Live Laugh Love

About

Live Laugh Love is a catchphrase which has become associated with basic culture and is derided as a generic, shallow motto one should avoid.

Origin

The quote is inspired by the 1904 poem "Success" by Bessie Anderson Stanley,^[1][2] which opens "He has achieved success / who has lived well, / laughed often, and loved much". It has been misattributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson, who once wrote something similar.^[3]

Spread

In the 21st century, the quote became well known, appearing on merchandise, mugs, home decor, and tattoos (examples shown below).^[2]

The phrase grew ubiquitous and took on a negative connotation near the start of the 2010s. On September 6th, 2011, Urban Dictionary user McPhd^[4] posted a definition for "Live Laugh Love" reading "A trite phrase shallow women stencil onto their bedroom walls after seeing a DIY segment on the Rachael Ray Show" (shown below).

This translated into memes in which people expressed exhaustion with or aversion to the phrase. On June 22nd, 2017, Redditor AK_2000 posted a Gordon Ramsay meme about the phrase to /r/MemeEconomy^[5] (shown below, left). On March 22nd, 2016, an anonymous Imgur user used a reaction image of Randy Jackson about the phrase (shown below, right).

On January 1st, 2017, a Reddit user asked a question about why the quote was so hated in /r/OutOftheLoop.^[5] In response, user AwesomeInTheory answered:

It's cliche white girl pap. Typically found on 'inspirational' Facebook posts or as a tattoo in cursive (google image search brings up a ton of prototypes) in an attempt to be really deep and philosophical.
I've always associated it with garbage 'feel good' chick flicky stuff like the Ya Ya Sisterhood, Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants and Eat, Pray Love. Young 20something pablum that's supposed to make you really question your life and 'live it' and whatever, but is just full of hollow sentiments that don't really mean anything.
It's appealing to a lot of folks because it's uplifting, positive and feel good and, as I've probably illustrated, gets made fun of for the same reasons.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References