Motivational Quotes

Happiness

Never believe straight off in a man's unhappiness. Ask him if he can still sleep. If the answer's yes, all's well. That is enough.

- Celine, Louis-Ferdinand

Best Quotes about Happiness

Unhappiness is not knowing what we want, and killing ourselves to get it.

Herold, Don

Nothing is miserable unless you think it so; and on the other hand, nothing brings happiness unless you are content with it.

Jonathan Haidt

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

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

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

Alda, Alan

Suspicion of happiness is in our blood.

Lucas, E. V.

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

Kin Hubbard

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.

The pursuit of happiness is the chase of a life time.

10.

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

Chuck Sigars

11.

Gaiety --a quality of ordinary men. Genius always presupposes some disorder in the machine.

Diderot, Denis

12.

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

Ann Radcliffe

13.

The mintage of wisdom is to know that rest is rust, and that real life is love, laughter, and work.

Hubbard, Elbert

14.

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

15.

Happiness is activity.

Aristotle

16.

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

17.

I'm fulfilled in what I do... I never thought that a lot of money or fine clothes -- the finer things of life -- would make you happy. My concept of happiness is to be filled in a spiritual sense.

King, Coretta Scott

18.

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

Solon

19.

I have learned to seek my happiness by limiting my desires, rather than in attempting to satisfy them.

Mill, John Stuart

20.

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

Forbes, Malcolm S.

21.

Men can only be happy when they do not assume that the object of life is happiness

Orwell, George

22.

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

23.

Happiness is the act of being tough with ourselves and tender with others.

24.

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

Saint-Exupery, Antoine De

25.

For who is pleased with himself.

Johnson, Samuel

26.

Nothing is funnier than unhappiness, I grant you that. Yes, yes, it's the most comical thing in the world.

Beckett, Samuel

27.

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

Schachtel, Rabbi H.

28.

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

29.

Objects we ardently pursue bring little happiness when gained; most of our pleasures come from unexpected sources.

Spencer, Herbert

30.

The world's literature and folklore are full of stories that point out how futile it can be to seek happiness. Rather, happiness is a blessing that comes to you as you go along; a treasure that you incidentally find.

Binstock, Louis

31.

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

Immanuel Hermann Fichte

32.

What ever our wandering our happiness will always be found within a narrow compass, and in the middle of the objects more immediately within our reach.

Bulwer-Lytton, Edward G.

33.

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

34.

Shall I give you my recipe for happiness? I find everything useful and nothing indispensable. I find everything wonderful and nothing miraculous. I reverence the body. I avoid first causes like the plague.

Douglas, Norman

35.

All sanity depends on this: that it should be a delight to feel heat strike the skin, a delight to stand upright, knowing the bones are moving easily under the flesh.

Doris Lessing

36.

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

37.

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

38.

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

Benjamin Franklin

39.

It's not a question of happiness, it's a requirement. Consider the alternative.

Horton, Doug

40.

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

Jones, Charles ''Tremendous''

41.

Happiness lies in being privileged to work hard for long hours in doing whatever you think is worth doing. One man may find happiness in supporting a wife and children. Another may find it in robbing banks. Still another may labor mightily for years in pursuing pure research with no discernible result. Note the individual and subjective nature of each case. No two are alike and there is no reason to expect them to be. Each man or woman must find for himself or herself that occupation in which hard work and long hours make him or her happy. Contrariwise, if you are looking for shorter hours and longer vacations and early retirement, you are in the wrong job. Perhaps you need to take up bank robbing. Or geeking in a sideshow. Or even politics.

Heinlein, Robert

42.

The greatest joy of life is to love and be loved.

Clyde, R.D.

43.

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

44.

No man should desire to be happy who is not at the same time holy. He should spend his efforts in seeking to know and do the will of God, leaving to Christ the matter of how happy he should be.

Tozer, A. W.

45.

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

46.

Happiness is the harvest of a quiet eye.

O'Malley, Austin

47.

Some of us might find happiness if we quit struggling so desperately for it.

Feather, William

48.

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

49.

Happiness serves hardly any other purpose than to make unhappiness possible.

Proust, Marcel

50.

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