I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.

As we dread any disease that undermines the health of the body, so should we deplore contention, which is a corroding canker of the spirit.

Thanksgiving dinners take eighteen hours to prepare. They are consumed in twelve minutes. Half-times take twelve minutes. This is not coincidence.

The pain of parting is nothing to the joy of meeting again.

For many, Christmas is also a time for coming together. But for others, service will come first.

Joy in looking and comprehending is nature’s most beautiful gift.

Free institutions certainly exist, but a tradition of passivity and conformism restricts their use – a cynic might say that this is why they continue to exist.

Once you get a spice in your home, you have it forever. Women never throw out spices. The Egyptians were buried with their spices. I know which one I’m taking with me when I go.

My dear brothers and sisters, the joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives.

I was one of the wildest Santa Clauses they ever had.

Doubt in my tradition is something that is very helpful. Because of doubt, you can thirst more and you will get a higher kind of proof.

Man is fond of counting his troubles, but he does not count his joys. If he counted them up as he ought to, he would see that every lot has enough happiness provided for it.

Your energy, your spirit are important considerations. Feeling petty and frustrated can have reverberating consequences for your ability to think strategically and reach your goals.

Behold the child, by Nature’s kindly law pleased with a rattle, tickled with a straw.

There is something terribly morbid in the modern sympathy with pain. One should sympathise with the colour, the beauty, the joy of life. The less said about life’s sores the better.

If you look at the history of our country over the last 100 years, there have been periods where science and research have been celebrated. They were really kind of held up as heroes in society, which encouraged a generation of people to go into these fields.

The brain is like a muscle. When it is in use we feel very good. Understanding is joyous.

First and foremost comes my family and my life with Brad. We have so much joy in raising our children and teaching them about the world that nothing really compares to that.

There is joy in work. There is no happiness except in the realization that we have accomplished something.

Many Tibetans sacrifice their lives.

Only by joy and sorrow does a person know anything about themselves and their destiny. They learn what to do and what to avoid.

In everyone’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.

Those who don’t know how to weep with their whole heart, don’t know how to laugh either.

The noblest spirit is most strongly attracted by the love of glory.

The English have all the material requisites for the revolution. What they lack is the spirit of generalization and revolutionary ardour.

A good conscience is a continual Christmas.

No one undertakes research in physics with the intention of winning a prize. It is the joy of discovering something no one knew before.

I got a chain letter by fax. It’s very simple. You just fax a dollar bill to everybody on the list.

A good writer possesses not only his own spirit but also the spirit of his friends.

Get off your horse and drink your milk.

Maybe Christmas, the Grinch thought, doesn’t come from a store.

I believe enlightenment or revelation comes in daily life. I look for joy, the peace of action. You need action. I’d have stopped writing years ago if it were for the money.

In South Korea, they believe that when you turn 60, you’ve become a baby again and the rest of your life should be totally about joy and happiness, and people should leave you alone, and I just think that that’s the height of intelligence.

Poetry is a deal of joy and pain and wonder, with a dash of the dictionary.

Part of our tradition as black women is that we are universalists. Black children, yellow children, red children, brown children, that is the black woman’s normal, day-to-day relationship. In my family alone, we are about four different colors.

The child in you, like all children, loves to laugh, to be around people who can laugh at themselves and life. Children instinctively know that the more laughter we have in our lives, the better.

The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive.

When I cook for my family on Christmas, I make feijoada, a South American dish of roasted and smoked meats like ham, pork, beef, lamb, and bacon – all served with black beans and rice. It’s festive but different.

The spirit is the true self. The spirit, the will to win, and the will to excel are the things that endure.

The tradition of the South is not urban… I think we are a region of storytellers, naturally, just from our tribal instincts. We did not have the pleasures of the theater or the dance, motion pictures when they came along. We simply entertain each other by talking.

I’m the proof – you can’t throw away tradition.

Pfft, I hate Christmas Day. It’s for children and families. Not for people like me.

When you call yourself an Indian or a Muslim or a Christian or a European or anything else, you are being violent. Do you see why it is violent? Because you are separating yourself from the rest of mankind. When you separate yourself by belief, by nationality, by tradition, it breeds violence.

My three children have brought me great joy.

Joy is the serious business of Heaven.

I believe in using words, not fists. I believe in my outrage knowing people are living in boxes on the street. I believe in honesty. I believe in a good time. I believe in good food. I believe in sex.

In my later years, I have looked in the mirror each day and found a happy person staring back. Occasionally I wonder why I can be so happy. The answer is that every day of my life I’ve worked only for myself and for the joy that comes from writing and creating. The image in my mirror is not optimistic, but the result of optimal behavior.

I am criticised for not celebrating my goals enough. I am very happy from within, very calm. I just don’t celebrate. I celebrate inside.

The spirit of this country is totally adverse to a large military force.

I love making people laugh. And I love laughing.

Let not a libation of tears be the only offering at the shrine of Jesus; let us also rejoice with joy unspeakable. If we have need to lament our sin, how much more to rejoice at our pardon!

My grandmother took me to church on Sunday all day long, every Sunday into the night. Then Monday evening was the missionary meeting. Tuesday evening was usher board meeting. Wednesday evening was prayer meeting. Thursday evening was visit the sick. Friday evening was choir practice. I mean, and at all those gatherings, we sang.

I think ‚Hail to the Chief‘ has a nice ring to it.

Christmas is a season not only of rejoicing but of reflection.

Without tradition, art is a flock of sheep without a shepherd. Without innovation, it is a corpse.

Love and desire are the spirit’s wings to great deeds.

I believe that a trusting attitude and a patient attitude go hand in hand. You see, when you let go and learn to trust God, it releases joy in your life. And when you trust God, you’re able to be more patient. Patience is not just about waiting for something… it’s about how you wait, or your attitude while waiting.

There’s nothing better than having a baby. I’ve always loved children. I used to work summers at the YMCA and be in charge of, like, 30 preschool kids. I knew that when I had a child, I’d be overwhelmed, and it’s true… I can’t tell you how much my attitude has changed since we’ve got Frances. Holding my baby is the best drug in the world.

The walls we build around us to keep sadness out also keeps out the joy.

I have spent every New Year’s Eve since 1992 in Lourdes. I spend the hour of my birth every year in the grotto. It’s a place with meaning for me.

Our body is dependant on Heaven and Heaven on the Spirit.