'Live a life so when I die, there's standing room only.'

'The good ole days weren't always good, and tomorrow ain't as bad as it seems.'

- Billy Joel (1949-present)

'You don't get to choose how you're going to die or when. You can only decide how you're going to live. Now.'

- Musician and activist Joan Baez (1941-present)

'All your life, you will be faced with a choice. You can choose love or hate … I choose love.'

-Johnny Cash (1932-2003)

'You only go around once, but if you play your cards right, once is enough.'

- Frank Sinatra (1915–1998)

'Do something you really like, and hopefully it pays the rent. As far as I'm concerned, that's success.'

- Musician Tom Petty (1950–2017)

'If you can't do it with feeling, don't.'

-Singer Patsy Cline (1932-1963)

A quote by Magic Johnson

"Celebrate the life you had, not the life you could've had."

'Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you'll start having positive results.'

- Willie Nelson (1933-present)

'Long live the rose that grew from concrete when no one else even cared.'

- Rapper Tupac Shakur (1971-1996)

Watch Johnny Cash’s 1969 concert at San Quentin

Johnny Cash is one of the most recognizable names in country music, but by the 1960s, he was also a rock icon. Part of that status was due to his outlaw identity and willingness to play for true outsiders. This documentary from one of his most famous performances shows why.

'I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot ... The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.'

- Author Jack London (1876 - 1916)

'In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on.'

-Poet Robert Frost (1874-1963)

'I swing big, with everything I've got. I hit big or I miss big. I like to live as big as I can.'

- Baseball legend Babe Ruth (1895-1948)

'I Will Always Love You' is a widely covered standard

The song has had multiple lives: There’s Dolly Parton’s original recording, which reached the top of Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart in 1974 and then again in 1982, thanks to the soundtrack for Parton’s film, “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.” Then it reached the top of the pop charts thanks to Whitney Houston’s 1992 cover on “The Bodyguard” soundtrack. Popular versions have also been released by LeAnn Rimes, Linda Ronstadt, and Kristin Chenoweth.

'Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.'

- Muhammad Ali (1942-2016)

'Adults ask questions as a child does. When you stop wondering, you might as well put your rocker on the front porch and call it a day.'

- Comedian and late night host Johnny Carson (1925–2005)

'Fear of life closes off more opportunities for us than fear of death ever does.'

- Actress Agnes Moorehead (1900–1974)

'Pioneering is never done in front of cheerleaders urging on a roaring grandstand of popular approval.'

- "Star Trek" actor George Takei (1937-present)

Hank Williams' short career would be one of country's most important

Hank Williams died at the young age of 29. His funeral, attended by thousands, featured performances from Roy Acuff and Ernest Tubb. This unabridged recording of the memorial is dark, but it’s also beautiful, especially when Acuff and his band break into “I Saw the Light.”

'Because of phones, we always have the ability to jump out of ourselves. But unless you learn how to be in your head, you’ll never learn how to create.'

- Songwriter and actor Lin-Manuel Miranda (1980-present)

The music theory behind a lonesome country classic

Townes Van Zandt's "I'll Be Here in the Morning" might read like a clever inversion of a standard country music trope. But Cush, a musician in his own right, walks through the song's structure to show how its story is far more complicated than its lyrics suggest.

Tech entrepreneur Bryan Johnson's mission to live forever

Johnson has invested millions of dollars into developing a biohacking program he believes will extend his life beyond typical expectations, relying on medical professionals to reduce his "biological age." Most notably, he drew significant public attention with reports of blood-swapping with his teenage son.

Mark Twain was an early influence on stand-up

The writer’s live lectures looked a lot like modern stand-up comedy specials. Twain’s world tour in the 1890s featured 90-minute performances in which he stood alone on the stage, delivering long, comedic monologues with his hand perched on his chin.

In 1939, baseball star Lou Gehrig delivered his inspirational 'Luckiest Man' speech after retiring due to the health condition that now bears his name.

Bob Dylan's 'Never Ending Tour' has racked up close to 3,000 dates

Since 1987, Bob Dylan and his band (featuring a range of rotating members) have toured venues of various sizes on what fans have come to call "The Never Ending Tour." This is thanks to the legendary artist's abundance of dates and lack of demarcation between one tour and the next.

More than 40 states have passed versions of the Uniform Declaration of Death Act

The 1981 model law, now enacted in most states, is the legal basis for death in the US. There have been many efforts to amend this law, citing the need for more transparency to improve trust between families and the medical profession, though none have moved forward. Alterations to the law could have implications for organ donations and removing life support.

A researcher recently discovered an interview from 1967 between groundbreaking journalist Joan Didion and the Grateful Dead, years before the band became an institution.

Existentialist writer Jean-Paul Sartre coined the famous phrase 'Hell is—other people' in his play 'No Exit'

The Ramones' 'Pet Sematary,' the theme song for the Stephen King novel of the same name, was written while the band was admiring the writer's collection of horror memorabilia.

See the most iconic photos from four decades of LIFE magazine

Apeirophobia is an overwhelming fear of living forever, perhaps stemming from the brain's inability to conceptualize an infinite life.

Prince's sexually explicit 1984 track 'Darling Nikki' attracted the ire of the Parents Music Resource Center, an advocacy group that inspired the Parental Advisory sticker, even though the song ends with a Christian message.

In preparation for this weekend's Eurovision finale, which is something like the World Cup of pop music, here's a young Céline Dion performing (for Switzerland?) at the 1988 competition.

Quincy Jones' 'Big Band Bossa Nova' helped introduce bossa nova—a jazz-influenced Brazilian genre—to the US

Salvador Dalí believed he was his own dead brother, who had died nine months before he was born

Mark Twain spent decades feuding with the US Postal Service, convinced its costs and regulations were bureaucratic overreach.

See how Budweiser's famous Clydesdales spend their days at Warm Springs Ranch, where roughly 70 to 80 of the beer brand's giant horses can be found at any given time.

Frank Lloyd Wright's houses are historically hard to sell because they're old, subject to local landmark commissions, and often unfashionable

Double world record holder Hunter Ewen helped conquer his fear of balloons, called globophobia, by training to win Guinness World Record titles for balloon inflation.

In 2018, 26-year-old missionary John Allen Chau was killed by tribesmen after attempting to reach and evangelize on India's isolated North Sentinel Island

Warren Buffett's former professor Benjamin Graham is known as the 'father of value investing,' a strategy in which investors seek to buy stocks trading below their intrinsic worth.

The first line of 'immortal' human cells, which can divide indefinitely and are used in scientific research, was nonconsensually taken from a Black woman.

Volcanoes 'die' when their supply of magma runs out, if they are shifted away from their underlying magma reservoir, or if they get clogged by collapsing or their magma cooling back into rock.

11 people died from firework injuries in the US in 2024.

Watch contemporary footage covering the US-backed Shah of Iran fleeing the country in the face of the 1979 Iranian Revolution

The US Constitution is widely regarded as the longest-standing written national constitution still in force—see how it has influenced rights worldwide.

44% of Americans say they pray at least once a day—discover how your state's religiosity stacks up against the rest of the country.

Studies suggest when you sleep is as important as how much you get, and syncing with your circadian rhythms may lead to less fatigue and improved long-term health outcomes

Children are now three times more likely to say they want to be a YouTuber when they grow up than an astronaut, with some even attending 'YouTube camps' that teach kids how to create content for the platform.

Domino's Pizza's 30-minute delivery guarantee was responsible for the chain's 1980s surge, but it was discontinued after the company was found liable for delivery driver accidents.