When the winds of life batter you and leave you discouraged, tired, and struggling to find joy, it is important to pick yourself back up again and seek the beauty in life. Take these words from philosophers, artists, poets, great thinkers who have pursued lives of joyfulness and remember that you are not alone in this world. It is a good idea to write out a new quote every day and put it on your mirror or fridge to remind you to seek joy and appreciate the little things in life.
“Doing what you like is freedom, liking what you do is happiness.” -Unknown
“He who lives in harmony with himself lives in harmony with the universe.” –Marcus Aurelius
“If you want to be happy, be.” -Leo Tolstoy
“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.” -Melody Beattie
“For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson
“There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.” -Epictetus
“Life is a journey, and if you fall in love with the journey, you will be in love forever.” –Peter Hagerty
“Now and then it’s good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy.” -Guillaume Apollinaire
“Laughter is wine for the soul – laughter soft, or loud and deep, tinged through with seriousness – the hilarious declaration made by man that life is worth living.” –Sean O’Casey
“Look at everything as though you were seeing it either for the first or last time. Then your time on earth will be filled with glory.” –Betty Smith
“Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.” -Ludwig Jacobowski
“When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us.” -Helen Keller
“Don’t take life too seriously. You’ll never get out of it alive.” -Elbert Hubbard
“My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.” -Maya Angelou
“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.” -Confucius
“Be fearless in the pursuit of what sets your soul on fire.” -Unknown
“Dream as if you’ll live forever, live as if you’ll die today.” –James Dean
“Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.” -Buddha
“Sorrow prepares you for joy. It violently sweeps everything out of your house, so that new joy can find space to enter. It shakes the yellow leaves from the bough of your heart, so that fresh, green leaves can grow in their place. It pulls up the rotten roots, so that new roots hidden beneath have room to grow. Whatever sorrow shakes from your heart, far better things will take their place.” –Rumi
“Live with intention. Walk to the edge. Listen hard. Practice wellness. Play with abandon. Laugh. Choose with no regret. Do what you love. Live as if this is all there is.” -Mary Anne Roadacher-Hershey
“The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, worry about the future, or anticipate troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.” -Buddha
“Being happy doesn’t mean everything is perfect. It means you’ve decided to look beyond the imperfections.” -Uknown
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” -Mark Twain
Please share your favorite quotes you that bring you joy in the comments below!
-Susan Patterson