Joy

"There is a madness that is joy, and there is a madness that is just madness."

"Taking trips tore all of us up inside, for they seemed, each journey away from home, something that might have been less selfishly undertaken, or something that would test us, or something that had better be momentous, to justify such a leap into the dark. The torment and guilt - the torment of having the loved one go, the guilt of being the loved one gone - comes into my fiction as it did and does in my life. And most of all the guilt then was because it was true: I had left to arrive at some future and secret joy, at what was unknown, and what was no in New York, waiting to be discovered. My joy was connected with my writing; that was as much as I knew."

"When this world totally fails, the ground for joy remains."

"Suffering is the sorrow of joy."

"Sing, laugh and be merry because today you're alive."

"There is a real joy in being truer version of yourself."

"Our lives are bound up with the lives of others. Our joy is bound up with the joy of others."

"O happy wound, full of delight, He whom You wound Is joyous indeed."

"Don't let fear swallow all your happiness. Don't forget to take joy." Dag gulped. Both of their grounds were nearly closed. It was Arkady's voice alone that hinted how hard-bought this bit of wisdom might've been, yet the words had been nearly toneless."

"As long as there is thirst in you, water can quench it; but you can live a kind of life in which you never feel thirsty; do not go in the sun, do no manual work, stay at home and relax and you will not feel the thirst. But then you will find no joy in drinking water. He who toils all day, enjoys the bliss of a good night’s rest. This is ironical: if you want to enjoy the pleasure of a good night’s sleep you have to work like a labourer all day. The trouble is that you want to spend your days like an emperor and your nights like a labourer."

"I don't travel to learn about the world. I travel for the joy of traveling."

"My teachers told me: Question everything; take nothing for granted. I question nothing, I take everything for granted."

"A happier life is a life for God & His Christ now & forvever! Alleluia! Amen!"

"A happier life is a life for God & His Christmas now & forever! Alleluia! Amen!"

"I was delighted to see you again, and forgot for the moment that all happiness is fleeting."

"Jesus Christ is my joy."

"The examined life: nothing is more futile or counterproductive. The active, joyous, spontaneous life: that is what one should aim for."

"Worthy or not, you will receive your destiny. Awake or not you will notice."

"One should dance while one still can."

"She was crouched in the corner of the room, eating something off the floor. It was the old woman dressed in endless black. When she looked up this time there was no question she was there for me. She had the face of my mother but much older, her ancient decayed mouth coming closer for her good-night kiss. I steeled myself against her putrid smell, the mouthful of bitter dust, but as her lips touched mine it was like biting into a purple black plum whose fruit was brilliant red, like an explosion of intense joy. Its childhood smell wrinkled my nose with pleasure, its sweet juices ran down my chin, turning into a beautiful black ocean where I floated safely, not lost as I had imagined, but securely tucked away deep in space."