They hear a voice in every wind,
And snatch a fearful joy.
THOMAS GRAY
Ode in a Distant Prospect of Eton College
Joy is what happens when we see that God's plan is perfect and we're already starring in the perfect show.
MARIANNE WILLIAMSON
A Woman's Worth
Men are not put into this world to be everlastingly played on by the harping fingers of joy.
HENRY WARD BEECHER
Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit
The joy late coming late departs.
LEWIS J. BATES
Some Sweet Day
Joys are bubble-like--what makes them bursts them too.
PHILIP JAMES BAILEY
Festus
He who binds to himself a joy
Does the wingèd life destroy;
But he who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in eternity's sunrise.
WILLIAM BLAKE
"He Who Binds", Poems from the Pickering Manuscript
Troubles loom up big when they're ahead,
And joys seem always sweeter when they're past.
EDGAR GUEST
"The Present"
The fact is always obvious much too late, but the most singular difference between happiness and joy is that happiness is a solid and joy a liquid.
J. D. SALINGER
"De Daumier-Smith's Blue Period"
Here below is not the land of happiness; I know it not; it is only the land of toil, and every joy which comes to us is only to strengthen us for some greater labor that is to succeed.
JOHANN GOTTLIEB FICHTE
Popular Works
For sudden Joys, like Griefs, confound at first.
DANIEL DEFOE
Robinson Crusoe
Has joy any survival value in the operations of evolution? I suspect that it does; I suspect that the morose and fearful are doomed to quick extinction. Where there is no joy there can be no courage; and without courage all other virtues are useless.
EDWARD ABBEY
Desert Solitaire
Out of joy strength came, strength that was fashioned to bear sorrow: sorrow brought forth joy. Forever? This was Ezekiel's wheel, in the middle of the burning air forever -- and the little wheel ran by faith, and the big wheel ran by the grace of God.
JAMES BALDWIN
Go Tell It on the Mountain
That side of our existence whose direction is towards the infinite seeks not wealth, but freedom and joy.
RABINDRANATH TAGORE
Sadhana
The bitterness of joy lies in the knowledge that it cannot last. Nor should joy last beyond a certain season, for, after that season, even joy would become merely habit.
TANITH LEE
Delusion's Master
Man was made for joy and woe,
And when this we rightly know
Through the world we safely go.
WILLIAM BLAKE
"Auguries of Innocence", Poems from the Pickering Manuscript
Joy's the shyest bird
Mortal ever heard;
Listen rapt and silent while he sings;
Do not seek to see,
Less the vision be
But a flutter of departing wings.
CAROLINE SPENCER
"A Strange Singer"
For trash and toys,
And grief-engend'ring joys,
What torment seems too sharp for flesh and blood;
What bitter pills,
Compos'd of real ills,
Men swallow down to purchase one false good!
FRANCIS QUARLES
Emblems
Joy is more divine than sorrow; for joy is bread, and sorrow is medicine.
HENRY WARD BEECHER
Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit
Joy's recollection is no longer joy,
While Sorrow's memory is a sorrow still.
LORD BYRON
Marino Faliero
We seldom meet with joy and delight by appointment, but unexpectedly they smile on us their sudden welcome round some odd corner of life.
MISS PALMER
attributed, Day's Collacon