Motivational Quotes

Happiness

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

- William Cowper

Best Quotes about Happiness

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

We are happy when for everything inside us there is a corresponding something outside us.

Yeats, William Butler

Happiness requires problems

Hollingworth, H. L.

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

Jean Jacques Rousseau

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

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

I've grown to realize the joy that comes from little victories is preferable to the fun that comes from ease and the pursuit of pleasure.

Lawana Blackwell

Happiness is a positive cash flow.

Adler, Fred

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

10.

We are no longer happy as soon as we wish to be happier.

Landor, Walter Savage

11.

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

12.

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

13.

Content makes poor men rich; discontentment makes rich men poor.

Benjamin Franklin

14.

A good way I know to find happiness, is to not bore a hole to fit the plug.

Billings, Josh

15.

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

Oppenheimer, Julius Robert

16.

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

Dalai Lama

17.

It is not in the pursuit of happiness that we find fulfillment, it is in the happiness of pursuit.

Waitley, Denis

18.

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

Maxwell, William

19.

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

Wilde, Oscar

20.

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

Jefferson, Thomas

21.

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

Storm Jameson

22.

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

William Cowper

23.

Happiness is a butterfly, which, when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel

24.

The smallest annoyances, disturb us the most.

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

25.

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

26.

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

27.

Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word happy would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. It is far better take things as they come along with patience and equanimity.

Jung, Carl

28.

Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.

Addison, Joseph

29.

That which you create in beauty and goodness and truth lives on for all time to come. Don't spend your life accumulating material objects that will only turn to dust and ashes.

Waitley, Denis

30.

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

Buchan, John

31.

In order to have great happiness, you have to have great pain and unhappiness-otherwise how would you know when you're happy?

Caron, Leslie

32.

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

33.

Happiness is activity.

Aristotle

34.

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

35.

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

Richter, Jean Paul

36.

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

Palmer, Gretta Brooker

37.

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

Kennedy, John F.

38.

Happiness must be cultivated. It is like character. It is not a thing to be safely let alone for a moment, or it will run to weeds.

Phelps, Elizabeth Stuart

39.

Happiness is the absence of the striving for happiness.

Chuang Tzu

40.

Where there is joy there is creation. Where there is no joy there is no creation: know the nature of joy.

Upanishads, Veda

41.

Happiness lies first of all in health.

Curtis, George William

42.

To be happy is not the purpose of our being rather it is to deserve happiness.

Fichte, Johann G.

43.

What can be added to the happiness of a man who is in health, out of debt, and has a clear conscience?

Smith, Adam

44.

The man who is born with a talent which he was meant to use finds his greatest happiness in using it.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

45.

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

46.

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

47.

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

48.

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

J.K. Rowling

49.

If you pursue happiness you never find it.

Snow, C(harles) P(ercy)

50.

If you can't be happy where you are, it's a cinch you can't be happy where you ain't.