Motivational Quotes

Happiness

The attitude of unhappiness is not only painful, it is mean and ugly. What can be more base and unworthy than the pining, puling, mumping mood, no matter by what outward ills it may have been engendered? What is more injurious to others? What less helpful as a way out of the difficulty? It but fastens and perpetuates the trouble which occasioned it, and increases the total evil of the situation. At all costs, then, we ought to reduce the sway of that mood; we ought to scout it in ourselves and others, and never show it tolerance.

- James, William

Best Quotes about Happiness

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

Spurgeon, Charles Haddon

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

Happiness must be cultivated. It is like character. It is not a thing to be safely let alone for a moment, or it will run to weeds.

Phelps, Elizabeth Stuart

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

Sivananda, Sri Swami

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

Spencer, Herbert

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

Fontenelle, Bernard Le Bovier

Happiness is an imaginary condition, formerly often attributed by the living to the dead, now usually attributed by adults to children, and by children to adults.

Szasz, Thomas

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

Freud, Sigmund

If you cannot renounce the world the genius of happiness will never salute you.

Prutz

10.

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

11.

Personal happiness lies in knowing that life is not a checklist of acquisition or achievement. Your qualifications are not your life.

J.K. Rowling

12.

To be happy is not the purpose of our being rather it is to deserve happiness.

Fichte, Johann G.

13.

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

Sokoloff, Boris

14.

When you relinquish the desire to control your future, you can have more happiness.

Nicole Kidman

15.

Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.

Wilde, Oscar

16.

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

Benjamin Franklin

17.

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

18.

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

19.

Happiness depends upon ourselves.

Aristotle

20.

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

21.

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

Bono, Edward De

22.

There's a hope for every woe, and a balm for every pain, but the first joys of our heart come never back again!

Gilfillan, Robert

23.

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

Mill, John Stuart

24.

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

George Burns

25.

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

Smith, Adam

26.

Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.

Addison, Joseph

27.

The loss of wealth is loss of dirt, as sages in all times assert; The happy man's without a shirt.

Heywood, John

28.

No man is happy who does not think himself so.

Publilius Syrus

29.

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

30.

The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness.

Hoffer, Eric

31.

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)

32.

Happiness is the only good. The time to be happy is now. The place to be happy is here. The way to be happy is to make others so.

Ingersoll, Robert Green

33.

Be open to your happiness and sadness as they arise.

Thomas, John M.

34.

Happiness consists more in small conveniences of pleasures that occur every day, than in great pieces of good fortune that happen but seldom to a man in the course of his life.

Franklin, Benjamin

35.

Success is getting and achieving what you want. Happiness is wanting and being content with what you get.

Meltzer, Bernard

36.

Happiness is good for the body but sorrow strengthens the spirit.

37.

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

Prevert, Jacques

38.

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.

39.

Happy were men if they but understood There is no safety but in doing good

Fountain., John

40.

All sanity depends on this: that it should be a delight to feel heat strike the skin, a delight to stand upright, knowing the bones are moving easily under the flesh.

Doris Lessing

41.

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

Proverb, Scottish

42.

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

43.

Happiness is a journey not a destination.

Sweetland, Ben

44.

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

45.

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

C. P. Snow

46.

Happiness is not a brilliant climax to years of grim struggle and anxiety. It is a long succession of little decisions simply to be happy in the moment.

Walters, J. Donald

47.

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

48.

All I can say about life is, Oh God, enjoy it!

Bob Newhart

49.

Happiness in this world, when it comes, comes incidentally. Make it the object of pursuit, and it leads us a wild-goose chase, and is never attained.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel

50.

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

Cloete, Stuart