Happy Quotes

I have collected over 400 great quotes about happiness.  These are arranged alphabetically by the person who made the statement.  Some are ancient; while others are modern.  I also found almost 70 cool pictures showing some aspect of happiness (NOTE: Click on them to make them larger.)  Many of the pix contain quotes.  These quotes and pix are specially selected for your entertainment, education and enlightenment.

I also have quotes about Creativity and Innovation if you want to learn and laugh more!!

For even more insight and inspiration check out my quotes about Nature and the Environment.

If you know other quotes please leave as a comment.  Tell Your Friends!!

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

He who has no wish to be happier is the happiest of men. – W.R. Alger

People spend a lifetime searching for happiness; looking for peace. They chase idle dreams, addictions, religions, even other people, hoping to fill the emptiness that plagues them. The irony is the only place they ever needed to search was within. – Ramona L. Anderson

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

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. – Barbara De Angelis

Now and then it’s good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy. – Guilaume Apollinaire

Happiness is something final and complete in itself, as being the aim and end of all practical activities whatever. Happiness then we define as the active exercise of the mind in conformity with perfect goodness or virtue. – Aristotle

Happiness depends upon ourselves. – Aristotle

Happiness belongs to the self-sufficient. – Aristotle

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

Happiness is activity. – Aristotle

Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence. – Aristotle

Indeed, man wishes to be happy even when he so lives as to make happiness impossible. – St. Augustine

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. – Marcus Aurelius

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

Joy has nothing to do with material things, or with man’s outward circumstance…A man living in the lap of luxury can be wretched, and a man in the depths of poverty can overflow with joy. – William Barclay

Happiness often sneaks in through a door you didn’t know you left open. – John Barrymore

Happiness is a conscious choice, not an automatic response. – Mildred Barthel

He is rich or poor according to what he is, not according to what he has. – Henry Ward Beecher

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. – William John Bennett

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

I care less about the gross national product and more about the gross national happiness. – King of Bhutan

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. – Louis Binstock

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. – Hugo Black

The truth is that all of us attain the greatest success and happiness possible in this life whenever we use our native capacities to their greatest extent. – Smiley Blanton

There is no cosmetic for beauty like happiness. – Countess of Blessington

It is a sad thing to look at happiness only through another’s eyes. – Marguerite Blessington

All you need for happiness is a good gun, a good horse, and a good wife. – Daniel Boone

So much sadness exists in the world that we are all under obligation to contribute as much joy as lies within our powers. – John Southerland Bonnell

We all want to be happy, and we’re all going to die. You might say those are the only two unchallengeably true facts that apply to every human being on this planet. – William Boyd

Happiness is the resultant of the relative strengths of positive and negative feelings rather than an absolute amount of one or the other. – Norman Bradburn

Celebrate the happiness that friends are always giving, make every day a holiday and celebrate just living! – Amanda Bradley

It’s never too late to have a happy childhood. – Berke Breathed

What would you call the highest happiness? Wratislaw was ask. The sense of competence was the answer, given without hesitation. – John Buchan

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. – J. E. Buckrose

Learn to let go. That is the key to happiness. – Buddha

Happiness comes when your work and words are of benefit to yourself and others. – Buddha

Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared. – Buddha

Happiness and virtue rest upon each other; the best are not only the happiest, but the happiest are usually the best. – Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton

Whatever our wandering, our happiness will always be found within a narrow compass, and in the middle of the objects more immediately within our reach. – Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton

The secret of happiness is something to do. – John Burroughs

To have joy one must share it. Happiness was born a twin. – Lord Byron

On the whole, the happiest people seem to be those who have no particular cause for being happy except that they are so. – Albert Camus

To be happy, we must not be too concerned with others. – Albert Camus

But what is happiness except the simple harmony between a man and the life he leads? – Albert Camus

You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of.  You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life. – Albert Camus

You are forgiven for your happiness and your successes only if you generously consent to share them. – Albert Camus

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

The only happiness a brave person ever troubles themselves in asking about, is happiness enough to get their work done. – Thomas Carlyle

It isn’t what you have, or who you are, or where you are, or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about. – Dale Carnegie

Remember, happiness doesn’t depend upon who you are or what you have, it depends solely upon what you think. – Dale Carnegie

