When unhappy, one doubts everything; when happy, one doubts nothing.
—Philibert Joseph Roux (1780–1854) French Surgeon
In our course we teach that “no thought lives in your head rent-free”. Each thought you have will either be an investment or a cost. It will either move you toward happiness and success or away from it. It will either empower you or disempower you. That’s why it is imperative you choose your thoughts and beliefs wisely.
—T. Harv Eker (b.1954) American Motivational Speaker, Lecturer, Author
Happiness consists of three things; Someone to love, work to do, and a clear conscience.
—Indian Proverb
Happiness is the longing for repetition.
—Milan Kundera (b.1929) Czech Novelist
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 (1731–1802) American First Lady
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.
—Andre Gide (1869–1951) French Novelist
I believe that the very purpose of life is to be happy. From the very core of our being, we desire contentment. In my own limited experience I have found that the more we care for the happiness of others, the greater is our own sense of well-being. Cultivating a close, warmhearted feeling for others automatically puts the mind at ease. It helps remove whatever fears or insecurities we may have and gives us the strength to cope with any obstacles we encounter. It is the principal source of success in life. Since we are not solely material creatures, it is a mistake to place all our hopes for happiness on external development alone. The key is to develop inner peace.
—The 14th Dalai Lama (b.1935) Tibetan Buddhist Religious Leader, Civil Rights Leader, Philosopher, Author
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American Author, Journalist, Short Story Writer
Happiness is like a cloud, if you stare at it long enough, it evaporates
—Sarah McLachlan (b.1968) Canadian Singer, Songwriter
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 (b.1933) American Motivational Speaker, Author
Point me out the happy man and I will point you out either egotism, selfishness, evil—or else an absolute ignorance.
—Graham Greene (1904–91) British Novelist, Playwright, Short Story Writer
Talk happiness. The world is sad enough without your woe. No path is wholly rough.
—Orison Swett Marden (1850–1924) American New Thought Writer, Physician, Entrepreneur
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 (1817–62) American Philosopher
Happiness is not pleasure, it’s victory.
—Zig Ziglar (1926–2012) American Author
The most happy man is he who knows how to bring into relation the end and the beginning of his life.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
All who joy would win must share it,—happiness was born a twin.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
There is no happiness in having or in getting, but only in giving.
—Henry Drummond
There is no disguise which can hide love for long where it exists, or simulate it where it does not.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
No one is happier than he who believes in his happiness.
—German Proverb
Happiness is not a state to arrive at, rather, a manner of traveling.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
The happiness of a man in this life does not consist in the absence, but in the mastery, of his passions.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–92) British Poet
We must not seek happiness in peace, but in conflict.
—Paul Claudel (1868–1955) French Poet, Essayist, Dramatist
If thou wilt make a man happy, add not unto his riches but take away from his desires.
—Epicurus (c.341–270 BCE) Greek Philosopher
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 Bennett (b.1943) American Politician, Political Theorist, Government Official
Salvation of the Dawn
Look to this day,
For it is life,
The very life of life.
In its brief course lie all the truths
And realities of your existence;
The bliss of growth
The glory of action, and
The splendor of beauty;
For yesterday is but a dream
And tomorrow is only a vision,
But today well lived makes
Every yesterday a dream of happiness
And every tomorrow a vision of hope.
Look well, therefore, to this day.
Such is the salvation of the dawn.
—The Bhagavad Gita Hindu Scripture
Few things are needful to make the wise man happy, but nothing satisfies the fool;—and this is the reason why so many of mankind are miserable.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
Even the lowliest, provided he is whole, can be happy and in his own way perfect.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
We know the presence of each passing moment by its activity, but the power and eternity of the moment can only be realized through our choosing to be consciously passive to that presence.
—Guy Finley
We begin from the recognition that all beings cherish happiness and do not want suffering. It then becomes both morally wrong and pragmatically unwise to pursue only one’s own happiness oblivious to the feelings and aspirations of all others who surround us as members of the same human family. The wiser course is to think of others when pursuing our own happiness.
—The 14th Dalai Lama (b.1935) Tibetan Buddhist Religious Leader, Civil Rights Leader, Philosopher, Author
Planning for happiness is rarely successful. Happiness just happens.
—Robert Half
Happiness is the feeling you’re feeling when you want to keep feeling it.
—Unknown
A happy man or woman is a better thing to find than a five-pound note. He or she is a radiating focus of goodwill; and their entrance into a room is as though another candle had been lighted.
—Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–94) Scottish Novelist
It is not God’s will merely that we should be happy, but that we should make ourselves happy
—Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) Prussian German Philosopher, Logician
Don’t mistake pleasure for happiness. They are a different breed of dogs.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw) (1818–85) American Humorist, Author, Lecturer
Every year it takes less time to fly across the Atlantic and more time to drive to the office.
—Unknown
Happiness is like a kiss… you must share it to enjoy it.
—Bernard Meltzer (1916–98) American Radio Personality
Philosophers there are who try to make themselves believe that this life is happy; but they believe it only while they are saying it, and never yet produced conviction in a single mind.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
I don’t think that … one gets a flash of happiness once, and never again; it is there within you, and it will come as certainly as death.
—Karen Blixen (Isak Dinesen) (1885–1962) Danish Novelist, Short-story Writer
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 Ward
Call no man happy till he is dead.
—Aeschylus (525–456 BCE) Greek Poet
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.
—John Ruskin (1819–1900) English Writer, Art Critic
Happiness is like the penny candy of our youth: we got a lot more for our money back when we had no money.
—Mignon McLaughlin (1913–83) American Journalist, Author
Happy he who learns to bear what he cannot change.
—Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) German Poet, Dramatist
Labor and trouble one can always get through alone, but it takes two to be glad.
—Henrik Ibsen (1828–1906) Norwegian Playwright
Gaiety alone, as it were, is the hard cash of happiness; everything else is just a promissory note.
—Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German Philosopher
God intends no man to live in this world without working, but it seems to me no less evident that He intends every man to be happy in his work.
—John Ruskin (1819–1900) English Writer, Art Critic
Happiness is a matter of one’s most ordinary and everyday mode of consciousness being busy and lively and unconcerned with self.
—Iris Murdoch (1919–99) British Novelist, Playwright, Philosopher
My crown is in my heart, not on my head, Nor decked with diamonds and Indian stones, Nor to be seen: My crown is called content: A crown it is, that seldom kings enjoy.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
When I do not walk in the clouds I walk as though I were lost.
—Antonio Porchia (1885–1968) Italian Poet
A great obstacle to happiness is to expect too much happiness.
—Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle (1657–1757) French Essayist, Polymath, Philosopher