Motivational Quotes

Happiness

In theory there is a possibility of perfect happiness: To believe in the indestructible element within one, and not to strive towards it.

- Kafka, Franz

Best Quotes about Happiness

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

Horton, Doug

If you're ever given the choice between happiness and intelligence choose happiness

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

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

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

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

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

Happiness is a thing to be practiced, like the violin.

Lubbock, Sir John

Happiness is activity.

Aristotle

10.

The greatest happiness you can have is knowing that you do not necessarily require happiness.

Saroyan, William

11.

The greatest happiness is to know the source of unhappiness.

Dostoevsky, Fyodor

12.

When we recall the past, we usually find that it is the simplest things -- not the great occasions -- that in retrospect give off the greatest glow of happiness.

Hope, Bob

13.

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

Ayn Rand

14.

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

Mill, John Stuart

15.

It isn't necessary to be rich and famous to be happy. It's only necessary to be rich.

Alda, Alan

16.

The final moment of success is often no more thrilling than taking off a heavy backpack at the end of a long hike. If you went on the hike only to feel that pleasure, you are a fool. Yet people sometimes do just this. They work hard at a task and expect some special euphoria at the end. But when they achieve success and find only moderate and short-lived pleasure, they ask is that all there is? They devalue their accomplishments as a striving after wind. We can call this the progress principle: Pleasure comes more from making progress toward goals than from achieving them.

Jonathan Haidt

17.

Happiness adds and multiplies, as we divide it with others.

Nielsen, A.

18.

Happiness radiates like the fragrance from a flower, and draws all good things toward you. Allow your love to nourish yourself as well as others. Do not strain after the needs of life. It is sufficient to be quietly alert and aware of them. In this way life proceeds more naturally and effortlessly. Life is here to Enjoy!

Yogi, Maharishi Mahesh

19.

Knowledge of what is possible is the beginning of happiness.

Santayana, George

20.

Happiness is a continuation of happenings which are not resisted.

Chopra, Deepak

21.

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

Nash, Ogden

22.

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

Marden, Orison Swett

23.

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

Landor, Walter Savage

24.

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

John Berry

25.

Happiness is a by product of an effort to make someone else happy.

Palmer, Gretta Brooker

26.

What makes people happy is activity; changing evil itself into good by power, working in a God like manner.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

27.

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

28.

The Greeks said grandly in their tragic phrase, Let no one be called happy till his death; to which I would add, Let no one, till his death be called unhappy.

Browning, Elizabeth Barrett

29.

Happiness is a sunbeam which may pass through a thousand bosoms without losing a particle of its original ray; nay, when it strikes on a kindred heart, like the converged light on a mirror, it reflects itself with redoubled brightness. It is not perfected till it is shared.

Porter, Jane

30.

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

31.

To describe happiness is to diminish it.

Stendhal, Henri B.

32.

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

33.

Shall I give you my recipe for happiness? I find everything useful and nothing indispensable. I find everything wonderful and nothing miraculous. I reverence the body. I avoid first causes like the plague.

Douglas, Norman

34.

Remember that happiness is a way of travel, not a destination.

Goodman, Roy

35.

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

J.K. Rowling

36.

The happiness of a man in this life does not consist in the absence but in the mastery of his passions.

Alfred Lord Tennyson

37.

The two enemies of human happiness are pain and boredom.

Schopenhauer, Arthur

38.

In order to be truly happy, you must live along with, and you must stand for something larger than yourself.

Oprah Winfrey

39.

Happiness comes from... some curious adjustment to life.

Walpole, Sir Hugh

40.

There are two ways of being happy: We must either diminish our wants or augment our means -- either may do -- the result is the same and it is for each man to decide for himself and to do that which happens to be easier.

Franklin, Benjamin

41.

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

42.

Cherish all your happy moments: they make a fine cushion for old age.

Christopher Morley

43.

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

Brande, Dorothea

44.

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

Freud, Sigmund

45.

The world will never be long without some good reason to hate the unhappy; their real faults are immediately detected, and if those are not sufficient to sink them into infamy, an additional weight of calumny will be super added.

Johnson, Samuel

46.

The secret of happiness is something to do.

Burroughs, John

47.

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

48.

But the whim we have of happiness is somewhat thus. By certain valuations, and averages, of our own striking, we come upon some sort of average terrestrial lot; this we fancy belongs to us by nature, and of indefeasible rights. It is simple payment of our wages, of our deserts; requires neither thanks nor complaint. Foolish soul! What act of legislature was there that thou shouldst be happy? A little while ago thou hadst no right to be at all.

Carlyle, Thomas

49.

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

Hesse, Hermann

50.

Those who seek happiness miss it, and those who discuss it, lack it.

Jackson, Holbrook