Joyce Carol Oates Quotes

I like taking my time and seeing the things around me and appreciating the now. I started to realize that the things that helped me do that were these things that brought me love, brought me joy. And if we're all just falling towards an eventual end, falling towards the ground, then these things are parachutes.

Let us not bankrupt our todays by paying interest on the regrets of yesterday and by borrowing in advance the troubles of tomorrow.

Be reverent before the dawning day. Do not think of what will be in a year, or in ten years. Think of to-day.

For just one second, look at your life and see how perfect it is. Stop looking for the next secret door that is going to lead you to your real life. Stop waiting. This is it: there's nothing else. It's here, and you'd better decide to enjoy it or you're going to be miserable wherever you go, for the rest of your life, forever.

Each moment is magical, precious and complete and will never exist again. We forget that now is the moment we are in, that the next one isn't guaranteed. And if we are blessed with another moment, any joy, creativity or wisdom it brings will ensue from the way we live in the present one.

Life is a great and wondrous mystery, and the only thing we know that we have for sure is what is right here right now. Don't miss it.

Sometimes we are only aware of how happy we are when the moment has passed. But now and again, if we are very lucky, we are aware of happiness when it is actually happening.

Life is not made up of minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, or years, but of moments. You must experience each one before you can appreciate it.

If you pay close attention to each day, you will discover the magic moment.

Every moment is an eternity in itself. Bliss is the present moment and each and everyone of us needs to understand this.

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.

I know that the purpose of life is to understand and be in the present moment with the people you love. It's just that simple.

Most humans are never fully present in the now, because unconsciously they believe that the next moment must be more important than this one. But then you miss your whole life, which is never not now.

Reflect upon your present blessings of which every man has many - not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.

I's taken me a great deal to get here. I don't plan on missing anything.

Make treating yourself a priority and always remember your life is happening now. Don't put off all your dreams and pleasures to another day. In any balanced personal definition of success there has to be a powerful element of living life in the present.

We live from day to day and get as much joy out of experiencing as we can.

Not only will this make you treat each moment more preciously, but you will be more patient with yourself and with others, recognizing that there are millions of moments on the path to any worthwhile achievement.

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.

What I have learned over the years is to try to stay in the moment. I want to feel it all because I've realized nothing lasts.

I don't regret the passing of time. I try to live in the present, which should mean my life's full.

When you stop comparing what is right here and now with what you wish were, you can begin to enjoy what is.

I have learned to live each day as it comes, and not to borrow trouble by dreading tomorrow. It is the dark menace of the future that makes cowards of us.

I think it's really important to live in the moment.

You have to pay attention to the moment and make it the best it can be for you. I've been trying to do that. It's really made a major difference for me. I'm a happier person.