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

We find greatest joy, not in getting, but in expressing what we are. Men do not really live for honors or for pay; their gladness is not the taking and holding, but in doing, the striving, the building, the living. It is a higher joy to teach than to be taught. It is good to get justice, but better to do it; fun to have things but more to make them. The happy man is he who lives the life of love, not for the honors it may bring, but for the life itself.

Baughan, R.J.

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

Addison, Joseph

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

Aristotle

We are never so happy nor so unhappy as we imagine.

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De

Happiness is the longing for repetition.

Kundera, Milan

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

Landor, Walter Savage

To describe happiness is to diminish it.

Stendhal, Henri B.

Happiness is activity.

Aristotle

We think a happy life consists in tranquility of mind.

Cicero, Marcus T.

10.

Happiness is not a goal, it is a by-product.

Roosevelt, Eleanor

11.

Happiness is a sort of action.

Aristotle

12.

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

Camus, Albert

13.

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

Jean Houston

14.

If you optimize everything, you will always be unhappy.

Knuth, Don

15.

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

Kennedy, John F.

16.

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

17.

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

18.

Happiness is like a cat, If you try to coax it or call it, it will avoid you; it will never come. But if you pay not attention to it and go about your business, you'll find it rubbing against your legs and jumping into your lap.

Bennett, William John

19.

Where one is wise two are happy.

Proverb

20.

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

Fichte, Johann G.

21.

Call no man unhappy until he is married.

Socrates

22.

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

23.

Those who seek happiness miss it, and those who discuss it, lack it.

Jackson, Holbrook

24.

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

Jonathan Haidt

25.

Not what you have, but what you see; Not what you see, but what you choose; Not what seems fair, but what is true; Not what you dream, but what you do; Not what you take, but what you give; Not as you pray, but as you live. These are the things that mar or bless The sum of human happiness.

26.

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

Richter, Jean Paul

27.

And isn't that, at it's core, what the princess fantasy is about for all of us? "Princess" is how we tell little girls that they are special, precious. "Princess" is the wish that we could protect them from pain, that they would never know sorrow, that they will live happily ever after ensconces in lace and innocence.

Peggy Orenstein

28.

Often people attempt to live their lives backwards; they try to have more things, or more money, in order to do more of what they want, so they will be happier.

Young, Margaret

29.

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

30.

The secret of happiness is this: let your interests be as wide as possible, and let your reactions to the things and persons that interest you be as far as possible friendly rather than hostile.

Russell, Bertrand

31.

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

32.

Happiness lies first of all in health.

Curtis, George William

33.

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

Confucius

34.

The greatest happiness is to know the source of unhappiness.

Dostoevsky, Fyodor

35.

Happiness is a by-product. You cannot pursue it by itself.

Levenson, Samuel

36.

Happy were men if they but understood There is no safety but in doing good

Fountain., John

37.

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

38.

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

Feather, William

39.

Happiness is not so much in having or sharing. We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.

Macewan, Norman

40.

Happiness adds and multiplies, as we divide it with others.

Nielsen, A.

41.

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

42.

I can sympathize with people's pains, but not with their pleasures. There is something curiously boring about somebody else's happiness.

Huxley, Aldous

43.

Be happy while you're living, for you're a long time dead.

Proverb, Scottish

44.

Happiness is always a by-product. It is probably a matter of temperament, and for anything I know it may be glandular. But it is not something that can be demanded from life, and if you are not happy you had better stop worrying about it and see what treasures you can pluck from your own brand of unhappiness.

Robertson Davies

45.

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

Bob Newhart

46.

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

47.

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

48.

Remember that happiness is a way of travel - not a destination.

Roy M. Goodman

49.

Enjoy your happiness while you have it, and while, you have it do not too closely scrutinize its foundation.

Farrall, Joseph

50.

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