Motivational Quotes

Happiness

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

- Sokoloff, Boris

Best Quotes about Happiness

Happiness comes of the capacity to feel deeply, to enjoy simply, to think freely, to risk life, to be needed.

Storm Jameson

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

Alda, Alan

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

Call no man unhappy until he is married.

Socrates

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

William Cowper

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

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

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

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.

10.

For who is pleased with himself.

Johnson, Samuel

11.

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

Nash, Ogden

12.

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

Alfred Lord Tennyson

13.

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

14.

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

15.

True happiness comes from the joy of deeds well done, the zest of creating things new.

Saint-Exupery, Antoine De

16.

The secret to happiness is not in doing what one likes to do, but in liking what one has to do.

17.

The two enemies of human happiness are pain and boredom.

Schopenhauer, Arthur

18.

Happiness requires problems

Hollingworth, H. L.

19.

I am more and more convinced that our happiness or our unhappiness depends far more on the way we meet the events of life than on the nature of those events themselves.

Humboldt, Karl Wilhelm Von

20.

Our happiness depends on the habit of mind we cultivate. So practice happy thinking every day. Cultivate the merry heart, develop the happiness habit, and life will become a continual feast.

Peale, Norman Vincent

21.

The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance; The wise grows it under his feet.

Oppenheimer, Julius Robert

22.

If you pursue happiness you never find it.

Snow, C(harles) P(ercy)

23.

Such happiness as life is capable of comes from the full participation of all our powers in the endeavor to wrest from each changing situations of experience its own full and unique meaning.

Dewey, John

24.

Happiness is not being pained in body or troubled in mind.

Jefferson, Thomas

25.

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

26.

Happiness grows at our own firesides, and is not to be picked in stranger's gardens.

Jerrold, Douglas William

27.

This is the best kind of voyeurism, hearing joy from your neighbors.

Chuck Sigars

28.

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

Meredith, Owen

29.

A person is never happy till their vague strivings has itself marked out its proper limitations.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

30.

It is kind of happiness to know to what extent we may be unhappy.

31.

Happiness, that grand mistress of the ceremonies in the dance of life, impels us through all its mazes and meandering, but leads none of us by the same route

Colton, Charles Caleb

32.

Not only is there a right to be happy, there is a duty to be happy. So much sadness exists in the world that we are all under obligation to contribute as much joy as lies within our powers.

Bonnell, John S.

33.

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

Peterson, Wilferd A.

34.

Happiness is a conscious choice, not an automatic response.

Barthel, Mildred

35.

Happiness in the present is only shattered by comparison with the past.

Horton, Doug

36.

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

37.

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

38.

Happiness is understanding that friendship is more precious than mere things, more precious than getting your own way, more precious than being in situations where true principles are not at stake.

Walters, J. Donald

39.

There is no happiness; there are only moments of happiness.

Proverb, Spanish

40.

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

41.

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

42.

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

Sokoloff, Boris

43.

Not what you have, but what you see; Not what you see, but what you choose; Not what seems fair, but what is true; Not what you dream, but what you do; Not what you take, but what you give; Not as you pray, but as you live. These are the things that mar or bless The sum of human happiness.

44.

Happiness does not come from doing easy work but from the afterglow of satisfaction that comes after the achievement of a difficult task that demanded our best.

Rubin, Theodore I.

45.

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

J.K. Rowling

46.

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

Maxwell, William

47.

IÆve decided that the key to happiness is low expectations.

Laura Moncur

48.

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

49.

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

50.

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

Forbes, Malcolm S.