This is a catastrophic universe, always; and subject to hidden reversals, upheavals, changes, cataclysms, with joy never anything but the song of substance under pressure forced into new forms and shapes.
DORIS LESSING
Shikasta
Joy, rather than happiness, is the goal of life, for joy is the emotion which accompanies our fulfilling our natures as human beings.
ROLLO MAY
Man's Search For Himself
The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.
JON KRAKAUER
Into the Wild
Joy is circulatory. There is the joy. Then disbelief that says you must be dreaming. Then the mental pause or step back to give the universe a chance to wake you. Then the return to see if the joy is still there--and there is the joy again, insanely real and undeservedly all yours.
GLEN DUNCAN
Talulla Rising
It ain't no sin to be glad you're alive.
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
"Badlands", Darkness on the Edge of Town
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 comes and fills the self-emptied heart; it abides with the peaceful; its reign is with the pure.
JAMES ALLEN
Morning and Evening Thoughts
The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it.
THICH NHAT HANH
Peace Is Every Step
Joy is more divine than sorrow; for joy is bread, and sorrow is medicine.
HENRY WARD BEECHER
Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit
Troubles loom up big when they're ahead,
And joys seem always sweeter when they're past.
EDGAR GUEST
"The Present"
Joy's recollection is no longer joy,
While Sorrow's memory is a sorrow still.
LORD BYRON
Marino Faliero
What matters an eternity of damnation to someone who has found in one second the infinity of joy?
CHARLES BAUDELAIRE
"Le Mauvais Vitrier," Le Spleen de Paris
Pleasure is always derived from something outside you, whereas joy arises from within.
ECKHART TOLLE
The Power of Now
Joy cannot remain with the selfish; it is wedded to Love.
JAMES ALLEN
Morning and Evening Thoughts