Motivational Quotes

Happiness

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

Best Quotes about Happiness

Sir, that all who are happy, are equally happy, is not true. A peasant and a philosopher may be equally satisfied, but not equally happy. Happiness consists in the multiplicity of agreeable consciousness.

Johnson, Samuel

Happiness does not lie in happiness, but in the achievement of it.

Dostoevsky, Fyodor

Our greatest happiness does not depend on the condition of life in which chance has placed us, but is always the result of a good conscience, good health, occupation, and freedom in all just pursuits.

Jefferson, Thomas

IÆve decided that the key to happiness is low expectations.

Laura Moncur

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

Keyes Jr., Ken

We all want to be happy, and we're all going to die. You might say those are the only two unchallengeably true facts that apply to every human being on this planet.

Boyd, William

Farms and in castles, in homes, studies, and cloisters -- where sensible people manage to live relatively lusty and decent lives, as moral as they must be, as free as they may be, and as masterly as they can be. If we only knew it, this elusive arrangement is happiness.

Erikson, Erik H.

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

Wilde, Oscar

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

10.

We are never so happy nor so unhappy as we imagine.

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De

11.

While we pursue happiness, we flee from contentment.

Proverb, Hasidic

12.

If you observe a really happy man you will find him building a boat, writing a symphony, educating his son, growing Double Dahlias in his garden.

Wolfe, W, Beran

13.

If we cannot live so as to be happy, let us so live as to deserve happiness.

Fichte, Johann G.

14.

Do you want my one-word secret of happiness -- It's growth -- mental, financial, you name it.

Geneen, Harold S.

15.

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

Cloete, Stuart

16.

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

C. P. Snow

17.

Remember that it is nothing to do your duty, that is demanded of you and is no more meritorious than to wash your hands when they are dirty; the only thing that counts is the love of duty; when love and duty are one, then grace is in you and you will enjoy a happiness which passes all understanding.

W. Somerset Maugham

18.

The best advice on the art of being happy is about as easy to follow as advice to be well when one is sick.

Swetchine, Anne Sophie

19.

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

Kennedy, John F.

20.

The good life, as I conceive it, is a happy life. I do not mean that if you are good you will be happy; I mean that if you are happy you will be good.

Russell, Bertrand

21.

Happiness is a journey not a destination.

Sweetland, Ben

22.

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

Greene, Graham

23.

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

24.

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

Peterson, Wilferd A.

25.

What happiness is there which is not purchased with more or less of pain?

Oliphant, Margaret

26.

Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.

Dalai Lama

27.

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

28.

If you optimize everything, you will always be unhappy.

Knuth, Don

29.

Man is the artificer of his own happiness.

Henry David Thoreau

30.

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

31.

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

Walpole, Sir Hugh

32.

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

Chambers, Oswald

33.

Happiness is not a horse, you cannot harness it.

Proverb, Russian

34.

We wish to be happier than other people; and this is difficult, for we believe others to be happier than they are.

Montesquieu, Charles De

35.

For who is pleased with himself.

Johnson, Samuel

36.

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

Sokoloff, Boris

37.

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

38.

I cannot believe that the inscrutable universe turns on an axis of suffering; surely the strange beauty of the world must somewhere rest on pure joy!

Louise Bogan

39.

Happiness is a continuation of happenings which are not resisted.

Chopra, Deepak

40.

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

41.

No man is happy; he is at best fortunate.

Solon

42.

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

Aurelius, Marcus

43.

Happiness is not a goal, it is a by-product.

Roosevelt, Eleanor

44.

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