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Wednesday 31 October 2012

48/365 - The Habit of Doubt (Siddhārtha Gautama)


“There is nothing more dreadful
 than the habit of doubt. 

Doubt separates people. 
It is a poison that disintegrates friendships
 and breaks up pleasant relations.

 It is a thorn that irritates and hurts;
 it is a sword that kills.”

  - Siddhārtha Gautama


Tuesday 30 October 2012

47/365 - The Change that we Seek (Barack Obama)


“Change will not come if we wait for some other person, 
or if we wait for some other time. 

We are the ones we've been waiting for.

 We are the change that we seek.”

  - Barack Obama


Monday 29 October 2012

46/365 - Boldness has Genius (Goethe)


“Whatever you can do
or dream you can, 
begin it.

 Boldness has genius,
 power and magic in it!”

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe


Sunday 28 October 2012

45/365 - I dwell among the people (John Henry Newman)


“I sought to hear the voice of God 
and climbed the topmost steeple, 
but God declared:
 "Go down again - 
I dwell among the people.”

- John Henry Newman


Saturday 27 October 2012

44/365 - Facing up to things (Sarah Dessen)


“Anyone can hide. 

 Facing up to things, 
working through them,
 that's what makes you strong.”

- Sarah Dessen


Friday 26 October 2012

43/365 - Three of your Greatest Treasures (Lao Tzu)


“Simplicity, patience, compassion.

These three are your greatest treasures.

Simple in actions and thoughts, 
you return to the source of being.

Patient with both friends and enemies,
you accord with the way things are.

Compassionate toward yourself,
you reconcile all beings in the world.”

  - Lao Tzu
(Tao Te Ching)


Thursday 25 October 2012

42/365 - Great Heroes need great Sorrow (Peter S. Beagle)


“Great heroes need great sorrows and burdens,
 or half their greatness goes unnoticed. 

It is all part of the fairy tale.”
- Peter S. Beagle
(The Last Unicorn)


Wednesday 24 October 2012

41/365 - What one Emphasizes (Carlos Castaneda)


“The trick is in what one emphasizes. 

We either make ourselves miserable,
 or we make ourselves happy.

 The amount of work is the same.”

  - Carlos Castaneda




Tuesday 23 October 2012

40/365 - One way to Happiness (Epictetus)


“There is only one way to happiness
 and that is to cease worrying about things 
which are beyond the power or our will. ”

  - Epictetus




Monday 22 October 2012

39/365 - Hard to be Happy (Marcel Pagnol)


“The reason people find it so hard to be happy
 is that they always see the past better than it was, 
the present worse than it is, 
and the future less resolved than it will be.”

  - Marcel Pagnol




Sunday 21 October 2012

38/365 - Pursuit of Happiness (Aldous Huxley)


“Happiness is not achieved 
by the conscious pursuit of happiness; 
it is generally the by-product of other activities.”

  - Aldous Huxley



Saturday 20 October 2012

37/365 - The Hours of the Afternoon (F. Scott Fitzgerald)


“Later she remembered all the hours of the afternoon as happy -- 
one of those uneventful times 
that seem at the moment only a link between past and future pleasure, 
but turn out to have been the pleasure itself.”

- F. Scott Fitzgerald
(Tender Is the Night)


Friday 19 October 2012

36/365 - The Settling of the Soul (Aristotle)


“Happiness is the settling of the soul
 into its most appropriate spot.”

- Aristotle


Thursday 18 October 2012

35/365 - Being Loved (Charlotte Brontë)


“There is no happiness like that of being loved
 by your fellow creatures, 
and feeling that your presence 
is an addition to their comfort.”

  - Charlotte Brontë



Wednesday 17 October 2012

34/365 - Your Best Wishes (Tony DeLiso)


“Keep your best wishes, 
close to your heart 
and watch what happens”

  - Tony DeLiso
(Legacy: The Power Within)


Tuesday 16 October 2012

33/365 - The Secret to Happiness (J.M. Barrie)


“The secret of happiness 
is not in doing what one likes, 
but in liking what one does.”

  - J.M. Barrie


Monday 15 October 2012

32/365 - Bring us the Tranquility (Dalai Lama XIV)


“Only the development of compassion
 and understanding for others 
can bring us the tranquility
 and happiness 
we all seek.”

- Dalai Lama XIV



Sunday 14 October 2012

31/365 - A Life Privileged to lead (Elizabeth Berg)


“There are random moments - 
tossing a salad, coming up the driveway to the house, 
ironing the seams flat on a quilt square,
 standing at the kitchen window and looking out at the delphiniums,
 hearing a burst of laughter from one of my children's rooms - 
when I feel a wavelike rush of joy. 

