Don’t ever think the poetry is dead in an old man because his forehead is wrinkled, or that his manhood has left him when his hand trembles! If they ever were there, they are there still.

Man is born a predestined idealist, for he is born to act. To act is to affirm the worth of an end, and to persist in affirming the worth of an end is to make an ideal.

—Oliver Wendell Holmes

Truth is tough. It will not break, like a bubble, at a touch; nay, you may kick it about all day like a football, and it will be round and full at evening.

—Oliver Wendell Holmes

The great thing in this world is not so much where you stand, as in what direction you are moving.

—Oliver Wendell Holmes

Speak clearly, if you speak at all; carve every word before you let it fall.

—Oliver Wendell Holmes

To be 70 years young is sometimes far more cheerful and hopeful than to be 40 years old.

—Oliver Wendell Holmes

I can tell you that the pain of living is worth it. That if you live, your life will be as full of love as it is darkness, and for every moment of pain, you'll have one of joy too.

—Emily Henry in The Love That Split the World

Sometimes you have to let go of the picture of what you thought life would be like and learn to find joy in the story you are actually living.

—Rachel Marie Martin in The Brave Art of Motherhood

There are those who give with joy, and that joy is their reward.

—Kahlil Gibran

The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware.

—Henry Miller

This is the most joyful day that ever I saw in my pilgrimage on earth.

—Donald Cargill