone."
• The movie “Life Is for Living” is directed by Danny Phillips. The movie is a short drama about an old man who discovers he was used in an unethical medical experiment when he was a 6-year-old boy.

Synonyms: Other/Different Ways to Say "Life is for Living"

Here are some alternative phrases that express the same idea:

• Seize the day
• Live life to the fullest
• Make the most of now
• Live in the moment
• Embrace life
• Cherish every moment
• Live with gusto
• Live passionately
• Enjoy the ride

10 Frequently Asked Questions About "Life is for Living":

• What does "life is for living" mean?

"Life is for living" means that one should actively enjoy and experience life, rather than just existing. It encourages people to engage fully with their lives, embracing opportunities for happiness and fulfillment.

• How can I use "life is for living" in a conversation?

You can use it to encourage someone to take risks, try new things, or to remind them to enjoy their life. For example, "Don't worry too much about the little things, remember, life is for living."

• Is "life is for living" a motivational saying?

Yes, it's often used as a motivational saying to inspire people to live their lives to the fullest and to not let fears or worries hold them back.

• Who originally said "life is for living"?

The exact origin of the phrase is unclear, but it's a sentiment that has been expressed in various forms by numerous individuals throughout history.

• Can "life is for living" be considered a life philosophy?

Yes, many people adopt "life is for living" as a personal philosophy, guiding their choices and actions to ensure a fulfilling and enjoyable life experience.

• Is "life is for living" relevant for all age groups?

Yes, the message of living life fully and actively is relevant and inspiring for people of all ages, from young to old.

• How can adopting the "life is for living" mindset affect one's life?

Adopting this mindset can lead to a more adventurous and fulfilling life, as it encourages taking chances , embracing new experiences, and valuing joy and happiness.

• Can "life is for living" help in overcoming fear and anxiety?

While it's not a cure-all, this mindset can help in managing fear and anxiety by shifting focus towards positive experiences and the joys of living.

• Is "life is for living" often used in literature or movies?

Yes, this phrase and its underlying sentiment are commonly used in literature and movies, often to highlight a character's growth or to inspire change.

• How does "life is for living" influence daily decision-making?

This perspective can influence daily decisions by encouraging choices that align with joy, personal growth, and the pursuit of meaningful experiences.

Final Thoughts About "Life is for Living"

The saying "life is for living" serves as a powerful reminder to embrace life with enthusiasm and purpose. It's a universal message that resonates across different cultures and age groups, inspiring people to make the most of their lives.

Here's a quick recap:

• It encourages an active and joyful engagement with life.
• It's a versatile saying that can motivate people in various aspects of life.
• The phrase can be a personal philosophy guiding one towards a fulfilling life.
• It's relevant in literature, movies, and general life advice.

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Inside Reddit’s Man-Cave Support Group

As the number of single-male households skyrockets, men are flocking to reddit to flex and give feedback on each other’s homes, bedrooms, and caverns..

Earlier this year, I noticed that something strange was happening in my boyfriend’s apartment. In the run-up to the Euro Football Championship, new furnishings and gear kept appearing: A sleek surround-sound system. A garish English flag. A splashy second monitor. A shiny PerfectDraft beer machine. I couldn’t relate to any of it—not the high-tech equipment, not the multiple screens, not the tribalistic obsession with football. Finally, I had to say something—the apartment’s increasingly testosterone-fueled vibes had grown too hilarious to ignore. “It’s looking like a man cave in here,” I said one morning, scrambling around the beer dispenser, searching for the French press. “It’s you who’s gendering objects,” my boyfriend snapped back.

Later, reflecting on his 70-inch flat-screen TV and black leather couch adorned with consoles, I realized that my boyfriend had a point. What was I trying to convey with “testosterone vibes”? How does an appliance or a piece of décor become gendered? What does a “masculine” living space actually mean? I took to the internet to hunt down some answers, and very quickly, I stumbled into the grungy, bro-y confines of r/mancave .

