May you always have work for your hands to do.
May your pockets hold always a coin or two.
May the sun shine bright on your windowpane.
May the rainbow be certain to follow each rain.
May the hand of a friend always be near you.
And may God fill your heart with gladness to cheer you.
—Irish Blessing
Curiosity is a gift, a capacity of pleasure in knowing, which if you destroy, you make yourself cold and dull.
—John Ruskin (1819–1900) English Writer, Art Critic
We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about.
—Charles Kingsley (1819–75) English Clergyman, Academic, Historian, Novelist
Storybook happiness involves every form of pleasant thumb-twiddling; true happiness involves the full use of one’s powers and talents.
—John W. Gardner (1912–2002) American Activist
You traverse the world in search of happiness, which is within the reach of every man. A contented mind confers it on all.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) (65–8 BCE) Roman Poet
Joy is not in things; it is in us.
—Richard Wagner (1813–83) German Composer
Where fear is, happiness is not.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
Eat with the rich, but go play with the poor, who are capable of joy.
—Logan Pearsall Smith (1865–1946) American-British Essayist, Bibliophile
The object of living is work, experience, and happiness. There is joy in work. All that money can do is buy us someone else’s work in exchange for our own. There is no happiness except in the realization that we have accomplished something.
—Henry Ford (1863–1947) American Businessperson, Engineer
I have no greater joy then to hear that my children walk in truth.
—The Holy Bible Scripture in the Christian Faith
While there is a chance of the world getting through its troubles, I hold that a reasonable man has to behave as though he were sure of it. If at the end your cheerfulness in not justified, at any rate you will have been cheerful.
—H. G. Wells (1866–1946) English Novelist, Historian, Social Thinker
If you get rich, be in a dark corner when you jump for joy.
—African Proverb
In this world, full often, our joys are only the tender shadows which our sorrows cast.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer
Somehow, not only for Christmas, But all the long year through, The joy that you give to others, Is the joy that comes back to you. And the more you spend in blessing, The poor and lonely and sad, The more of your heart’s possessing, Returns to you glad.
—John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–92) American Quaker Poet, Abolitionist
Patience is the key to joy.
—Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi (1207–73) Persian Muslim Mystic
Genuine love will always feel urged to communicate joy—to be a joy-giver. Mankind needs joy.
—Lawrence G. Lovasik
A day of sorrow is longer than a month of joy.
—Chinese Proverb
Pleasure is a shadow, wealth is vanity, and power a pageant; but knowledge is ecstatic in enjoyment, perennial in fame, unlimited in space, and infinite in duration. In the performance of its sacred offices, it fears no danger, spares no expense, looks in the volcano, dives into the ocean, perforates the earth, wings its flight into the skies, explores sea and land, contemplates the distant, examines the minute, comprehends the great, ascends to the sublime—no place too remote for its grasp, no height too exalted for its reach.
—DeWitt Clinton (1769–1828) American Politician
The most profound joy has more of gravity than of gaiety in it.
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) French Essayist
Of no worldly good can the joy be perfect, unless it is shared by a friend.
—Latin Proverb
The surest mark of a Christian is not faith, or even love, but joy.
—Sam Shoemaker (1893–1963) American Episcopal Priest
If I were to wish for anything, I should not wish for wealth and power, but for the passionate sense of the potential, for the eye which, ever young and ardent, sees the possible. Pleasure disappoints, possibility never. And what wine is so sparkling, what so fragrant, what so intoxicating, as possibility!
—Soren Kierkegaard (1813–55) Danish Philosopher, Theologian
To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness.
—Bertrand A. Russell (1872–1970) British Philosopher, Mathematician, Social Critic
Joy runs deeper than despair
—Corrie Ten Boom (1892–1983) Dutch Jewish Humanist
In the midst of great joy, do not promise anyone anything. In the midst of great anger, do not answer anyone’s letter.
—Chinese Proverb
There are hundreds of languages in the world, but a smile speaks them all.
—Unknown
As the great Confucius said, “The one who would be in constant happiness must frequently change”. Flow. But we keep looking back, don’t we? We cling to things in the past and cling to things in the present…Do you want to enjoy a symphony? Don’t hold on to a few bars of the music. Don’t hold on to a couple of notes. Let them pass, let them flow. The whole enjoyment of a symphony lies in your readiness to allow the notes to pass…
—Anthony de Mello (1931–87) Indian-born American Theologian
The very society of joy redoubles it; so that, while it lights upon my friend it rebounds upon myself, and the brighter his candle burns the more easily will it light mine.
—Robert South (1634–1716) English Theologian, Preacher
Someday you will find out that there is far more happiness in another’s happiness than in your own. It is something I cannot explain, something within that sends a glow of warmth all through you.
—Honore de Balzac (1799–1850) French Novelist
We have no more right to consume happiness without producing it than to consume wealth without producing it.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
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