What is joy?
A sunbeam between two clouds.

Madame Deluzy

  

Joy is everywhere; it is in the earth’s green covering of grass:
in the blue serenity of the sky:  in the reckless exuberance of spring:
in the severe abstinence of grey winter:  in the living flesh
that animates our bodily frame:  in the perfect poise
of the human figure, noble and upright:  in living, in the exercise
of all our powers:  in the acquisition of knowledge. . . Joy is there everywhere.

Rabindranath Tagore

  
Join the great company of those who make the barren places of life fruitful with kindness.  Carry a vision of heaven in your hearts, and you shall make your name, your college, the world, correspond to that vision.  Your success and happiness lie within you.  External conditions are the accidents of life, its outer wrappings.  The great, enduring realities are love and service.  Joy is the holy fire that keeps our purpose warm and our intelligence aglow.  Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulty.

Helen Keller

   
Find joy in simplicity, self-respect, and indifference
to what lies between virtue and vice.
Love the human race.  Follow the divine.

Marcus Aurelius  

  
  

Real joy comes not from ease or riches or
from the praise of people,
but from doing something worthwhile.

Wilfred T. Grenfell

  
  

We have no right to ask when a sorrow comes,
"Why did this happen to me?" unless we ask
the same question for every joy that comes our way.

Philip F. Bernstein

  
Louise Bogan

I cannot believe that the inscrutable universe turns on an axis of suffering;
surely the strange beauty of the world must somewhere rest on pure joy.

  

There is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose
recognized by yourself as a mighty one;
the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap;
the being a force of Nature instead of a feverish selfish
little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world
will not devote itself to making you happy.

George Bernard Shaw

  
  
When we experience moments of ecstasy—in play, in art,
in sex—they come not as an exception, an accident, but
as a taste of what life is meant to be. . . Ecstasy is an idea,
a goal, but it can be the expectation of every day.  Those
times when we’re grounded in our body, pure in our heart,
clear in our mind, rooted in our soul, and suffused with the
energy, the spirit of life, are our birthright.  It’s really not
that hard to stop and luxuriate in the joy and wonder of
being.  Children do it all the time.  It’s a natural human
gift that should be at the heart of our lives.

Gabrielle Roth
  

Elizabeth B. Brown

Happiness birthed by joy is an inside decision. You must fight against
the human tendency to be hurt by someone else's failure to see your needs.
You must become an incurable optimist, not an optimist that wears rose-colored glasses
and does not see the reality of life; rather, an optimist that says,
"Thanks to God I am filled with joy, a joy that transcends all of life."

  

  

Speak not, move not, but listen, the sky is full of gold.
No ripple on the river, no stir in field or fold,
All gleams but naught doth glisten, but the far-off unseen sea.

Forget days past, heart broken, put all memory by!
No grief on the green hillside, no pity in the sky,
Joy that may not be spoken fills mead and flower and tree.

William Morris

  
Eternal joy is the end of the ways of God.  The message of all religions
is that the Kingdom of God is peace and joy.  And it is the message
of Christianity.  But eternal joy is not to be reached by living on the surface.
It is rather attained by breaking through the surface, by penetrating
the deep things of ourselves, of our world, and of God.  The moment
in which we reach the last depth of our lives is the moment in which
we can experience the joy that has eternity within it, the hope
that cannot be destroyed, and the truth on which life and death are built.
For in the depth is truth; and in the depth is hope; and in the depth is joy.

Paul Tillich

  
Joy is a constituent of life, a necessity of life;
it is an element of life's value and life's power.
As every person has need of joy, so too, every person
has a right to joy . . . It is a condition of religious living.

Paul Wilhelm von Keppler

  

Religion without joy--it is no religion.

Theodore Parker

 

We have within ourselves
Enough to fill the present day with joy,
And overspread the future years with hope.

