The world's literature and folklore are full of stories that point out how futile it can be to seek happiness. Rather, happiness is a blessing that comes to you as you go along; a treasure that you incidentally find.

Binstock, Louis

16.

A man is happy so long as he chooses to be happy and nothing can stop him.

Solzhenitsyn, Alexander

17.

There is no happiness; there are only moments of happiness.

Proverb, Spanish

18.

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

19.

The secret to happiness is not in doing what one likes to do, but in liking what one has to do.

20.

Happiness is a butterfly, which, when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel

21.

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

22.

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

Forbes, Malcolm S.

23.

The two enemies of human happiness are pain and boredom.

Schopenhauer, Arthur

24.

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

25.

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

Hoffer, Eric

26.

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

Lane, Rose Wilder

27.

The really happy man never laughs -- seldom -- though he may smile. He does not need to laugh, for laughter, like weeping is a relief of mental tension -- and the happy are not over strung.

Aveling, Prof. F. A. P.

28.

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.

29.

Content makes poor men rich; discontentment makes rich men poor.

Benjamin Franklin

30.

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

31.

Happiness isn't something you experience; it's something you remember.

Oscar Levant

32.

Happy is the son whose faith in his mother remains unchallenged.

Alcott, Louisa May

33.

Happiness is experienced when your life gives you what you are willing to accept.

Keyes Jr., Ken

34.

Happiness is activity.

Aristotle

35.

Where there is joy there is creation. Where there is no joy there is no creation: know the nature of joy.

Upanishads, Veda

36.

The world will never be long without some good reason to hate the unhappy; their real faults are immediately detected, and if those are not sufficient to sink them into infamy, an additional weight of calumny will be super added.

Johnson, Samuel

37.

The only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve.

Schweitzer, Albert

38.

Happiness comes of the capacity to feel deeply, to enjoy simply, to think freely, to risk life, to be needed. which give happiness. Thomas Jefferson We never enjoy perfect happiness; our most fortunate successes are mingled with sadness; some anxieties always perplex the reality of our satisfaction.

James, William

39.

The greatest happiness is to know the source of unhappiness.

Dostoevsky, Fyodor

40.

Happiness depends upon ourselves.

Aristotle

41.

In theory there is a possibility of perfect happiness: To believe in the indestructible element within one, and not to strive towards it.

Kafka, Franz

42.

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