Motivational Quotes

Happiness

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.

Best Quotes about Happiness

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

Beckett, Samuel

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

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

Camus, Albert

Some of us might find happiness if we quit struggling so desperately for it.

Feather, William

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

Even if happiness forgets you a little bit, never completely forget about it.

Prevert, Jacques

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.

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

Apollinaire, Guillaume

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.

10.

A person is never happy till their vague strivings has itself marked out its proper limitations.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

11.

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.

12.

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

Landor, Walter Savage

13.

The smallest annoyances, disturb us the most.

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

14.

It is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong.

Bentham, Jeremy

15.

Many people have the wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification, but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.

Keller, Helen

16.

Whoever is happy will make others happy too.

Frank, Anne

17.

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

Richter, Jean Paul

18.

It is not in the pursuit of happiness that we find fulfillment, it is in the happiness of pursuit.

Waitley, Denis

19.

Farms and in castles, in homes, studies, and cloisters -- where sensible people manage to live relatively lusty and decent lives, as moral as they must be, as free as they may be, and as masterly as they can be. If we only knew it, this elusive arrangement is happiness.

Erikson, Erik H.

20.

In order for people to be happy, sometimes they have to take risks. It's true these risks can put them in danger of being hurt.

Meg Cabot

21.

For who is pleased with himself.

Johnson, Samuel

22.

Be happy while you're living, for you're a long time dead.

Proverb, Scottish

23.

Where one is wise two are happy.

Proverb

24.

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

25.

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

26.

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

Lao-Tzu

27.

It is wrong to assume that men of immense wealth are always happy.

Rockefeller, John D.

28.

True happiness arises, in the first place, from the enjoyment of one's self, and in the next, from the friendship and conversation of a few select companions.

Addison, Joseph

29.

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

30.

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

Carnegie, Dale

31.

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

Benjamin Franklin

32.

The man who is born with a talent which he was meant to use finds his greatest happiness in using it.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

33.

We tend to forget that happiness doesn't come as a result of getting something we don't have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have.

Koenig, Frederick

34.

People who never achieve happiness are the ones who complain whenever they're awake, and whenever they're asleep, they are thinking about what to complain about tomorrow.

Zimbler, Adam

35.

Happiness grows at our own firesides, and is not to be picked in stranger's gardens.

Jerrold, Douglas William

36.

If you want happiness for an hour -- take a nap. If you want happiness for a day -- go fishing. If you want happiness for a month -- get married. If you want happiness for a year -- inherit a fortune. If you want happiness for a lifetime -- help someone else.

Proverb, Chinese

37.

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

Jefferson, Thomas

38.

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

39.

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

Lane, Rose Wilder

40.

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

Horton, Doug

41.

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

42.

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

Spencer, Herbert

43.

Happiness is that state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one's values.

Ayn Rand

44.

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

Mason, John L.

45.

I have learned to seek my happiness by limiting my desires, rather than in attempting to satisfy them.

Mill, John Stuart

46.

We think a happy life consists in tranquility of mind.

Cicero, Marcus T.

47.

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

48.

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

49.

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

Spurgeon, Charles Haddon

50.

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