Quotes About Joy

Never feel ashamed of your longing for happiness.

But to take delight in our generosity helps us immeasurably in our spiritual practice.

Buddhism has a term for the happiness we feel at someone else's success or good fortune. Sympathetic joy, as it is known, invites us to celebrate for others.

These are times when sympathetic joy comes naturally, but in a complex relationship the heart may not leap up so easily.

The more we identify and acknowledge moments when we're unable to share in someone else's pleasure and ask ourselves whether another person's happiness truly jeopardizes our own, the more we pave the way for experiencing sympathetic joy

Sympathetic joy is a practice. It takes time and effort to free ourselves of the scarcity story that most of us have learned along the way, the idea that happiness is a competition, and that someone else is grabbing all the joy.

The practice of sympathetic joy is rooted in inner development. It's not a matter of learning techniques to "make friends and influence people." Instead, we build the foundations of our own happiness. When our own cup is full, we more easily share it with others.

If life is hard and we don't celebrate the small accomplishments, what's left?

He broke into a run, faster and faster, until the years fell away, and he hurled himself towards Peter. And as he had never run before, as though he would outdistance time, Peter was running towards his dog. John Longridge turned away, then, and left them, an indistinguishable tangle of boy and dog, in a world of their own making.

As I write this it sounds rather negative and hard but I do not mean it to be so. Happiness grounded in reality is far deeper than that built upon fantasy, and suffering teaches one that happiness can catch a person unawares in the midst of deprivation and desolation. There is a certain stripping away of the externals which makes one more sensitive to joy as well as to sorrow.

O Love that will not let me go I rest my weary soul in thee I give thee back the life I owe that in thine ocean depths its flow may richer, fuller be. O Joy that seekest me through pain I cannot close my heart to thee I trace the rainbow through the rain and feel the promise is not vain that morn shall tearless be.

The greatest defense against the storm of lies that the enemy would use to drain every moment of joy from your life is to surround yourself with the truth of God's Word.

When the sky is dark and you are struggling to see, hear Christ ask you, "Who are you looking for?" Respond with joy, "For You, Lord. I am looking for You!

But Sissy had a way of bringing out the fun side of anybody if she'd a mind to. To quote Janie Mae, Sissy came out of my womb with her middle finger raised.

No woman is a more vibrant instrument in the hands of the Lord than a woman of God who is thrilled to be who she is.

It is not possible to sin enough to be happy. It isn't possible to buy enough to be happy, or to entertain or indulge or pamper ourselves enough to be happy. It is not possible to hide enough or run far enough away from trials and troubles to be happy. Happiness and joy come only when we are living up to who we are... I have never met anyone who was happier because he was immoral, or because he was addicted to something, or because he was dishonest and compromised his integrity.

Its not living the gospel thats hard. Its life thats hard...How often do we make the mistake of talking to our youth about how hard it is...Shouldn't we instead be focusing on the doctrine of joy...? p 106

There was an expression on her face at certain times, an expression of unconscious joy which came from a part of her he had always coveted, a separate being he never saw when he was with her. He had seen that being in the arena or the hunt, skimming the green pastures towards the high fences, all there between the posts and over the water, winging on danger and delight, a bird soaring with a singing face. He wanted to hold that bird.

And in the end, unable to feel terror, mankind will go, we will all go down, down, down to happyland.

When it comes to death, we know that laughter and tears are pretty much the same thing.

He made me realize that hard work--that the act of finishing, of completing, of accomplishing a task--is joyous

Rowdy and I played one-on-one for hours. we played until dark. we played until the streetlights lit up court. we played until the bats swooped down at our heads. we played until the moon was huge and golden and perfect in the dark sky. we didn't keep score.

Naked women + right hand = happy happy joy joy

I read with equal parts joy and desperation. I loved those books, but I also knew that love had only one purpose. I was trying to save my life.