R/mancave is a subreddit with over 80,000 members, dedicated to men wanting to flex their decorating muscles and get feedback on each other’s homes, bedrooms, and caverns. While the “man cave” is by now a familiar pop culture reference, the Redditors offer a precise definition, writing that it is “the last bastion of masculinity;” a corner “specifically reserved” for men, decorated “without interference from any female influence.”

Scrolling through the Reddit thread can feel like eavesdropping on 16-year-olds’ locker-room banter. “Grow a pair,” comments one user; “I feel my testosterone boiling,” says another. Foosball tables make common appearances, as do bongs, leather recliners, video game consoles, framed sports paraphernalia, minibars, and flat-screen TVs.

In the past 50 years, the number of men living alone in the U.S. has increased , rising from about 6 percent in 1970 to around 13 percent in 2022. As male-only homemakers become increasingly common, forums like r/mancave become records of shifting masculinities: repositories of the fears, anxieties, and desires embedded in everyday decisions like interior design. But will male-only tastemaking ever be free from tinges of toxicity? Is there cultural value—even beauty—in hypermasculine style?

The Rise and Fall of the Bachelor Pad

For most of modern history, homemaking has been women’s work. Magazines like Good Housekeeping became staples for women in the early 20 th century, while men were generally seen as not having interest in their home decor. When interior design emerged as a formal profession in this period, it was pioneered by women (unlike architecture, which was dominated by men). As writer and historian Joanna Scutts put it in Curbed , “How a building looked and functioned was a man’s business; how it felt was a woman’s.”

But in the 1950s, that began to change. The post-WWII economic boom ushered in a new era of consumerism and consumption. Factories that had been producing wartime products started creating commodities like televisions, electric razors, and luxury cars. Playboy was born in 1953, and was loaded with adverts for expensive gadgets and designer clothes.

Gradually, a new wave of consumerism took shape. Advertising campaigns began emphasizing personal taste and self-expression. The bland business suit was reinvented in a kaleidoscope of colors and patterns. “If American capitalism can be said to have spent the 1950s dealing in conformity and consumer fakery, during the decade that followed, it would offer the public authenticity, individuality, difference, and rebellion,” wrote American historian Thomas Frank in The Conquest of Cool.

In 1959, the Chicago Tribune first coined the word “bachelor pad,” marking the emergence of a newly modern male homemaker. Where once family heirlooms and mounted animal heads had reigned supreme, a new visual language for masculine status had emerged. The bachelor pad was sophisticated, seductive. It was, in the words of Hugh Hefner, a place for drinking cocktails, “putting a little mood music on the phonograph and inviting in a female acquaintance for a quiet discussion on Picasso, Nietzsche, jazz, sex.”

Playboy built on the bachelor pad fantasy throughout the ’60s, publishing photos of minimalistic penthouses, hi-fi stereo systems, glitzy skyline views—road maps for middle-class men wanting to reinvent themselves. But where the bachelor pad defined itself in terms of high-end taste and luxury, today’s man cave—at least as it is presented by r/mancaves—is instead marked by humility, a return to the bread-and-butter hobbies of the everyday American man. One popular man cave, a neon-lit video game dungeon set up in an actual cupboard under the stairs , says it all: A man cave is an amalgamation of the ordinary; the people’s princess of interior design.

Keefer Williams, a 27-year-old artist and musician living in Buffalo, New York, posted a work-in-progress man cave on the thread two months ago—a space he describes as a “gremlin dome” or “rumpus room.” The idea was to create a space where there was no pressure to produce art that was perfect or commercial, filled with psychedelic paintings, band posters, and acoustic guitars. “This is my little space to hang whatever I make, whether it’s shitty or beautiful,” he said over video call.

