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Happiness Quotes and Quotations
 Anarchy is against the law. - Graffiti  Back of tranquility lies always captured unhappiness. Eden is that old-fashioned House We dwell in every day Without suspecting our abode Until we drive away. Happiness is a mystery like religion, and it should never be rationalized. He that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast. - Bible Man is preceded by forest followed by desert. Man needs, for his happiness, not only the enjoyment of this or that, but hope and enterprise and change. Servitude debases men to the point where they end up liking it. The greatest happiness of the greatest number is the foundation of morals and legislation. 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. We are never so happy nor so unhappy as we imagine. We have no more right to consume happiness without producing it than to consume wealth without producing it. Man's real life is happy, chiefly because he is ever expecting that it soon will be so. Unquestionably, it is possible to do without happiness, it is done involuntarily by nineteen-twentieths of mankind. Many persons have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose. A man should always consider how much he has more than he wants, and how much more unhappy he might be than he really is. If a man has important work, and enough leisure and income to enable him to do it properly, he is in possession of as much happiness as is good for any of the children of Adam. The greatest happiness you can have is knowing that you do not necessarily require happiness. Existence is a strange bargain. Life owes us little; we owe it everything. The only true happiness comes from squandering ourselves for a purpose. Even if we can't be happy, we must always be cheerful. New Year's Day is every man's birthday. Happiness is the perpetual possession of being well deceived. To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness. For the rational, psychologically healthy man, the desire for pleasure is the desire to celebrate his control over reality. For the neurotic, the desire for pleasure is the desire to escape from reality. It has never been given to a man to attain at once his happiness and his salvation. If thou workest at that which is before thee, following right reason seriously, vigorously, calmly, without allowing anything else to distract thee, but keeping thy divine part pure, as if thou shouldst be bound to give it back immediately; if thou holdest to this, expecting nothing, fearing nothing, but satisfied with thy present activity according to Nature, and with heroic truth in every word and sound which thou utterest, thou wilt live happy. And there is no man who is able to prevent this. We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about. One thing I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve. Happiness is the light on the water. The water is cold and dark and deep. Happiness: a good bank account, a good cook and a good digestion. Knowledge of what is possible is the beginning of happiness. Happiness is the interval between periods of unhappiness. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. - Bible Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job. - Bible The will of man is his happiness. Man's happiness springs mainly from moderate troubles, which afford the mind a healthful stimulus, and are followed by a reaction which produces a cheerful flow of spirits. There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will. It is nonsense to speak of 'higher' and 'lower' pleasures. To a hungry man it is, rightly, more important that he eat than that he philosophize. The secret of happiness is not in doing what one likes, but in liking what one has to do. True happiness is of a retired nature and an enemy to pomp and noise; it arises, in the first place, from the enjoyment of one's self; and, in the next, from the friendship and conversations of a few select companions. I have known some quite good people who were unhappy, but never an interested person who was unhappy. My creed is that: Happiness is the only good. The place to be happy is here. The time to be happy is now. The way to be happy is to make others so. My life has no purpose, no direction, no aim, no meaning, and yet I'm happy. I can't figure it out. What am I doing right? Happiness to a dog is what lies on the other side of a door. Happiness comes fleetingly now and then, To those who have learned to do without it And to them only. I believe in the possibility of happiness, if one cultivates intuition and outlives the grosser passions, including optimism. Happiness is brief It will not stay. God batters at its sails. To be happy, we must not be too concerned with others. . . . the little hills rejoice on every side. The pastures are clothed with flocks; the valleys also are covered over with corn; they shout for joy, they also sing. - Bible For each ecstatic instant We must an anguish pay In keen and quivering ratio To the ecstasy. At rare moments in history, by a series of accidents never to be repeated, arise flower societies in which the cult of happiness is paramount, hedonistic, mindless, intent upon the glorious physical instant. Man is that he might have joy. The formula for complete happiness is to be very busy with the unimportant. Make happy those who are near, and those who are far will come. Remember that happiness is a way of travel - not a destination. If we cannot live so as to be happy, let us at least live so as to deserve it. I never admired another's fortune so much that I became dissatisfied with my own. - Cicero Happiness is essentially a state of going somewhere, wholeheartedly, one-directionally, without regret or reservation. Happiness? That's nothing more than health and a poor memory. Happiness is the only sanction of life; where happiness fails, existence remains a mad and lamentable experiment. Happiness makes up in height for what it lacks in length. It is not easy to find happiness in ourselves, and it is not possible to find it elsewhere. Happiness depends, as Nature shows, Less on exterior things than most suppose. Happiness is a small and unworthy goal for something as big and fancy as a whole lifetime, and should be taken in small doses. To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness. 