Motivational Quotes

Happiness

He wanted to live life in such a way that if a photograph were taken at random it would be a cool photograph. Things should look right. Fun; there should be a lot of fun and no more sadness than absolutely necessary.

- David Nicholls

Best Quotes about Happiness

It is the paradox of life that the way to miss pleasure is to seek it first. The very first condition of lasting happiness is that a life should be full of purpose, aiming at something outside self.

Black, Hugo

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

Mill, John Stuart

He felt the loyalty we feel to unhappiness -- the sense that is where we really belong.

Greene, Graham

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

Keyes Jr., Ken

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

Alcott, Louisa May

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

Freud, Sigmund

The secret of happiness is something to do.

Burroughs, John

The only true happiness comes from squandering ourselves for a purpose.

William Cowper

Happiness is the longing for repetition.

Kundera, Milan

10.

There is something ridiculous and even quite indecent in an individual claiming to be happy. Still more a people or a nation making such a claim. The pursuit of happiness... is without any question the most fatuous which could possibly be undertaken. This lamentable phrase the pursuit of happiness is responsible for a good part of the ills and miseries of the modern world.

Muggeridge, Malcolm

11.

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

12.

Suspicion of happiness is in our blood.

Lucas, E. V.

13.

Happiness is always a by-product. It is probably a matter of temperament, and for anything I know it may be glandular. But it is not something that can be demanded from life, and if you are not happy you had better stop worrying about it and see what treasures you can pluck from your own brand of unhappiness.

Robertson Davies

14.

There is no greater joy than that of feeling oneself a creator. The triumph of life is expressed by creation.

Bergson, Henri L.

15.

For who is pleased with himself.

Johnson, Samuel

16.

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

Cloete, Stuart

17.

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

18.

If you want to be happy for a year, plant a garden; If you want to be happy for life, plant a tree.

Proverb, English

19.

Happiness comes more from loving than being loved; and often when our affection seems wounded it is only our vanity bleeding. To love, and to be hurt often, and to love again -- this is the brave and happy life.

Buckrose, J.E

20.

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

Ingersoll, Robert Green

21.

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

Beckett, Samuel

22.

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

23.

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

Dumas, Alexandre

24.

There is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way.

Dyer, Wayne

25.

Knowledge of what is possible is the beginning of happiness.

Santayana, George

26.

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

Stein, Ben

27.

Do not weep; do not wax indignant. Understand.

Baruch Spinoza

28.

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

Cervantes, Miguel De

29.

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

Meredith, Owen

30.

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

31.

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

32.

Happiness lies first of all in health.

Curtis, George William

33.

No one is in control of your happiness but you; therefore, you have the power to change anything about yourself or your life that you want to change.

Angelis, Barbara De

34.

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

Fontenelle, Bernard Le Bovier

35.

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

36.

If you optimize everything, you will always be unhappy.

Knuth, Don

37.

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

Forbes, Malcolm S.

38.

There are seeds of self-destruction in all of us that will bear only unhappiness if allowed to grow.

Brande, Dorothea

39.

Men can only be happy when they do not assume that the object of life is happiness

Orwell, George

40.

The most exciting happiness is the happiness generated by forces beyond your control.

Nash, Ogden

41.

A happy person is not a person in a certain set of circumstances, but rather a person with a certain set of attitudes.

Downs, Hugh

42.

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

Horton, Doug

43.

Happiness is like a sunbeam, which the least shadow intercepts, while adversity is often as the rain of spring.

Proverb, Chinese

44.

The smallest annoyances, disturb us the most.

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

45.

Call no man unhappy until he is married.

Socrates

46.

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

47.

Celebrate the happiness that friends are always giving, make every day a holiday and celebrate just living!

Bradley, Amanda

48.

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

John Berry

49.

The mintage of wisdom is to know that rest is rust, and that real life is love, laughter, and work.

Hubbard, Elbert

50.

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