Something about the man cave reminded me of being 16, when my school friends and I were too young to go to nightclubs, so we’d spend an embarrassing amount of time in my friend’s shed, smoking joints. Everyone was obsessed with hotboxing—getting high in an enclosed room, like a car or a bathroom or a telephone box, to maximize its effect. It wasn’t just smoking weed; it was making weed-smoking the world itself. The man cave has a similar adolescent fervor. It involves taking an activity, like gaming or watching soccer or making music, and pushing it to the extreme—multiplying it by itself.

Unlike the designer furniture and minimalist design of bachelor pads, man caves are chaotic. Kitsch. Obsessive. If Patrick Bateman’s shiny ’80s Manhattan penthouse/dungeon in American Psycho was a bachelor pad, man caves are the beer-bottled, bong-strewn apartments in films like Knocked Up and Superbad .

“It’s chaos,” said Mike, a 48-year-old content marketer in a tech company who lives in New Jersey with his wife and kids. While the upstairs of his house has a “very clean, modern aesthetic,” the downstairs (which he shared on r/mancave) is a cataclysm of his eclectic interests: a poker table, an Iron Maiden poster, a Mets placard, a sign that reads EAT DRINK WATCH FOOTBALL. “To me, that basement is the complete opposite of everything I believe in from a design aesthetic,” he said.

It is no coincidence that many man caves look like teenage bedrooms; they aren’t worlds apart. They are both rooms belonging to males who want to lock themselves away from the world, to cocoon themselves in soothing solitary pleasure. “This is my escape,” said Mike. “I can’t really share or go into those things elsewhere, like work, and with my kids and my wife,” he said. “That’s my outlet for some of these things that I’m passionate about that no one else is.”

A New Masculinity Exits Hibernation

From the very beginning, man caves have been defined in terms of their resistance to femininity. The phrase was first used in the Toronto Star in 1992, when Joanne Lovering conjured up a “cave of solitude secured against wife intrusion,” marked by “musty smells and a few strategic cobwebs.”

That year, John Gray’s Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus popularized the man cave as a metaphor for the privacy and solitude that all men crave. “Men have had an identity problem since the women’s movement,” Sam Martin, author of Manspace: A Primal Guide to Marking Your Territory told the Denver Post in 2007. “Our premise is that women have control of the look and the feel of the house and that left guys wanting more.”

But for nearly all the Redditors I spoke with, the concept of masculinity—at least the old-fashioned sort—didn’t feel that important to them. Everyone shared their man cave with their partners, friends, and/or kids. and surprisingly, most of them couldn’t stand the term man cave . “I don’t like that word,” said Mike. “I think it should be just a personality cave.” Keefer didn’t like the hang-up on gender altogether. In an era in which more and more people are identifying outside the male/female binary, hypergendered language can feel outdated, redundant, and fundamentally cringe. “Masculinity, to me, just means: ‘Do you identify as a dude? Then you’re a dude, cool,’ ” Keefer said.

The idea of curating a space that was intentionally masculine did resonate with Aryn, a 28-year-old stay-at-home dad. He’d lived with his mom most of his adult life, in a home filled with decorative items like rock collections and glassware, which often made Aryn feel claustrophobic. When he eventually moved out, it was important for him to stay “as far away from absolutely useless objects as possible.”

It was an interesting point. During the hotboxing years, I developed an obsession with collecting tiny porcelain boxes, too small to fit anything inside, apart from a couple of rings, earrings, or coins (my friends now kindly joke that I would have been bullied if I’d gone to their secondary schools). I was likely influenced by my mum, who manically collected brightly colored clay pomegranates, and would impulse-buy things like Technicolor china lizards for £50, “just because.” Meanwhile, r/femalelivingspace is overflowing with decorative items—ornate candlesticks, baroque framed mirrors, fluffy poodle-like pillows. Was it that simple: The less practical an object is, the more it is coded as feminine?

