Motivational Quotes

Happiness

Happiness is not having what you want, but wanting what you have.

- Schachtel, Rabbi H.

Best Quotes about Happiness

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

Prevert, Jacques

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

Ingersoll, Robert Green

It is not God's will merely that we should be happy, but that we should make ourselves happy

Kant, Immanuel

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

Landor, Walter Savage

Happiness is a positive cash flow.

Adler, Fred

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)

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

Abraham Lincoln

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

Horton, Doug

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.

10.

Only one thing has to change for us to know happiness in our lives: where we focus our attention.

Anderson, Greg

11.

The secret to happiness is not in doing what one likes to do, but in liking what one has to do.

12.

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

13.

Happiness serves hardly any other purpose than to make unhappiness possible.

Proust, Marcel

14.

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

Josh Billings

15.

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

Smith, Adam

16.

Happiness does not lie in happiness, but in the achievement of it.

Dostoevsky, Fyodor

17.

It isn't necessary to be rich and famous to be happy. It's only necessary to be rich.

Alda, Alan

18.

Happiness depends upon ourselves.

Aristotle

19.

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

20.

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

21.

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

Richter, Jean Paul

22.

It is pretty hard to tell what does bring happiness; poverty and wealth have both failed.

Kin Hubbard

23.

To buy happiness is to sell soul.

Horton, Doug

24.

Happiness, that grand mistress of the ceremonies in the dance of life, impels us through all its mazes and meandering, but leads none of us by the same route

Colton, Charles Caleb

25.

If you want happiness for an hour -- take a nap. If you want happiness for a day -- go fishing. If you want happiness for a month -- get married. If you want happiness for a year -- inherit a fortune. If you want happiness for a lifetime -- help someone else.

Proverb, Chinese

26.

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

27.

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

28.

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

John Berry

29.

To describe happiness is to diminish it.

Stendhal, Henri B.

30.

It is kind of happiness to know to what extent we may be unhappy.

31.

No man should desire to be happy who is not at the same time holy. He should spend his efforts in seeking to know and do the will of God, leaving to Christ the matter of how happy he should be.

Tozer, A. W.

32.

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

Nash, Ogden

33.

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

J.K. Rowling

34.

Happiness is not being pained in body or troubled in mind.

Jefferson, Thomas

35.

If you cannot renounce the world the genius of happiness will never salute you.

Prutz

36.

Whoever is happy will make others happy too.

Frank, Anne

37.

Happiness arises in a state of peace, not of tumult.

Ann Radcliffe

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.

No burden is so heavy for a man to bear as a succession of happy days.

Muller, Max

40.

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

41.

If you're ever given the choice between happiness and intelligence choose happiness

42.

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

Solzhenitsyn, Alexander

43.

While we pursue happiness, we flee from contentment.

Proverb, Hasidic

44.

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

Landor, Walter Savage

45.

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

Aurelius, Marcus

46.

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

47.

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.

48.

I have learned to seek my happiness by limiting my desires, rather than in attempting to satisfy them.

Mill, John Stuart

49.

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

Lucian

50.

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