That side of our existence whose direction is towards the infinite seeks not wealth, but freedom and joy.
RABINDRANATH TAGORE
Sadhana
They hear a voice in every wind,
And snatch a fearful joy.
THOMAS GRAY
Ode in a Distant Prospect of Eton College
Is it that they fear the pain of death, or could it be they fear the joy of life?
TOAD THE WET SPROCKET
Pray Your Gods
Life's joys and sorrows meet us every day,
But some are blinded by their tears of sorrow
And see no joy.
S. MOORE
"Sonnet"
Joy flees from the selfish, it deserts the quarrelsome; it is hidden from the impure.
JAMES ALLEN
Morning and Evening Thoughts
Joy may be a miser,
But Sorrow’s purse is free.
RICHARD HENRY STODDARD
Persian Song
Nothing brings joy as does a
tamed, controlled, attended and restrained heart.
This heart brings joy.
GAUTAMA BUDDHA
Anguttara Nikaya
The joy late coming late departs.
LEWIS J. BATES
Some Sweet Day
Out of joy strength came, strength that was fashioned to bear sorrow: sorrow brought forth joy. Forever? This was Ezekiel's wheel, in the middle of the burning air forever -- and the little wheel ran by faith, and the big wheel ran by the grace of God.
JAMES BALDWIN
Go Tell It on the Mountain
Has joy any survival value in the operations of evolution? I suspect that it does; I suspect that the morose and fearful are doomed to quick extinction. Where there is no joy there can be no courage; and without courage all other virtues are useless.
EDWARD ABBEY
Desert Solitaire
Joy's the shyest bird
Mortal ever heard;
Listen rapt and silent while he sings;
Do not seek to see,
Less the vision be
But a flutter of departing wings.
CAROLINE SPENCER
"A Strange Singer"
He who binds to himself a joy
Does the wingèd life destroy;
But he who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in eternity's sunrise.
WILLIAM BLAKE
"He Who Binds", Poems from the Pickering Manuscript
Joy is what happens when we see that God's plan is perfect and we're already starring in the perfect show.
MARIANNE WILLIAMSON
A Woman's Worth
The fact is always obvious much too late, but the most singular difference between happiness and joy is that happiness is a solid and joy a liquid.
J. D. SALINGER
"De Daumier-Smith's Blue Period"
For sudden Joys, like Griefs, confound at first.
DANIEL DEFOE
Robinson Crusoe
Perhaps there could be no joy on this planet without an equal weight of pain to balance it out on some unknown scale.
STEPHENIE MEYER
The Host
We seldom meet with joy and delight by appointment, but unexpectedly they smile on us their sudden welcome round some odd corner of life.
MISS PALMER
attributed, Day's Collacon
For trash and toys,
And grief-engend'ring joys,
What torment seems too sharp for flesh and blood;
What bitter pills,
Compos'd of real ills,
Men swallow down to purchase one false good!
FRANCIS QUARLES
Emblems
Joy is circulatory. There is the joy. Then disbelief that says you must be dreaming. Then the mental pause or step back to give the universe a chance to wake you. Then the return to see if the joy is still there--and there is the joy again, insanely real and undeservedly all yours.
GLEN DUNCAN
Talulla Rising
The bitterness of joy lies in the knowledge that it cannot last. Nor should joy last beyond a certain season, for, after that season, even joy would become merely habit.
TANITH LEE
Delusion's Master