Did you ever see an unhappy horse? Did you ever see bird that had the blues? One reason why birds and horses are not unhappy is because they are not trying to impress other birds and horses. – Dale Carnegie

Many people think that if they were only in some other place, or had some other job, they would be happy. Well, that is doubtful. So get as much happiness out of what you are doing as you can and don’t put off being happy until some future date. – Dale Carnegie

In order to have great happiness, you have to have great pain and unhappiness-otherwise how would you know when you’re happy? – Leslie Caron

We either make ourselves happy or miserable. The amount of work is the same. – Carlos Castaneda

That is happiness; to be dissolved into something completely great. – Willa Cather

It seldom happens that any felicity comes so pure as not to be tempered and allayed by some mixture of sorrow. – Miguel De Cervantes

They say a person needs just three things to be truly happy in this world: Someone to love, something to do, and something to hope for. – Allan K. Chalmers

Holiness, not happiness, is the chief end of man. – Oswald Chambers

The creed of a true saint is to make the best of life, and to make the most of it. – Edwin Hubbel Chapin

People don’t notice whether it’s summer or winter when they’re happy. – Anton Chekhov

Happiness is a mystery, like religion, and should never be rationalized. – Gilbert K. Chesterton

Health is not just the absence of a disease. It’s an inner joyfulness that should be ours all the time; a state of positive well-being. – Deepak Chopra

Happiness is a continuation of happenings which are not resisted. – Deepak Chopra

A happy life consists in tranquility of mind. – Marcus T. Cicero

We think a happy life consists in tranquility of mind. – Marcus T. Cicero

The person who seeks all their applause from outside has their happiness in another’s keeping. – Claudius Claudianus

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

The greatest joy of life is to love and be loved. – R. D. Clyde

Happiness, or misery, is in the mind. It is the mind that lives. – William Cobbett

What a wonderful life I’ve had!  I only wish I’d realized it sooner. – Colette

Be happy.  It’s one way of being wise. – Colette

There is this difference between happiness and wisdom, that he that thinks himself the happiest man, really is so; but he who thinks himself the wisest, is generally the greatest fool. – Charles Caleb Colton

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. – Charles Caleb Colton

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

Happiness seems made to be shared. – Pierre Cornelius

How we feel about ourselves, the joy we get from living, ultimately depends directly on how the mind filters and interprets everyday experiences. Whether we are happy depends on inner harmony, not on the controls we are able to exert over the great forces of the universe. – Mihaly Csikszentmihaly

A business is successful to the extent that it provides a product or service that contributes to happiness in all of its forms. – Mihaly Csikszentmihaly

Happiness lies first of all in health. – George William Curtis

There are some days when I think I’m going to die from an overdose of satisfaction. – Salvador Dali

Happiness resides not in possessions, and not in gold, happiness dwells in the soul. – Democritus

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. – John Dewey

The happiness of most people we know is not ruined by great catastrophes or fatal errors, but by the repetition of slowly destructive little things. – Ernest Dimnet

Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action. – Benjamin Disraeli

Man is fond of counting his troubles, but he does not count his joys.  If he counted them up as he ought to, he would see that every lot has enough happiness provided for it. – Fyodor Dostoevsky

The greatest happiness is to know the source of unhappiness. – Fyodor Dostoevsky

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

Shall I give you my recipe for happiness? I find everything useful and nothing indispensable. I find everything wonderful and nothing miraculous. I reverence the body. I avoid first causes like the plague. – Norman Douglas

A happy person is not a person in a certain set of circumstances, but rather a person with a certain set of attitudes. – Hugh Downs

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

Happiness is a journey, not a destination; happiness is to be found along the way not at the end of the road, for then the journey is over and it’s too late. The time for happiness is today not tomorrow. – Paul H. Dunn

When you dance, your purpose is not to get to a certain place on the floor. It’s to enjoy each step along the way. – Wayne Dyer

It’s never too late to have a happy childhood. – Wayne Dyer

There is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way. – Wayne Dyer

Simply put, you believe that things or people make you unhappy, but this is not accurate. You make yourself unhappy. – Wayne Dyer

Happiness is spiritual, born of Truth and Love. It is unselfish; therefore it cannot exist alone, but requires all mankind to share it. – Mary Baker Eddy

Happiness is like manna; it is to be gathered in grains, and enjoyed every day. It will not keep; it cannot be accumulated; nor have we got to go out of ourselves or into remote places to gather it, since it has rained down from a Heaven, at our very door. – Tryon Edwards

