Motivational Quotes

Happiness

But the whim we have of happiness is somewhat thus. By certain valuations, and averages, of our own striking, we come upon some sort of average terrestrial lot; this we fancy belongs to us by nature, and of indefeasible rights. It is simple payment of our wages, of our deserts; requires neither thanks nor complaint. Foolish soul! What act of legislature was there that thou shouldst be happy? A little while ago thou hadst no right to be at all.

- Carlyle, Thomas

Best Quotes about Happiness

Farms and in castles, in homes, studies, and cloisters -- where sensible people manage to live relatively lusty and decent lives, as moral as they must be, as free as they may be, and as masterly as they can be. If we only knew it, this elusive arrangement is happiness.

Erikson, Erik H.

No man is happy who does not think himself so.

Publilius Syrus

Many people have the wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification, but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.

Keller, Helen

The happy think a lifetime short, but to the unhappy one night can be an eternity.

Lucian

When we recall the past, we usually find that it is the simplest things -- not the great occasions -- that in retrospect give off the greatest glow of happiness.

Hope, Bob

Look up, laugh loud, talk big, keep the color in your cheek and the fire in your eye, adorn your person, maintain your health, your beauty and your animal spirits.

Hazlitt, William

If you want to be happy for a year, plant a garden; If you want to be happy for life, plant a tree.

Proverb, English

Remember that happiness is a way of travel, not a destination.

Goodman, Roy

Point me out the happy man and I will point you out either egotism, selfishness, evil --or else an absolute ignorance.

Greene, Graham

10.

Happiness, that grand mistress of the ceremonies in the dance of life, impels us through all its mazes and meandering, but leads none of us by the same route

Colton, Charles Caleb

11.

If we cannot live so as to be happy, let us so live as to deserve happiness.

Fichte, Johann G.

12.

Shall I give you my recipe for happiness? I find everything useful and nothing indispensable. I find everything wonderful and nothing miraculous. I reverence the body. I avoid first causes like the plague.

Douglas, Norman

13.

Happiness comes more from loving than being loved; and often when our affection seems wounded it is only our vanity bleeding. To love, and to be hurt often, and to love again -- this is the brave and happy life.

Buckrose, J.E

14.

Never believe straight off in a man's unhappiness. Ask him if he can still sleep. If the answer's yes, all's well. That is enough.

Celine, Louis-Ferdinand

15.

The great end of all human industry is the attainment of happiness. For this were arts invented, sciences cultivated, laws ordained, and societies modeled, by the most profound wisdom of patriots and legislators. Even the lonely savage, who lies exposed to the inclemency of the elements and the fury of wild beasts, forgets not, for a moment, this grand object of his being.

Hume, David

16.

The smallest annoyances, disturb us the most.

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

17.

Happiness does not come from doing easy work but from the afterglow of satisfaction that comes after the achievement of a difficult task that demanded our best.

Rubin, Theodore I.

18.

Happiness: a good bank account, a good cook and a good digestion.

Jean Jacques Rousseau

19.

Joy comes from using your potential.

Schultz, Will

20.

Scarcely one person in a thousand is capable of tasting the happiness of others.

Fielding, Henry

21.

Happiness is not pleasure, it is victory.

Ziglar, Zig

22.

Joy descends gently upon us like the evening dew, and does not patter down like a hailstorm.

Richter, Jean Paul

23.

Happiness is not so much in having or sharing. We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.

Macewan, Norman

24.

The time to be happy is now. The place to be happy is here. The way to be happy is to make others so.

25.

The world's literature and folklore are full of stories that point out how futile it can be to seek happiness. Rather, happiness is a blessing that comes to you as you go along; a treasure that you incidentally find.

Binstock, Louis

26.

The greatest happiness you can have is knowing that you do not necessarily require happiness.

Saroyan, William

27.

Happiness is not something you postpone for the future; it is something you design for the present.

Rohn, Jim

28.

We tend to forget that happiness doesn't come as a result of getting something we don't have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have.

Koenig, Frederick

29.

If happiness is activity in accordance with excellence, it is reasonable that it should be in accordance with the highest excellence.

Aristotle

30.

The journey to happiness involves finding the courage to go down into ourselves and take responsibility for what's there: all of it.

Rohr, Richard

31.

Happiness is good for the body but sorrow strengthens the spirit.

32.

Even if happiness forgets you a little bit, never completely forget about it.

Prevert, Jacques

33.

Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.

Wilde, Oscar

34.

Happiness is a by-product. You cannot pursue it by itself.

Levenson, Samuel

35.

Happiness in this world, when it comes, comes incidentally. Make it the object of pursuit, and it leads us a wild-goose chase, and is never attained.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel

36.

Do not weep; do not wax indignant. Understand.

Baruch Spinoza

37.

Happiness ain't a thing in itself --it's only a contrast with something that ain't pleasant. And so, as soon as the novelty is over and the force of the contrast dulled, it ain't happiness any longer, and you have to get something fresh.

Twain, Mark

38.

Happiness consists in activity -- it is a running stream, not a stagnant pool.

Mason, John L.

39.

Happiness is not being pained in body or troubled in mind.

Jefferson, Thomas

40.

We are made happy when reason can discover no occasion for it. The memory of some past moments is more persuasive than the experience of present ones. There have been visions of such breadth and brightness that these motes were invisible in their light.

Thoreau, Henry David

41.

Depend not on another, but lean instead on thyself...True happiness is born of self-reliance.

The laws of Manu

42.

Happiness arises in a state of peace, not of tumult.

Ann Radcliffe

43.

I'm fulfilled in what I do... I never thought that a lot of money or fine clothes -- the finer things of life -- would make you happy. My concept of happiness is to be filled in a spiritual sense.

King, Coretta Scott

44.

I define joy as a sustained sense of well-being and internal peace - a connection to what matters.

Oprah Winfrey

45.

Some of us might find happiness if we quit struggling so desperately for it.

Feather, William

46.

Be open to your happiness and sadness as they arise.

Thomas, John M.

47.

Gaiety --a quality of ordinary men. Genius always presupposes some disorder in the machine.

Diderot, Denis

48.

The secret of happiness and prosperity in this world, as in the world to come, lies in thinking of the welfare of others first, and not taking one's self too seriously.

Kindleberger, J.

49.

Carlyle, Thomas

50.

Happiness is a conscious choice, not an automatic response.

Barthel, Mildred