Four Book Quotes that Remind Us Of the Exquisite Joy to Be Found in Small Moments

“Although Bertha Young was thirty she still had moments like this when she wanted to run instead

of walk, to take dancing steps on and off the pavement, to bowl a hoop, to throw something up in the air

and catch it again, or to stand still and laugh at - nothing - at nothing, simply.  What can you do if

you are thirty and, turning the corner of your own street, you are overcome, suddenly by a feeling

of bliss - absolute bliss! - as though you'd suddenly swallowed a bright piece of that late afternoon

sun and it burned in your bosom, sending out a little shower of sparks into every particle,

into every finger and toe?” 

                                                                                ---Katherine Mansfield, "Bliss"

"I became aware of the world's tenderness, the profound beneficence of all that surrounded me,

the blissful bond between me and all of creation, and I realized that the joy I sought in you

was not only secreted within you, but breathed around me everywhere, in the speeding

street sounds, in the hem of a comically lifted skirt, in the metallic yet tender drone of the wind,

in the autumn clouds bloated with rain. I realized that the world does not represent a struggle at all,

or a predaceous sequence of chance events, but the shimmering bliss, beneficent trepidation,

a gift bestowed upon us and unappreciated. "

                                                                                ---Vladimir Nabokov, "Beneficience"

                                                                      

“As I ate the oysters with their strong taste of the sea and their faint metallic taste that

the cold white wine washed away, leaving only the sea taste and the succulent texture,

and as I drank their cold liquid from each shell and washed it down with the crisp taste

of the wine, I lost the empty feeling and began to be happy and to make plans.” 

                                                                                ---Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast

“Always when I woke up, I had the feeling which I am sure must be natural to all of us, a joy in being alive. I don’t say you feel it consciously – you don’t – but there you are, you are alive, and you open your eyes, and here is another day; another step as it were, on your journey to an unknown place. That very exciting journey which is your life. Not that it is necessarily going to be exciting as a life, but it will be exciting to you because it is your life. That is one of the great secrets of existence, enjoying the gift of life that has been given to you.”

                                                                        ---Agatha Christie, Autobiography

Photos are from my April trip to Paris.

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Each Tuesday That Artsy Reader Girl assigns a topic and then post her top ten list that fits that topic. You’re more than welcome to join her and create your own top ten (or 2, 5, 20, etc.) list as well. Feel free to put a unique spin on the topic to make it work for you! Please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own post so that others know where to find more information.