Motivational Quotes

Happiness

It is not God's will merely that we should be happy, but that we should make ourselves happy

- Kant, Immanuel

Best Quotes about Happiness

Unhappiness is not knowing what we want, and killing ourselves to get it.

Herold, Don

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

Prutz

It's not a question of happiness, it's a requirement. Consider the alternative.

Horton, Doug

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.

Where one is wise two are happy.

Proverb

Laughing is the sensation of feeling good all over and showing it principally in one spot.

Josh Billings

The human spirit needs to accomplish, to achieve, to triumph to be happy.

Stein, Ben

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

Jonathan Haidt

He felt the loyalty we feel to unhappiness -- the sense that is where we really belong.

Greene, Graham

10.

We are never so happy nor so unhappy as we imagine.

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De

11.

The greatest happiness is to know the source of unhappiness.

Dostoevsky, Fyodor

12.

There are seeds of self-destruction in all of us that will bear only unhappiness if allowed to grow.

Brande, Dorothea

13.

For who is pleased with himself.

Johnson, Samuel

14.

Happiness consists more in small conveniences of pleasures that occur every day, than in great pieces of good fortune that happen but seldom to a man in the course of his life.

Franklin, Benjamin

15.

The Greeks said grandly in their tragic phrase, Let no one be called happy till his death; to which I would add, Let no one, till his death be called unhappy.

Browning, Elizabeth Barrett

16.

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

17.

It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness.

Spurgeon, Charles Haddon

18.

What happiness is there which is not purchased with more or less of pain?

Oliphant, Margaret

19.

The pursuit of happiness is a most ridiculous phrase; if you pursue happiness you'll never find it.

C. P. Snow

20.

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

Richter, Jean Paul

21.

The attitude of unhappiness is not only painful, it is mean and ugly. What can be more base and unworthy than the pining, puling, mumping mood, no matter by what outward ills it may have been engendered? What is more injurious to others? What less helpful as a way out of the difficulty? It but fastens and perpetuates the trouble which occasioned it, and increases the total evil of the situation. At all costs, then, we ought to reduce the sway of that mood; we ought to scout it in ourselves and others, and never show it tolerance.

James, William

22.

Happiness is always a by-product. It is probably a matter of temperament, and for anything I know it may be glandular. But it is not something that can be demanded from life, and if you are not happy you had better stop worrying about it and see what treasures you can pluck from your own brand of unhappiness.

Robertson Davies

23.

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

Fielding, Henry

24.

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

25.

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

Epicurus

26.

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

Aurelius, Marcus

27.

The loss of wealth is loss of dirt, as sages in all times assert; The happy man's without a shirt.

Heywood, John

28.

Do you want my one-word secret of happiness -- It's growth -- mental, financial, you name it.

Geneen, Harold S.

29.

Very little is needed to make a happy life.

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

30.

Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude.

Waitley, Denis

31.

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

32.

Happiness is the only good. The time to be happy is now. The place to be happy is here. The way to be happy is to make others so.

Ingersoll, Robert Green

33.

To be happy we must not be too concerned with others.

Camus, Albert

34.

Happiness is an imaginary condition, formerly often attributed by the living to the dead, now usually attributed by adults to children, and by children to adults.

Szasz, Thomas

35.

The secret of happiness is to make others believe they are the cause of it.

Al Batt

36.

Happiness is a small and unworthy goal for something as big and fancy as a whole lifetime, and should be taken in small doses.

Baker, Russell (Wayne)

37.

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

Apollinaire, Guillaume

38.

Suspicion of happiness is in our blood.

Lucas, E. V.

39.

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

40.

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

41.

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

42.

We find greatest joy, not in getting, but in expressing what we are. Men do not really live for honors or for pay; their gladness is not the taking and holding, but in doing, the striving, the building, the living. It is a higher joy to teach than to be taught. It is good to get justice, but better to do it; fun to have things but more to make them. The happy man is he who lives the life of love, not for the honors it may bring, but for the life itself.

Baughan, R.J.

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.

Nothing is funnier than unhappiness, I grant you that. Yes, yes, it's the most comical thing in the world.

Beckett, Samuel

45.

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

Muller, Max

46.

Happiness is like a sunbeam, which the least shadow intercepts, while adversity is often as the rain of spring.

Proverb, Chinese

47.

Happiness is the act of being tough with ourselves and tender with others.

48.

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

49.

The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness.

Hoffer, Eric

50.

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