The best way to secure future happiness is to be as happy as is rightfully possible to-day. – Charles W. Eliot

To fill the hour; that is happiness. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

To get up each morning with the resolve to be happy is to set our own conditions to the events of each day. To do this is to condition circumstances instead of being conditioned by them. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

I look on that man as happy, who, when there is question of success, looks into his work for a reply. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Happiness is a perfume which you cannot pour on someone without getting some on yourself. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

The essence of philosophy is that a man should so live that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things. – Epictetus

There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will. – Epictetus

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

If thou wilt make a man happy, add not unto his riches but take away from his desires. – Epicurus

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

It is the chief point of happiness that a man is willing to be what he is. – Desiderius Erasmus

Happiness is a function of accepting what is. – Werner Erhard

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. – Erik H. Erikson

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

Plenty of people miss their share of happiness, not because they never found it, but because they didn’t stop to enjoy it. – William Feather

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

One of the indictments of civilizations is that happiness and intelligence are so rarely found in the same person. – William Feather

If we cannot live so as to be happy, let us so live as to deserve happiness. – Johann G. Fichte

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

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

A great obstacle to happiness is to expect too much happiness. – Bernard Le Bovier Fontenelle

To live long and achieve happiness, cultivate the art of radiating happiness. – Malcolm Forbes

When what we are is what we want to be, that’s happiness. – Malcolm Forbes

Being happy is something you have to learn. I often surprise myself by saying “Wow, this is it. I guess I’m happy. I got a home I love. A career that I love. I’m even feeling more and more at peace with myself.” If there’s something else to happiness, let me know. I’m ambitious for that, too. – Harrison Ford

Happy were men if they but understood there is no safety but in doing good. – John Fountain

We all live with the objective of being happy; our lives are all different and yet the same. – Anne Frank

Whoever is happy will make others happy too. – Anne Frank

Think of all the beauty that’s still left in and around you and be happy! – Anne Frank

The Constitution only guarantees the American people the right to pursue happiness.  You have to catch it yourself. – Benjamin Franklin

Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action. – Benjamin Franklin

Happiness consists more in small conveniences of pleasures that occur every day, than in great pieces of good fortune that happen but seldom to a man in the course of his life. – Benjamin Franklin

Just as a cautious businessman avoids investing all his capital in one concern, so wisdom would probably admonish us also not to anticipate all our happiness from one quarter alone. – Sigmund Freud

One feels inclined to say that the intention that man should be happy is not included in the plan of Creation. – Sigmund Freud

All seasons are beautiful for the person who carries happiness within. – Horace Friess

Happiness makes up in height for what it lacks in length. – Robert Frost

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony. – Mahatma Gandhi

True happiness involves the full use of one’s power and talents. – John W. Gardner

Success is getting what you want, happiness is wanting what you get. – Dave Gardner

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

Do you want my one-word secret of happiness?  It’s growth — mental, financial, you name it. – Harold S. Geneen

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. – Haim Ginott

He is happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home. – Johann Wolgang Von Goethe

The most happy man is he who knows how to bring into relation the end and beginning of his life. – Johann Wolgang Von Goethe

The man who is born with a talent which he was meant to use finds his greatest happiness in using it. – Johann Wolgang Von Goethe

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

The highest happiness of man is to have probed what is knowable and quietly to revere what is unknowable. – Johann Wolgang Von Goethe

A person is never happy till their vague strivings has itself marked out its proper limitations. – Johann Wolgang Von Goethe

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

When someone does something good, applaud! You will make two people happy. – Samuel Goldwyn

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

Point me out the happy man and I will point you out either egotism, selfishness, evil –or else an absolute ignorance. – Graham Greene

In the pursuit of happiness, the difficulty lies in knowing when you have caught up. – R. H. Grenville

Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy. – Thich Nhat Hanh

Happiness held is the seed; Happiness shared is the flower-Author Unknown People need your love the most when they appear to deserve it the least. – John Harrigan

Happiness is a direction, not a place. – Sydney J. Harris

Happiness is a butterfly, which, when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you sit down quietly, may alight upon you. – Nathaniel Hawthorne

