Motivational Quotes

Happiness

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

Best Quotes about Happiness

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

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

Sometimes it's hard to avoid the happiness of others.

David Assael

Remember that very little is needed to make a happy life.

Aurelius, Marcus

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

Happiness makes up in height for what it lacks in length.

Robert Frost

Happiness is a by product of an effort to make someone else happy.

Palmer, Gretta Brooker

Happiness is like those palaces in fairy tales whose gates are guarded by dragons: we must fight in order to conquer it.

Dumas, Alexandre

The two enemies of human happiness are pain and boredom.

Schopenhauer, Arthur

10.

Happiness is that state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one's values.

Ayn Rand

11.

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

12.

Enjoy your happiness while you have it, and while, you have it do not too closely scrutinize its foundation.

Farrall, Joseph

13.

To be happy in this world, especially when youth is past, it is necessary to feel oneself not merely an isolated individual whose day will soon be over, but part of the stream of life slowing on from the first germ to the remote and unknown future.

Russell, Bertrand

14.

If thou wilt make a man happy, add not unto his riches but take away from his desires.

Epicurus

15.

If frugality were established in the state, and if our expenses were laid out to meet needs rather than superfluities of life, there might be fewer wants, and even fewer pleasures, but infinitely more happiness.

Goldsmith, Oliver

16.

The discovery of a new dish does more for human happiness than the discovery of a new star.

Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

17.

If you pursue happiness you never find it.

Snow, C(harles) P(ercy)

18.

If you want happiness for an hour -- take a nap. If you want happiness for a day -- go fishing. If you want happiness for a month -- get married. If you want happiness for a year -- inherit a fortune. If you want happiness for a lifetime -- help someone else.

Proverb, Chinese

19.

Happiness includes chiefly the idea of satisfaction after full honest effort. No one can possibly be satisfied and no one can be happy who feels that in some paramount affairs he failed to take up the challenge of life.

Bennett, Arnold

20.

It is wrong to assume that men of immense wealth are always happy.

Rockefeller, John D.

21.

There is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way.

Dyer, Wayne

22.

What makes people happy is activity; changing evil itself into good by power, working in a God like manner.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

23.

In order to be truly happy, you must live along with, and you must stand for something larger than yourself.

Oprah Winfrey

24.

Now and then it's good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy.

Apollinaire, Guillaume

25.

It is in the compelling zest of high adventure and of victory, and in creative action, that man finds his supreme joys.

Saint-Exupery, Antoine De

26.

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

Greene, Graham

27.

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

Goodman, Roy

28.

Nothing is miserable unless you think it so; and on the other hand, nothing brings happiness unless you are content with it.

Jonathan Haidt

29.

What ever our wandering our happiness will always be found within a narrow compass, and in the middle of the objects more immediately within our reach.

Bulwer-Lytton, Edward G.

30.

Act happy, feel happy, be happy, without a reason in the world. Then you can love, and do what you will.

Millman, Dan

31.

To buy happiness is to sell soul.

Horton, Doug

32.

Often people attempt to live their lives backwards; they try to have more things, or more money, in order to do more of what they want, so they will be happier.

Young, Margaret

33.

Happiness is the longing for repetition.

Kundera, Milan

34.

Happiness is not a goal, it is a by-product.

Roosevelt, Eleanor

35.

Happiness is not a reward -- it is a consequence. Suffering is not a punishment -- it is a result.

Ingersoll, Robert Green

36.

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

Richter, Jean Paul

37.

Happiness lies in being privileged to work hard for long hours in doing whatever you think is worth doing. One man may find happiness in supporting a wife and children. Another may find it in robbing banks. Still another may labor mightily for years in pursuing pure research with no discernible result. Note the individual and subjective nature of each case. No two are alike and there is no reason to expect them to be. Each man or woman must find for himself or herself that occupation in which hard work and long hours make him or her happy. Contrariwise, if you are looking for shorter hours and longer vacations and early retirement, you are in the wrong job. Perhaps you need to take up bank robbing. Or geeking in a sideshow. Or even politics.

Heinlein, Robert

38.

Objects we ardently pursue bring little happiness when gained; most of our pleasures come from unexpected sources.

Spencer, Herbert

39.

There are two ways of being happy: We must either diminish our wants or augment our means -- either may do -- the result is the same and it is for each man to decide for himself and to do that which happens to be easier.

Franklin, Benjamin

40.

There is no greater joy than that of feeling oneself a creator. The triumph of life is expressed by creation.

Bergson, Henri L.

41.

Happiness must be cultivated. It is like character. It is not a thing to be safely let alone for a moment, or it will run to weeds.

Phelps, Elizabeth Stuart

42.

The bird of paradise alights only upon the hand that does not grasp.

John Berry

43.

The only true happiness comes from squandering ourselves for a purpose.

William Cowper

44.

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

The laws of Manu

45.

No man is happy; he is at best fortunate.

Solon

46.

It is the paradox of life that the way to miss pleasure is to seek it first. The very first condition of lasting happiness is that a life should be full of purpose, aiming at something outside self.

Black, Hugo

47.

The secret of happiness is not in doing what one likes, but in liking what one does.

Barrie, Sir James M.

48.

Work and live to serve others, to leave the world a little better than you found it and garner for yourself as much peace of mind as you can. This is happiness.

Sarnoff, David

49.

It is pretty hard to tell what does bring happiness; poverty and wealth have both failed.

Kin Hubbard

50.

Very little is needed to make a happy life.

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus