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“He that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast.”
A glad disposition can make ordinary life feel abundant even when circumstances are modest, because experience is shaped partly by the heart meeting it.
Source note: Proverbs 15:15 in the King James Version; concluding clause of the verse.
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“For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.”
Life continues forward despite attachment to what has already happened, so care for the past cannot make the present remain there.
Source note: The Prophet, “On Children”; Gibran contrasts parents’ memory of yesterday with children belonging to a life that moves forward.
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“In a world where all is fleeting, change alone endures.”
Stability is temporary, so practical judgment requires expecting change rather than treating present arrangements as permanent.
Source note: Counsels and Maxims, T. Bailey Saunders translation, in a discussion of fortune and apparent stability.
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“There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval.”
Mortality cannot be eliminated, so the practical answer is to make conscious use of the finite span between beginning and end.
Source note: Soliloquies in England, “War Shrines”; the sentence follows a contrast between strained worldliness and a more festive acceptance of life.
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“So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”
Awareness of limited time is turned into a reason to choose more wisely rather than merely fear mortality.
Source note: Psalm 90:12 in the King James Version.
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“With the first word I used intelligently, I learned to live, to think, to hope.”
Language is remembered as opening several capacities at once—thought, hope and a fuller experience of living—rather than merely adding a vocabulary item.
Source note: Optimism: An Essay (1903), Project Gutenberg #31622. Keller is reflecting on her own early experience of language and education.