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. – Nathaniel Hawthorne

Look up, laugh loud, talk big, keep the color in your cheek and the fire in your eye, adorn your person, maintain your health, your beauty and your animal spirits. – William Hazlitt

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

Happiness is a how, not a what: a talent, not an object ~ Hermann Hesse – Herman Hesse

The loss of wealth is loss of dirt, as sages in all times assert; The happy man’s without a shirt. – John Heywood

Happiness is not a destination. It is a method of life. – Burton Hills

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

You can never get enough of what you don’t need to make you happy. – Eric Hoffer

Happiness requires problems. – H. L. Hollingworth

When we recall the past, we usually find that it is the simplest things — not the great occasions — that in retrospect give off the greatest glow of happiness. – Bob Hope

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

Happiness is a habit – cultivate it. – Elbert Hubbard

The supreme happiness in life is the conviction that we are loved — loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves. – Victor Hugo

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. – Karl Wilhelm Von Humboldt

Here we are the way politics ought to be in America; the politics of happiness, the politics of purpose and the politics of joy. – Hubert H. Humphrey

Happiness is above all things the calm, glad certainty of innocence. – Henrik Ibsen

The happiest people seem to be those who have no particular reason for being so except that they are so. – William Ralph Inge

Happiness is the only good. The time to be happy is now. The place to be happy is here. The way to be happy is to make others so. – Robert Green Ingersoll

Happiness is not a reward — it is a consequence. Suffering is not a punishment — it is a result. – Robert Green Ingersoll

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

Change your thoughts and you change your world. – William James

How to gain, how to keep, how to recover happiness is in fact for most men at all times the secret motive of all they do, and of all they are willing to endure. – William James

The really happy person is the one who can enjoy the scenery, even when they have to take a detour. – Sir James Jeans

Happiness is not being pained in body or troubled in mind. – Thomas Jefferson

I believe that every human mind feels pleasure in doing good to another. – Thomas Jefferson

Our greatest happiness does not depend on the condition of life in which chance has placed us, but is always the result of a good conscience, good health, occupation, and freedom in all just pursuits. – Thomas Jefferson

A mind always employed is always happy. This is the true secret, the grand recipe, for felicity. – Thomas Jefferson

It is neither wealth nor splendor, but tranquillity and occupation, which give happiness. – Thomas Jefferson

Happiness grows at our own firesides, and is not to be picked in stranger’s gardens. – Douglas William Jerrold

Pleasure is very seldom found where it is sought.  Our brightest blazes are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks. – Samuel Johnson

Sir, that all who are happy, are equally happy, is not true. A peasant and a philosopher may be equally satisfied, but not equally happy. Happiness consists in the multiplicity of agreeable consciousness. – Samuel Johnson

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. – Samuel Johnson

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

If you can’t be happy where you are, it’s a cinch you can’t be happy where you ain’t. – Charles Jones

True happiness consists not in the multitude of friends, but in the worth and choice. – Ben Jonson

Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word happy would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. It is far better take things as they come along with patience and equanimity. – Carl Jung

In theory there is a possibility of perfect happiness: To believe in the indestructible element within one, and not to strive towards it. – Frank Kafka

Happiness is not an ideal of reason, but of imagination. – Immanuel Kant

It is not God’s will merely that we should be happy, but that we should make ourselves happy . – Immanuel Kant

When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us. – Helen Keller

Happiness cannot come from without. It must come from within. It is not what we see and touch or that which others do for us which makes us happy; it is that which we think and feel and do, first for the other fellow and then for ourselves. – Helen Keller

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. – Helen Keller

Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence. – Helen Keller

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

We tend to forget that happiness doesn’t come as a result of getting something we don’t have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have. – Frdeerick Keonig

My happiness derives from knowing the people I love are happy. – Holly Ketchel

Happiness is experienced when your life gives you what you are willing to accept. – Ken Keyes Jr.

We always have enough to be happy if we are enjoying what we do have–and not worrying about what we don’t have. – Ken Keyes Jr.

