Jamaica Kincaid Quotes

There is something about the present which we would not exchange, though we were offered a choice of all past ages to live in.

It isn't the great big pleasures that count the most; it's making a great deal out of the little ones--I've discovered the true secret of happiness, Daddy, and that is to live in the now. Not to be for ever regretting the past, or anticipating the future; but to get the most that you can out of this very instant.

If you try to live that which is past, that which IS will bypass you.

I do think it's important to live in the present because in that way you won't be living in a state of regret.

Happiness in the present is only shattered by comparison with the past.

I really - I try not to look ahead too far into the future and really just appreciate the here and now.

There's nothing I miss about anything in the whole wide world. The idea of missing something means you're not living in the moment. Every moment is good for something.

For me, it's important to concentrate to the present and leave the past.

You have to live in the present, I think.

For the first time in a long time, he didn't think of the past. And of all the things he'd lost. He thought only of the present, and what he had. And how it was so much more than he deserved. And he prayed then that he would never, ever lose it.

There are only moments. Live in this one. The happiness of these days.

Joyful let the soul be in the present, let it disdain to trouble about what is beyond and temper bitterness with a laugh. Nothing is blessed forever.

But I don't think of the future, or the past, I feast on the moment. This is the secret of happiness, but only reached now in middle age.

I am not a person who I am thinking about what I achieved or what I don't achieve. I am a person who try to enjoy the moment. That's what I do.

You ask me about the past, you ask me about the future, the only way to be happy is to be living right now.

Whatever you are doing, don't let past move your mind;don't let future disturb you. Because the past is no more, and the future is not yet.

The best gift we can have is living in the present moment and really enjoying it for what it is; and, not being in our heads and getting sidetracked.

I just consciously try to enjoy the good things that are happening. And if it ended tomorrow, that would be fine.

I've been really aware of how important it is to me to just stay in the moment and enjoy it while it lasts. Because that's all you've got. If it ends, I'll move on to doing something else. If it lasts, great.

Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life.

I'm finally locked into the now, and it's great.

You have to like the present; if not your life becomes secondhand, if you think it was better before. Or that it will be better in the future.

Suddenly, you are very much in the present, and you learn it's really the place where you should always live.

The first recipe for happiness is: avoid too lengthy meditation on the past.