Happiness and Joy

Let us have wine and women, mirth and laughter, Sermons and soda water the day after.

So buxom, blithe, and debonair.

I’ve taken my fun where I’ve found it.

‘My idea of good company, Mr Elliot, is the company of clever, well-informed people, who have a great deal of conversation; that is what I call good company.’ ‘You are mistaken,’ said he gently, ‘that is not good company, that is the best.’

To fill the hour—that is happiness.

The mystery of language was revealed to me. I knew then that ‘w-a-t-e-r’ meant the wonderful cool something that was flowing over my hand. That living word awakened my soul, gave it light, joy, set it free! The Story of My Life (1902) ch. 4

Belinda smiled, and all the world was gay.

The world of the happy is quite different from that of the unhappy.

Teach me half the gladness

There are only two ways to live your life. One as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.

When pain is over, the remembrance of it often becomes a pleasure.

The man with toothache thinks everyone happy whose teeth are sound. The poverty stricken man makes the same mistake about the rich man.

The more the pleasures of the body fade away, the greater to me is the pleasure and charm of conversation.

You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm.

Well-meaning, helpful, good-natured attitudes of mind have not come to be honored on account of their usefulness, but because they are states of richer souls that are capable of bestowing and have their value in the feeling of the plenitude of life.

Whatever a man’s age may be, he can reduce it several years by putting a bright-colored flower in his buttonhole.

Give every day the chance to become the most beautiful day of your life.

The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding.

What work I have done I have done because it has been play. If it had been work I shouldn't have done it.

Let the world slide, 2 let the world go; A fig for care, and a fig for woe! If I can’t pay, why I can owe, And death makes equal the high and low.

The cistern contains: the fountain overflows.

Well then; I now do plainly see This busy world and I shall ne’er agree; The very honey of all earthly joy Does of all meats the soonest cloy, And they (methinks) deserve my pity, Who for it can endure the stings, The crowd, and buzz and murmurings, Of this great hive, the city.

Contented wi’ little and cantie wi’ mair.

A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of. It certainly may secure all the myrtle and turkey part of it.