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. – J. Kindleberger

I’m fulfilled in what I do… I never thought that a lot of money or fine clothes — the finer things of life — would make you happy. My concept of happiness is to be filled in a spiritual sense. – Coretta Scott King

We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements in life, when all we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about. – Charles Kingsley

We tend to forget that happiness doesn’t come as a result of getting something we don’t have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have. –  Frederick Koenig

Happiness is itself a kind of gratitude. – Joseph W. Krutch

Happiness is the longing for repetition. – Milan Kundera

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion.  If you want to be happy, practice compassion. – Dalai Lama

When I meet people from other cultures I know that they too want happiness and do not want suffering, this allows me to see them as brothers and sisters. – Dalai Lama

The basic thing is that everyone wants happiness, no one wants suffering. And happiness mainly comes from our own attitude, rather than from external factors. If your own mental attitude is correct, even if you remain in a hostile atmosphere, you feel happy. – Dalai Lama

Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions. – Dalai Lama

No thoroughly occupied man was ever yet very miserable. – Letitia Landon

We cannot be contented because we are happy, and we cannot be happy because we are contented. – Walter Landor

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

Happiness is something that comes into our lives through doors we don’t even remember leaving open. – Rose Wilder Lane

We are more interested in making others believe we are happy than in trying to be happy ourselves. – Fracois De La Rochefoucauld

We are never so happy nor so unhappy as we imagine. – Fracois De La Rochefoucauld

The world is full of people looking for spectacular happiness while they snub contentment. – Doug Larson

Life is made up of small pleasures. Happiness is made up of those tiny successes. The big ones come too infrequently. And if you don’t collect all these tiny successes, the big ones don’t really mean anything. – Norman Lear

Many search for happiness as we look for a hat we wear on our heads. – Nikolaus Lenus

It is not the place, nor the condition, but the mind alone that can make anyone happy or miserable. – Sir Roger L’Estrange

Happiness isn’t something you experience; it’s something you remember. – Oscar Levant

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

A person will be just about as happy as they make up their minds to be. – Abraham Lincoln

Happiness is the soundtrack of my life. – Grey Livingston

To be strong is to be happy! – Longfellow

Happiness is a thing to be practiced, like the violin. – John Lubbock

Suspicion of happiness is in our blood. – E. V. Lucas

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

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. – Norman Macewan

Remember that happiness is as contagious as gloom. It should be the first duty of those who are happy to let others know of their gladness. – Maurice Maeterlinck

It is of immense importance to learn to laugh at ourselves. – Katherine Mansfield

Talk happiness. The world is sad enough without your woe. – Orison Swett Marden

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

Happiness is the interval between periods of unhappiness. – Don Marquis

Each morning when I open my eyes I say to myself: I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn’t arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I’m going to be happy in it. – Groucho Marx

Happiness consists in activity — it is a running stream, not a stagnant pool. – John L. Mason

Happiness is not a possession to be prized. It is a quality of thought, a state of mind. – Daphne Du Maurier

Happiness is the light on the water. The water is cold and dark and deep. – William Maxwell

There is only one cause of unhappiness: the false beliefs you have in your head, beliefs so widespread, so commonly held, that it never occurs to you to question them. – Anthony de Mello

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

Happiness is not a matter of events; it depends upon the tides of the mind. – Alice Meynell

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

Ask yourself whether you are happy and you cease to be so. – John Stuart Mill

It’s good to be just plain happy. It’s a little better to know that you’re happy; but to understand that you’re happy and to know why and how and still be happy—be happy in the being and the knowing—well, that is beyond happiness, that is bliss. – Henry Miller

Act happy, feel happy, be happy, without a reason in the world. Then you can love, and do what you will. – Dan Millman

The mind is its own place, and in itself, can make heaven of Hell, and a hell of Heaven. – John Milton

If one only wished to be happy, this could be easily accomplished; but we wish to be happier that other people, and this is always difficult, for we believe others to be happier than they are. – Charles De Montesquieu

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. – Charles De Montesquieu

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

The art of living does not consist in preserving and clinging to a particular mode of happiness, but in allowing happiness to change its form without being disappointed by the change; happiness, like a child, must be allowed to grow up. – Charles L. Morgan

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

Happiness is a matter of one’s most ordinary and everyday mode of consciousness being busy and lively and unconcerned with self. – Iris Murdoch

Most of us experience happiness when we are enjoying life and feeling free, enjoying the process and products of our creative and intellectual processes, enjoying the ecstasy of transcendent oneness with the universe. – James Muriel

What a man really wants is creative challenge with sufficient skills to bring him within the reach of success so that he may have the expanding joy of achievement. – Fay B. Nash

