---
title: "1 Worthwhile Life Quotes By Christian Wiman"
description: "1 Worthwhile Life quotes by Christian Wiman. Plus more from Christian Wiman and more Worthwhile Life sayings from other authors."
image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/32e/christian-wiman-10211_add_the-endless-useless-urge-to-look-on-life_3165901.png"
---

> [The endless, useless urge to look on life comprehensively, to take a bird's-eye view of ourselves and judge the dimensions of what we have or have not done: this is life as landscape, or life as résumé. But life is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christian-wiman/the-endless-useless-urge-to-look-on-life-comprehensively-to-take-a/)

[Christian Wiman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christian-wiman/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/32e/christian-wiman-10211_add_the-endless-useless-urge-to-look-on-life_3165901.png)

## More by Christian Wiman

> [I find myself continually falling back into wounds, wishes, terrors I thought I had risen beyond.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christian-wiman/i-find-myself-continually-falling-back-into-wounds-wishes-terrors-i/)

[Christian Wiman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christian-wiman/)

> [“Intellectuals and artists concerned with faith tend to underestimate the radical, inviolable innocence it requires. We read and read, write long, elaborate essays and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christian-wiman/intellectuals-and-artists-concerned-with-faith-tend-to-underestimate/)

[Christian Wiman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christian-wiman/)

> [Wonder is the precondition for all wisdom.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christian-wiman/wonder-is-the-precondition-for-all-wisdom/)

[Christian Wiman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christian-wiman/)

> [We should be suspicious when God's call conforms so neatly to our own inclinations.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christian-wiman/we-should-be-suspicious-when-god-s-call-conforms-so-neatly-to-our-own/)

[Christian Wiman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christian-wiman/)

> [God is with us, not beyond us, in suffering.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christian-wiman/god-is-with-us-not-beyond-us-in-suffering/)

[Christian Wiman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christian-wiman/)

> [“Let us remember...that in the end we go to poetry for one reason, so that we might more fully inhabit our lives and the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christian-wiman/let-us-remember-that-in-the-end-we-go-to-poetry-for-one-reason-so/)

[Christian Wiman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christian-wiman/)

> [To be truly alive is to feel one's ultimate existence within one's daily existence.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christian-wiman/to-be-truly-alive-is-to-feel-one-s-ultimate-existence-within-one-s/)

[Christian Wiman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christian-wiman/)

> [I am a Christian because of that moment on the cross when Jesus, drinking the very dregs of human bitterness, cries out, My God,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christian-wiman/i-am-a-christian-because-of-that-moment-on-the-cross-when-jesus/)

[Christian Wiman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christian-wiman/)

> [Mandelstam is the sort of poet who comes along very, very rarely. Even the two Russian poets whose work is often linked with his…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christian-wiman/mandelstam-is-the-sort-of-poet-who-comes-along-very-very-rarely-even/)

[Christian Wiman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christian-wiman/)

> [“How many loves fail because, in an unconscious effort to make our weaknesses more strong, we link with others precisely at those points? How…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christian-wiman/how-many-loves-fail-because-in-an-unconscious-effort-to-make-our/)

[Christian Wiman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christian-wiman/)

> [“It is a strange thing how sometimes merely to talk honestly of God, even if it is only to articulate our feelings of separation…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christian-wiman/it-is-a-strange-thing-how-sometimes-merely-to-talk-honestly-of-god/)

[Christian Wiman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christian-wiman/)

> [“Faith cannot save you from the claims of reason, except insofar as it preserves and protects that wonderful, terrible time when reason, if only…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christian-wiman/faith-cannot-save-you-from-the-claims-of-reason-except-insofar-as-it/)

[Christian Wiman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christian-wiman/)

> [“part of my enjoyment of life had always been an unconscious assumption of its continuity. Not necessarily a continuity of reality itself—the moment does…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christian-wiman/part-of-my-enjoyment-of-life-had-always-been-an-unconscious/)

[Christian Wiman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christian-wiman/)

> [I suppose I do believe that the greatest art consoles a wound that it creates, that art can give you the capacity to endure…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christian-wiman/i-suppose-i-do-believe-that-the-greatest-art-consoles-a-wound-that-it/)

[Christian Wiman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christian-wiman/)

> [There is nothing more difficult to outgrow than anxieties that have become useful to us, whether as explanations for a life that never quite…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christian-wiman/there-is-nothing-more-difficult-to-outgrow-than-anxieties-that-have/)

[Christian Wiman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christian-wiman/)

```json
{
    "@context": "https://schema.org",
    "@graph": [
        {
            "@type": "ItemList",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/worthwhile-life/christian-wiman/#itemlist",
            "name": "1 Worthwhile Life Quotes By Christian Wiman",
            "numberOfItems": 1,
            "itemListElement": [
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 1,
                    "item": {
                        "@type": "Quotation",
                        "text": "The endless, useless urge to look on life comprehensively, to take a bird's-eye view of ourselves and judge the dimensions of what we have or have not done: this is life as landscape, or life as résumé. But life is incremental, and though a worthwhile life is a gathering together of all that one is, good and bad, successful and not, the paradox is that we can never really see this one thing that all of our increments (and decrements, I suppose) add up to.",
                        "creator": {
                            "@type": "Person",
                            "name": "Christian Wiman"
                        },
                        "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christian-wiman/the-endless-useless-urge-to-look-on-life-comprehensively-to-take-a/",
                        "image": {
                            "@type": "ImageObject",
                            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/32e/christian-wiman-10211_add_the-endless-useless-urge-to-look-on-life_3165901.png",
                            "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/32e/christian-wiman-10211_add_the-endless-useless-urge-to-look-on-life_3165901.png",
                            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/32e/christian-wiman-10211_add_the-endless-useless-urge-to-look-on-life_3165901.png",
                            "width": 1080,
                            "height": 1080,
                            "caption": "“The endless, useless urge to look on life comprehensively, to take a bird's-eye view of ourselves and judge…” — Christian Wiman",
                            "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
                            "creator": {
                                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            ]
        },
        {
            "@type": "CollectionPage",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/worthwhile-life/christian-wiman/#webpage",
            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/worthwhile-life/christian-wiman/",
            "name": "Worthwhile Life Quotes by Christian Wiman",
            "isPartOf": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website"
            },
            "mainEntity": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/worthwhile-life/christian-wiman/#itemlist"
            },
            "primaryImageOfPage": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/32e/christian-wiman-10211_add_the-endless-useless-urge-to-look-on-life_3165901.png"
            },
            "description": "1 Worthwhile Life quotes by Christian Wiman. Plus more from Christian Wiman and more Worthwhile Life sayings from other authors.",
            "breadcrumb": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/worthwhile-life/christian-wiman/#breadcrumb"
            }
        },
        {
            "@type": "BreadcrumbList",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/worthwhile-life/christian-wiman/#breadcrumb",
            "itemListElement": [
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 1,
                    "name": "Home",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 2,
                    "name": "Quotes",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 3,
                    "name": "Topics",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/categories/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 4,
                    "name": "Worthwhile Life",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/worthwhile-life/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 5,
                    "name": "Christian Wiman",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/worthwhile-life/christian-wiman/"
                }
            ]
        },
        {
            "@type": "WebSite",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website",
            "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/",
            "publisher": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization"
            }
        },
        {
            "@type": "Organization",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization",
            "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/",
            "logo": {
                "@type": "ImageObject",
                "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png",
                "width": 512,
                "height": 512
            }
        }
    ]
}
```
