Motivational Quotes

Happiness

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

Best Quotes about Happiness

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

Feather, William

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

Spencer, Herbert

Happiness is not a horse, you cannot harness it.

Proverb, Russian

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

Fichte, Johann G.

The most exciting happiness is the happiness generated by forces beyond your control.

Nash, Ogden

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

There is no greater joy than that of feeling oneself a creator. The triumph of life is expressed by creation.

Bergson, Henri L.

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

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

Horton, Doug

10.

Happy is the son whose faith in his mother remains unchallenged.

Alcott, Louisa May

11.

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

12.

Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.

Abraham Lincoln

13.

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

William Cowper

14.

He felt the loyalty we feel to unhappiness -- the sense that is where we really belong.

Greene, Graham

15.

The attitude of unhappiness is not only painful, it is mean and ugly. What can be more base and unworthy than the pining, puling, mumping mood, no matter by what outward ills it may have been engendered? What is more injurious to others? What less helpful as a way out of the difficulty? It but fastens and perpetuates the trouble which occasioned it, and increases the total evil of the situation. At all costs, then, we ought to reduce the sway of that mood; we ought to scout it in ourselves and others, and never show it tolerance.

James, William

16.

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

Geneen, Harold S.

17.

Happiness comes from... some curious adjustment to life.

Walpole, Sir Hugh

18.

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

Addison, Joseph

19.

Happiness consists of three things; Someone to love, work to do, and a clear conscience.

20.

Whoever does not regard what he has as most ample wealth, is unhappy, though he be master of the world.

Epictetus

21.

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

Levenson, Samuel

22.

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

23.

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

24.

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

25.

What makes people happy is activity; changing evil itself into good by power, working in a God like manner.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

26.

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

Smith, Adam

27.

Happiness lies first of all in health.

Curtis, George William

28.

The hardest habit of all to break is the terrible habit of happiness.

Garrison, Theodosia

29.

The pursuit of happiness is a most ridiculous phrase; if you pursue happiness you'll never find it.

C. P. Snow

30.

Happiness depends upon ourselves.

Aristotle

31.

Happiness is that state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one's values.

Ayn Rand

32.

The good life, as I conceive it, is a happy life. I do not mean that if you are good you will be happy; I mean that if you are happy you will be good.

Russell, Bertrand

33.

The time to be happy is now. The place to be happy is here. The way to be happy is to make others so.

34.

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.

35.

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

Horace

36.

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

Jonathan Haidt

37.

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

Jean Jacques Rousseau

38.

Happiness is a hard thing because it is achieved only by making others happy.

Cloete, Stuart

39.

The only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve.

Schweitzer, Albert

40.

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

41.

Happiness is the harvest of a quiet eye.

O'Malley, Austin

42.

Depend not on another, but lean instead on thyself...True happiness is born of self-reliance.

The laws of Manu

43.

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

Landor, Walter Savage

44.

The two enemies of human happiness are pain and boredom.

Schopenhauer, Arthur

45.

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

Goodman, Roy

46.

Happiness is a journey not a destination.

Sweetland, Ben

47.

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

48.

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

49.

Happiness does not come from doing easy work but from the afterglow of satisfaction that comes after the achievement of a difficult task that demanded our best.

Rubin, Theodore I.

50.

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