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

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

We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once. And we should call every truth false which was not accompanied by at least one laugh. – Friedrich Nietzsche

I think there is a serious corruption in the idea sold through advertising that you can attain spiritual peace through lifestyle and the notion of building your happiness from the outside-in by acquiring things . . . which if you think about it, is the essence of advertising. – Edward Norton

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

Happiness is the harvest of a quiet eye. – Austin O’Malley

The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance; The wise grows it under his feet. –  James Oppenheimer

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

It is necessary to the happiness of man that he be mentally faithful to himself. – Thomas Paine

Happiness is a by-product of an effort to make someone else happy. – Gretta Brooker Palmer

Those who can laugh without cause have either found the true meaning of happiness or have gone stark raving mad. – Norm Papernick

Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy. – Norman Vincent Peale

Our happiness depends on the habit of mind we cultivate. So practice happy thinking every day. Cultivate the merry heart, develop the happiness habit, and life will become a continual feast. – Norman Vincent Peale

As happy a man as any in the world, for the whole world seems to smile upon me! – Samuel Pepys

Man must search for what is right, and let happiness come on its own. – Johann Pestalozzi

Happiness doesn’t come from doing what we like to do but from liking what we have to do. – Wilfred A.Peterson

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. – Elizabeth Stuart Phelps

Everything exists in limited quantity; especially happiness. – Picasso

Happy the man whose wish and care a few paternal acres bound, content to breathe his native air in his own ground. – Alexander Pope

Know then this truth, enough for man to know virtue alone is happiness below. – Alexander Pope

Consult not your fears but your hopes and your dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what it is still possible for you to do. – Pope John XXIII

Happiness is a sunbeam which may pass through a thousand bosoms without losing a particle of its original ray; nay, when it strikes on a kindred heart, like the converged light on a mirror, it reflects itself with redoubled brightness. It is not perfected till it is shared. – Jane Porter

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

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

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom. – Marcel Proust

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

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

My happiness is not the means to my end.  It is the end. – Ayn Rand

Happiness is an attitude. We either make ourselves miserable, or happy and strong. The amount of work is the same. – Francesca Reigler

It is not easy to find happiness in ourselves, and it is not possible to find it elsewhere. – Agnes Repplier

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

It is wrong to assume that men of immense wealth are always happy. – John D. Rockefeller

Happiness is not something you postpone for the future; it is something you design for the present. – Jim Rohn

The journey to happiness involves finding the courage to go down into ourselves and take responsibility for what’s there: all of it. – Richard Rohr

Happiness depends more on how life strikes you than on what happens. – Andy Rooney

Happiness is not a goal; it is a by-product. – Eleanor Roosevelt

Happiness is not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. – Franklin D. Roosevelt

The thirst after happiness is never extinguished in the heart of man. – Jean Jacques Rousseau

In every person is a hidden child who wants to play – Dr. Harvey Ruben

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. – Theodore I. Rubin

Most people ask for happiness on condition. Happiness can only be felt if you don’t set any condition. – Arthur Rubinstein

Happiness is not a station you arrive at, but a manner of traveling. – Margaret Lee Runbeck

A happy life must be to great extent a quiet life, for it is only in an atmosphere of quiet that true joy can live. – Bertrand Russell

Man needs, for his happiness, not only the enjoyment of this or that, but hope and enterprise and change. – Bertrand Russell

The happiness that is genuinely satisfying is accompanied by the fullest exercise of our faculties and the fullest realization of the world in which we live. – Bertrand Russell

To be happy in this world, especially when youth is past, it is necessary to feel oneself not merely an isolated individual whose day will soon be over, but part of the stream of life slowing on from the first germ to the remote and unknown future. – Bertrand Russell

Anything you’re good at contributes to happiness. – Bertrand Russell

Few people can be happy unless they hate some other person, nation, or creed. – Bertrand Russell

Happiness is not best achieved by those who seek it directly. – Bertrand Russell

If there were in the world today any large number of people who desired their own happiness more than they desired the unhappiness of others, we could have paradise in a few years. – Bertrand Russell

Men who are unhappy, like men who sleep badly, are always proud of the fact. – Bertrand Russell

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. – Bertrand Russell

To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness. – Bertrand Russell

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. – Bertrand Russell

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. – Marquis De Sade

It is in the compelling zest of high adventure and of victory, and in creative action, that man finds his supreme joys. – Antoine De Saint-Exupery

