QuoteProject
Joy and life exist nowhere but the present.
Maxine Hong Kingston
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Joy and life can only be experienced in the current moment, not in the past or future.

This quote by Maxine Hong Kingston emphasizes the importance of living in the moment. It suggests that true joy and the essence of life are found in our present experiences, rather than being tied to memories of the past or aspirations for the future. This perspective encourages mindfulness and embracing the current moment to fully appreciate life.

Themes

JoyLifePresentMindfulnessExperience

In practice

Example use cases

In a mindfulness workshop, when discussing the importance of being present.

More from Maxine Hong Kingston

When I'm teaching, I tell my students: It's all process. Don't even think of product.
Maxine Hong KingstonRead
There can't be a pure myth, especially when the myth has been handed down in the oral tradition. As the stories are told, they change. If the stories don't change they just die.
Maxine Hong KingstonRead
In a time of destruction, create something.
Maxine Hong KingstonRead
We're all under the same sky and walk the same earth; we're alive together during the same moment.
Maxine Hong KingstonRead
I learned to make my mind large, as the universe is large, so that there is room for paradoxes.
Maxine Hong KingstonRead
The work of preservation demands that the feelings playing about in one's guts not be turned into action. Just watch their passing like cherry blossoms.
Maxine Hong KingstonRead

Similar quotes

Spend the afternoon. You can't take it with you.
Annie DillardRead
You knew the sweetness of now, now, TONIGHT! who cares for tomorrow, tomorrow is nothing, yesterday is over and done, tonight live, tonight!
Ray BradburyRead
One can live at a low flame. Most people do. For some, life is an exercise in moderation (best china saved for special occasions), but given something like death, what does it matter if one looks foolish now and then, or tries too hard, or cares too _x000D_ deeply?
Diane AckermanRead
Let's face the music and dance.
Irving BerlinRead
You might get nothing out of it at all except a beautiful, long life where all you did was follow your gorgeous curiosity. And that should be enough too.
Elizabeth GilbertRead
We don't forget.... Our heads may be small, but they are as full of memories as the sky may sometimes be full of swarming bees, thousands and thousands of memories, of smells, of places, of little things that happened to us and which came back, unexpectedly, to remind us who we are.
Alexander Mccall SmithRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.

Quote by Maxine Hong Kingston | QuoteProject