Motivational Quotes

Happiness

Personal happiness lies in knowing that life is not a checklist of acquisition or achievement. Your qualifications are not your life.

- J.K. Rowling

Best Quotes about Happiness

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

Dumas, Alexandre

Happiness is not a brilliant climax to years of grim struggle and anxiety. It is a long succession of little decisions simply to be happy in the moment.

Walters, J. Donald

Remember that it is nothing to do your duty, that is demanded of you and is no more meritorious than to wash your hands when they are dirty; the only thing that counts is the love of duty; when love and duty are one, then grace is in you and you will enjoy a happiness which passes all understanding.

W. Somerset Maugham

Happiness is not having what you want, but wanting what you have.

Schachtel, Rabbi H.

Most people ask for happiness on condition. Happiness can only be felt if you don't set any condition.

Rubinstein, Arthur

True happiness comes from the joy of deeds well done, the zest of creating things new.

Saint-Exupery, Antoine De

What can be added to the happiness of a man who is in health, out of debt, and has a clear conscience?

Smith, Adam

Happiness is the longing for repetition.

Kundera, Milan

When you have once seen the glow of happiness on the face of a beloved person, you know that a man can have no vocation but to awaken that light on the faces surrounding him; and you are torn by the thought of the unhappiness and night you cast, by the mere fact of living, in the hearts you encounter.

Camus, Albert

10.

All you need for happiness is a good gun, a good horse, and a good wife.

Boone, Daniel

11.

Happiness is a how, not a what: a talent, not an object

Hesse, Hermann

12.

Those who seek happiness miss it, and those who discuss it, lack it.

Jackson, Holbrook

13.

Happiness is a matter of one's most ordinary everyday mode of consciousness being busy and lively and unconcerned with self. To be damned is for one's ordinary everyday mode of consciousness to be unremitting agonizing preoccupation with self.

Murdoch, Iris

14.

The mintage of wisdom is to know that rest is rust, and that real life is love, laughter, and work.

Hubbard, Elbert

15.

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

Apollinaire, Guillaume

16.

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

17.

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

18.

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

19.

Happiness is unrepentant pleasure.

Socrates

20.

The secret of happiness is this: let your interests be as wide as possible, and let your reactions to the things and persons that interest you be as far as possible friendly rather than hostile.

Russell, Bertrand

21.

We are long before we are convinced that happiness is never to be found; and each believes it possessed by others, to keep alive the hope of obtaining it for himself.

Johnson, Samuel

22.

Happiness is like a cat, If you try to coax it or call it, it will avoid you; it will never come. But if you pay not attention to it and go about your business, you'll find it rubbing against your legs and jumping into your lap.

Bennett, William John

23.

Happiness does not lie in happiness, but in the achievement of it.

Dostoevsky, Fyodor

24.

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

25.

Happiness is the light on the water. The water is cold and dark and deep.

Maxwell, William

26.

When what we are is what we want to be, that's happiness.

Forbes, Malcolm S.

27.

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

28.

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.

29.

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

Greene, Graham

30.

False happiness renders men stern and proud, and that happiness is never communicated. True happiness renders them kind and sensible, and that happiness is always shared.

Montesquieu, Charles De

31.

No burden is so heavy for a man to bear as a succession of happy days.

Muller, Max

32.

We think a happy life consists in tranquility of mind.

Cicero, Marcus T.

33.

Happiness is a sunbeam which may pass through a thousand bosoms without losing a particle of its original ray; nay, when it strikes on a kindred heart, like the converged light on a mirror, it reflects itself with redoubled brightness. It is not perfected till it is shared.

Porter, Jane

34.

If you cannot renounce the world the genius of happiness will never salute you.

Prutz

35.

All I can say about life is, Oh God, enjoy it!

Bob Newhart

36.

Happy are those who dream dreams and are willing to pay the price to make them come true.

37.

I cannot believe that the inscrutable universe turns on an axis of suffering; surely the strange beauty of the world must somewhere rest on pure joy!

Louise Bogan

38.

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

39.

Happiness is a continuation of happenings which are not resisted.

Chopra, Deepak

40.

Not only is there a right to be happy, there is a duty to be happy. So much sadness exists in the world that we are all under obligation to contribute as much joy as lies within our powers.

Bonnell, John S.

41.

Our happiness in this world depends on the affections we are able to inspire.

Prazlin, Duchess

42.

Happiness is a conscious choice, not an automatic response.

Barthel, Mildred

43.

Happiness... is not a destination: it is a manner of traveling. Happiness is not an end in itself. It is a by-product of working, playing, loving and living.

Ginott, Haim

44.

The happier the moment the shorter.

Pliny The Elder

45.

A great obstacle to happiness is to expect too much happiness.

Fontenelle, Bernard Le Bovier

46.

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

47.

It is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong.

Bentham, Jeremy

48.

Happiness serves hardly any other purpose than to make unhappiness possible.

Proust, Marcel

49.

They say a person needs just three things to be truly happy in this world. Someone to love, something to do, and something to hope for.

Chalmers, Allan K.

50.

True happiness arises, in the first place, from the enjoyment of one's self, and in the next, from the friendship and conversation of a few select companions.

Addison, Joseph