Courtesy of Gretchen Rubin Moment of Happiness
“I got out of bed
on two strong legs.
It might have been
otherwise. I ate
cereal, sweet
milk, ripe, flawless
peach. It might
have been otherwise.
I took the dog uphill
to the birch wood.
All morning I did
the work I love.
At noon I lay down
with my mate. It might
have been otherwise.
We ate dinner together
at a table with silver
candlesticks. It might
have been otherwise.
I slept in a bed
in a room with paintings
on the walls, and
planned another day
just like this day.
But one day, I know,
it will be otherwise.”
Jane Kenyon, “Otherwise”
“Each time of life has its own kind of love.”
Leo Tolstoy, Family Happiness and Other Stories
“Habit is necessary; it is the habit of having habits, of turning a trail into a rut, that must be incessantly fought against if one is to remain alive.”
Edith Wharton, A Backward Glance
“Life is a train of moods like a string of beads, and as we pass through them, they prove to be many-colored lenses which paint the world their own hue, and each shows only what lies in its focus.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Experience,” from The Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Sweet are the uses of adversity, / Which like the toad, ugly and venomous, / Wears yet a precious jewel in his head.”
William Shakespeare, As You Like It
“If you make it a habit not to blame others, you will feel the growth of the ability to love in your soul, and you will see the growth of goodness in your life.”
Leo Tolstoy, A Calendar of Wisdom
“What has always pleased me about man is that he, who himself constructs Louvres, everlasting pyramids and churches of St. Peter, can take delight in observing a cell of a honey-comb or a snail-shell.”
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, The Waste Books
“The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship.”
William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
