Motivational Quotes

Happiness

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

Best Quotes about Happiness

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

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

Chambers, Oswald

Happiness ain't a thing in itself --it's only a contrast with something that ain't pleasant. And so, as soon as the novelty is over and the force of the contrast dulled, it ain't happiness any longer, and you have to get something fresh.

Twain, Mark

To describe happiness is to diminish it.

Stendhal, Henri B.

Man is the artificer of his own happiness.

Henry David Thoreau

If happiness is activity in accordance with excellence, it is reasonable that it should be in accordance with the highest excellence.

Aristotle

Happiness is not a state to arrive at, rather, a manner of traveling.

Johnson, Samuel

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

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

10.

Happiness: a good bank account, a good cook and a good digestion.

Jean Jacques Rousseau

11.

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

James Oppenheim

12.

Suspicion of happiness is in our blood.

Lucas, E. V.

13.

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

14.

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

15.

If you were happy every day of your life you wouldn't be a human being, you'd be a game show host.

Heatter, Gabriel

16.

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

Hesse, Hermann

17.

Happiness is not something you postpone for the future; it is something you design for the present.

Rohn, Jim

18.

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

Josh Billings

19.

If frugality were established in the state, and if our expenses were laid out to meet needs rather than superfluities of life, there might be fewer wants, and even fewer pleasures, but infinitely more happiness.

Goldsmith, Oliver

20.

Happiness is not pleasure, it is victory.

Ziglar, Zig

21.

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

22.

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.

23.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

24.

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

25.

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

26.

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

Geneen, Harold S.

27.

You traverse the world in search of happiness, which is within the reach of every man. A contented mind confers it on all.

Horace

28.

Happiness is a conscious choice, not an automatic response.

Barthel, Mildred

29.

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

Jefferson, Thomas

30.

Joy descends gently upon us like the evening dew, and does not patter down like a hailstorm.

Richter, Jean Paul

31.

A mind always employed is always happy. This is the true secret, the grand recipe, for felicity.

Jefferson, Thomas

32.

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

Fontenelle, Bernard Le Bovier

33.

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

34.

We think a happy life consists in tranquility of mind.

Cicero, Marcus T.

35.

After what we can say you can be sure the happy heart will make the happy day.

36.

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

Sivananda, Sri Swami

37.

Happiness is the longing for repetition.

Kundera, Milan

38.

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

Schachtel, Rabbi H.

39.

The only happiness a brave person ever troubles themselves in asking about, is happiness enough to get their work done.

Carlyle, Thomas

40.

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

41.

Happiness is never stopping to think if you are.

Sondreal, Palmer

42.

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

43.

While we pursue happiness, we flee from contentment.

Proverb, Hasidic

44.

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

45.

My happiness derives from knowing the people I love are happy.

Ketchel, Holly

46.

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

47.

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

John Berry

48.

Happiness held is the seed; Happiness shared is the flower-Author Unknown People need your love the most when they appear to deserve it the least.

Harrigan, John

49.

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

Yeats, William Butler

50.

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