Quotes from Alexandra Stoddard

The art of living in today's world requires us to reach inside ourselves and search for the answers.

The supreme good—to examine everything—a life which was not devoted to such research would not be worth living. Happiness would thus consist in their never-ending quest. PLATO

To take what there is, and use it, without waiting forever in vain for the preconceived—to dig deep into the actual and get something out of that—this doubtless is the right way to live. HENRY JAMES T

Beauty, like love, makes us happy, but we have to be keenly receptive to the seduction. Until

When a person quietly reconciles himself to all the contradictions that life offers, and can comfortably ride out or flow between the banks of pleasure and pain, experiencing them both, but getting stuck in neither, then he has achieved freedom.

What we love we grow to resemble. SAINT BERNARD T

E. B. White, who once wrote, "I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve (or save) the world and a desire to enjoy (or savor) the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.

To thine own self be true. SHAKESPEARE

Every day look at a beautiful picture, read a beautiful poem, listen to some beautiful music, and if possible, say some reasonable thing. GOETHE

Let us train our minds to desire what the situation demands. It is best to bear what can't be altered. SENECA

The little troubles and worries of life, so many of which we meet, may be as stumbling blocks in our way, or we may make them stepping stones to a noble character.

I think of myself as the little girl Renoir painted with the watering can. I loved the garden colors.

We can finish a house, but never a home. Once you fall in love with a house, you find continual pleasures in fixing it up and making innovations that satisfy your creature's comforts.

I get all dressed up in fuchsia, looking like a clown, and show pretty pictures to people.

Make your physical surroundings as beautiful as possible.

I feel very strongly we are spiritual beings in a physical body, and we should make our surroundings as beautiful and soulful as possible.

Be kind to yourself, to others and everything around you.

My grandfather was a Methodist preacher, and my father was an unsuccessful businessman. We didn't have status or wealth.

Don't feel you have to buy something to sit in or at. Buy something you are emotionally attached to and build your design around that. One Matisse cutout poster could provide you with your whole color scheme!

Being a decorator allowed me to see what about people's environments made them happy. And what things they could do to have more light and color and joy in their daily lives.

Happiness is the first principle of life. Happiness basically means well-being. It is always good and always a choice... We need to make the choice to be happy in a particular situation, just as it is, and at a given moment.

How we feel about ourselves as we read the newspaper, set the table, wash the dishes, recycle the trash and wash our clothes... is essential to our overall happiness and well-being.

I don't want to go anywhere; I don't want to leave anybody behind. Happiness is right here, right now, in this world, in this room. I am happiest wherever it is that I am.

This may shock you, but the most important person in your life is you. You are meant to be 'full of yourself.