The gladness of the heart is the life of man, and the joyfulness of a man prolongeth his days.
[εὐφροσύνη καρδίας ζωὴ ἀνθρώπου,
καὶ ἀγαλλίαμα ἀνδρὸς μακροημέρευσις.]The Bible (The Old Testament) (14th - 2nd C BC) Judeo-Christian sacred scripture [Tanakh, Hebrew Bible], incl. the Apocrypha (Deuterocanonicals)
Book 22b. Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) 30:22ff (Sir 30:22) [tr. KJV (1611)]
(Source)
More on the history and acceptance of this Apocryphal book here and here.
(Source (Greek)). Alternate translations:The joyfulness of the heart, is the life of a man, and a never failing treasure of holiness: and the joy of a man is length of life.
[tr. DRA (1899); 30:23]Gladness of heart is life to a man,
joy is what gives him length of days.
[tr. JB (1966)]Gladness of heart is life to anyone,
joy is what gives length of days.
[tr. NJB (1985)]Happiness makes for a long life and makes it worth living.
[tr. GNT (1992 ed.)]A joyful heart means life
for a human being,
and a person’s rejoicing
provides long life.
[tr. CEB (2011)]A joyful heart is life itself,
and rejoicing lengthens one’s life span.
[tr. NRSV (2021 ed.)]
Quotations about:
gladness
Note not all quotations have been tagged, so Search may find additional quotes on this topic.
Since Joys are so uncertain; take Gladness when it comes.
Thomas Fuller (1654–1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Introductio ad Prudentiam, Vol. 1, # 101 (1725)
(Source)
Your calling is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.
Frederick Buechner (b. 1926) American minister, author
The Hungering Dark (1969)
Bright college years, with pleasure rife,
The shortest, gladdest, years of life,
How bright will seem through memory’s haze,
Those happy, golden, bygone days.(Other Authors and Sources)
Yale song (c. 1900)
I have always preferred cheerfulness to mirth. The latter I consider as an act, the former as an habit of mind. Mirth is short and transient, cheerfulness fixed and permanent. Those are often raised into the greatest transports of mirth who are subject to the greatest depressions of melancholy. On the contrary, cheerfulness, though it does not give the mind such an exquisite gladness, prevents us from falling into any depths of sorrow. Mirth is like a flash of lightning, that breaks through a gloom of clouds, and glitters for a moment; cheerfulness keeps up a kind of daylight in the mind, and fills it with a steady and perpetual serenity.
Joseph Addison (1672–1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Essay (1712-05-17), The Spectator, No. 381
(Source)
I shall change their mourning into gladness, comfort them, give them joy after their troubles.
וְהָפַכְתִּ֨י אֶבְלָ֤ם לְשָׂשׂוֹן֙ וְנִ֣חַמְתִּ֔ים וְשִׂמַּחְתִּ֖ים מִיגוֹנָֽם׃
The Bible (The Old Testament) (14th - 2nd C BC) Judeo-Christian sacred scripture [Tanakh, Hebrew Bible], incl. the Apocrypha (Deuterocanonicals)
Book 24. Jeremiah 31:13 (Jer 31:13) [tr. NJB (1985)]
(Source)
(Source (Hebrew)). Other translations:For I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow.
[tr. KJV (1611)]I will comfort them and turn their mourning into joy,
their sorrow into gladness.
[tr. GNT (1976)]I will turn their mourning into joy;
I will comfort them and give them gladness for sorrow.
[tr. NRSV (1989 ed.)]I will turn their mourning to joy,
I will comfort them and cheer them in their grief.
[tr. RJPS (2023 ed.)]
Pleasure is very seldom found where it is sought. Our brightest blazes of gladness are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks. The flowers which scatter their odours from time to time in the paths of life, grow up without culture from seeds scattered by chance.
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
Essay (1759-05-26), The Idler, No. 58
(Source)