William Wordsworth

  
Orville Dewey

A new day rose upon me. It was as if another sun had risen into the sky;
the heavens were indescribably brighter, and the earth fairer; and that day
has gone on brightening to the present hour. I have known the other joys of life,
I suppose, as much as most men; I have known art and beauty, music and gladness;
I have known friendship and love and family ties; but it is certain that till we see God
in the world--God in the bright and boundless universe--we never know the highest joy.
It is far more than if one were translated to a world a thousand times fairer than this;
for that supreme and central Light of Infinite Love and Wisdom, shining over this world
and all worlds, alone can show us how noble and beautiful, how fair and glorious they are.

  

HOME - contents - Full Life Online
abundance - acceptance - achievement - action - adversity - aging - anticipation - appreciation - attitude - authenticity
awareness - balance - beauty - being yourself - beliefs - body - character - children - Christianity - coincidence
commitment - common sense - community - compassion - compliments - compromise - confidence - conscience
contentment - courage - creativity -  death - determination - earth - ego - encouragement - enthusiasm - eternity
 faith - family - flowers - forgiveness - freedom - friendship - fun - gardening - gentleness - giving - God - goodness
grace - gratitude -growing up - happiness - healing - helpfulness - home - hope - humility - imagination
integrity - joy - kindness - laughter - learning - letting go - life - listening - love - marriage - miracles - mystery
nature - now - open-mindedness - opportunity - optimism - patience - peace - perseverance - perspective
play - prayer - principle - purpose - religion - rest - role models - sadness - self - self-respect - serving others - silence
simplicity - spirit - success - time - today - truth - values - war - wisdom - wonder - work - worship
spring - summer - fall - winter - Christmas - Thanksgiving - New Year - zen sayings
obstacles to living life fully - e-zine archives - quotations contents

  

  

Joy is what we are, not what we must get.
Joy is the realization that all we want or need in life
has been etched into our souls.
Joy helps us see not what we are "going through,"
but what we are "growing to"--a greater sense of understanding,
accomplishment, and enlightenment.
Joy reveals to us the calm at the end of the storm,
the peace that surpasses the momentary happiness of pleasure.
If we keep our minds centered on joy, joy becomes a state of mind.

Iyanla Vanzant

  

Not by appointment do we meet delight
Or joy; they heed not our expectancy;
But round some corner of the streets of life
They of a sudden greet us with a smile.

Gerald Massey

  
  
The affirmation of one's essential being
in spite of desires and anxieties creates joy.

Paul Tillich
  

The art of joy is having a love affair with life.  It is embracing life, drawing close to you all the beauty and wonder and goodness of the universe.  It is having a heart aglow with warmth for all your companions on the journey of life.  It is an expression of inner music.  It is radiating joy as does a band of musicians marching down the street.  It is a blend of laughter and tears.  Often it is the deep joy that comes to you through the mist of years as you recall tender memories of joyous days gone by.

It is sharing your joy.  "Some people," wrote the poet Walt Whitman, "are so much sunshine to the square inch."  The joyous person seems to be plugged in to the sun itself.

It is celebrating life.  The Master turned water into wine that the joyous wedding feast might continue.  "Be of good cheer," he said.  He proclaimed the purpose of his message to men in these words: "That my joy might remain in you and that your joy might be full."

It is the putting forth of all your powers.  It is the flood-tide of inspiration, the glory of creation.  As you work with joy you find joy in your work.

It is looking for the joys that come in small, precious packages and making the most of them, knowing that big packages of joy are few and far between.  It is making the most of now, enjoying what is at hand.  It is taking time to enjoy life as you go along.

It is an awareness of the heaven that exists all about you.  As Solomon said:  "He that hath a bountiful eye shall be blessed."  It is making each day your most wonderful day.

Joy is the flag you fly when the Prince of Peace is in residence within your heart.

Joy is love bubbling forth into life.

Wilferd A. Peterson

 
To pursue joy is to lose it.  The only way to get it is to follow steadily the path of duty, without thinking of joy, and then, like sheep, it comes most surely, unsought.

