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The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up. Mark Twain Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom. Marcel Proust (But Maybe He Wasn't)
I met a happy man today,
But when he left, I wailed and wept, Don't cry beacause it's over, smile because it happened. Dr. Seuss You can't be happy unless you're unhappy sometimes. Lauren Oliver, Delirium Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness. Bertrand Russell, The Conquest of Happiness Happiness is not a state to arrive at, but a manner of traveling. Margaret Lee Runbeck What I'm looking for is a blessing that's not in disguise. Kitty O'Neill Collins All of us have had the experience of a sudden joy that came when nothing in the world had forewarned us of its coming -- a joy so thrilling that if it was born of misery we remembered even the misery with tenderness. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Wind, Sand and Stars, 1939, translated from French by Lewis Galantière Sanity and happiness are an impossible combination. Mark Twain The pursuit of happiness is a most ridiculous phrase: if you pursue happiness you'll never find it. C.P. Snow Happiness grows at our own firesides, and is not to be picked in strangers' gardens. Douglas Jerrold Happy people get a lot of joy from receiving benefits from others while people leading meaningful lives get a lot of joy from giving to others. Kathleen Vohs Nobody really cares if you're miserable, so you might as well be happy. Cynthia Nelms We tend to forget that happiness doesn't come as a result of getting something we don't have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have. Frederick Koenig What a wonderful life I've had! I only wish I'd realized it sooner. Colette Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know. Ernest Hemingway Happiness and sadness run parallel to each other. When one takes a rest, the other one tends to take up the slack. Hazelmarie Elliott Tranquil pleasures last the longest; we are not fitted to bear the burden of great joys. Christian Nestell Bovee To be obliged to beg our daily happiness from others bespeaks a more lamentable poverty than that of him who begs his daily bread. Charles Caleb Colton It's never too late to have a happy childhood. Berke Breathed Happiness? That's nothing more than health and a poor memory. Albert Schweitzer Happiness is not a goal; it is a by-product. Eleanor Roosevelt Of all the things you wear, your expression is the most important. Janet Lane If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion. Dalai Lama A great obstacle to happiness is to expect too much happiness. Bernard de Fontenelle In order to have great happiness you have to have great pain and unhappiness -- otherwise how would you know when you're happy? Leslie Caron Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony. Mahatma Gandhi On the whole, the happiest people seem to be those who have no particular cause for being happy except that they are so. William R. Inge He is rich or poor according to what he is, not according to what he has. Henry Ward Beecher There are some days when I think I'm going to die from an overdose of satisfaction. Salvador Dali The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness. Eric Hoffer, The Passionate State of Mind, 1954 If there were in the world today any large number of people who desired their own happiness more than they desired the unhappiness of others, we could have a paradise in a few years. Bertrand Russell We are no longer happy so soon as we wish to be happier. Walter Savage Landor The only way to avoid being miserable is not to have enough leisure to wonder whether you are happy or not. George Bernard Shaw If you search the world for happiness, you may find it in the end, for the world is round and will lead you back to your door. Robert Brault Happiness quite unshared can scarcely be called happiness; it has no taste. Charlotte Brontë Happiness is a direction, not a place. Sydney J. Harris My crown is called content, a crown that seldom kings enjoy. William Shakespeare Happiness makes up in height for what it lacks in length. Robert Frost A mathematical formula for happiness: Reality divided by Expectations. There were two ways to be happy: improve your reality or lower your expectations. Jodi Picoult, Nineteen Minutes All who joy would win must share it. Happiness was born a Twin. Lord Byron "At times, our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us." Albert Schweitzer |
If this isn't nice, I don't know what is. Kurt Vonnegut I think and think and think, I've thought myself out of happiness one million times, but never once into it. Jonathan Safran Foer Ask yourself whether you are happy and you cease to be so. John Stuart Mill, Autobiography, 1873 We are seldom happy with what we now have, but would go to pieces if we lost any part of it. Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1960 The happiness which is lacking makes one think even the happiness one has unbearable. Joseph Roux You cannot protect yourself from sadness without protecting yourself from happiness. Jonathan Safran Foer Happiness is a by-product of an effort to make someone else happy. Gretta Brooker Palmer You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life. Albert Camus The true secret of happiness lies in taking a genuine interest in all the details of daily life. William Morris The art of living does not consist in preserving and clinging to a particular mode of happiness, but in allowing happiness to change its form without being disappointed by the change; happiness, like a child, must be allowed to grow up. Charles L. Morgan One joy scatters a hundred griefs. Chinese Proverb We have no more right to consume happiness without producing it than to consume wealth without producing it. George Bernard Shaw, Candida, 1898 A man's as miserable as he thinks he is. Seneca Plenty of people miss their share of happiness, not because they never found it, but because they didn't stop to enjoy it. William Feather It is not happiness until you capture it and store it out of the reach of time. Robert Brault When you're really happy, the birds chirp and the sun shines even on cold dark winter nights -- and flowers will bloom on a barren land. Terri Guillemets It is strange what a contempt men have for the joys that are offered them freely. Georges Duhamel If a person's basic state of mind is serene and calm, then it is possible for this inner peace to overwhelm a painful physical experience. On the other hand, if someone is suffering from depression, anxiety, or any form of emotional distress, then even if he or she happens to be enjoying physical comforts, he will not really be able to experience the happiness that these could bring. Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama The worst part of success is trying to find someone who is happy for you. Bette Midler My advice to you is not to inquire why or whither, but just enjoy your ice cream while it's on your plate. Thornton Wilder People don't notice whether it's winter or summer when they're happy. Anton Chekhov Unhappiness is not knowing what we want and killing ourselves to get it. Don Herold Pleasure is very seldom found where it is sought. Our brightest blazes are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks. Samuel Johnson Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for. Joseph Addison Joy is not in things; it is in us. Richard Wagner 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 One day you just say "To heck with it," and you go looking for trouble, and you find happiness. Robert Brault Many things can make you miserable for weeks; few can bring you a whole day of happiness. Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1960 The essence of philosophy is that a man should so live that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things. Epictetus We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements in life, when all we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about. Charles Kingsley You need to learn to be happy by nature, because you'll seldom have the chance to be happy by circumstance. Lavetta Sue Wegman Find a place where there's joy, and the joy will burn out the pain. Joseph Campbell If you observe a really happy man you will find him building a boat, writing a symphony, educating his son, growing double dahlias in his garden, or looking for dinosaur eggs in the Gobi desert. He will not be searching for happiness as if it were a collar button that has rolled under the radiator. He will not be striving for it as a goal in itself. He will have become aware that he is happy in the course of living life twenty-four crowded hours of the day. W. Beran Wolfe If you ever find happiness by hunting for it, you will find it, as the old woman did her lost spectacles, safe on her own nose all the time. Josh Billingstd Happiness: an agreeable sensation arising from contemplating the misery of another. Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary Letting go means to come to the realization that some people are a part of your history, but not a part of your destiny. Steve Maraboli Actual happiness always looks pretty squalid in comparison with the overcompensations for misery. And, of course, stability isn't nearly so spectacular as instability. And being contented has none of the glamour of a good fight against misfortune, none of the picturesqueness of a struggle with temptation, or a fatal overthrow by passion or doubt. Happiness is never grand. Aldous Huxley, Brave New World You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life. Albert Camus To be happy we must not be too concerned with others. Albert Camus |