This is my true religion: 
arbitrary moments of nearly painful happiness
 for a life I feel privileged to lead.”

  - Elizabeth Berg
(The Art of Mending)



Saturday 13 October 2012

30/365 - One's own Effort (George Sand)


“One is happy 
as a result of one's own efforts
 once one knows the necessary ingredients of happiness: 
simple tastes, 
a certain degree of courage, 
self denial to a point,
 love of work, 
and above all, a clear conscience.”

- George Sand



Friday 12 October 2012

29/365 - Happiness is a Perfume (Ralph Waldo Emerson)


“Happiness is a perfume 
you cannot pour on others
 without getting some on yourself.”

  - Ralph Waldo Emerson



Thursday 11 October 2012

28/365 - What is needed for happiness (Leo Tolstoy)


“I have lived through much, 
and now I think I have found what is needed for happiness.

 A quiet secluded life in the country, 
with the possibility of being useful to people 
to whom it is easy to do good,
 and who are not accustomed to have it done to them; 
then work which one hopes may be of some use; 
then rest, nature, books, music, love for one’s neighbor — 
such is my idea of happiness. 

And then, on top of all that, 
you for a mate, and children perhaps. —

 What more can the heart of a man desire?”

  - Leo Tolstoy
(Family Happiness and Other Stories)



Wednesday 10 October 2012

27/365 - Take the power to choose (Susan Polis Schutz)


“This life is yours.

 Take the power to choose what you want to do
 and do it well.

 Take the power to love what you want in life
 and love it honestly. 

Take the power to walk in the forest
 and be a part of nature. 

Take the power to control your own life. 

No one else can do it for you.

 Take the power to make your life happy.”

- Susan Polis Schutz



Tuesday 9 October 2012

26/365 - Sweet Innocence (C. JoyBell C.)


“There is some kind of a sweet innocence
 in being human-
 in not having to be just happy 
or just sad-
 in the nature of being able
 to be both broken and whole, 
at the same time.”

- C. JoyBell C.


Monday 8 October 2012

25/365 - No Happiness without Action (William James)


“Action may not always bring Happiness, 
but there is no Happiness without action.”

  - William James



Sunday 7 October 2012

24/365 - True and Lasting Happiness (Dalai Lama XIV)


“I believe compassion 
to be one of the few things we can practice
 that will bring immediate 
and long-term happiness to our lives. 

I’m not talking about the short-term gratification 
of pleasures like sex, drugs or gambling 
(though I’m not knocking them), 
but something that will bring true and lasting happiness. 

The kind that sticks.”

  - Dalai Lama XIV



Saturday 6 October 2012

23/365 - Stringing Together Small Pleasures (Ann Brashares)


“Maybe happiness didn't have to be about the big, 
sweeping circumstances,
 about having everything in your life in place. 

Maybe it was about stringing together 
a bunch of small pleasures. 

Wearing slippers and watching the Miss Universe contest. 
Eating a brownie with vanilla ice cream. 
Getting to level seven in Dragon Master 
and knowing there were twenty more levels to go.

Maybe happiness was just a matter of the little upticks- 
the traffic signal that said "Walk" 
the second you go there- 
and downticks- 
the itch tag at the back of your collar-
that happened to every person in the course of the day.

 Maybe everybody 
had the same allotted measure of happiness
 within each day.
Maybe it didn't matter
 if you were a world-famous heartthrob 
or a painful geek. 

Maybe it didn't matter if your friend was possibly dying.

Maybe you just got through it. 

Maybe that was all you could ask for.”

- Ann Brashares
(The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants)

Friday 5 October 2012

22/365 - Different and yet the Same (Anne Frank)


“We all live with the objective of being happy;
 our lives are all different and yet the same.”

- Anne Frank



Thursday 4 October 2012

21/365 - A Life well lived (Eleanor Roosevelt)


“Happiness is not a goal.

It's a by-product of a life well lived.”

- Eleanor Roosevelt


Wednesday 3 October 2012

20/365 - Our Laughter kept them in the air (Jonathan Safran Foer)


“Feathers filled the small room.

Our laughter kept the feathers in the air.

 I thought about birds. 

Could they fly if there wasn't someone, 
somewhere,
 laughing?”

- Jonathan Safran Foer
(Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close)



Tuesday 2 October 2012

19/365 - Something to Hope for (Tom Bodett)


“They say a person needs just three things
 to be truly happy in this world: 
someone to love, 
something to do,
 and something to hope for.”

  - Tom Bodett



Monday 1 October 2012

18/365 - The Power of finding Beauty (Louisa May Alcott)


“The power of finding beauty
 in the humblest things 
makes home happy and life lovely.”

- Louisa May Alcott