Motivational Quotes

Happiness

Life at its noblest leaves mere happiness far behind; and indeed cannot endure it. Happiness is not the object of life: life has no object: it is an end in itself; and courage consists in the readiness to sacrifice happiness for an intenser quality of life.

- Shaw, George Bernard

Best Quotes about Happiness

Whoever does not regard what he has as most ample wealth, is unhappy, though he be master of the world.

Epictetus

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

At the height of laughter, the universe is flung into a kaleidoscope of new possibilities.

Jean Houston

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

Prutz

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

Fielding, Henry

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

Oprah Winfrey

Happiness lies first of all in health.

Curtis, George William

Happiness radiates like the fragrance from a flower, and draws all good things toward you. Allow your love to nourish yourself as well as others. Do not strain after the needs of life. It is sufficient to be quietly alert and aware of them. In this way life proceeds more naturally and effortlessly. Life is here to Enjoy!

Yogi, Maharishi Mahesh

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

10.

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)

11.

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

12.

Not what you have, but what you see; Not what you see, but what you choose; Not what seems fair, but what is true; Not what you dream, but what you do; Not what you take, but what you give; Not as you pray, but as you live. These are the things that mar or bless The sum of human happiness.

13.

The smallest annoyances, disturb us the most.

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

14.

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

Dumas, Alexandre

15.

The greatest happiness is to know the source of unhappiness.

Dostoevsky, Fyodor

16.

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

17.

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

Lao-Tzu

18.

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

19.

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

20.

The two enemies of human happiness are pain and boredom.

Schopenhauer, Arthur

21.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

22.

Happiness comes of the capacity to feel deeply, to enjoy simply, to think freely, to risk life, to be needed.

Storm Jameson

23.

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

24.

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.

25.

You traverse the world in search of happiness, which is within the reach of every man. A contented mind confers it on all.

Horace

26.

Success is getting and achieving what you want. Happiness is wanting and being content with what you get.

Meltzer, Bernard

27.

Happiness is something that comes into our lives through doors we don't even remember leaving open.

Lane, Rose Wilder

28.

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

29.

One feels inclined to say that the intention that man should be happy is not included in the plan of Creation.

Freud, Sigmund

30.

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

31.

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.

32.

No man should desire to be happy who is not at the same time holy. He should spend his efforts in seeking to know and do the will of God, leaving to Christ the matter of how happy he should be.

Tozer, A. W.

33.

The biggest lie on the planet: When I get what I want, I will be happy.

34.

Happiness was not made to be boasted, but enjoyed. Therefore tho others count me miserable, I will not believe them if I know and feel myself to be happy; nor fear them.

Traherne, Thomas

35.

Happiness is not a horse, you cannot harness it.

Proverb, Russian

36.

The glow of satisfaction which follows the consciousness of doing our level best never comes to a human being from any other experience.

Marden, Orison Swett

37.

If you pursue happiness you never find it.

Snow, C(harles) P(ercy)

38.

Happiness is the absence of the striving for happiness.

Chuang Tzu

39.

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

Ingersoll, Robert Green

40.

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

Farrall, Joseph

41.

A good way I know to find happiness, is to not bore a hole to fit the plug.

Billings, Josh

42.

All sanity depends on this: that it should be a delight to feel heat strike the skin, a delight to stand upright, knowing the bones are moving easily under the flesh.

Doris Lessing

43.

The secret of happiness is something to do.

Burroughs, John

44.

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

Mason, John L.

45.

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

Spencer, Herbert

46.

It is impossible to live a pleasant life without living wisely and well and justly. And it is impossible to live wisely and well and justly without living a pleasant life.

Epicurus

47.

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

The laws of Manu

48.

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

49.

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

Rohn, Jim

50.

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