Demanding Joy

So many people have said so many things so much better than I will ever be able to.  Here are 100 of them.  I hope you find at least a few that speak to you.

1. If you want to be happy, be.   – Leo Tolstoy
2. The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up.   – Mark Twain
3. Happiness is excitement that has found a settling down place.  But there is always a little corner that keeps flapping around.   – E.L. Konigsburg
4. Man is fond of counting his troubles, but he does not count his joys.  If he counted them up as he ought to, he would see that every lot has enough happiness provided for it.   – Fyodor Dostoevsky
5. You must first be who you really are, then do what you need to do, in order to have what you want.   – Margaret Young
6. This is my “depressed stance”.  When you’re depressed, it makes a lot of difference how you stand.  The worst thing you can do is straighten up and hold your head high because then you’ll start to feel better.  If you’re going to get any joy out of being depressed, you’ve go to stand like this.   – Charlie Brown
7. Happiness is not a goal; it is a by-product.   – Eleanor Roosevelt
8. Jumping for joy is good exercise.
9. One joy scatters a hundred griefs.   – Chinese proverb
10. My advice to you is not to inquire why or whither, but just enjoy your ice cream while it’s on your plate.   – Thornton Wilder
11. Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.   – Robert Brault
12. Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.   – Mahatma Gandhi
13. All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.   – Walt Disney
14. The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.   – Eleanor Roosevelt
15. Every now and then go away and have a little relaxation.  To remain constantly at work will diminish your judgment.  Go some distance away, because work will be in perspective and a lack of harmony is more readily seen.   – Leonardo DaVinci
16. The path involves respect for all small and subtle things.  Learn to recognize the right moment to strike the necessary attitudes.   – Manual of the Warrior of Light
17. I say “Out” to every negative thought that comes to my mind.  No person, place, or thing has any power over me, for I am the only thinker in my mind.  I create my own reality and everyone in it.   – Louise Hay
18. The thing that is really hard and really amazing is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself.    – Anna Quindlen
19. I am woman!  I am invincible!  I am pooped!
20. If you’re going through hell, keep going.   – Winston Churchill
21. Your problem is you’re too busy holding onto your unworthiness.   – Ram Dass
22. Trust your gut.   – Barbara Walters
23. Action is the antidote to despair.   – Joan Baez
24. She took the leap and built her wings on the way down.
25. You have brains in your head and feet in your shoes.  You can steer yourself any direction you choose.  You’re on your own and you know what you know.  And you are the one who’ll decide where to go.   – Dr. Seuss
26. You had the power all along my dear.   – Glinda the Good Witch.
27. Today is a new day.   – Chicken Little
28. When you reach for the stars you may not quite get one, but you won’t come up with a handful of mud either.   – Leo Burnett
29. What the caterpillar calls a tragedy, the Master calls a butterfly.   – Richard Bach
30. Earth’s crammed with heaven.   – Elizabeth Barrett Browning
31. Lend yourself to others, but give yourself to yourself.   – Michel de Montaigne
32. She decided to enjoy more and endure less.
33. I am unfolding in fulfilling ways.  Only good can come to me.  I now express health, happiness, prosperity, and peace of mind.
34. Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark, in the hopeless swamps of the approximate, the not-quite, the not-yet, the not-at-all.  Do not let the hero in your soul perish, in lonely frustration for the life you deserved, but have never been able to reach.  Check your road and the nature of your battle.  The world you desire can be won.  It exists.  It is real.  It is possible.  It is yours.   – Ayn Rand
35. There is a connection between self-nurturing and self-respect.   – Julia Cameron
36. Know that joy is rarer, more difficult, and more beautiful than sadness.  Once you make this all-important discovery, you must embrace joy as a moral obligation.   – Andre Gide
37. Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions all life is an experience.   – Ralph Waldo Emerson
38. If the future road loom ominous or unpromising, and the road back uninviting, then we need to gather our resolve and, carrying only the necessary baggage, step off that road into another direction.   – Maya Angelou
39. Breath in experience.   – Muriel Rukeyser
40. Speak your mind even if your voice shakes.
41. I rejoice in what I have and I know that fresh new experiences are always ahead.  I greet the new with open arms.  I trust life to be wonderful.   – Louise Hay
42. Too much of a good thing can be wonderful.   – Mae West
43. You must do the thing you think you cannot do.   – Eleanor Roosevelt
44. Sprinkle joy.   – Ralph Waldo Emerson
45. He is happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home.   – Johann von Goethe
46. She realized that she was missing a great deal by being sensible.
47. She was kind and loving and patient…with herself.
48. I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I’ve ended up where I needed to be.   – Douglas Adams
49. You’ll never be sad if you remember all the good things that have happened to you.  Karolina Grekov
50. What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger.