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. Happiness is itself a kind of gratitude. I am happy and content because I think I am. Unhappy is the man, though he rule the world, who doesn't consider himself supremely blessed. The happiness which is lacking makes one think even the happiness one has unbearable. Happiness is a result of the relative strengths of positive and negative feelings, rather than an absolute amount of one or the other. The best way for a person to have happy thoughts is to count his blessings and not his cash. Surfeits of happiness are fatal. If thou wouldst be happy ... have an indifference for more than what is sufficient. You will live wisely if you are happy in your lot. - Horace We always have enough to be happy if we are enjoying what we do have- and not worrying about what we don't have. Talk happiness. The world is sad enough without your woe. No path is wholly rough. When a man has lost all happiness, he's not alive. Call him a breathing corpse. Whether you are talking about education, career, or service, you are talking about life. And life must really have joy. It's supposed to be fun. Why is it that people who cannot show feeling presume that that is a strength and not a weakness? Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence Happiness is the only sanction in life; where happiness fails, existence remains a mad and lamentable experiment. The pursuit of happiness ... is the greatest feat man has to accomplish. Make us happy and you make us good. A good laugh makes any interview, or any conversation, so much better. The joyfulness of a man prolongeth his days. - Bible I love myself when I am laughing. Everyone, without exception, is searching for happiness. I will not be just a tourist in the world of images, just watching images passing by which I cannot live in, make love to, possess as permanent sources of joy and ecstasy. Celebrate the happiness that friends are always giving, make every day a holiday and celebrate just living! Live all you can; it's a mistake not to. It doesn't so much matter what you do in particular, so long as you have your life. If you haven't had that, what have you had? Is life worth living? Aye, with the best of us, Heights of us, depths of us- Life is the test of us! The general rule is that people who enjoy life also enjoy marriage. It is only by expressing all that is inside that purer and purer streams come. Age does not protect you from love but love to some extent protects you from age. There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval. I don't want to get to the end of my life and find that I lived just the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well. Men are made for happiness, and anyone who is completely happy has a right to say to himself: "I am doing God's will on earth." To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else. Living well and beautifully and justly are all one thing. - Socrates Without pleasure man would live like a fool and soon die. Life has got to be lived-that's all that there is to it. All animals except man know that the principle business of life is to enjoy it. Everything holds its breath except spring. She bursts through as strong as ever. To live as fully, as completely as possible, to be happy ... is the true aim and end to life. This is life! It can harden and it can exalt! All I can say about life is, Oh God, enjoy it! It is in his pleasure that a man really lives. Happiness hates the timid! I have smelt all the aromas there are in the fragrant kitchen they call Earth; and what we can enjoy in this life, I surely have enjoyed just like a lord! Man is that he might have joy. It is better to be happy for a moment and be burned up with beauty than to live a long time and be bored all the while. If you want to die happily, learn to live; if you would live happily, learn to die. 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. The true object of all human life is play. The right to happiness is fundamental. Love lights more fires than hate extinguishes, And men grow better as the world grows old. The Eskimos had fifty-two names for snow because it was important to them; there ought to be as many for love. Not all of us have to possess earth-shaking talent. Just common sense and love will do. The secret of a happy marriage is finding the right person. You know they're right if you love to be with them all of the time. We can sometimes love what we do not understand, but it is impossible completely to understand what we do not love. To serve thy generation, this thy fate: "Written in water," swiftly fades thy name; But he who loves his kind does, first or late, A work too great for fame. Love and respect are the most important aspects of parenting, and of all relationships. Perhaps the best function of parenthood is to teach the young creature to love with safety, so that it may be able to venture unafraid when later emotion comes; the thwarting of the instinct to love is the root of all sorrow and not sex only but divinity itself is insulted when it is repressed. To disapprove, to condemn-the human soul shrivels under barren righteousness. Love, I find, is like singing. Everybody can do enough to satisfy themselves, though it may not impress the neighbors as being very much. Love is the same as