True happiness comes from the joy of deeds well done, the zest of creating things new. – Antoine De Saint-Exupery

The fact is always obvious much too late, but the most singular difference between happiness and joy is that happiness is a solid and joy a liquid. – J. D. Salinger

There is only one happiness in life, to love and be loved. – George Sand

A string of excited, fugitive, miscellaneous pleasures is not happiness; happiness resides in imaginative reflection and judgment, when the picture of one’s life, or of human life, as it truly has been or is, satisfies the will, and is gladly accepted. – George Santayana

Knowledge of what is possible is the beginning of happiness. – George Santayana

Happiness is the only sanction of life; where happiness fails, existence remains a mad and lamentable experiment. – George Santayana

Work and live to serve others, to leave the world a little better than you found it and garner for yourself as much peace of mind as you can. This is happiness. – David Sarnoff

The greatest happiness you can have is knowing that you do not necessarily require happiness. – William Saroyan

Happiness is not having what you want, but wanting what you have. – Rabbi H. Schachtel

Lead the life that will make you kindly and friendly to everyone about you, and you will be surprised what a happy life you will lead. – Charles M. Schaub

The two enemies of human happiness are pain and boredom. – Arthur Schopenhauer

Joy comes from using your potential. – Will Schultz

My life has no purpose, no direction, no aim, no meaning, and yet I’m happy. I can’t figure it out. What am doing right? – Charles M. Schultz

Happiness is a warm puppy. – Charles M. Schultz

I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I do know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve. – Albert Schweitzer

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

A man’s as miserable as he thinks he is. – Seneca

We have no more right to consume happiness without producing it than to consume wealth without producing it. – George Bernard Shaw

This is the true joy of life–the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one, the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown to the scrap-heap; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish clod of ailments and grievances. – George Bernard Shaw

Life at its noblest leaves mere happiness far behind; and indeed cannot endure it. Happiness is not the object of life: life has no object: it is an end in itself; and courage consists in the readiness to sacrifice happiness for an intenser quality of life. – George Bernard Shaw

A lifetime of happiness? No man alive could bear it; it would be hell on earth. – George Bernard Shaw

Give a man health and a course to steer; and he’ll never stop to trouble about whether he’s happy or not. – George Bernard Shaw

Happiness is not in our circumstance but in ourselves. It is not something we see, like a rainbow, or feel, like the heat of a fire. Happiness is something we are. – John B. Sheerin

The soul’s joy lies in doing. – Percy Bysshe Shelley

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

There are two things to aim at in life:  first, to get what you want; and after that, to enjoy it.  Only the wisest of mankind achieve the second. – Logan Smith

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

Happiness is a wine of the rarest vintage, and seems insipid to a vulgar taste. – Logan Smith

The pursuit of happiness is a most ridiculous phrase; if you pursue happiness you’ll never find it. – Charles Percy Snow

Happiness is unrepentant pleasure. – Socrates

Call no man unhappy until he is married. – Socrates

Like swimming, riding, writing, or playing golf, happiness can be learned. – Boris Sokoloff

No man is happy; he is at best fortunate. – Solon

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

Happiness is never stopping to think if you are. – Palmer Sondreal

Wisdom is the supreme part of happiness. – Sophocles

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

It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness. – Charles Spurgeon

There can be no happiness if the things we believe in are different from the things we do. – Freya Stark

The human spirit needs to accomplish, to achieve, to triumph to be happy. – Ben Stein

To describe happiness is to diminish it. – Henri B. Stendhal

There is no duty we so underrate as the duty of being happy. By being happy we sow anonymous benefits upon the world. – Robert Loius Stevenson

Happiness comes when we test our skills towards some meaningful purpose. – John Stossel

Happiness consumes itself like a flame. It cannot burn forever, it must go out, and the presentiment of its end destroys it at its very peak. – J. August Strindberg

We’re born to be happy, all of us. – Alfred Sutro

Happiness is a journey not a destination. – Ben Sweetland

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

Happiness is a perpetual possession of being well deceived. – Jonathan Swift

The happy man is not he who seems thus to others, but who seems thus to himself. – Publilius Syrus

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. – Thomas Szasz

A person will be called to account on Judgement Day for every permissible thing he might have enjoyed but did not. – Talmud

