Non-religious quotes for holiday cards
October 22, 2015 12:28 PM   Subscribe

I'm mailing holiday cards out this year to our friends and family, who span many religious denominations and traditions. What are meaningful, non-Bible quotes or verses appropriate for a holiday card, centered around love, contemplation, peace, winter, togetherness and/or gratitude?

There are some good ideas in this AskMe thread from 2007, but they're more solemn/naturalistic than I'm looking for. I'm looking for thoughtful, beautiful, non-saccharine quotes. Will be accompanied by photo of spouse and I at a national park.

Both spouse and I grew up Christian but I am now Unitarian Universalist and spouse is an atheist. Our friends and family are Jewish, Christian, Buddhist, atheist, agnostic, Hindu and more.
posted by rogerrogerwhatsyourrvectorvicto to Religion & Philosophy (15 answers total) 19 users marked this as a favorite
 
Do they have to be famous quotes, or can they be just sentiments? Like, would "Wishing you peace and light through the darkness of winter" work? Or "We are grateful that we have you to help light our darkest days through the winter months" or something like that?
posted by Mrs. Pterodactyl at 12:37 PM on October 22, 2015 [3 favorites]


Response by poster: Thanks for the question Mrs. Pterodactyl! I would like it to be famous quotes attributed to the person who said it.
posted by rogerrogerwhatsyourrvectorvicto at 12:40 PM on October 22, 2015


"Be excellent to each other"
posted by poffin boffin at 12:48 PM on October 22, 2015 [7 favorites]


I like Tagore:

“You smiled and talked to me of nothing and I felt that for this I had been waiting long.”

--

“I will sit in the pupil of your eyes and that will carry your sight into the heart of the things”
posted by mrmanvir at 12:56 PM on October 22, 2015


Try GoodReads for quotes. Searches for "gratitude", "peace", and "togetherness" should help you out.
posted by GhostintheMachine at 12:58 PM on October 22, 2015


"And now we welcome the new year. Full of things that have never been." Rainer Maria Rilke

"Love is the bridge between you and everything." Rumi

"It blows you away, how this wonderful thing ever happened--me in your life, you in mine." Anne Lamott
posted by rainbowbrite at 1:02 PM on October 22, 2015 [8 favorites]


May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. - Neil Gaiman
posted by ilovewinter at 1:06 PM on October 22, 2015 [4 favorites]


The main thing is to be moved, to love, to hope, to tremble, to live. - Auguste Rodin
posted by yawper at 1:25 PM on October 22, 2015


Let the beauty we love be what we do. - Rumi
posted by yawper at 1:29 PM on October 22, 2015 [1 favorite]


If the people you're sending to have a good sense of humor, you could send the t-mas "Peace on Earth" cards from Brandon Bird...
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 1:50 PM on October 22, 2015


"Stay gold, Ponyboy. Stay gold"
--Johnny in the Outsiders

"Let us join hands in the new year in the great work before us,
The time has never been more ripe,
The present is fast nearing its doom,
Out of the chaos the future emerges in harmony and beauty"

--Emma Goldman
posted by stet at 5:12 PM on October 22, 2015 [1 favorite]


Happy Happy Joy Joy
— Ren and Stimpy
posted by mon-ma-tron at 6:08 PM on October 22, 2015 [1 favorite]


In seed-time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy. ~William Blake

Winter is on my head, but eternal spring is in my heart. ~Victor Hugo

For last year's words belong to last year's language
And next year's words await another voice.
And to make an end is to make a beginning."
- T.S. Eliot
posted by vunder at 6:22 PM on October 22, 2015


"I heard a bird sing
In the dark of December
A magical thing
And sweet to remember.

'We are nearer to Spring
Than we were in September,'
I heard a bird sing
In the dark of December."
- Oliver Herford, I Heard a Bird Sing
posted by jessamyn at 7:03 PM on October 22, 2015 [5 favorites]


This may be too long, but I will pass it on just in case ...

For The New Year, 1981
by Denise Levertov

I have a small grain of hope-
one small crystal that gleams clear colors out of transparency.

I need more.

I break off a fragment
to send to you.

Please take
this grain of a grain of hope
so that mine won't shrink.

Please share your fragment
so that yours will grow.

Only so, by division,
will hope increase,

like a clump of irises, which will cease to flower
unless you distribute
the clustered roots, unlikely source--
clumsy and earth-covered--
of grace.
posted by gudrun at 11:05 AM on October 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


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