We are never so happy nor so unhappy as we imagine.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
Call no man unhappy until he is married.
—Socrates (469BCE–399BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher
Philosophy is a study that lets us be unhappy more intelligently.
—Unknown
Women get more unhappy the more they try to liberate themselves.
—Brigitte Bardot (b.1934) French Film Star
If you deliberately plan on being less than you are capable of being, then I warn you that you’ll be unhappy for the rest of your life.
—Abraham Maslow (1908–70) American Psychologist, Academic, Humanist
There’s always some aftermath, good and bad, makes-me-happy or makes-me-unhappy, for anything we choose to do.
—Richard Bach (b.1936) American Novelist, Aviator
We never enjoy perfect happiness; our most fortunate successes are mingled with sadness; some anxieties always perplex the reality of our satisfaction.
—Pierre Corneille (1606–84) French Poet, Dramatist
The secret of being miserable is to have the leisure to bother about whether you are happy or not. The cure is occupaton.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
The worst sin—perhaps the only sin—passion can commit is to be joyless.
—Dorothy L. Sayers (1893–1957) British Crime Writer
To love is to suffer. To avoid suffering, one must not love. But then, one suffers from not loving. Therefore, to love is to suffer; not to love is to suffer; to suffer is to suffer. To be happy is to love. To be happy, then, is to suffer, but suffering makes one unhappy. Therefore, to be happy, one must love or love to suffer or suffer from too much happiness.
—Woody Allen (b.1935) American Film Actor, Director
Most successes are unhappy. That’s why they are successes – they have to reassure themselves about themselves by achieving something that the world will notice.
—Agatha Christie (1890–1976) British Novelist, Short-Story Writer, Playwright
Do not give in too much to feelings. A overly sensitive heart is an unhappy possession on this shaky earth.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
To excite opposition and inflame malevolence is the unhappy privilege of courage made arrogant by consciousness of strength
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Not necessity, not desire /no, the love of power is the demon of men. Let them have everything /health, food, a place to live, entertainment /they are and remain unhappy and low-spirited: for the demon waits and waits and will be satisfied.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.
—Bill Gates (b.1955) American Businessperson, Entrepreneur, Philanthropist, Author
It is our job to make women unhappy with what they have.
—B. Earl Puckett (1898–1976) American Businessperson
The most unhappy of all men is he who believes himself to be so.
—David Hume (1711–76) Scottish Philosopher, Historian
When unhappy, one doubts everything; when happy, one doubts nothing.
—Philibert Joseph Roux (1780–1854) French Surgeon
I am a person who looks long-term, and I recognize the path we need to take. There will be moments when people are unhappy and disgruntled with some decision-making. Nonetheless, what matters most is to reach the destination. And my job as President is to see clearly where I want to go and be steadfast in my resolve to realize that vision.
—George W. Bush (b.1946) American Head of State, Businessperson
If we must lose wife or husband when we live to our highest right, we lose an unhappy marriage as well, and we gain ourselves. But if a marriage is born between two already self-discovered, what a lovely adventure begins, hurricanes and all.
—Richard Bach (b.1936) American Novelist, Aviator
Unhappy is the fate of one who tries to win his battles and succeed in his attacks without cultivating the spirit of enterprise, for the result is waste of time and general stagnation.
—Sun Tzu (fl. c.544–496 BCE) Chinese General, Military Theorist
Since the things we do determine the character of life, no blessed person can become unhappy. For he will never do those things which are hateful and petty.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
The unhappy derive comfort from the misfortunes of others.
—Aesop (620–564 BCE) Greek Fabulist
The inner speech, your thoughts, can cause you to be rich or poor, loved or unloved, happy or unhappy, attractive or unattractive, powerful or weak.
—Ralph Charell
The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature. As long as this exists, and it certainly always will, I know that then there will always be comfort for every sorrow, whatever the circumstances may be. And I firmly believe that nature brings solace in all troubles.
—Anne Frank (1929–45) Holocaust Victim
Man can only endure a certain degree of unhappiness; what is beyond that either annihilates him or passes by him and leaves him apathetic
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
You don’t seem to realize that a poor person who is unhappy is in a better position than a rich person who is unhappy. Because the poor person has hope. He thinks money would help.
—Jean Kerr (1922–2003) Irish-American Author, Playwright
He felt the loyalty we feel to unhappiness—the sense that is where we really belong.
—Graham Greene (1904–91) British Novelist, Playwright, Short Story Writer
Oh, the good times when we were so unhappy.
—Alexandre Dumas pere (1802–1870) French Novelist, Playwright
Is anyone in all the world safe from unhappiness?
—Sophocles (495–405 BCE) Ancient Greek Dramatist
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 (1888–1955) American Self-Help Author
We degrade life by our follies and vices, and then complain that the unhappiness which is only their accompaniment is inherent in the constitution of things.
—Christian Nestell Bovee (1820–1904) American Writer, Aphorist
It’s the most unhappy people who most fear change.
—Mignon McLaughlin (1913–83) American Journalist, Author
I fear animals regard man as a creature of their own kind which has in a highly dangerous fashion lost its healthy animal reason—as the mad animal, as the laughing animal, as the weeping animal, as the unhappy animal.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
All things do help the unhappy man to fall.
—John Webster (1580–1634) English Dramatist, Poet
Never lend books, for no one ever returns them; the only books I have in my library are those which people have lent me.
—Anatole France (1844–1924) French Novelist
Nuns and married women are equally unhappy, if in different ways
—Christina, Queen of Sweden (1626–89) Swedish Monarch
A nail is driven out by another nail; habit is overcome by habit.
—Desiderius Erasmus (c.1469–1536) Dutch Humanist, Scholar
I have very poor and unhappy brains for drinking: I could well wish courtesy would invent some other custom of entertainment
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
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.
—Franz Kafka (1883–1924) Austrian Novelist, Short Story Writer
All blame is a waste of time. No matter how much fault you find with another, and regardless of how much you blame him, it will not change you. The only thing blame does is to keep the focus off you when you are looking for external reasons to explain your unhappiness or frustration. You may succeed in making another feel guilty about something by blaming him, but you won’t succeed in changing whatever it is about you that is making you unhappy.
—Wayne Dyer (1940–2015) American Self-Help Author
The world will never be long without some good reason to hate the unhappy; their real faults are immediately detected, and if those are not sufficient to sink them into infamy, an additional weight of calumny will be super added.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
—Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian Novelist
I have been very happy, very rich, very beautiful, much adulated, very famous, and very unhappy.
—Brigitte Bardot (b.1934) French Film Star
Men who are unhappy, like men who sleep badly, are always proud of the fact.
—Bertrand A. Russell (1872–1970) British Philosopher, Mathematician, Social Critic
O Lord! Unhappy is the man whom man can make unhappy.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
There are only three types of people; those who have found God and serve him; those who have not found God and seek him, and those who live not seeking, or finding him. The first are rational and happy; the second unhappy and rational, and the third foolish and unhappy.
—Blaise Pascal (1623–62) French Mathematician, Physicist, Theologian
Hell is of this world and there are men who are unhappy escapees from hell, escapees destined ETERNALLY to reenact their escape.
—Antonin Artaud (1896–1948) French Actor, Drama Theorist
No man is more unhappy than the one who is never in adversity; the greatest affliction of life is never to be afflicted.
—Unknown
The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers.
—M. Scott Peck (1936–2005) American Psychiatrist, Author