Motivational Quotes

Happiness

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

- Apollinaire, Guillaume

Best Quotes about Happiness

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 lies in being privileged to work hard for long hours in doing whatever you think is worth doing. One man may find happiness in supporting a wife and children. Another may find it in robbing banks. Still another may labor mightily for years in pursuing pure research with no discernible result. Note the individual and subjective nature of each case. No two are alike and there is no reason to expect them to be. Each man or woman must find for himself or herself that occupation in which hard work and long hours make him or her happy. Contrariwise, if you are looking for shorter hours and longer vacations and early retirement, you are in the wrong job. Perhaps you need to take up bank robbing. Or geeking in a sideshow. Or even politics.

Heinlein, Robert

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

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

No man is happy who does not think himself so.

Publilius Syrus

Often people attempt to live their lives backwards; they try to have more things, or more money, in order to do more of what they want, so they will be happier.

Young, Margaret

IÆve decided that the key to happiness is low expectations.

Laura Moncur

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

Boone, Daniel

Men expect that religion should cost them no pains, that happiness should drop into their laps without any design and endeavor on their part, and that, after they have done what they please while they live, God should snatch them up to heaven when they die. But though the commandments of God be not grievous, yet it is fit to let men know that they are not thus easy.

Tillotson, John

10.

The highest happiness of man is to have probed what is knowable and quietly to revere what is unknowable.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

11.

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

Immanuel Hermann Fichte

12.

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

Apollinaire, Guillaume

13.

Remember, happiness doesn't depend upon who you are or what you have, it depends solely upon what you think.

Carnegie, Dale

14.

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)

15.

Happiness is a conscious choice, not an automatic response.

Barthel, Mildred

16.

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

Dumas, Alexandre

17.

The two enemies of human happiness are pain and boredom.

Schopenhauer, Arthur

18.

Happiness is not being pained in body or troubled in mind.

Jefferson, Thomas

19.

If you optimize everything, you will always be unhappy.

Knuth, Don

20.

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

21.

We are no longer happy as soon as we wish to be happier.

Landor, Walter Savage

22.

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

Fontenelle, Bernard Le Bovier

23.

Most of us experience happiness when we are enjoying life and feeling free, enjoying the process and products of our creative and intellectual processes, enjoying the ecstasy of transcendent oneness with the universe.

Muriel, James

24.

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

25.

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

Oliphant, Margaret

26.

To buy happiness is to sell soul.

Horton, Doug

27.

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

Fichte, Johann G.

28.

Happiness does not come from doing easy work but from the afterglow of satisfaction that comes after the achievement of a difficult task that demanded our best.

Rubin, Theodore I.

29.

We all want to be happy, and we're all going to die. You might say those are the only two unchallengeably true facts that apply to every human being on this planet.

Boyd, William

30.

Happiness is unrepentant pleasure.

Socrates

31.

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

32.

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.

33.

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

34.

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

35.

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

Stein, Ben

36.

Be it jewel or toy, not the prize gives the joy, but the striving to win the prize.

Meredith, Owen

37.

Happiness arises in a state of peace, not of tumult.

Ann Radcliffe

38.

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

Ketchel, Holly

39.

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

Proverb, Spanish

40.

Happiness and virtue rest upon each other; the best are not only the happiest, but the happiest are usually the best.

Bulwer-Lytton, Edward G.

41.

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.

Mahatma Gandhi

42.

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

Schachtel, Rabbi H.

43.

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

44.

To describe happiness is to diminish it.

Stendhal, Henri B.

45.

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

Spurgeon, Charles Haddon

46.

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

47.

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

48.

Happiness is a thing to be practiced, like the violin.

Lubbock, Sir John

49.

Happiness is never stopping to think if you are.

Sondreal, Palmer

50.

Happiness is not best achieved by those who seek it directly.

Russell, Bertrand