“It is difficult to know what to do with so much happiness.”

— Naomi Shihab Nye, So Much Happiness, Words Under the Words, 1995

About Naomi Shihab Nye

Born 1952

Palestinian-American poet and author.

“Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside, you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.”

“It is really hard to be lonely very long in a world of words.”

“Writers, believers in words, could not give up words when the going got rough.”

“Isn't it a pleasure to study and practice what you have learned?”

“The wise find pleasure in water; the virtuous find pleasure in hills.”

“Therefore the wise man is always happy.”

“No one can be happy without virtue.”

“Man is unhappy because he doesn't know he's happy. It's only that.”

“Let us choose truth, let us choose honor, and let us choose joy!”