Motivational Quotes

Happiness

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

Best Quotes about Happiness

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

James Oppenheim

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

He wanted to live life in such a way that if a photograph were taken at random it would be a cool photograph. Things should look right. Fun; there should be a lot of fun and no more sadness than absolutely necessary.

David Nicholls

Now and then it's good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy.

Apollinaire, Guillaume

Remember, happiness doesn't depend upon who you are or what you have, it depends solely upon what you think.

Carnegie, Dale

The Greeks said grandly in their tragic phrase, Let no one be called happy till his death; to which I would add, Let no one, till his death be called unhappy.

Browning, Elizabeth Barrett

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

Jackson, Holbrook

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

It is impossible to live a pleasant life without living wisely and well and justly. And it is impossible to live wisely and well and justly without living a pleasant life.

Epicurus

10.

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

J.K. Rowling

11.

Happiness is a sort of action.

Aristotle

12.

Happiness is an agreeable sensation, arising from contemplating the misery of others.

Bierce, Ambrose

13.

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

14.

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

Fountain., John

15.

If you optimize everything, you will always be unhappy.

Knuth, Don

16.

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

Cloete, Stuart

17.

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

Landor, Walter Savage

18.

Happiness is a ball after which we run wherever it rolls, and we push it with our feet when it stops.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

19.

Farms and in castles, in homes, studies, and cloisters -- where sensible people manage to live relatively lusty and decent lives, as moral as they must be, as free as they may be, and as masterly as they can be. If we only knew it, this elusive arrangement is happiness.

Erikson, Erik H.

20.

The happiness of a man in this life does not consist in the absence but in the mastery of his passions.

Alfred Lord Tennyson

21.

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

22.

The glow of satisfaction which follows the consciousness of doing our level best never comes to a human being from any other experience.

Marden, Orison Swett

23.

Laughing is the sensation of feeling good all over and showing it principally in one spot.

Josh Billings

24.

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

Palmer, Gretta Brooker

25.

The biggest lie on the planet: When I get what I want, I will be happy.

26.

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

The laws of Manu

27.

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

28.

The secret of happiness is to make others believe they are the cause of it.

Al Batt

29.

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

Richter, Jean Paul

30.

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.

31.

The secret of happiness is something to do.

Burroughs, John

32.

Happiness is like those palaces in fairy tales whose gates are guarded by dragons: we must fight in order to conquer it.

Dumas, Alexandre

33.

IÆve decided that the key to happiness is low expectations.

Laura Moncur

34.

For who is pleased with himself.

Johnson, Samuel

35.

If you deliberately plan on being less than you are capable of being, then I warn you that you'll be unhappy for the rest of your life.

Maslow, Abraham H.

36.

The bird of paradise alights only upon the hand that does not grasp.

John Berry

37.

No one is in control of your happiness but you; therefore, you have the power to change anything about yourself or your life that you want to change.

Angelis, Barbara De

38.

Happiness is understanding that friendship is more precious than mere things, more precious than getting your own way, more precious than being in situations where true principles are not at stake.

Walters, J. Donald

39.

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

Roy M. Goodman

40.

Happiness in the present is only shattered by comparison with the past.

Horton, Doug

41.

The happier the moment the shorter.

Pliny The Elder

42.

Happiness is not a horse, you cannot harness it.

Proverb, Russian

43.

Jonathan Haidt

44.

Success is getting and achieving what you want. Happiness is wanting and being content with what you get.

Meltzer, Bernard

45.

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.

46.

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

47.

Happiness is a small and unworthy goal for something as big and fancy as a whole lifetime, and should be taken in small doses.

Baker, Russell (Wayne)

48.

Happiness is not a state to arrive at, rather, a manner of traveling.

Johnson, Samuel

49.

In order for people to be happy, sometimes they have to take risks. It's true these risks can put them in danger of being hurt.

Meg Cabot

50.

Happiness radiates like the fragrance from a flower, and draws all good things toward you. Allow your love to nourish yourself as well as others. Do not strain after the needs of life. It is sufficient to be quietly alert and aware of them. In this way life proceeds more naturally and effortlessly. Life is here to Enjoy!

Yogi, Maharishi Mahesh