“You are never really playing an opponent. You are playing yourself, your own highest standards, and when you reach your limits, that is real joy.”— Arthur Ashe, keepinspiring.me
“I woke up one morning and decided I wanted to be happy. Magnificently, stupidly, totally, inexplicably happy. Every decision I've made since then has been rooted in my longing to live a life that brings me joy. That keeps me on my path. That lets me stand in my highest potential.”— Rachel Brathen, instagram.com
“And then one student said that happiness is what happens when you go to bed on the hottest night of the summer, a night so hot you can’t even wear a tee-shirt and you sleep on top of the sheets instead of under them, although try to sleep is probably more accurate. And then at some point late, late,…”— Paul Schmidtberger, amazon.com
“The joy of killing! the joy of seeing killing done - these are traits of the human race at large.”— Mark Twain, amazon.com
“You know that kind of quiver that trembles around through you when you are seeing something so strange and enchanting and wonderful that it is just a fearful joy to be alive and look at it; and you know how you gaze, and your lips turn dry and your breath comes short, but you wouldn't be anywhere bu…”— Mark Twain, amazon.com
“I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.”— Agatha Christie, amazon.com
“Be happy for no reason, like a child. If you are happy for a reason, you’re in trouble, because that reason can be taken from you.”— Deepak Chopra, amazon.com
“Don’t do what you know on a gut level to be the wrong thing to do. Don’t stay when you know you should go or go when you know you should stay. Don’t fight when you should hold steady or hold steady when you should fight. Don’t focus on the short-term fun instead of the long-term fall out. Don’t surr…”— Cheryl Strayed, amazon.com
“I like to sit at the airport. I like to see people reunited, I like to see people run to each other, I like the kissing and the crying, I like the impatience, the stories that the mouth can't tell fast enough, the ears that aren't big enough, the eyes that can't take in all of the change, I like the…”— Jonathan Safran Foer, amazon.com
“Let me keep my distance, always, from those who think they have the answers. Let me keep company always with those who say “Look!” and laugh in astonishment, and bow their heads.”— Mary Oliver, catrickettsmusic.com
“One cannot divine nor forecast the conditions that will make happiness: one only stumbles upon them by chance, in a lucky hour, at the worlds end somewhere, and holds fast to the days, as to fortune or fame.”— George N. Kates, amazon.com
“No one can lose sight of what he desires. Even if there are moments when he believes the world and the others are stronger. The secret is this: do not surrender.”— Paulo Coelho, amazon.com
“You were in paradise, but you didn't recognize it. It's the same with most people in this world; they seek suffering in the most joyous of places because they think they are unworthy of happiness.”— Paulo Coelho, amazon.com
“Joy was as fleeting as a shooting star that crossed the evening sky, ready to blink out at any moment.”— Nicholas Sparks, amazon.com
“Don't surrender all your joy for an idea you used to have about yourself that isn't true anymore.”— Cheryl Strayed, goodreads.com