Motivational Quotes

Happiness

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

Best Quotes about Happiness

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

Immanuel Hermann Fichte

Life at its noblest leaves mere happiness far behind; and indeed cannot endure it. Happiness is not the object of life: life has no object: it is an end in itself; and courage consists in the readiness to sacrifice happiness for an intenser quality of life.

Shaw, George Bernard

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

Marden, Orison Swett

We are long before we are convinced that happiness is never to be found; and each believes it possessed by others, to keep alive the hope of obtaining it for himself.

Johnson, Samuel

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

The glow of satisfaction which follows the consciousness of doing our level best never comes to a human being from any other experience.

Marden, Orison Swett

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

Happiness is neither virtue nor pleasure nor this thing nor that but simply growth, We are happy when we are growing.

Yeats, William Butler

Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude.

Waitley, Denis

10.

A man is happy so long as he chooses to be happy and nothing can stop him.

Solzhenitsyn, Alexander

11.

Happiness lies first of all in health.

Curtis, George William

12.

Let no man be called happy before his death. Till then, he is not happy, only lucky.

Solon

13.

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

14.

Act happy, feel happy, be happy, without a reason in the world. Then you can love, and do what you will.

Millman, Dan

15.

The secret of happiness is something to do.

Burroughs, John

16.

There is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way.

Dyer, Wayne

17.

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

18.

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

Ayn Rand

19.

For who is pleased with himself.

Johnson, Samuel

20.

Happiness consumes itself like a flame. It cannot burn for ever, it must go out, and the presentiment of its end destroys it at its very peak.

Strindberg, J. August

21.

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

Forbes, Malcolm S.

22.

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

23.

Happiness comes more from loving than being loved; and often when our affection seems wounded it is only our vanity bleeding. To love, and to be hurt often, and to love again -- this is the brave and happy life.

Buckrose, J.E

24.

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

25.

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

Freud, Sigmund

26.

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

Storm Jameson

27.

Happy are those who dream dreams and are willing to pay the price to make them come true.

28.

What would you call the highest happiness? Wratislaw was ask. The sense of competence, was the answer, given without hesitation.

Buchan, John

29.

To be happy in this world, especially when youth is past, it is necessary to feel oneself not merely an isolated individual whose day will soon be over, but part of the stream of life slowing on from the first germ to the remote and unknown future.

Russell, Bertrand

30.

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

Prutz

31.

It is wrong to assume that men of immense wealth are always happy.

Rockefeller, John D.

32.

If you deliberately plan on being less than you are capable of being, then I warn you that you'll be unhappy for the rest of your life.

Maslow, Abraham H.

33.

Happiness arises in a state of peace, not of tumult.

Ann Radcliffe

34.

If you want happiness for an hour -- take a nap. If you want happiness for a day -- go fishing. If you want happiness for a month -- get married. If you want happiness for a year -- inherit a fortune. If you want happiness for a lifetime -- help someone else.

Proverb, Chinese

35.

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

36.

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

37.

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

Spurgeon, Charles Haddon

38.

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

The laws of Manu

39.

Happiness and virtue rest upon each other; the best are not only the happiest, but the happiest are usually the best.

Bulwer-Lytton, Edward G.

40.

It is pretty hard to tell what does bring happiness; poverty and wealth have both failed.

Kin Hubbard

41.

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

42.

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

43.

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

44.

If you optimize everything, you will always be unhappy.

Knuth, Don

45.

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

Josh Billings

46.

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

Walpole, Sir Hugh

47.

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

48.

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

Epicurus

49.

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

50.

Happiness is not having what you want, but wanting what you have.

Schachtel, Rabbi H.