When you’re searching for inspiration in this crazy world, sometimes it’s the simple things that hold the most meaning. Of course, grand gestures and milestone moments, like getting married, buying your first house, or for students graduating from college, are often the ones that stick out in our memories. But as we strive to live the good life, we should consider taking the scenic route and actually “stop and smell the roses,” like the old sentiment encourages. There are soul-feeding surprises at every turn—from nature, people, and art—that act as nuggets of hope, happiness, and home, if we just take time to notice them.
Here, we’ve curated 57 quotes that speak to the art of slowing down and appreciating life’s simple pleasures. And although many of the happy life quotes in this roundup are inspired by life in the country, it’s really all about your state of mind. Whether you live in the city or the country, on a paved avenue or a gravel road, in an apartment or a big white farmhouse, these sayings show us that how you live is more important than where you live.
So whenever and wherever you need that breath of fresh air, we hope these pictures and words deliver just that. Here are our best famous inspirational quotes that, in the words of author E.B. White, will help you to "Always be on the lookout for the presence of wonder."
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1
Mark Twain
"The secret of getting ahead is getting started."
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2
Unknown
“Spring breathes new life into the world around us.”
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3
Henry James
“Summer afternoon—summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.”
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4
John Yemma
“Patina is the value that age puts on an object.”
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5
E.B. White
“Always be on the lookout for the presence of wonder.”
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6
Author Evelyn Waugh
“If it could only be like this always—always summer, always alone, the fruit always ripe.”
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7
Roland A. Browne
“I don’t know whether nice people tend to grow roses or growing roses makes people nice.”
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8
Unknown
“A bad day camping is better than a good day working.”
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9
Poet Charmaine J. Forde
“Don’t wait until the fourth Thursday in November, to sit with family and friends to give thanks. Make every day a day of Thanksgiving!”
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10
Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Our admiration of the antique is not admiration of the old, but of the natural.”
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11
Anonymous
"Kindness is like snow—it beautifies everything it covers."
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12
Françios de Malherbe
“And the fruits will outdo what the flowers have promised.”
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13
Christina Rossetti
“There is no time like spring, when life’s alive in everything.”
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14
attributed to Greek philosopher Pythagoras
“Leave the roads; take the trails.”
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15
Emily Dickinson
“A Light exists in Spring Not present on the Year At any other period—When March is scarcely here.”
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16
Gregory Maguire
“Animals are born who they are, accept it, and that is that. They live in greater peace than people do.”
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17
Oprah Winfrey
“You are not built to shrink down to less but to blossom into more.”
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18
Rainier Maria Rilke
“And now let us believe in a long year that is given to us, new, untouched, full of things that have never been.”
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19
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Design: Emily Schiff-Slater
"Earth laughs in flowers."
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20
Aesop
Design: Emily Schiff-Slater
"It is not only fine feathers that make fine birds."