This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Jean Paul, born Johann Paul Friedrich Richter, aka Jean Paul Richter
Tears of joy are the dew in which the sun of righteousness is mirrored.
Joy | Righteousness |
A positive thing; in Joy one does not only feel secure, but something goes out from one’s self to the universe, a warm, possessive effluence of love.
Only by joy and sorrow does a person know anything about themselves and their destiny. They learn what to do and what to avoid.
There may be Peace without Joy, and Joy without Peace, but the two combined make Happiness.
Jessamyn West, fully Mary Jessamyn West
The source of one's joy is also often the source of one's sorrow.
Joy |
The longer I live the more my mind dwells upon the beauty and wonder of the world… I have loved the feel of the grass under my feet, and the sound of the running streams by my side. The hum of the wind in the treetops has always been good music to me, and the face of the fields has often comforted me more than the faces of men. I am in love with this world...I have tilled its soil, I have gathered its harvest, I have waited upon its seasons, and always have I reaped what I have sown. I have climbed its mountains, roamed its forests, sailed its waters, crossed its deserts, felt the sting of its frosts, the oppression of its heats, the drench of its rains, the fury of its winds, and always have beauty and joy waited upon my goings and comings.
Beauty | Fury | Good | Joy | Love | Mind | Music | Oppression | Sound | Wonder | Beauty |
John Steinbeck, fully John Ernst Steinbeck
Time interval is a strange and contradictory matter in the mind. It would be reasonable to suppose that a routine time or an eventless time would seem interminable. It should be so, but it is not. It is the dull eventless times that have no duration whatever. A time splashed with interest, wounded with tragedy, crevassed with joy - that's the time that seems long in the memory. And this is right when you think about it. Eventlessness has no posts to drape duration on. From nothing to nothing is no time at all.
It is in deeds that man becomes aware of what his life really is, of his power to harm and to hurt, to wreck and to ruin; of his ability to derive joy and to bestow it on others; to relieve and to increase his own and other people’s tensions... What he may not dare to think, he often utters in deeds. The heart is revealed in the deeds.
Ability | Deeds | Harm | Heart | Joy | Life | Life | Man | Power | Deeds |
[Comedies], in the ancient world, were regarded as of a higher rank than tragedy, of a deeper truth, of a more difficult realization, of a sounder structure, and of a revelation more complete. The happy ending of the fairy tale, the myth, and the divine comedy of the soul, is to be read, not as a contradiction, but as a transcendence of the universal tragedy of man…. Tragedy is the shattering of the forms and of our attachments to the forms; comedy, the wild and careless, inexhaustible joy of life invincible.
Comedy | Happy | Joy | Life | Life | Rank | Revelation | Tragedy |
The truth is that life is hard and dangerous; that he who seeks his own happiness does not find it; that he who is weak must suffer; that he who demands love will be disappointed; that he who is greedy will not be fed; that he who seeks peace will find strife; that truth is only for the brave; that joy is only for him who does not fear to be alone; that life is only for the one who is not afraid to die.
Fear | Joy | Life | Life | Love | Peace | Truth | Will | Afraid | Happiness |
There is a path of joy and there is the path of pleasure. Pondering on them, the wise (one) chooses the of joy; the fool takes the path of pleasure.
Subtle is the path of love! Therein there is no asking and no not-asking, there one loses one’s self at His feet,there one is immersed in the joy of the seeking:plunged in the deeps of love as the fish in the water. The lover is never slow in offering his head for his Lord’s service.
Krishna, also Kreeshna, Krsna, Lord Krishna NULL
Be fearless and pure; never waver in your determination or your dedication to the spiritual life. Give freely. Be self-controlled, sincere, truthful, loving, and full of the desire to serve...Learn to be detached and to take joy in renunciation. Do not get angry or harm any living creature, but be compassionate and gentle; show good will to all. Cultivate vigor, patience, will, purity; avoid malice and pride. Then, you will achieve your destiny.
Dedication | Desire | Determination | Good | Harm | Joy | Malice | Will |
Ko Hung, aka Ge Hong, courtesy name Zhichuan
Where the Mystery is present, joy is infinite; where the Mystery has departed, efficacy is exhausted and the spirit disappears.
Kurt Hahn, fully Kurt Martin "the rod" Hahn
What is it that is done to our children that their puberty should deform them? They have the joy of movement; they have an enterprising curiosity; they are ready for sensible self-denial; they dream ahead, and they have a faithful memory, and, above all, great compassion. [...] The well-meaning educator who flatters and humours the young not only does a disservice to the community, but also damages the individual by depriving him of the opportunities of self-discovery.
Children | Individual | Joy | Puberty |
August von Kotzebue, fully August Friedrich Ferdinand von Kotzebue
A moment of joy of heart is worth two hours of sensual pleasure.
Lao Tzu, ne Li Urh, also Laotse, Lao Tse, Lao Tse, Lao Zi, Laozi, Lao Zi, La-tsze
To joy in conquest is to joy in the loss of human life.
Leo Tolstoy, aka Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy or Tolstoi
Formerly...when he tried to do anything for the good of everybody, for humanity...for the whole village, he had noticed that the thoughts of it were agreeable, but the activity itself was always unsatisfactory; there was no full assurance that the work was really necessary, and the activity itself, which at first seemed so great, ever lessened and lessened till it vanished. But now...when he began to confine himself more and more to living for himself, though he no longer felt any joy at the thought of his activity, he felt confident that his work was necessary, saw that it progressed far better than formerly, and that it was always growing more and more.