Quotations for Daily Use

Happiness, Contentment, Satisfaction, Joy vs Boredom

"A contented person is someone who can enjoy the scenery along a detour."  Unknown

"A light heart lives." Irish proverb

"A man travels the world over in search of what he needs and returns home to find it." George Moore, (24 February 1852 – 21 January 1933) was an Irish novelist, short-story writer, poet, art critic, memoirist and dramatist.

"A merry heart maketh a cheerful contenance." Proverbs 15:13

"Celebrate what you want to see more of."Thomas J. "Tom" Peters (born November 7, 1942) is an American writer on business management practices

"Fear less, hope more;
Whine less, breathe more;
Talk less, say more;
Hate less, Love more;
And all good things

Are yours."
Swedish proverb

" 'Filling up the corners,' a delightful stage of eating when people are sipping their favorite drinks and nibbling at their favorite dainties" The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien, 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973). He was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor.

"Find out what you like doing best and get someone to pay you for doing it." Katherine Whitehor, (born 1928) is a British journalist, writer, and columnist who is known for her wit and humour and as a keen observer of the changing role of women.

"Follow your heart wherever it takes you, and be happy. Life is brief and very fragile and only loaned to us for a while. Wake up every morning with the thought that something wonderful is about to happen."  Unknown

"For a split second, he blanked, then came to. He steadied himself, thinking his heart could actually, though not probably, explode and he would be toast right here in front of everybody." Book character Dooley Kavanagh's thoughts while his marriage ceremony was beginning as described in Come Rain or Come Shine by Jan Karon

"Griefs upon griefs! Disappointments upon disappointments. What then? This is a gay, merry world notwithstanding." John Adams, (October 30 1735 – July 4, 1826) was an American lawyer, author, statesman, and diplomat. He served as the second President of the United States (1797–1801), the first Vice President (1789–1797), and as a Founding Father was a leader of American independence from Great Britain.

"Happiness is a conscious choice, not an automatic response." Mildred Barthel, free-lance writer and music director, witing in Ensign a magazine of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

"Happiness is a journey . . . not a destination." Ben Sweetland, author

"Happiness is very demanding." Cynthia Kavanaugh, a character in Shepherds Abiding, a book in The Mitford Series, written by Jan Karon - Jan Karon is an American novelist who writes for both adults and young readers. She is the author of the New York Times-bestselling Mitford novels, featuring Father Timothy Kavanagh, an Episcopal priest, and the fictional village of Mitford.

"He had not let sleeping dogs lie, he had roused them up and they had gone baying." Father Timothy Kavanagh in Somewhere Safe with Somebody Good by Jan Karon

"If sustained by my fellow-citizens, I shall be grateful and happy; if not, I shall find in the motives which impel me ample grounds for contentment and peace." Andrew Jackson (1767–1845) 7th president of the US 1829–37; known as Old Hickory.

"In life you get what you focus on! That's why Paul writes, 'Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.' " (On the Right Note, December '08 - February '09 & Philippians 4:8 NLT)

"I've learned that if you want to cheer yourself up, you should try cheering someone else up." (age 13)

"It is not doing the things we like to do, but liking the thing we have to do that makes life blessed." Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, (1749–1832), German poet, playwright, novelist, philosopher, and scientist.

"It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness." Charles Spurgeon, 19 June 1834 – 31 January 1892) was a British Particular Baptist preacher.

"It's good to be just plain happy; it's a little better to know that you're happy; but to understand that you're happy and to know why and how . . . and still be happy, be happy in the being and the knowing, well that is beyond happiness, that is bliss." Henry Miller in The Colossus of Marousi - Henry Valentine Miller (December 26, 1891 – June 7, 1980) was an American writer. (Shared by Katharine Harding)

"Joy is not in things; it is in us." Richard Wagner, 22 May 1813 – 13 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is primarily known for his operas.

"Joy springs all radiant in my breast. ’Tis wealth enough of joy for me - in summer time to simply be."  Paul Laurence Dunbar (June 27, 1872 – February 9, 1906) was an American poet, novelist, and playwright of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

"May happiness touch your life today as warmly as you have touched the lives of others." Rebecca Forsythe (Who is Rebecca Forsythe?)

"Oh, what a happy soul am I! Although I cannot see, I am resolved that in this world Contented I shall be. How many blessings I enjoy That other people don't. To weep and sigh because I'm blind, I cannot - and I won't! Fanny Crosby, March 24, 1820 – February 12, 1915) was an American mission worker, poet, lyricist, and composer. A member of the Sixth Avenue Bible Baptist Church in Brooklyn, New York, she wrote many hymns together with her pastor, Robert Lowry. She was one of the most prolific hymnists in history, writing over 8,000 hymns and gospel songs, with over 100 million copies printed, despite being blind from shortly after birth.

"Rejoice ever more."John Adams, (October 30 1735 – July 4, 1826) was an American lawyer, author, statesman, and diplomat. He served as the second President of the United States (1797–1801), the first Vice President (1789–1797), and as a Founding Father was a leader of American independence from Great Britain.

"Shazam!" Gomer Pyle, a television character played by Jim Nabors of The Andy Griffith Show.(Offered by Tom McDermott)

"She had long accepted the fact that happiness is like swallows in spring. It may come and nest under your eaves or it may not. You cannot command it. When you expect to be happy, you are not, when you don't expect to be happy there is suddenly Easter in your soul, though it be midwinter. Something, you do not know what, has broken the seal upon that door in the depth of your being that opens upon eternity.“ Elizabeth Goudge - Elizabeth de Beauchamp Goudge FRSL (24 April 1900 – 1 April 1984) was an English author of novels, short stories and children's books as Elizabeth Goudge. This quote was found in A Common Life, a book in The Mitford Series by Jan Karon

"Some people cause happiness wherever they go, and some people cause happiness whenever they go." Oscar Wilde, (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900) was an Irish playwright, novelist, essayist, and poet.

"Someone had said that in Ireland there’s no such thing as bad weather - only the wrong clothes." 3rd person comment in In the Company of Others by Jan Karon

"That the two of us could be connected for five years by work and friendship is, I believe, a rather extraordinary joy for a human life." Dietrich Bonhoeffer writing to a friend; Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 4 February 1906 – 9 April 1945) was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian, anti-Nazi dissident, and key founding member of the Confessing Church. This quote is from Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas

" . . . the "desire for earthly bliss is not something we steal from behind God's back but is something he has desired that we should desire." Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Bonhoeffer Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas

"The happiness of life is made up of minute fractions - the little soon forgotten charities of a kiss or smile, a kind look, a heartfelt compliment, and the countless infinitesimals of pleasurable and genial feelings." Samuel Taylor Coleridge - This quote was found in the book Somewhere Safe with Somebody Good, a book in The Mitford Series by Jan Karon

"The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved." Victor Hugo; (26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French poet, novelist, and dramatist of the Romantic movement.

"VITALITY of mind and Body;
The ACTIVITY to employ and maintain them;
The ZEST and CURIOSITY they can animate;
FREEDOM to travel widely in nature and art;
In countries of the world and of the mind;
HUMAN affections;
And the gift of GAIETY - these seem to me,
then, the main causes of HAPPINESS.
I am surprised to find how few and simple they are.

F.L. Lucas, (1894–1967) was an English classical scholar, literary critic, poet, novelist, playwright, political polemicist, Fellow of King's College, Cambridge, and intelligence officer at Bletchley Park during World War II. - "On Happiness" (Shared by wonderful friends Goody & Katharine with the added information that Katharine's father carried this poem with him at all times.)

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