Laughter is the closest thing to the grace of God.

Laughter is the closest thing to the grace of God.

Life is a jest; and all things show it.
I thought so once; but now I know it.

Life is a jest; and all things show it.
I thought so once; but now I know it.

All human joys are swift of wing,
For heaven doth so allot it;
That when you get read more

All human joys are swift of wing,
For heaven doth so allot it;
That when you get an easy thing,
You find you haven't got it.

Don't tell me peace has broken out.

Don't tell me peace has broken out.

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 makes us giddy, dizzy.
[Ger., Die Freude macht drehend, wirblicht.]

Joy makes us giddy, dizzy.
[Ger., Die Freude macht drehend, wirblicht.]

Unexplained joy is always so keen that... it seems to hold enough to reconcile one to the inevitable.

Unexplained joy is always so keen that... it seems to hold enough to reconcile one to the inevitable.

I lean to you, numb as a fossil. Tell me I'm here.

I lean to you, numb as a fossil. Tell me I'm here.

Man could not live if he were entirely impervious to sadness. Many sorrows can be endured only by being embraced, read more

Man could not live if he were entirely impervious to sadness. Many sorrows can be endured only by being embraced, and the pleasure taken in them naturally has a somewhat melancholy character. So, melancholy is morbid only when it occupies too much place in life; but it is equally morbid for it to be wholly excluded from life.