Happiness comes from spiritual wealth, not material wealth… Happiness comes from giving, not getting. If we try hard to bring happiness to others, we cannot stop it from coming to us also. To get joy, we must give it, and to keep joy, we must scatter it. – John Templeton

One filled with joy preaches without preaching. – Mother Teresa

Be open to your happiness and sadness as they arise. – John M. Thomas

I can only think of one thing greater than being happy and that is to help another to be happy, too. – Jim Thomson

If the day and night be such that you greet them with joy, and life emits a fragrance like flowers and sweet-scented herbs, is more elastic, more immortal – that is your success.  All nature is your congratulation, and you have cause momentarily to bless yourself. – Henry David Thoreau

That man is richest whose pleasures are cheapest. – Henry David Thoreau

Man is the artificer of his own happiness. – Henry David Thoreau

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. – Henry David Thoreau

The secret of happiness is freedom, and the secret of freedom, courage. – Thucydides

If you want to be happy, be. – Leo Tolstoy

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. – A. W. Tozer

Happiness was not made to be boasted, but enjoyed. Therefore though others count me miserable, I will not believe them if I know and feel myself to be happy; nor fear them. – Thomas Traherne

You never enjoy the world aright, till the sea itself floweth in your veins, till you are clothed with the heavens and crowned with the stars. – Thomas Traherne

The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up. – Mark Twain

Whoever is happy will make others happy, too. – Mark Twain

Sanity and happiness are an impossible combination. – Mark Twain

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. – Mark Twain

There are people who can do all fine and heroic things but one: keep from telling their happiness to the unhappy. – Mark Twain

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.  So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. – Mark Twain

Happiness is the absence of the striving for happiness. – Chuang Tzu

Seek not happiness too greedily, and be not fearful of unhappiness. – Lao-Tzu

A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery while on a detour. – Unknown

Happiness is the feeling you’re feeling when you want to keep feeling it. – Unknown

Some pursue happiness, others create it. – Unknown

Where there is joy there is creation. Where there is no joy there is no creation: know the nature of joy. – Veda Upanishads

Happiness comes from some curious adjustment to life. – Sir Hugh Walpole

Happiness is not a brilliant climax to years of grim struggle and anxiety. It is a long succession of little decisions simply to be happy in the moment. – J. Donald Walters

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. – J. Donald Walters

The greater part of our happiness or misery depends on our dispositions, and not on our circumstances. We carry the seeds of the one or the other about with us in our minds wherever we go. – Martha Washington

Human happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected. – George Washington

Happiness is not in having being; it is in doing. – Lilian Eichler Watson

If only we’d stop trying to be happy we could have a pretty good time. – Edith Wharton

Don’t ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive.And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive. – Harold Whitman

That which you create in beauty and goodness and truth lives on for all time to come. Don’t spend your life accumulating material objects that will only turn to dust and ashes. – Denis Waitley

It is not in the pursuit of happiness that we find fulfillment, it is in the happiness of pursuit. – Denis Waitley

Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude. – Denis Waitley

When we are happy we are always good, but when we are good we are not always happy. – Oscar Wilde

Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go. – Oscar Wilde

My advice to you is not to inquire why or whither, but just enjoy your ice cream while it’s on your plate. – Thornton Wilder

Happiness is really a deep harmonious inner satisfaction and approval. – Francis Wilshire

If you observe a really happy man you will find him building a boat, writing a symphony, educating his son, growing Double Dahlias in his garden. – W. Beran Wolfe

Happiness is neither virtue nor pleasure nor this thing nor that but simply growth, We are happy when we are growing. – William Butler Yeats

We are happy when for everything inside us there is a corresponding something outside us. – William Butler Yeats

Happiness radiates like the fragrance from a flower, and draws all good things toward you. – Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

The purpose of life is the expansion of happiness. – Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

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. – Margaret Young

The secret of contentment is knowing how to enjoy what you have, and to be able to lose all desire for things beyond your reach. – Lin Yutang

Happiness is perfume, you can’t pour it on somebody else without getting a few drops on yourself. – James Van Der Zee

Happiness is not pleasure, it is victory. – Zig Ziglar

People who never achieve happiness are the ones who complain whenever they’re awake, and whenever they’re asleep, they are thinking about what to complain about tomorrow. – Adam Zimbler