Alexander Maclaren

 

Know that joy is rarer, more difficult, and more beautiful than sadness.
Once you make this all-important discovery,
you must embrace joy as a moral obligation.

Andre Gide

   
 

Joy descends gently upon us like the evening dew,
and does not patter down like a hailstorm.

Jean Paul Richter

 

The habit of always putting off an experience until you can afford it,
or until the time is right, or until you know how to do it
is one of the greatest burglars of joy.
Be deliberate, but once you've made up your mind--jump in.

Charles R. Swindoll

 
How necessary it is to cultivate a spirit of joy.  It is a psychological truth
that the physical acts of reverence and devotion make one feel devout. 
The courteous gesture increases one’s respect for others.  To act lovingly
is to begin to feel loving, and certainly to act joyfully brings joy to others
which in turn makes one feel joyful.  I believe we are called to the duty of delight.

Dorothy Day
 

 

Listen to the clues.  The next time you feel real joy, stop and think.
Pay attention.  Because joy's the universe's way of knocking
on your mind's door.  Hello in there.  Is anyone home?  Can I leave a message?
Yes?  Good!  The message is that you are happy, and that means
that you are in touch with your purpose.

Steve Chandler

 
Joy of life seems to me to arise from a sense of being where one belongs. . .
of being foursquare with the life we have chosen.  All the discontented people
I know are trying sedulously to be something they are not,
to do something they cannot do.

David Grayson

 

People need joy quite as much as they need clothing.
Some of them need it far more.

Margaret Collier Graham

 
Joy increases as you give it, and diminishes as you try to keep it for yourself.  in giving it, you will accumulate a deposit of joy greater than you ever believed possible.

Norman Vincent Peale

As you express joy, you draw it out of those you meet, creating joyful people and joyful events.  The greater the joy you express, the more joy you experience.

Arnold Patent

 
When we align our thoughts, emotions, and actions
with the highest part of ourselves, we are filled with enthusiasm,
purpose, and meaning . . . . We are joyously and intimately engaged
with our world.  This is the experience of authentic power.

Gary Zukav

  

 

Real joy means immediate expansion.  If we experience pure joy,
immediately our heart expands.  We feel that we are flying
in the divine freedom-sky.  The entire length and breadth of the world
becomes ours, not for us to rule over, but as an expansion
of our consciousness.  We become reality and vastness.

Sri Chinmoy

 

  

Joy seems to me a step beyond happiness—happiness is a sort
of atmosphere you can live in sometimes when you’re lucky.
Joy is a light that fills you with hope and faith and love.

Adela Rogers St. Johns

  

The real joy of life is in its play.  Play is
anything we do for the joy and love of doing
it, apart from any profit, compulsion, or
sense of duty.  It is the real living of life
with the feeling of freedom and
self-expression.  Play is the business
of childhood, and its continuation in later
years is the prolongation of youth.

Walter Rauschenbusch

  

Joy is the characteristic by which God uses us to re-make the distressing
into the desired, the discarded into the creative.  Joy is prayer--
Joy is strength--Joy is love--Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls.

Mother Teresa

  
Joys come from simple and natural things:
mists over meadows, sunlight on leaves,
the path of the moon over water.

Sigurd F. Olson

   

The beating heart of the universe is holy joy.

Martin Buber

   

Keep knocking and the joy inside will eventually
open a window and look out to see who is there.

Rumi

   

  
Joy is the most infallible sign of the presence of God.

Leon Bloy

   

Joy is the soul made visible.

Susan Santucci

Learn to nurture seeds of joy within yourself.  Ask yourself, "What's one action that I can take to increase my joy today?"

   

Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile,
but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.

Thich Nhat Hanh

   

  

Did you find what you were looking for?  Is there something else
in this topic that you wanted to find?  You can search this entire
site or the entire World Wide Web for particular quotations or
works by authors or in topics that you're interested in.

Google
 
Web www.livinglifefully.com