Motivational Quotes

Happiness

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

Best Quotes about Happiness

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

Jean Jacques Rousseau

In order to have great happiness, you have to have great pain and unhappiness-otherwise how would you know when you're happy?

Caron, Leslie

The happiness of a man in this life does not consist in the absence but in the mastery of his passions.

Alfred Lord Tennyson

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

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.

Happiness resides not in possessions, and not in gold, happiness dwells in the soul.

Democritus

The two enemies of human happiness are pain and boredom.

Schopenhauer, Arthur

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

Jonathan Haidt

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

Palmer, Gretta Brooker

10.

We think a happy life consists in tranquility of mind.

Cicero, Marcus T.

11.

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

Spencer, Herbert

12.

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

Kant, Immanuel

13.

Seek not happiness too greedily, and be not fearful of happiness.

Lao-tzu

14.

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

Apollinaire, Guillaume

15.

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

Roy M. Goodman

16.

The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance, the wise grows it under his feet.

James Oppenheim

17.

No man is happy; he is at best fortunate.

Solon

18.

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

Rubinstein, Arthur

19.

Such happiness as life is capable of comes from the full participation of all our powers in the endeavor to wrest from each changing situations of experience its own full and unique meaning.

Dewey, John

20.

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

Boone, Daniel

21.

Happiness requires problems

Hollingworth, H. L.

22.

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

23.

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

Wilde, Oscar

24.

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

Greene, Graham

25.

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

Barrie, Sir James M.

26.

True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future, not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears but to rest satisfied with what we have, which is sufficient, for he that is so wants nothing. The great blessings of mankind are within us and within our reach. A wise man is content with his lot, whatever it may be, without wishing for what he has not.

Seneca

27.

Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.

Dalai Lama

28.

We cannot be contented because we are happy, and we cannot be happy because we are contented.

Landor, Walter Savage

29.

The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance; The wise grows it under his feet.

Oppenheimer, Julius Robert

30.

Happiness is not a horse, you cannot harness it.

Proverb, Russian

31.

While we pursue happiness, we flee from contentment.

Proverb, Hasidic

32.

Happiness consists of three things; Someone to love, work to do, and a clear conscience.

33.

That which you create in beauty and goodness and truth lives on for all time to come. Don't spend your life accumulating material objects that will only turn to dust and ashes.

Waitley, Denis

34.

Happiness... she loves, to see men at work. She loves sweat, weariness, self sacrifice. She will be found not in places but lurking in cornfields and factories; and hovering over littered desks; she crowns the unconscious head of the busy child.

Grayson, David

35.

All of our unhappiness comes from our inability to be alone.

La Bruyere, Jean De

36.

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

37.

We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about.

Kingsley, Charles

38.

Happiness lies neither in vice nor in virtue; but in the manner we appreciate the one and the other, and the choice we make pursuant to our individual organization.

Sade, Marquis De

39.

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

Proverb, Chinese

40.

My happiness derives from knowing the people I love are happy.

Ketchel, Holly

41.

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

Dyer, Wayne

42.

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

Fichte, Johann G.

43.

I am learning to understand rather than immediately judge or to be judged. I cannot blindly follow the crowd and accept their approach. I will not allow myself to indulge in the usual manipulating game of role creation. Fortunately for me, my self-knowledge has transcended that and I have come to understand that life is best to be lived and not to be conceptualized. I am happy because I am growing daily and I am honestly not knowing where the limit lies. To be certain, every day there can be a revelation or a new discovery. I treasure the memory of the past misfortunes. It has added more to my bank of fortitude.

Lee, Bruce

44.

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

45.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

46.

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

Bob Newhart

47.

The greatest happiness is to know the source of unhappiness.

Dostoevsky, Fyodor

48.

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

49.

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

50.

The most exciting happiness is the happiness generated by forces beyond your control.

Nash, Ogden