Jamie Cat Callan > Quotes

“Joie de vivre is about loving life, loving people, loving to be alive, feeling alive. It is about smiling, being in your heart, and being grateful for all the beautiful things in your life: being in good health, being able to hear, to see, to walk, being grateful for all the lovely and loving people...”
― Jamie Cat Callan, Bonjour, Happiness!: Secrets to Finding Your Joie de Vivre

“Joie de vivre is an attitude. It's a decision you make to live a life of joy. It's an invitation to this dance called life. All you have to do is leave the door slightly ajar and listen for the music.”
― Jamie Cat Callan, Bonjour, Happiness!: Secrets to Finding Your Joie de Vivre

“This is the essence of French joie de vivre. It is a gesture. An experience. It is the fleeting moment in time that can never be repeated and must be appreciated now before it flies away, gone forever.

It's about being present and alive to the ordinary moment. It's about friendship and the knowledge that nothing lasts forever. It is Zen. And for the Frenchwoman, I believe, it is the heart of happiness.”
― Jamie Cat Callan, Bonjour, Happiness!: Secrets to Finding Your Joie de Vivre

“Many people have suggested that unhappines is not caused so much by lack, but by having so many choices it's impossible to focus on what we really want and what we need. Because of this inability to focus, we get confused and we are no longer able to see clearly who we are and what we are supposed to be doing in this world.”
― Jamie Cat Callan, Bonjour, Happiness!: Secrets to Finding Your Joie de Vivre

“Truth be told, happiness is like the artist's muse. She is very whimsical and loves to play little tricks on us. If we search too hard, happiness will slip away. And then, when we are not really concentrating on capturing her, she will suddenly appear in our peripheral vision wearing a green silk gown, winking at us.”
― Jamie Cat Callan, Bonjour, Happiness!: Secrets to Finding Your Joie de Vivre

“In America, we are entitled to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

There is no such expression in France. In fact, in France, the equivalent expression is la recherche du bonheur (looking for happiness). On the surface, this might seem as if I am splitting hairs, but if you really examine the idea of "looking" for happiness as opposed to "pursuing" happiness, you'll see there's actually a big difference.

If we're looking for something, it feels as if it's there hiding in plain sight. And all we have to do is be patient and when the room is quiet, quickly lift up the tablecloth and voilà! There it is! Happiness!

On the other hand, pursuing implies a kind of chasing after something.

"Looking for happiness" seems gentler. There is happiness and we just need to look.”
― Jamie Cat Callan, Bonjour, Happiness!: Secrets to Finding Your Joie de Vivre

“Time is money"

This expression says so much about our culture. If time is money, then when we do something that does not involve getting paid, is it a waste of time? A waste of money?”
― Jamie Cat Callan, Bonjour, Happiness!: Secrets to Finding Your Joie de Vivre

“You could say that food is love. And to feel loved is to feel happy.”
― Jamie Cat Callan, Bonjour, Happiness!: Secrets to Finding Your Joie de Vivre

“Perhaps happiness is in the eyes of our loved ones and we only need to look, to put on some music, take their hand and dance. It's not something we can truly own. We certainly can't purchase it.”
― Jamie Cat Callan, Bonjour, Happiness!: Secrets to Finding Your Joie de Vivre

“Happiness often comes in the most unlikely and unexpected situations, when we are not really looking for it.”
― Jamie Cat Callan, Bonjour, Happiness!: Secrets to Finding Your Joie de Vivre

“I think joie de vivre as optimism about one's life and the ability to enjoy what you have without worrying too much about what you don't. Finding joy in the everyday isn't necessarily easy, but it helps a lot to share your life with someone you love.”
― Jamie Cat Callan, Bonjour, Happiness!: Secrets to Finding Your Joie de Vivre

“Oh, and we shopped! And since I was on a budget, I also did a lot of simple window shopping, or as the French say, le lèche-vitrines: "we licked the window".”
― Jamie Cat Callan, Bonjour, Happiness!: Secrets to Finding Your Joie de Vivre

“And actually, the word "happiness" translates as bonheur in French, which literally means "a good hour" or "good time". It's something you experience.”
― Jamie Cat Callan, Bonjour, Happiness!: Secrets to Finding Your Joie de Vivre

“With all our success and expensive vacations, our big houses and bigger mortgages and our brand-new cars - have we become so satiated that we're really a little miserable, feeling a little let down by the pursuit of material goods? And have we forgotten how to find simple, old-fashioned, down-to-earth happiness?”
― Jamie Cat Callan, Bonjour, Happiness!: Secrets to Finding Your Joie de Vivre

“How many cares one loses when one decides not to be something, but to be someone. —COCO CHANEL”
― Jamie Cat Callan, Ooh La La!:: French Women’s Secrets to Feeling Beautiful Every Day

“Take care of yourself. Find a good color. Don’t eat so much. Develop your personality. Dress for yourself.”
― Jamie Cat Callan, Ooh La La!:: French Women’s Secrets to Feeling Beautiful Every Day

“Treated without respect, food can be dangerous stuff. It can nourish you and at the same time, it can destroy you.”
― Jamie Cat Callan, Bonjour, Happiness!: Secrets to Finding Your Joie de Vivre

“Inherent in the French concept of happinness is the knowledge that time is limited and joy is fleeting. It's a moment, never to be repeated.”
― Jamie Cat Callan, Bonjour, Happiness!: Secrets to Finding Your Joie de Vivre

“Then I remembered how my Weight Watchers leader told us to 'walk the circumference of the supermarket', meaning to avoid the aisles in the middle that held the most dangerous foods: the processed foods, the foods full of sugary and fatty goodness. She told us to stick to the outside - the dairy, meat, fish, and produces aisles. So I did.”
― Jamie Cat Callan, Bonjour, Happiness!: Secrets to Finding Your Joie de Vivre

“That's the nice thing about struggling with weight - it often forces you to be creative and to appreciate scarves, hats, boots & bijoux.”
― Jamie Cat Callan, Bonjour, Happiness!: Secrets to Finding Your Joie de Vivre

“Put away your iPhone and embrace those found moments in your life, when you are alone and quiet and you really have nothing to do but stare out a window.”
― Jamie Cat Callan, Ooh La La!:: French Women’s Secrets to Feeling Beautiful Every Day

“if each of us truly knows and understands where we come from and what our style origins might be, then there is no need for comparison, or competition or jealousy, because each of us can take our own unique path.”
― Jamie Cat Callan, Parisian Charm School: French Secrets for Cultivating Love, Joy, and That Certain je ne sais quoi

“Quiet your mind. Now, ask yourself, who are you truly? Who are you meant to be?”
― Jamie Cat Callan, Bonjour, Happiness!

“The French will always choose something pleasurable over “work.”
― Jamie Cat Callan, Ooh La La!:: French Women’s Secrets to Feeling Beautiful Every Day

“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was greater than the risk it took to bloom. —ANAÏS NIN”
― Jamie Cat Callan, Ooh La La!:: French Women’s Secrets to Feeling Beautiful Every Day

“As Americans, we’re all about independence and self-service, but the French are all about inter-relatedness and service.”
― Jamie Cat Callan, Ooh La La!:: French Women’s Secrets to Feeling Beautiful Every Day

“Never fear vulgar, just boring. We all need a splash of bad taste; no taste is what I am against.”
― Jamie Cat Callan, Bonjour, Happiness!

“Begin to see yourself as the heroine of your own life.”
― Jamie Cat Callan, Ooh La La!:: French Women’s Secrets to Feeling Beautiful Every Day