1
If our life be one of toil and of suffering, if the world outside be cold and dreary, what a pleasure to return to the sunshine of happy faces and the warmth of hearts we love.
The complete collection
32 quotes by John Lubbock · clear filters
If our life be one of toil and of suffering, if the world outside be cold and dreary, what a pleasure to return to the sunshine of happy faces and the warmth of hearts we love.
As life wears on the love of husband or wife, of friends and of children, becomes the great solace and delight of age.
Even if we are alone, we store up our enjoyment in hope of sharing it hereafter with those we love.
Love is the light and sunshine of life.
Love lasts through life, and adapts itself to every age and circumstance; in childhood for father and mother, in manhood for wife, in age for children, and throughout for brothers and sisters, relations and friends.
Most of those who have written in praise of books have thought they could say nothing more conclusive than to compare them to friends.
Some people never seem to appreciate their friends till they have lost them.
Every one must have felt that a cheerful friend is like a sunny day, which sheds its brightness on all around; and most of us can, as we choose, make of this world either a palace or a prison.
We love the ticking of the clock, and the flicker of the fire, like the sound of the cawing of rooks, not so much for any beauty of their own as for their associations.
In this way only we can ascertain the bent of our own tastes, for it is a general, though not of course an invariable, rule, that we profit little by books which we do not enjoy.
Many readers miss much of the pleasure of reading by forcing themselves to dwell too long continuously on one subject.
Of all the privileges we enjoy in this nineteenth century there is none, perhaps, for which we ought to be more thankful than for the easier access to books.
So delightful indeed are books that we must be careful not to forget other duties for them; in cultivating the mind we must not neglect the body.
Art is unquestionably one of the purest and highest elements in human happiness.
As the sun colors flowers, so does art color life.
It has been the happy combination of art and science which has trained us to perceive the beauty which surrounds us.
Education ought not to cease when we leave school; but if well begun there, will continue through life.
Moreover, whatever our occupation or profession in life may be, it is most desirable to create for ourselves some other special interest.
Whatever may be the subject of our choice, we shall find enough, and more than enough, to repay the devotion of a lifetime.
A lunch of bread and cheese after a good walk is more enjoyable than a Lord Mayor's feast.
There is, however, a true Music of Nature,--the song of birds, the whisper of leaves, the ripple of waters upon a sandy shore, the wail of wind or sea.
In endless aspects science is as wonderful and interesting as a fairy tale.
In short, children should be trained to observe and to think, for in that way there would be opened out to them a source of the purest enjoyment for leisure hours, and the wisest judgment in the work of life.
Any one who will sit down quietly on the grass and watch a little will be indeed surprised at the number and variety of living beings, every one with a special history of its own, every one offering endless problems of great interest.
How much more interesting would every walk in the country be, if Man would but treat other animals with kindness, so that they might approach us without fear, and we might have the constant pleasure of watching their winning ways.
© 2026 Just Brands, LLC