51. Conquering any difficulty always gives on a secret joy, for it means pushing back a boundary line and adding to one’s liberty.   – Henri Frederic Amiel
52. When there is no enemy within, the enemies outside cannot hurt you.
53. People are crying up the rich and variegated plumage of the peacock, and he is himself blushing at the sight of his ugly feet.   – Sa’Di
54. When the grass looks greener on the other side of the fence, it may be that they take better care of it there.   – Cecil Selig
55. A strong woman understands that the gifts such as logic, decisiveness, and strength are just as feminine as intuition and emotional connection.  She values and uses all of her gifts.   – Nancy Rathburn
56. Everything you do prepares you for the next thing.   – John Abel
57. It’s hard to fight an enemy who has outposts in your head.   – Sally Kempton
58. There are times to stay put, and what you want will come to you, and there are times to go out into the world and find such a thing for yourself.   – Lemony Snicket
59. A successful person is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks that others throw at her.   – David Brinkley
60. Never grow a wishbone where your backbone ought to be.   – Dorothy Parker
61. I begin now, today, to open myself to ever-increasing prosperity.   – Louise Hay
62. Seize the moment.  Remember all those women on the Titanic who waved off the dessert.   – Erma Bombeck
63. Anything you are good at contributes to happiness.  – Bertrand Russell
64. The only way to save our dreams is by being generous with ourselves.   – The Pilgramage
65. Never miss an opportunity to see anything that is beautiful.   – Janet Hobson
66. There is plenty for everyone, including me.   – Louise Hay
67. I focus my energy on my true intentions.  I will not be distracted by noise, chatter, or setbacks.  Patience, commitment, grace, and purpose will guide me.   – Louise Hay
68. A strong woman understands the importance of creating space for personal well-being, spiritual nourishment, and regeneration in order to maintain her authenticity, especially when the universe whacks her with its two-by-four and hands her days when it takes a great deal of courage just to show up.   – Laura Folse
69. Strength means recognizing that it is impossible to be strong all the time.   – Sally Franser
70. Just go out there and do what you’ve got to do.   – Martina Navratilova
71. You can’t be brave if you’ve only had wonderful things happen to you.   – Mary Tyler Moore
72. I breathe in the fullness and richness of life.  I observe with joy as life abundantly supports me and supplies me with more good than I can imagine.   – Louise Hay
73. Keep breathing.   – Sophie Tucker
74. Dwell in possibility.   – Emily Dickinson
75. Improve your spare moments and they will become the brightest gems in your life.   – Ralph Waldo Emerson
76. While you are upon the earth, enjoy the good things that are here.   – John Selden
77. Women really do rule the world.  They just haven’t figured it out yet.  When they do, and they will, we’re all in big trouble.   – Dr. Leon
78. It’s okay to be fat.  So you’re fat.  Just be fat and shut up about it.   – Roseanne
79. I accept myself and create peace in my mind and heart.  I now choose to free myself from all destructive fears and doubts.  I am loved and I am safe.   – Louise Hay
80. Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.   – Will Rogers
81. She went out on a limb, had it break off behind her, and discovered she could fly.
82. Go confidently in the direction of your dreams.  Live the life you have imagined.   – Henry David Thoreau
83. Nothing we learn in this world is ever wasted.   – Eleanor Roosevelt
84. It doesn’t happen all at once.  You become.  It takes a long time.   – Margery Williams
85. Nearly every glamorous, wealthy, successful career woman you might envy now started out as some kind of schlep.   – Helen Gurley Brown
86. The future is here.  It’s just not evenly distributed.   – William Gibson
87. As soon as people decide to confront a problem, they realize that they are far more capable than they thought they were.   – The Zahir
88. She discovered that she was the one she’d been waiting for.
89. Being strong means rejoicing in who you are, complete with imperfections.   – Margaret Woodhouse
90. Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted.   – John Lennon
91. Happiness is a way of travel, not a destination.   – Roy Goodman
92. Once the game is over, the king and the pawn go back in the same box.
93. The work will wait while you show the child the rainbow but the rainbow won’t wait while you do the work.
94. One of the greatest weaknesses in most of us is our lack of faith in ourselves.   – L. Tom Perry
95. Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength.
96. The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.   – Hans Hofmann
97. Success is a lousy teacher.  It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.   – Bill Gates
98. Joy is what happens when we allow ourselves to recognize how good things really are.   – Marianne Williamson
99. The joy of a spirit is the measure of its power.   – Ninon de l’Enclos
100. Learning to live in the present moment is part of the path to joy.   – Sarah Ban Breathnach
101. There is only one success – to be able to spend your life in your own way.   – Christopher Morley

Several of these came from Louise Hay, who is pretty terrific.  You can get daily affirmations at louisehay.com.  I recommend her book, You Can Heal Your Life.

Tags: lists, quotes

This entry was posted on Monday, March 29th, 2010 at 3:57 am and is filed under Wisdom. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.