Quotations on the Many Views of Joy

The natural man feels a genuine joy at receiving a gift, in obtaining something he has not earned. The pious man knows that nothing he has has been earned, not even his perceptions, his thoughts and words, or even his life, are by his desert. He knows that he has no claim to anything with which he is endowed. Knowing, therefore, that he merits little, he never arrogates anything to himself. His thankfulness being stronger than his wants and desires, he can live in joy and with a quiet spirit. Being conscious of the evidences of God’s blessing in nature and history, he pays tribute to the values of that blessing in all that he receives.

-Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Holy Dimension

You shall have joy, or you shall have power, said God: you shall not have both.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson, Journal, 1842

Joy is not in things, it is in us. –Richard Wagner

Surely the strange beauty of the world must somewhere rest on pure joy! –Louise Bogan

Grief may be joy misunderstood. Only the Good discerns the good. –Elizabeth Barret Browning,

“De Profundis”

Thou hast given so much to me, Give one thing more – a grateful heart; Not thankful when it pleaseth me, As if Thy blessings had spare days, But such a heart whose pulse may be Thy praise. –George Herbert

You have made us to be toward yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you. –St. Augustine

Joy fixes us to eternity and pain fixes us to time. But desire and fear hold us in bondage to time, and detachment breaks the bond. –Simone Weil

When justice is done, it is a joy to the righteous, but dismay to evildoers. –Proverbs 21: 15

Very truly, I tell you, you will weep and mourn, but the world will rejoice; you will have pain, but your pain will turn into joy. When a woman is in labor, she has pain, because her hour has come. But when her child is born, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy of having brought a human being into the world. So you have pain now; but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. –John 16: 20-22