Live, Laugh, Love

Short description: Motivational phrase popular in home decor

A decorative key holder bearing the phrase, from 2012.

"Live, Laugh, Love" is a motivational three-word phrase that became a popular slogan on motivational posters and home decor in the late 2000s and early 2010s. By extension, the saying has also become pejoratively associated with a style of "basic" Generation X[1] decor and with what Vice described as "speaking-to-the-manager shallowness".[2]

The phrase is an abridged form[3] of the 1904 poem "Success" by Bessie Anderson Stanley which begins:

> He achieved success who has lived well, laughed often, and loved much

This phrase was subsequently popularized by Ann Landers[failed verification] and a 1990 Dear Abby column, where it was misattributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson.[3][4]

## Contents

* 1 Other usages
* 2 2010s merchandise
* 3 See also
* 4 References

## Other usages

A similar phrase appears as a lyric in the 1926 song "When the Red, Red Robin", most famously recorded by singer, actor, and vaudevillian Al Jolson:[5]

> Wake up, wake up you sleepy head,
>  Get up, get up, get out of bed,
>  Cheer up, cheer up, the sun is red,
>  Live, love, laugh and be happy

Another similar wording appears in James Joyce's 1939 novel Finnegans Wake:

> They lived und laughed ant loved end left.[6]

A Campaign Address at Boston, Massachusetts by Franklin D. Roosevelt on October 30, 1940, concludes with:

> We are free to live and love and laugh.[7]

A 1979 episode of The Love Boat features a female character explaining her philosophy of getting through her troubled marriage as: "I'm here to live, love and laugh, or words to that effect!"[8]

A similar phrase is used in the poem "The Villa" published in the June 1854 issue of Blackwood's Magazine, attributed to "Trevor":

> Shall saints not be? The saints shall rule the world;
>  Sit upon thrones—be ministers and kings;
>  Teach in the highways ; shake glad hands among
>  The fairs, and marketplaces; laugh, love, live;
>  Be all with all men until all be saints.[9]

## 2010s merchandise

A small container bearing the slogan

"Live, Laugh, Love" and variants on the phrase have appeared on framed posters, wall decals, ornaments, cushions, mugs, bed linen, jewellery and even on coffins.[3][4] The Live Love Laugh Foundation, a mental health organization in India founded by Deepika Padukone, takes its name from the phrase.

Vice noted that the trend had largely passed by 2020.[2] Google Trends shows that searches for the phrase peaked between 2009 and 2014 in the United States, falling in popularity since then.[10]

## See also

* Keep Calm and Carry On, another motivational phrase that became popular around the same time.

## References

1. ↑ "'Live, Laugh, Love': The Most Crushing Gen Z Insult, Explained - the Pollack Group". https://www.pollackgroup.com/red-all-about-it/live-laugh-love-the-most-crushing-gen-z-insult-explained.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Tate, Amelia (June 9, 2020). "'Live, Laugh, Love' Mums Defend the Much-Maligned Decor Trend". https://www.vice.com/en/article/ep4xwn/live-laugh-love-mums-defend-decor-trend. Retrieved April 16, 2021.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Dyas, Brie (July 7, 2017). "This Is the Origin of "Live, Laugh, Love"". https://www.housebeautiful.com/lifestyle/a7206/where-did-live-love-laugh-come-from/. Retrieved April 16, 2021.
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Barrett, Jessica (April 9, 2019). "A Deep Dive Into How 'Live, Laugh, Love' Infiltrated Our Homes". https://www.refinery29.com/en-gb/live-laugh-love-origin. Retrieved April 16, 2021.
5. ↑ "'HISTORIC SHEET MUSIC COLLECTION - When the Red Red, Robin Comes Bob, Bob, Bobbin' Along". https://digitalcommons.conncoll.edu/sheetmusic/1845/.
6. ↑ Pierce, David (22 July 2014) (in en). Reading Joyce. Routledge. p. 146. ISBN 978-1-317-86507-0. https://books.google.com/books?id=Cl8SBAAAQBAJ. Retrieved March 22, 2023.
7. ↑ "Campaign Address at Boston, Massachusetts | The American Presidency Project". https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/campaign-address-boston-massachusetts.
8. ↑ "Gopher's Greatest Hits/The Vacation/One Rose a Day". https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0636670/?ref_=ttep_ep6. Retrieved April 26, 2023.
9. ↑ Trevor (1854). "The Villa". Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine 75 (June): 687–. https://archive.org/details/blackwoodsedinb253unkngoog/page/696/. Retrieved 2023-06-12.
10. ↑ "live laugh love – Explore – Google Trends". https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=US&q=live laugh love. Retrieved April 16, 2021.

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