Aryn lives with mental illness and finds that filling his space with functional items helps with his mental health. “When I wake up, I know that I have something fun to do that I have not done before,” he said. “It’s the only place I feel safe and it’s the only place that I’m excited to go to when I walk in.” Today, he spends most of his time in his man cave, which is filled with posters, toys, and a movie collection—all the things he wanted but couldn’t afford as a child.

Aryn felt uplifted by the encouragement he received when he shared photos of his home on r/mancave, and this was something that felt true to the thread as a whole. Amid the roasting sessions were frequent flickers of softness, veiled moments of companionship and vulnerability. One 17-year-old boy fretted that he needed to make his room more manly after a girl said it looked feminine. “Looks fantastic mate,” a Redditor reassured him. “I’d leave it as is and not worry about it, it’s your space to be comfortable in.”

Unlike other social media platforms, such as TikTok, Reddit has an overwhelmingly male usership ( 63.6 percent ), a difference that is possibly attributable to site users’ anonymity, which provides a space for men to share opinions and anxieties without the judgment of others. “That’s my only way of talking to anybody,” said Aryn. “I asked them for advice, which I would never do under any other circumstances.”

While Aryn enjoys a masculine aesthetic, he loves sharing it with his wife—buying her a Blu-ray boxed set, action figures, and Lego sets which sit alongside his collections. These days, he spends hours playing in his man cave with his daughter, filled with nostalgia. “It’s super important for me to have her growing up with the things that I grew up with,” he said. “I don’t force anything on her, of course, because—masculine and feminine, who really cares?”

After the Euros ended, my boyfriend decided to sell the PerfectDraft beer machine on eBay. It was by no means a grand gesture of identity reckoning. The machine was simply less practical than he’d imagined. It took hours to cool down the keg of Stella, and even when it did, it only poured a few pints. He was on to the next product: a luxe Herman Miller office chair, kitted out with adaptable features for ultimate comfort.

As much as I had (condescendingly) loved the idea of men decking out their caves as being some masturbatory show of their manhood, it seemed that the majority of man-cavers were simply influenced by practicality. How could they make their space best suit their interests and physical needs? What would make them more comfortable? And, to be fair, my boyfriend might like shiny tech and expensive office chairs, but his bed sheets? Those are printed with huge pink and orange poppies.

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As a Teenager in Europe, I Went to Nudist Beaches All the Time. 30 Years Later, Would the Experience Be the Same?

In July 2017, I wrote an article about toplessness for Vogue Italia. The director, actor, and political activist Lina Esco had emerged from the world of show business to question public nudity laws in the United States with 2014’s Free the Nipple . Her film took on a life of its own and, thanks to the endorsement from the likes of Miley Cyrus, Cara Delevingne, and Willow Smith, eventually developed into a whole political movement, particularly on social media where the hashtag #FreeTheNipple spread at lightning speed. The same year as that piece, actor Alyssa Milano tweeted “me too” and encouraged others who had been sexually assaulted to do the same, building on the movement activist Tarana Burke had created more than a decade earlier. The rest is history.

In that Vogue article, I chatted with designer Alessandro Michele about a shared memory of our favorite topless beaches of our youth. Anywhere in Italy where water appeared—be it the hard-partying Riviera Romagnola, the traditionally chic Amalfi coast and Sorrento peninsula, the vertiginous cliffs and inlets of Italy’s continuation of the French Côte d’Azur or the towering volcanic rocks of Sicily’s mythological Riviera dei Ciclopi—one was bound to find bodies of all shapes and forms, naturally topless.

In the ’90s, growing up in Italy, naked breasts were everywhere and nobody thought anything about it. “When we look at our childhood photos we recognize those imperfect breasts and those bodies, each with their own story. I think of the ‘un-beauty’ of that time and feel it is actually the ultimate beauty,” Michele told me.

