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 is the holy fire that keeps our purpose warm and our intelligence aglow

Joy is the holy fire that keeps our purpose warm and our intelligence aglow

And, e'en while fashion's brightest arts decoy,
The heart, distrusting, asks if this be joy.

And, e'en while fashion's brightest arts decoy,
The heart, distrusting, asks if this be joy.

Full from the fount of Joy's delicious springs
Some bitter o'er the flowers its bubbling venom springs.
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Full from the fount of Joy's delicious springs
Some bitter o'er the flowers its bubbling venom springs.
[Lat., Medio de fonte leporum
Surgit amari aliquid, quod in ipsis floribus angat.]

Warm weather fosters growth: cold weather destroys it. Thus a man with an unsympathetic temperament has a scant joy: but read more

Warm weather fosters growth: cold weather destroys it. Thus a man with an unsympathetic temperament has a scant joy: but a man with a warm and friendly heart overflowing blessings, and his beneficence will extend to posterity.

He who binds to himself a joy doth the winged life destroy. But he who kisses the joy as it read more

He who binds to himself a joy doth the winged life destroy. But he who kisses the joy as it flies lives in Eternity's sunrise.

Real joy comes not from ease or riches or from the praise of men, but from doing something worthwhile.

Real joy comes not from ease or riches or from the praise of men, but from doing something worthwhile.

Joy is but the sign that creative emotion is fulfilling its purpose.

Joy is but the sign that creative emotion is fulfilling its purpose.

They all attain perfection When they find joy in their work.

They all attain perfection When they find joy in their work.