Best to live lightly, unthinkingly.
—Sophocles (495–405 BCE) Ancient Greek Dramatist
Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action.
—Benjamin Disraeli (1804–81) British Head of State
While we pursue happiness, we flee from contentment.
—Hebrew Proverb
Work is the true elixir of life. The busiest man is the happiest man. Excellence in any art or profession is attained only by hard and persistent work. Never believe that you are perfect. When a man imagines, even after years of striving, that he has attained perfection, his decline begins.
—Theodore Martin (1816–1909) Scottish Biographer, Translator
The smallest annoyances, disturb us the most.
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) French Essayist
If a man has no humaneness what can his propriety be like? If a man has no humaneness what can his happiness be like?
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
When unhappy, one doubts everything; when happy, one doubts nothing.
—Philibert Joseph Roux (1780–1854) French Surgeon
With happiness comes intelligence to the heart.
—Chinese Proverb
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.
—Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German Philosopher
As we are now living in an eternity, the time to be happy is today.
—Grenville Kleiser (1868–1935) Canadian Author
The mere sense of living is joy enough.
—Emily Dickinson (1830–86) American Poet
Only action gives life strength, only moderation gives it charm.
—Charles Spurgeon (1834–92) English Baptist Preacher
When what we are is what we want to be, that’s happiness.
—Malcolm S. Forbes (1919–1990) American Publisher, Businessperson
All men seek one goal: success or happiness. The only way to achieve true success is to express yourself completely in service to society. First, have a definite, clear, practical ideal-a goal, an objective. Second, have the necessary means to achieve your ends-wisdom, money, materials and methods. Third, adjust all your means to that end.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
Life holds so much—so much to be happy about always. Most people ask for happiness on conditions. Happiness can be felt only if you don’t set conditions.
—Arthur Rubinstein (1888–1982) Polish-born American Pianist
Happiness is itself a kind of gratitude.
—Joseph Wood Krutch (1893–1970) American Writer, Critic, Naturalist
Man must search for what is right, and let happiness come on its own.
—Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746–1827) Swiss Educator
I don’t know what your destiny will be, but 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.
—Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965) French Theologian, Philosopher, Musician, Physician
To have joy one must share it. Happiness was born a twin.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
All I can say about life is, Oh God, enjoy it.
—Bob Newhart (1929–2024) American Comedian, Actor
Pleasure is not happiness. It has no more importance than a shadow following a man.
—Muhammad Ali (1942–2016) American Sportsperson
What wisdom, what warning can prevail against gladness? There is no law so strong that a little gladness may not transgress.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
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
The purpose of our lives is to be happy.
—The 14th Dalai Lama (b.1935) Tibetan Buddhist Leader, Civil Rights Advocate, Author
And may I live the remainder of my life for myself; may there be plenty of books and many years’ store of the fruits of the earth.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) (65–8 BCE) Roman Poet
We cannot do everything at once, but we can do something at once.
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) American Head of State, Lawyer
Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
Can anything be so elegant as to have few wants, and to serve them one’s self?
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
There is work that is work and there is play that is play; there is play that is work and work that is play. And in only one of these lies happiness.
—Gelett Burgess (1866–1951) American Humorist, Art Critic
If you have nothing else to do, look at yourself and see if there isn’t something close at hand that you can improve. It may make you wealthy, although it is more likely it will make you happy.
—George Samuel Clason (1874–1957) American Writer, Businessman
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