Indeed, I felt the same way. My relationship with toplessness was part of a very democratic cultural status quo. If every woman on the beaches of the Mediterranean—from the sexy girls tanning on the shoreline to the grandmothers eating spaghetti al pomodoro out of Tupperware containers under sun umbrellas—bore equally naked body parts, then somehow we were all on the same team. No hierarchies were established. In general, there was very little naked breast censorship. Free nipples appeared on magazine covers at newsstands, whether tabloids or art and fashion magazines. Breasts were so naturally part of the national conversation and aesthetic that Ilona Staller (also known as Cicciolina) and Moana Pozzi, two porn stars, cofounded a political party called the Love Party. I have a clear memory of my neighbor hanging their party’s banner out his window, featuring a topless Cicciolina winking.

A lot has changed since those days, but also since that initial 2017 piece. There’s been a feminist revolution, a transformation of women’s fashion and gender politics, the absurd overturning of Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 rape conviction in New York, the intensely disturbing overturning of Roe v Wade and the current political battle over reproductive rights radiating from America and far beyond. One way or another, the female body is very much the site of political battles as much as it is of style and fashion tastes. And maybe for this reason naked breasts seem to populate runways and street style a lot more than they do beaches—it’s likely that being naked at a dinner party leaves more of a permanent mark than being naked on a glamorous shore. Naked “dressing” seems to be much more popular than naked “being.” It’s no coincidence that this year Saint Laurent, Chloé, Ferragamo, Tom Ford, Gucci, Ludovic de Saint Sernin, and Valentino all paid homage to sheer dressing in their collections, with lacy dresses, see-through tops, sheer silk hosiery fabric, and close-fitting silk dresses. The majority of Anthony Vaccarello’s fall 2024 collection was mostly transparent. And even off the runway, guests at the Saint Laurent show matched the mood. Olivia Wilde appeared in a stunning see-through dark bodysuit, Georgia May Jagger wore a sheer black halter top, Ebony Riley wore a breathtaking V-neck, and Elsa Hosk went for translucent polka dots.

In some strange way, it feels as if the trends of the ’90s have swapped seats with those of today. When, in 1993, a 19-year-old Kate Moss wore her (now iconic) transparent, bronze-hued Liza Bruce lamé slip dress to Elite Model Agency’s Look of the Year Awards in London, I remember seeing her picture everywhere and feeling in awe of her daring and grace. I loved her simple sexy style, with her otherworldly smile, the hair tied back in a bun. That very slip has remained in the collective unconscious for decades, populating thousands of internet pages, but in remembering that night Moss admitted that the nude look was totally unintentional: “I had no idea why everyone was so excited—in the darkness of Corinne [Day’s] Soho flat, the dress was not see-through!” That’s to say that nude dressing was usually mostly casual and not intellectualized in the context of a larger movement.

But today nudity feels loaded in different ways. In April, actor and author Julia Fox appeared in Los Angeles in a flesh-colored bra that featured hairy hyper-realist prints of breasts and nipples, and matching panties with a print of a sewn-up vagina and the words “closed” on it, as a form of feminist performance art. Breasts , an exhibition curated by Carolina Pasti, recently opened as part of the 60th Venice Biennale at Palazzo Franchetti and showcases works that span from painting and sculpture to photography and film, reflecting on themes of motherhood, empowerment, sexuality, body image, and illness. The show features work by Cindy Sherman, Robert Mapplethorpe, Louise Bourgeois, and an incredible painting by Bernardino Del Signoraccio of Madonna dell’Umiltà, circa 1460-1540. “It was fundamental for me to include a Madonna Lactans from a historical perspective. In this intimate representation, the Virgin reveals one breast while nurturing the child, the organic gesture emphasizing the profound bond between mother and child,” Pasti said when we spoke.

Through her portrayal of breasts, she delves into the delicate balance of strength and vulnerability within the female form. I spoke to Pasti about my recent musings on naked breasts, which she shared in a deep way. I asked her whether she too noticed a disparity between nudity on beaches as opposed to the one on streets and runways, and she agreed. Her main concern today is around censorship. To Pasti, social media is still far too rigid around breast exposure and she plans to discuss this issue through a podcast that she will be launching in September, together with other topics such as motherhood, breastfeeding, sexuality, and breast cancer awareness.

