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"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]
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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]
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"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.[5]
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- Keep Calm and Carry On, another motivational phrase, originally from World War II in Britain, that became popular around the same time.
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