Motivational Quotes

Happiness

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

- Landor, Walter Savage

Best Quotes about Happiness

Happiness is a conscious choice, not an automatic response.

Barthel, Mildred

The discovery of a new dish does more for human happiness than the discovery of a new star.

Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

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

We wish to be happier than other people; and this is difficult, for we believe others to be happier than they are.

Montesquieu, Charles De

Our happiness in this world depends on the affections we are able to inspire.

Prazlin, Duchess

No man is happy; he is at best fortunate.

Solon

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

Richter, Jean Paul

A man is happy so long as he chooses to be happy and nothing can stop him.

Solzhenitsyn, Alexander

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

Landor, Walter Savage

10.

The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness.

Hoffer, Eric

11.

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

William Cowper

12.

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

C. P. Snow

13.

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

14.

The best advice on the art of being happy is about as easy to follow as advice to be well when one is sick.

Swetchine, Anne Sophie

15.

Happiness... is not a destination: it is a manner of traveling. Happiness is not an end in itself. It is a by-product of working, playing, loving and living.

Ginott, Haim

16.

Happiness is a positive cash flow.

Adler, Fred

17.

Happiness lies neither in vice nor in virtue; but in the manner we appreciate the one and the other, and the choice we make pursuant to our individual organization.

Sade, Marquis De

18.

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

19.

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

Prevert, Jacques

20.

Happiness is never stopping to think if you are.

Sondreal, Palmer

21.

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

Chuck Sigars

22.

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

23.

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

24.

If you were happy every day of your life you wouldn't be a human being, you'd be a game show host.

Heatter, Gabriel

25.

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

Kennedy, John F.

26.

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

Camus, Albert

27.

When you have once seen the glow of happiness on the face of a beloved person, you know that a man can have no vocation but to awaken that light on the faces surrounding him; and you are torn by the thought of the unhappiness and night you cast, by the mere fact of living, in the hearts you encounter.

Camus, Albert

28.

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

29.

Happiness is not pleasure, it is victory.

Ziglar, Zig

30.

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

31.

Happiness is an imaginary condition, formerly often attributed by the living to the dead, now usually attributed by adults to children, and by children to adults.

Szasz, Thomas

32.

To buy happiness is to sell soul.

Horton, Doug

33.

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

34.

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

35.

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

Peterson, Wilferd A.

36.

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

Roosevelt, Eleanor

37.

The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts: therefore, guard accordingly, and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature.

Aurelius, Marcus

38.

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.

39.

Holiness, not happiness, is the chief end of man.

Chambers, Oswald

40.

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

Orwell, George

41.

Scarcely one person in a thousand is capable of tasting the happiness of others.

Fielding, Henry

42.

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

43.

Happiness is a sort of action.

Aristotle

44.

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

Bob Newhart

45.

There is no end of craving. Hence contentment alone is the best way to happiness. Therefore, acquire contentment.

Sivananda, Sri Swami

46.

What happiness is there which is not purchased with more or less of pain?

Oliphant, Margaret

47.

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

48.

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

49.

Happiness in this world, when it comes, comes incidentally. Make it the object of pursuit, and it leads us a wild-goose chase, and is never attained.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel

50.

When you relinquish the desire to control your future, you can have more happiness.

Nicole Kidman