like except you feel sexier. Love is the only thing we can carry with us when we go, and it makes the end so easy. Love, by its very nature, is unworldly, and it is for this reason rather than its rarity that it is not only apolitical but anti-political, perhaps the most powerful of all anti-political human forces. I love, and the world is mine! When love is out of your life, you're through in a way. Because while it is there it's like a motor that's going, you have such vitality to do things, big things, because love is goosing you all the time. A caress is better than a career. I don't want to live-I want to love first, and live incidentally. What is it that love does to a woman? Without it, she only sleeps; with it alone, she lives. - Ouida What a richly colored strong warm coat is woven when love is the warp and work is the woof. We cannot really love anybody with whom we never laugh. There is only one happiness in life, to love and be loved. When you come right down to it, the secret of having it all is loving it all. Where there is great love, there are always wishes. The cure for all ills and wrongs, the cares, the sorrows and the crimes of humanity, all lie in the one word 'love.' It is the divine vitality that everywhere produces and restores life. To love is to receive a glimpse of heaven. Love is a force more formidable than any other. It is invisible-it cannot be seen or measured, yet it is powerful enough to transform you in a moment, and offer you more joy than any material possession could. Love is the only effective counter to death. There are only two things that are absolute realities, love and knowledge, and you can't escape them. There is nothing ridiculous in love. Our society allows people to be absolutely neurotic and totally out of touch with their feelings and everyone else's feelings, and yet be very respectable. From the moment we walk out the door until we come back home our sensibilities are so assaulted by the world that we have to soak up as much love as we can get, simply to arm ourselves. Infatuation is when you think that he's as sexy as Robert Redford, as smart as Henry Kissinger, as noble as Ralph Nader, as funny as Woody Allen, and as athletic as Jimmy Conners. Love is when you realize that he's as sexy as Woody Allen, as smart as Jimmy Conners, as funny as Ralph Nader, as athletic as Henry Kissinger, and nothing like Robert Redford-but you'll take him anyway. I was in love with the whole world and all that lived in its rainy arms. 'Tis what I love determines how I love. 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. There is no duty so much underrated as the duty of being happy. Pleasure is the object, duty and the goal of all rational creatures. - Voltaire Different men seek ... happiness in different ways and by different means. What's joy to one is a nightmare to the other. People genuinely happy in their choices seem less often tempted to force them on other people than those who feel martyred and broken by their lives. Happiness ... leads none of us by the same route. Even the lowliest, provided he is whole, can be happy, and in his own . way, perfect. Happiness, to some, is elation; to others it is mere stagnation. No sooner is it a little calmer with me than it is almost too calm, as though I have the true feeling of myself only when I am unbearably unhappy Your readiest desire is your path to joy ... even if it destroys you. All men have happiness as their object: there are no exceptions. However different the means they employ, they aim at the same end. We all live with the objective of being happy; our lives are all different and yet the same. The world is so full of a number of things, I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings. There is no cosmetic for beauty like happiness. Love is a great beautifier. Taking joy in life is a woman's best cosmetic. Beauty is a radiance that originates from within and comes from inner security and strong character. Real happiness is cheap enough, yet how dearly we pay for its counterfeit. False happiness renders men stern and proud, and that happiness is never communicated. True happiness renders kind and sensible, and that happiness is always shared. Don't mistake pleasures for happiness. They are a different breed of dog. Mirth is better than fun, and happiness is better than mirth. Amusement is the happiness of those who cannot think. Happiness is a small and unworthy goal for something as big and fancy as a whole lifetime, and should be taken in small doses. False happiness is like false money; it passes for a long time as well as the true, and serves some ordinary occasions; but when it is brought to the touch, we find the lightness and alloy, and feel the loss. There is more to life than just existing and having a pleasant time. The test of enjoyment is the remembrance which it leaves behind. When I have been unhappy, I have heard an opera ... and it seemed the shrieking of winds; when I am happy, a sparrow's chirp is delicious to me. But it is not the chirp that makes me happy, but I that make it sweet. Happiness depends upon ourselves. The U.S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. Your have to catch up with it yourself. Happiness belongs to those who are sufficient unto themselves. For all external sources of happiness and pleasure are, by their very nature, highly uncertain, precarious, ephemeral and subject to chance. Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be. One is happy as a result of one's own efforts-once one knows the necessary ingredients of happiness-simple tastes, a certain degree of courage, self-denial to a point, love of work, and, above all, a clear conscience. Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Discontent is want of self-reliance; it is infirmity of will. I'm happier. ... I guess I made up my mind to be that way. The essence of philosophy is that a man should so live that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things. No one gives joy or sorrow. ... We gather the consequences of our own deeds. Happiness, happiness ... the flavor is with you-with you alone, and you can make it as intoxicating as you please. Few are they who have never had the chance to achieve happiness ... and fewer those who have taken that chance. To win one's joy through struggle is better than to yield to melancholy. Life is a romantic business, but you have to make the romance. To be obliged to beg our daily happiness from others bespeaks a more lamentable poverty than that of him who begs his daily bread. Some pursue happiness, others create it. Man is the artificer of his own happiness. The man who makes everything that leads to happiness depend upon himself, and not upon other men, has adopted the very best plan for living happily. - Plato It is not the level of prosperity that makes for happiness but the kinship of heart to heart and the way we look at the world. Both attitudes are within our power, so that a man is happy so long as he chooses to be happy, and no one can stop him. Happy is he that chastens himself. How unhappy is he who cannot forgive himself. There is always something left to love. And if you ain't learned that, you ain't learned nothing. Like swimming, riding, writing or playing golf, happiness can be learned. Being happy is something you have to learn. I often surprise myself by saying, "Wow, this is it. I guess I'm happy. I've got a home that 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. Learn how to feel joy. - Seneca Someone once asked me what I regarded as the three most important requirements for happiness. My answer was: "A feeling that you have been honest with yourself and those around you; a feeling that you have done the best you could both in your personal life and in your work; and the ability to love others." Nine requisites for contented living: Health enough to make work a pleasure. Wealth enough to support your needs. Strength to battle with difficulties and overcome them. Grace enough to confess your sins and forsake them. Patience enough to toil until some good is accomplished. Charity enough to see some good in your neighbor. Love enough to move you to be useful and helpful to others. Faith enough to make real the things of God. Hope enough to remove all anxious fears concerning the future. Happiness comes of the capacity to feel deeply, to enjoy simply, to think freely, to risk life, to be needed. Do not worry; eat three square meals a day; say your prayers; be courteous to your creditors; keep your digestion good; exercise; go slow and easy. Maybe there are other things your special case requires to make you happy; but, my friend, these I reckon will give you a good lift. To love deeply in one direction makes us more loving in all others. Have a variety of interests. ... These interests relax the mind and lessen tension on the nervous system. People with many interests live, not only longest, but happiest. Build a little fence of trust Around today; Fill the space with loving work, And therein stay. This is wisdom: to love wine, beauty, and the heavenly spring. That's sufficient-the rest is worthless. If a man has important work, and enough leisure and income to enable him to do it properly, he is in possession of as much happiness as is good for any of the children of Adam. The secret of happiness ... is to be in harmony with existence, to be always calm, always lucid, always willing "to be joined to the universe without being more conscious of it than an idiot," to let each wave of life wash us a little farther up the shore. Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life. The grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love and something to hope for. The best philosophy is to do one's duties, to take the world as it comes, submit respectfully to one's lot, and bless the goodness that has given us so much happiness with it, whatever it is. One is happy as a result of one's own efforts-once one knows the necessary ingredients of happiness-simple tastes, a certain degree of courage, self-denial to a point, love of work, and, above all, a clear conscience. In order to be utterly happy the only thing necessary is to refrain from comparing this moment with other moments in the past, which I often did not fully enjoy because I was comparing them with other moments of the future. From birth to age eighteen, a girl needs good parents. From eighteen to thirty-five, she needs good looks. From thirty-five to fifty-five, she needs a good personality. From fifty-five on, she needs good cash. To make a man happy, fill his hands with work, his heart with affection, his mind with purpose, his memory with useful knowledge, his future with hope, and his stomach with food. For me, happiness came from prayer to a kindly God, faith in a kindly God, love for my fellow man, and doing the very best I could every day of my life. I had looked for happiness in fast living, but it was not there. I tried to find it in money, but it was not there, either. But when I placed myself in tune with what I believe to be fundamental truths of life, when I began to develop my limited ability, to rid my mind of all kinds of tangled thoughts and fill it with zeal and courage and love, when I gave myself a chance by treating myself decently and sensibly, I began to feel the stimulating, warm glow of happiness. There are three ingredients in the good life: learning, earning and yearning. Work and love-these are the basics. Without them there is neurosis. If thou workest at that which is before thee ... expecting nothing, fearing nothing, but satisfied with thy present activity according to Nature, and with heroic truth in |