Quotes on Small Joys

“Nothing for me is too early nor too late, which is in due time for thee. Everything is fruit to me which thy seasons bring, O Nature.”

“For nowhere either with more quiet or more freedom from trouble does a man retire than into his own soul”

“Remember that in life you ought to behave as at a banquet. Suppose that something is carried round and is opposite to you. Stretch out your hand and take a portion with decency.”

“Indeed, if it be contented, it is not poverty at all.”

“For this reason, make life as a whole agreeable to yourself by banishing all worry about it.”

“Philosophy calls for plain living, but not for penance; and we may perfectly well be plain and neat at the same time.”

“Now there is great pleasure, not only in maintaining old and established friendships, but also in beginning and acquiring new ones.”

“When one is busy and absorbed in one’s work, the very absorption affords great delight”

“Reflect, therefore, on this, that the effect of wisdom is a joy that is unbroken and continuous.”

“Every morning was a cheerful invitation to make my life of equal simplicity, and I may say innocence, with Nature herself.”

“I love a broad margin to my life.”

“I am convinced, both by faith and experience, that to maintain one’s self on this earth is not a hardship but a pastime, if we will live simply and wisely”

“Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.”

“I found myself suddenly neighbor to the birds; not by having imprisoned one, but having caged myself near them.”

“To the attentive eye, each moment of the year has its own beauty, and in the same field, it beholds, every hour, a picture which was never seen before, and which shall never be seen again.”

“We have a great deal more kindness than is ever spoken.”

“There is no frigate like a book / To take us lands away, / Nor any coursers like a page / Of prancing poetry.”

“To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee,— / One clover, and a bee, / And revery. / The revery alone will do / If bees are few.”

“I loafe and invite my soul, / I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.”

“A morning-glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books.”

“To me every hour of the light and dark is a miracle, / Every cubic inch of space is a miracle,”

“The most manifest sign of wisdom is a continual cheerfulness; her state is like that of things in the regions above the moon, always clear and serene.”

“I love a gay and civil wisdom, and fly from all sourness and austerity of manners”

“Is it not pleasant to learn with a constant perseverance and application?”