Life should be great rather than long: This is a powerful quote by Ambedkar talking about the meaning, quality of life and its purpose. It tackles the debate about the quantity vs quality of life. It is tempting to think of a long life and plan for it. However, that’s not something in our control. The quality of life however can be impacted by our approach.
With that background, let’s delve a bit deeper into the meaning, inspiration and practical points from this quote by Ambedkar about quality of life.
Life should be great rather than long
Ambedkar
Table of Contents
What Does “Life Should Be Great Rather Than Long” Mean?
This quote from Ambedkar makes us think about the quality of life. The meaning of this quote is centred around adding value to everyday life. A long life is alluring because it gives us more time to do all the things that we desire. However, no one knows how much time each of us have. This quote – life should be great rather than long means that we ought to focus on quality at each step of our life.
This quote makes us question – what’s the point of a life where we don’t feel alive most of the time? This quote makes us think about the spirit of life and how we can add more meaning to it. The answer is different to each individual but the premise remains the same – it is about the quality of our life that comes from the meaning we associate to it. (Living a life with passion)
Life in general makes us think about time, age and how long we have lived. It also makes us think about our achievements, the things that we are proud of. Most people like to talk about the intangibles such as love, relationships, joy and all the beautiful memories we make in our life. Some others talk about our net worth, the money we can leave behind etc.
A long life without meaning is less favourable
This naturally makes us think about the amount of time we have in this life and the natural desire is to make it as long as possible. The philosophical question of the meaning of life has many answers. But most answers seem to make us think of this phrase – life should be great rather than long. A long life without meaning is less favourable than a short life full of meaning, joy and drama. It is about a life of purpose, quality with immense richness in experience and memories that we can carry over with us.
Quality of Life – Life Should be Great!
This is an excellent debate which makes us think about the purpose of life. We owe it to ourselves to take good care and live a long life. However, this long life cannot be without meaning. It can be as poisonous as creating a vegetative state of existence where time goes by creating a sense of ennui, boredom. We feel alive with our commitment to life and what we contribute to it leading us to the conversations about quality of life.
Quality Over Quantity in Life
We have seen many stories of people with wild riches leaving a sad life. Most people around us talk about money and its ability to give us happiness. It is certainly a quest in the modern world to achieve all this money, financial independence and abundance so that we can live a high quality of life. The other most common desire in life is about legacy and leaving something behind. This is about being involved to a cause bigger than us so that we can find some meaning with it.
Some examples of quality of life or the meaning of a fulfilling life come from philosophy:
- Aristotle’s reference to eudaimonia focusing on living well vs existing for a long time
- Existentialist philosophy from Jean-Paul Sartre arguing for meaning through choices and actions
Ultimately, the meaning of life is individual for each one of us. It is deeply rooted in our values, upbringing, culture and aspirations in life. The paths we find are different for each one of us. But the central theme comes back to living a high quality life. (Meaningfulness is a better goal than happiness)
Life should be great rather than long – Ambedkar Quote, shareable image
So what is the meaning of this quote? This comes down to the purpose of our life. Not only the purpose but the values that we stand for. Our lives are too small even if they are long. The only way we can think of leaving a longer impact is by thinking of what values we want to leave behind and the stories that people tell about us. Although it sounds a bit lofty, these stories are based on how we impact the lives of others around us. Funnily enough, it is never to do with how much money we have or the accomplishments of our personal life.
The only thing that people remember us for is how we made them feel. We are social beings – the purpose of our lives gets lost when we look inward selfishly and try to accomplish things for ourselves. Although it is great to do that, the value for the external world is limited.
If we want to live beyond our life and even longer in the memories of people, the best thing we can do is think about others. Find out how we can be useful for people and then we can do justice to this quote. Life can be great if we start tying our values and beliefs to the benefit of society. These beliefs will help us start understanding this quote and refining its meaning in our lives.
Importance of Quality Over Quantity in Life
An individualistic philosophy makes us think about the longevity of life – taking care of ourselves and making the most of opportunities given to us. The purpose and quality of life here is about achievements. If we cannot make the most of the life given to us, it is our fault for being lazy or succumbing to weakness. It highlights the power of our choices, ability to shape our destiny and being able to carve our life. This life too talks about having an excellent quality without compromising.
The socialistic or community-oriented philosophy makes us think about our contribution to the society or people around us. It makes us ask about the meaning of life in the lens of what our life means to others and how we influence the people around us. If our existence can improve the quality of life of a few people around us – there’s a sense of meaning and association in that.
Most times however, we are in the juxtaposition of these two thoughts wondering where we stand. It is one of those questions where there’s no right answer apart from the one that our hearts tell us. We might be able to fool anyone but not our heart which knows what makes it happy.
Does Long Life mean good life?
This is a very difficult question to answer. My gut tells me to say that long life cannot mean a good life. None of us are guaranteed a good life – so there’s a factor of luck that defines a good life. We don’t like to define things based on luck. Hence long life cannot be equal to a good or a great life.
However, the quality of life – now that’s a different matter. We hold a certain level of control about what this means to us. It is also about living life in the moment making it more tangible than a longer life. It doesn’t necessarily mean that we ignore the longevity of life or take reckless actions. But it goads us to think and live life in the moment instead of postponing living for the future.
Longer life means better life
A long life is a great gift – it gives us time to do things that our hearts desire. It gives us a chance to make mistakes, make amends to these mistakes and live a life with hope. Gandhi makes an excellent quote – Live as if you were to die tomorrow! . It makes us think about the current moment and live life in that moment rather than worrying about the past or the future.
Most times we are lost in these two worlds as we struggle to understand what’s happening in front of us. The past pains haunt us while the desire of the future makes us live in an illusion making us forget the only life that we have which is in front of us happening now.
A long life without meaning feels wasteful
A long life without what gives us meaning starts feeling like a wasted life. This leads to a life of regret, disappointment and the narratives about what life could’ve been if we took those steps and made those actions. No one will ever know how life would pan out if we could or would do certain things.
It is beyond us and our imagination although we seem to think that we can create these narratives. Unfortunately, these are all lies – all we have is the world in front of us now. A longer life is amazing but without the beauty of a good quality of life, it starts feeling bleak.
Life should be great rather than long
Ambedkar
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