I sometimes wonder whether all pleasures are not substitutes for joy.

I sometimes wonder whether all pleasures are not substitutes for joy.

To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. read more

To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket- safe, dark, motionless, airless--it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.

Joy comes from using your potential.

Joy comes from using your potential.

This is the true joy of life, the being used up for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty read more

This is the true joy of life, the being used up for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clot of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the community, and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it what I can. . -George Bernard Shaw.

A sense of humor... is needed armor. Joy in one's heart and some laughter on one's lips is a sign read more

A sense of humor... is needed armor. Joy in one's heart and some laughter on one's lips is a sign that the person down deep has a pretty good grasp of life.

A joy that's shared is a joy made double.

A joy that's shared is a joy made double.

There's not a joy the world can give like that it takes away.
- Lord Byron (George read more

There's not a joy the world can give like that it takes away.
- Lord Byron (George Gordon Noel Byron),

Joy has this in common with pain, that it robs people of reason.

Joy has this in common with pain, that it robs people of reason.

How fading are the joys we dote upon!
Like apparitions seen and gone;
But those which soonest read more

How fading are the joys we dote upon!
Like apparitions seen and gone;
But those which soonest take their flight
Are the most exquisite and strong;
Like angel's visits short and bright,
Mortality's too weak to bear them long.