Enjoyment Quotes

“Pleasing things: finding a large number of tales that one has not read before. Or acquiring the second volume of a tale whose first volume one has enjoyed. But often it is a disappointment.”
― Sei Shōnagon, The Pillow Book

“Walking and talking are two very great pleasures, but it is a mistake to combine them. Our own noise blots out the sounds and silences of the outdoor world; and talking leads almost inevitably to smoking, and then farewell to nature as far as one of our senses is concerned. The only friend to walk with is one who so exactly shares your taste for each mood of the countryside that a glance, a halt, or at most a nudge, is enough to assure us that the pleasure is shared.”
― C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life

“You can’t enjoy art or books in a hurry.”
― E.A. Bucchianeri, Brushstrokes of a Gadfly

“We must not only obtain Wisdom: we must enjoy her.”
― Marcus Tullius Cicero, Selected Works

“[Walking] is the perfect way of moving if you want to see into the life of things. It is the one way of freedom. If you go to a place on anything but your own feet you are taken there too fast, and miss a thousand delicate joys that were waiting for you by the wayside.”
― Elizabeth von Arnim, The Adventures of Elizabeth in Rügen

“There was a gay fiction among us that we were constantly enjoying ourselves, and a skeleton truth that we never did. To the best of my belief, our case was in the last respect a rather common one.”
― Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

“These examples suggest what one needs to learn to control attention. In principle any skill or discipline one can master on one’s own will serve: meditation and prayer if one is so inclined; exercise, aerobics, martial arts for those who prefer concentrating on physical skills. Any specialization or expertise that one finds enjoyable and where one can improve one’s knowledge over time. The important thing, however, is the attitude toward these disciplines. If one prays in order to be holy, or exercises to develop strong pectoral muscles, or learns to be knowledgeable, then a great deal of the benefit is lost. The important thing is to enjoy the activity for its own sake, and to know that what matters is not the result, but the control one is acquiring over one’s attention.”
― Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life

“We classify too much and enjoy too little.”
― Okakura Kakuzō, The Book of Tea

“The main question to a novel is -- did it amuse? were you surprised at dinner coming so soon? did you mistake eleven for ten? were you too late to dress? and did you sit up beyond the usual hour? If a novel produces these effects, it is good; if it does not -- story, language, love, scandal itself cannot save it. It is only meant to please; and it must do that or it does nothing.”
― Sydney Smith, The Edinburgh review: or Critical journal

“To the Technocrats: Have mercy on us. Relax a bit, take time out for simple pleasures. For example, the luxuries of electricity, indoor plumbing, central heating, instant electronic communication and such, have taught me to relearn and enjoy the basic human satisfactions of dipping water from a cold clear mountain stream; of building a wood fire in a cast-iron stove; of using long winter nights for making music, making things, making love; of writing long letters, in longhand with a fountain pen, to the few people on this earth I truly care about.”
― Edward Abbey, Postcards from Ed: Dispatches and Salvos from an American Iconoclast

“I enjoy it when the world smiles; the more smiles, the warmer I am.”
― Dejan Stojanovic, The Shape

“I possess the faculty of enjoying the company of those I - of my friends as well in silence as in conversation.”
― Anne Brontë, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

“Though it may feel otherwise, enjoying life is no more dangerous than apprehending it with continuous anxiety and gloom.”
― Alain de Botton

“You live and then you die, I thought. It's good to have some good times.”
― Natalie Goldberg, The Great Failure: A Bartender, A Monk, and My Unlikely Path to Truth

“I could hear the boy cheering in the back seat and Justin had a huge smile on his face, his dimples standing out. I squeezed my eyes shut. Maybe I lacked the necessary testosterone levels to be enjoying this.”
― Katie Kacvinsky, Awaken

“Voll Blüten steht der Pfirsichbaum
nicht jede wächst zur Frucht
sie schimmern hell wie Rosenschaum
durch Blau und Wolkenflucht.

Wie Blüten geh'n Gedanken auf
hundert an jedem Tag --
lass' blühen, lass' dem Ding den Lauf
frag' nicht nach dem Ertrag!

Es muss auch Spiel und Unschuld sein
und Blütenüberfluss
sonst wär' die Welt uns viel zu klein
und Leben kein Genuss.”
― Hermann Hesse, Bäume: Betrachtungen und Gedichte

“I want a simple, ordinary life . . . like humans enjoy.”
― Deborah Harkness, A Discovery of Witches

“It is sad that people need alcohol to make them happy.”
― Habeeb Akande

“It is astonishing how much you can enjoy almost everything. There are few things more desirable than to be an accepter and an enjoyer. You can like and enjoy almost any kind of food or way of life. You can enjoy country life, dogs, muddy walks, towns, noise, people, clatter. In the one there is repose, ease for nerves, time for reading, knitting, embroidery, and the pleasure of growing things; in the other theatres, art galleries, good conerts, and seeing friends you would otherwise seldom see. I am happy to say that I can enjoy almost everything.”
― Agatha Christie, Agatha Christie: An Autobiography

“We shall enjoy it

As for him who finds
fault, may silliness
and sorrow take him!”
― Sappho, Sappho

“Peace is a place of unhindered enjoyment of friendship beyond guilt, suspicion, blame of inferiority”
― François Du Toit, The Mirror Bible

“The pleasures of being a novelist are many.  But the greatest by far is the manner in which I live through my characters; experiencing every detail of their story as it unfolds gradually and personally within my own creative psyche.  I'm like a cat with untold lives, because each new book is my rebirth.”
― Richelle E. Goodrich

“People think that fun in Christ is non-existent, but there is fun wherever your heart lives.”
― Criss Jami, Killosophy

“You have gained a new source of enjoyment, and it is well to have as many holds upon happiness as possible.”
― Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

“Friendship is like a walk in the wood; you may not know the terrain too well or even know where you are headed yet you enjoy it all the same!”
― Jaachynma N.E. Agu, The Best Option

“I just go to office to enjoy myself ; work automatically happens”
― Jitendra Attra, chakravyuh The Land of the Paharias

“Enjoyment is always greatest when you have enough contrast to measure it by.”
― M. Wylie Blanchet, The Curve of Time: The Classic Memoir of a Woman and Her Children Who Explored the Coastal Waters of the Pacific Northwest

“The joy from eating does not come from the exclusivity of the food, but instead from the sensitivity that we eat it with.”
― Nino Gruettke, BOTH of You: Behavior. Opinion. Thinking. Happiness - The more rational we are, the more emotional we can be.

“Leven is het weer. Leven is maaltijden. Lunch op een blauw-geruit kleed waar zout op is gemorst. De geur van tabak. Brie, gele appels, messen met houten handvaten.”
― James Salter, Light Years

“If we want to sincerely enjoy our lives, who we become along the way is far more important than what we achieve.”
― Richie Norton