With summer at the door, it was my turn to see just how much of the new reread on transparency would apply to beach life. In the last few years, I noticed those beaches Michele and I reminisced about have grown more conservative and, despite being the daughter of unrepentant nudists and having a long track record of militant topless bathing, I myself have felt a bit more shy lately. Perhaps a woman in her 40s with two children is simply less prone to taking her top off, but my memories of youth are populated by visions of bare-chested mothers surveilling the coasts and shouting after their kids in the water. So when did we stop? And why? When did Michele’s era of “un-beauty” end?

In order to get back in touch with my own naked breasts I decided to revisit the nudist beaches of my youth to see what had changed. On a warm day in May, I researched some local topless beaches around Rome and asked a friend to come with me. Two moms, plus our four children, two girls and two boys of the same ages. “Let’s make an experiment of this and see what happens,” I proposed.

The kids all yawned, but my friend was up for it. These days to go topless, especially on urban beaches, you must visit properties that have an unspoken nudist tradition. One of these in Rome is the natural reserve beach at Capocotta, south of Ostia, but I felt a bit unsure revisiting those sands. In my memory, the Roman nudist beaches often equated to encounters with promiscuous strangers behind the dunes. I didn’t want to expose the kids, so, being that I am now a wise adult, I went ahead and picked a compromise. I found a nude-friendly beach on the banks of the Farfa River, in the rolling Sabina hills.

We piled into my friend’s car and drove out. The kids were all whining about the experiment. “We don’t want to see naked mums!” they complained. “Can’t you just lie and say you went to a nudist beach?”

We parked the car and walked across the medieval fairy-tale woods until we reached the path that ran along the river. All around us were huge trees and gigantic leaves. It had rained a lot recently and the vegetation had grown incredibly. We walked past the remains of a Roman road. The colors all around were bright green, the sky almost fluorescent blue. The kids got sidetracked by the presence of frogs. According to the indications, the beach was about a mile up the river. Halfway down the path, we bumped into a couple of young guys in fanny packs. I scanned them for signs of quintessential nudist attitude, but realized I actually had no idea what that was. I asked if we were headed in the right direction to go to “the beach”. They nodded and gave us a sly smile, which I immediately interpreted as a judgment about us as mothers, and more generally about our age, but I was ready to vindicate bare breasts against ageism.

We reached a small pebbled beach, secluded and bordered by a huge trunk that separated it from the path. A group of girls was there, sharing headphones and listening to music. To my dismay they were all wearing the tops and bottoms of their bikinis. One of them was in a full-piece bathing suit and shorts. “See, they are all wearing bathing suits. Please don’t be the weird mums who don’t.”

At this point, it was a matter of principle. My friend and I decided to take our bathing suits off completely, if only for a moment, and jumped into the river. The boys stayed on the beach with full clothes and shoes on, horrified. The girls went in behind us with their bathing suits. “Are you happy now? my son asked. “Did you prove your point?”

I didn’t really know what my point actually was. I think a part of me wanted to feel entitled to those long-gone decades of naturalism. Whether this was an instinct, or as Pasti said, “an act that was simply tied to the individual freedom of each woman”, it was hard to tell. At this point in history, the two things didn’t seem to cancel each other out—in fact, the opposite. Taking off a bathing suit, at least for my generation who never had to fight for it, had unexpectedly turned into a radical move and maybe I wanted to be part of the new discourse. Also, the chances of me going out in a fully sheer top were slim these days, but on the beach it was different. I would always fight for an authentic topless experience.

After our picnic on the river, we left determined to make our way—and without children—to the beaches of Capocotta. In truth, no part of me actually felt very subversive doing something I had been doing my whole life, but it still felt good. Once a free breast, always a free breast.

This article was originally published on British Vogue .

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