Motivational Quotes

Happiness

If thou wilt make a man happy, add not unto his riches but take away from his desires.

- Epicurus

Best Quotes about Happiness

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

Happiness... she loves, to see men at work. She loves sweat, weariness, self sacrifice. She will be found not in places but lurking in cornfields and factories; and hovering over littered desks; she crowns the unconscious head of the busy child.

Grayson, David

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

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

Waitley, Denis

What can be added to the happiness of a man who is in health, out of debt, and has a clear conscience?

Smith, Adam

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

Anything you're good at contributes to happiness.

Russell, Bertrand

Happiness is an agreeable sensation, arising from contemplating the misery of others.

Bierce, Ambrose

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

Lao-Tzu

10.

For who is pleased with himself.

Johnson, Samuel

11.

Happiness doesn't come from doing what we like to do but from liking what we have to do.

Peterson, Wilferd A.

12.

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

13.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

14.

Happiness is a continuation of happenings which are not resisted.

Chopra, Deepak

15.

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

Proverb, Chinese

16.

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

Ketchel, Holly

17.

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

18.

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

Marden, Orison Swett

19.

Laughing is the sensation of feeling good all over and showing it principally in one spot.

Josh Billings

20.

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.

21.

Happiness is a ball after which we run wherever it rolls, and we push it with our feet when it stops.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

22.

The pursuit of happiness is a most ridiculous phrase; if you pursue happiness you'll never find it.

C. P. Snow

23.

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

24.

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

Brande, Dorothea

25.

The secret of happiness is not in doing what one likes, but in liking what one does.

Barrie, Sir James M.

26.

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

Fontenelle, Bernard Le Bovier

27.

We take greater pains to persuade others we are happy than in trying to think so ourselves.

Confucius

28.

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

29.

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

30.

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

The laws of Manu

31.

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

Proverb, Scottish

32.

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

Oscar Levant

33.

The hardest habit of all to break is the terrible habit of happiness.

Garrison, Theodosia

34.

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

Cloete, Stuart

35.

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

36.

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

Apollinaire, Guillaume

37.

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

Greene, Graham

38.

If you pursue happiness you never find it.

Snow, C(harles) P(ercy)

39.

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

40.

Happiness is the act of being tough with ourselves and tender with others.

41.

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

Alcott, Louisa May

42.

Happiness is the light on the water. The water is cold and dark and deep.

Maxwell, William

43.

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)

44.

Happiness is a how, not a what: a talent, not an object

Hesse, Hermann

45.

The most happy man is he who knows how to bring into relation the end and beginning of his life.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

46.

True happiness is the full use of your powers along lines of excellence in a life affording scope.

Kennedy, John F.

47.

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

Richter, Jean Paul

48.

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

49.

Happiness depends more on how life strikes you than on what happens.

Rooney, Andy

50.

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

Jonathan Haidt