Motivational Quotes

Happiness

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

Best Quotes about Happiness

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

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

Richter, Jean Paul

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

Dyer, Wayne

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

Fontenelle, Bernard Le Bovier

Very little is needed to make a happy life.

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

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

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

We cannot be contented because we are happy, and we cannot be happy because we are contented.

Landor, Walter Savage

But what is happiness except the simple harmony between a person and life they lead.

Camus, Albert

10.

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

11.

Happiness is unrepentant pleasure.

Socrates

12.

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

Aristotle

13.

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

Jonathan Haidt

14.

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

Benjamin Franklin

15.

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

Peterson, Wilferd A.

16.

The happy think a lifetime short, but to the unhappy one night can be an eternity.

Lucian

17.

Happiness is a matter of one's most ordinary everyday mode of consciousness being busy and lively and unconcerned with self. To be damned is for one's ordinary everyday mode of consciousness to be unremitting agonizing preoccupation with self.

Murdoch, Iris

18.

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

19.

At the height of laughter, the universe is flung into a kaleidoscope of new possibilities.

Jean Houston

20.

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

21.

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

22.

Many people have the wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification, but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.

Keller, Helen

23.

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

Oppenheimer, Julius Robert

24.

Cherish all your happy moments: they make a fine cushion for old age.

Christopher Morley

25.

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

Sokoloff, Boris

26.

All I can say about life is, Oh God, enjoy it!

Bob Newhart

27.

Even if happiness forgets you a little bit, never completely forget about it.

Prevert, Jacques

28.

It is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong.

Bentham, Jeremy

29.

The secret of happiness and prosperity in this world, as in the world to come, lies in thinking of the welfare of others first, and not taking one's self too seriously.

Kindleberger, J.

30.

We take greater pains to persuade others we are happy than in trying to think so ourselves.

Confucius

31.

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

32.

To be happy we must not be too concerned with others.

Camus, Albert

33.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

34.

Happiness is the absence of the striving for happiness.

Chuang Tzu

35.

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

36.

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

Horton, Doug

37.

Happiness is not a reward -- it is a consequence. Suffering is not a punishment -- it is a result.

Ingersoll, Robert Green

38.

Slow down and enjoy life. It's not only the scenery you miss by going too fast - you also miss the sense of where you are going and why.

Eddie Cantor

39.

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

Waitley, Denis

40.

Remember that very little is needed to make a happy life.

Aurelius, Marcus

41.

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

Jerrold, Douglas William

42.

Let no one till his death be called unhappy. Measure not the work until the day's out and the labor done.

Browning, Elizabeth Barrett

43.

The great end of all human industry is the attainment of happiness. For this were arts invented, sciences cultivated, laws ordained, and societies modeled, by the most profound wisdom of patriots and legislators. Even the lonely savage, who lies exposed to the inclemency of the elements and the fury of wild beasts, forgets not, for a moment, this grand object of his being.

Hume, David

44.

Joy comes from using your potential.

Schultz, Will

45.

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

46.

If you ever find happiness by hunting for it, you will find it as the old woman did her lost spectacles. Safe on her own nose all the time.

Billings, Josh

47.

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

48.

All of our unhappiness comes from our inability to be alone.

La Bruyere, Jean De

49.

If you want to be happy for a year, plant a garden; If you want to be happy for life, plant a tree.

Proverb, English