If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun.
—Katharine Hepburn (1907–2003) American Actor, TV Personality
Get happiness out of your work or you may never know what happiness is.
—Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American Writer, Publisher, Artist, Philosopher
A man can do only what he can do. But if he does that each day he can sleep at night and do it again the next day.
—Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965) French Theologian, Musician, Philosopher, Physician
Pleasure is not pleasant unless it cost dear.
—Unknown
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 (1709–84) British Essayist
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 (b.1951) American Self-Help Author
He is happy that knoweth not himself to be otherwise.
—Thomas Fuller (1608–61) English Cleric, Historian
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 Dostoyevsky (1821–81) Russian Novelist, Essayist, Writer
He is the happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
Service to a just cause rewards the worker with more real happiness and satisfaction than any other venture of life.
—Carrie Chapman Catt (1859–1947) American Reformer, Pacifist
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 Madison Adams (1837–1920) American Politician, Military Leader
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.
—Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918–2008) Russian Dissident Novelist
My creed is this: 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.
—Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–99) American Lawyer, Orator, Agnostic
Happiness seems made to be shared.
—Pierre Corneille (1606–84) French Poet, Dramatist
As a matter of fact, no man can be merry unless he is serious.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet
The sunshine of life is made up of very little beams that are bright all the time. To give up something, when giving up will prevent unhappiness; to yield, when persisting will chafe and fret others; to go a little around rather than come against another; to take an ill look or a cross word quietly, rather than resent or return it,—these are the ways in which clouds and storms are kept off, and a pleasant and steady sunshine secured.
—John Aikin (1747–1822) British Doctor, Writer
The best things in life are nearest: Breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of right just before you. Then do not grasp at the stars, but do life’s plain, common work as it comes, certain that daily duties and daily bread are the sweetest things in life.
—Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–94) Scottish Novelist
Beauty is the promise of happiness.
—Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle) (1783–1842) French Writer
The joyfulness of a man prolengeth his days.
—The Holy Bible Scripture in the Christian Faith
The happy have whole days,
and those they choose.
The unhappy have but hours,
and those they lose.
—Colley Cibber (1671–1757) English Playwright, Poet, Actor
To be happy, we must not be too concerned with others.
—Albert Camus (1913–60) Algerian-born French Philosopher, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist, Author
The strength and the happiness of a man consists in finding out the way in which God is going, and going in that way, too.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer
It is the chiefest point of happiness that a man is willing to be what he is.
—Desiderius Erasmus (c.1469–1536) Dutch Humanist, Scholar
Unhappy is the man who is not so much dissatisfied with what he has as with what the other fellow possesses.
—Chauncey Depew (1834–1928) American Lawyer, Politician, Raconteur
Jealousy is not a barometer by which the depth of love can be read. It merely records the degree of the lover’s insecurity.
—Margaret Mead (1901–78) American Anthropologist, Social Psychologist
We have all sinned and come short of the glory of making ourselves as comfortable as we easily might have done.
—Samuel Butler
Happiness includes chiefly the idea of satisfaction after full honest effort. No one can possibly be satisfied and no one can be happy who feels that in some paramount affairs he failed to take up the challenge of life.
—Arnold Bennett (1867–1931) British Novelist, Playwright, Critic
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 (1919–2010) American Novelist, Short-story Writer
Whenever one finds oneself inclined to bitterness, it is a sign of emotional failure.
—Bertrand A. Russell (1872–1970) British Philosopher, Mathematician, Social Critic
When neither their property nor their honor is touched, the majority of men live content.
—Niccolo Machiavelli (1469–1527) Florentine Political 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
Laughter is the best medicine.
—Common Proverb
Be unselfish. That is the first and final commandment for those who would be useful, and happy in their usefulness. If you think of yourself only; you cannot develop because you are choking the source of development, which is spiritual expansion through thought for others.
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (1819–80) English Novelist
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 comes of the capacity to feel deeply, to enjoy simply, to think freely, to risk life, to be needed. which give happiness.
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy. By being happy, we sow anonymous benefits upon the world, which remain unknown even to ourselves, or when they are disclosed, surprise nobody so much as the benefactor.
—Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–94) Scottish Novelist
If we cannot live so as to be happy, let us at least live so as to deserve it.
—Immanuel Hermann Fichte (1796–1879) German Philosopher
The secret of living is to find a pivot, the pivot of a concept on which you can make your stand.
—Luigi Pirandello (1867–1936) Italian Dramatist, Novelist, Short Story Writer, Author
Happiness is not a destination. It is a method of life.
—Burton Hillis (William E. Vaughan) (1915–77) American Columnist, Author
God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.
—C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) Irish-born British Academic, Author, Literary Scholar
Happiness lies, first of all, in health.
—George William Curtis (1824–92) American Essayist, Public Speaker, Editor, Author
Man’s real life is happy, chiefly because he is ever expecting that it soon will be so.
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–49) American Poet
The happiness which is lacking makes one think even the happiness one has unbearable.
—Philibert Joseph Roux (1780–1854) French Surgeon
There is only one way to achieve happiness on this terrestrial ball, and that is to have either a clear conscience, or none at all.
—Ogden Nash (1902–71) American Writer of Sophisticated Light Verse
There are three marks of a superior man; being virtuous, he is free from anxiety; being wise, he is free from perplexity; being brave, he is free from fear.
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
There is more to life than just existing and having a pleasant time.
—Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) German Poet, Dramatist
Happiness is like those palaces in fairy tales whose gates are guarded by dragons: we must fight in order to conquer it.
—Alexandre Dumas pere (1802–1870) French Novelist, Playwright
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 (1709–84) British Essayist
In this sad world of ours, sorry comes to all, and it often comes with bitter agony. Perfect relief is not possible, except with time. You cannot now believe that you will ever feel better. But this is not true. You are sure to be happy again. Knowing this, truly believing it, will make you less miserable now.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
The secret of happiness is freedom. The secret of freedom is courage.
—Thucydides (c.455?c.400 BCE) Greek Historian