Motivational Quotes

Happiness

Happiness is the absence of the striving for happiness.

- Chuang Tzu

Best Quotes about Happiness

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

If happiness is activity in accordance with excellence, it is reasonable that it should be in accordance with the highest excellence.

Aristotle

We are long before we are convinced that happiness is never to be found; and each believes it possessed by others, to keep alive the hope of obtaining it for himself.

Johnson, Samuel

This is the best kind of voyeurism, hearing joy from your neighbors.

Chuck Sigars

Man is the artificer of his own happiness.

Henry David Thoreau

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)

Remember that very little is needed to make a happy life.

Aurelius, Marcus

What would you call the highest happiness? Wratislaw was ask. The sense of competence, was the answer, given without hesitation.

Buchan, John

Happiness in the present is only shattered by comparison with the past.

Horton, Doug

10.

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

11.

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

12.

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

Jean Jacques Rousseau

13.

The discovery of a new dish does more for human happiness than the discovery of a new star.

Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

14.

Never believe straight off in a man's unhappiness. Ask him if he can still sleep. If the answer's yes, all's well. That is enough.

Celine, Louis-Ferdinand

15.

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.

16.

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

17.

Happiness seems made to be shared.

Corneille, Pierre

18.

The two enemies of human happiness are pain and boredom.

Schopenhauer, Arthur

19.

Our happiness depends on the habit of mind we cultivate. So practice happy thinking every day. Cultivate the merry heart, develop the happiness habit, and life will become a continual feast.

Peale, Norman Vincent

20.

To have joy one must share it. Happiness was born a twin.

Byron, Lord

21.

The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts: therefore, guard accordingly, and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature.

Aurelius, Marcus

22.

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

23.

The happy think a lifetime short, but to the unhappy one night can be an eternity.

Lucian

24.

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

The laws of Manu

25.

It seldom happens that any felicity comes so pure as not to be tempered and allayed by some mixture of sorrow.

Cervantes, Miguel De

26.

Happiness... is not a destination: it is a manner of traveling. Happiness is not an end in itself. It is a by-product of working, playing, loving and living.

Ginott, Haim

27.

Unhappiness is best defined as the difference between our talents and our expectations.

Bono, Edward De

28.

The really happy person is the one who can enjoy the scenery, even when they have to take a detour.

Jeans, Sir James

29.

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

Jonathan Haidt

30.

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

31.

If you ever find happiness by hunting for it, you will find it as the old woman did her lost spectacles. Safe on her own nose all the time.

Billings, Josh

32.

Like swimming, riding, writing, or playing golf, happiness can be learned.

Sokoloff, Boris

33.

I can say that I never knew what joy was like until I gave up pursuing happiness, or cared to live until I chose to die. For these two discoveries I am beholden to Jesus.

Muggeridge, Malcolm

34.

No man is happy who does not think himself so.

Publilius Syrus

35.

Talk happiness. The world is sad enough without your woe.

Marden, Orison Swett

36.

The bird of paradise alights only upon the hand that does not grasp.

John Berry

37.

Knowledge of what is possible is the beginning of happiness.

Santayana, George

38.

Happiness is a hard thing because it is achieved only by making others happy.

Cloete, Stuart

39.

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

Oscar Levant

40.

Happiness includes chiefly the idea of satisfaction after full honest effort. No one can possibly be satisfied and no one can be happy who feels that in some paramount affairs he failed to take up the challenge of life.

Bennett, Arnold

41.

There is no end of craving. Hence contentment alone is the best way to happiness. Therefore, acquire contentment.

Sivananda, Sri Swami

42.

It is in the compelling zest of high adventure and of victory, and in creative action, that man finds his supreme joys.

Saint-Exupery, Antoine De

43.

We find greatest joy, not in getting, but in expressing what we are. Men do not really live for honors or for pay; their gladness is not the taking and holding, but in doing, the striving, the building, the living. It is a higher joy to teach than to be taught. It is good to get justice, but better to do it; fun to have things but more to make them. The happy man is he who lives the life of love, not for the honors it may bring, but for the life itself.

Baughan, R.J.

44.

Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city.

George Burns

45.

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

Mason, John L.

46.

Happiness is the harvest of a quiet eye.

O'Malley, Austin

47.

Happiness is perfume, you can't pour it on somebody else without getting a few drops on yourself

Zee, James Van Der

48.

What a man really wants is creative challenge with sufficient skills to bring him within the reach of success so that he may have the expanding joy of achievement.

Nash, Fay B.

49.

Holiness, not happiness, is the chief end of man.

Chambers, Oswald

50.

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

Schweitzer, Albert