"Are you proving that the Christian life is a joyful, happy thing? Do you look glad that you are a Christian? Does your life radiate joy and enthusiasm? Check yourself carefully on this before you teach it. Make the Christian life contagious." - Henrietta Mears in Dream Big: The Henrietta Mears Story
"The modern world has had far too little understanding of the art of keeping young. Its notion of progress has been to pile one thing on top of another, without caring if each thing was crushed in turn. People forgot that the human soul can enjoy a thing most when there is time to think about it and be thankful for it. And by crowding things together they lost the sense of surprise; and surprise is the secret of joy." - G.K. Chesterton
"The Bible talks plentifully about joy, but it nowhere talks about a 'happy Christian.' Happiness depends on what happens; joy does not. Remember, Jesus Christ had joy, and He prays 'that they might have My joy fulfilled in themselves." - Oswald Chambers in Run Today's Race
"Joy is not the same as pleasure or happiness. A wicked and evil man may have pleasure, while any ordinary mortal is capable of being happy. Pleasure generally comes from things, and always through the senses; happiness comes from humans through fellowship. Joy comes from loving God and neighbor. Pleasure is quick and violent, like a flash of lightning. Joy is steady and abiding, like a fixed star. Pleasure depends on external circumstances, such as money, food, travel, etc. Joy is independent of them, for it comes from a good conscience and love of God." - Fulton J. Sheen in Fulton J. Sheen's Guide to Contentment
"I once shared a platform with the nearly blind theologian Joseph Sittler, a man who really saw, and heard. He was asked, 'If you had to reduce a call for reformation of the church to one sentence, what would it say?' His answer: 'Watch your language.' The rest - including action for justice - follows language, speech, encouragement, judgment, and the like." - Martin Marty in Context, April 15, 1998
