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)

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

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

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)

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

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.

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

“Action may not always bring Happiness, 

but there is no Happiness without action.”

  - William James