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Happiness Quotes and Quotations
 Anarchy is against the law. - Graffiti  Back of tranquility lies always captured unhappiness. Eden is that old-fashioned House We dwell in every day Without suspecting our abode Until we drive away. Happiness is a mystery like religion, and it should never be rationalized. He that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast. - Bible Man is preceded by forest followed by desert. Man needs, for his happiness, not only the enjoyment of this or that, but hope and enterprise and change. Servitude debases men to the point where they end up liking it. The greatest happiness of the greatest number is the foundation of morals and legislation. When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us. We are never so happy nor so unhappy as we imagine. We have no more right to consume happiness without producing it than to consume wealth without producing it. Man's real life is happy, chiefly because he is ever expecting that it soon will be so. Unquestionably, it is possible to do without happiness, it is done involuntarily by nineteen-twentieths of mankind. Many persons have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose. A man should always consider how much he has more than he wants, and how much more unhappy he might be than he really is. If a man has important work, and enough leisure and income to enable him to do it properly, he is in possession of as much happiness as is good for any of the children of Adam. The greatest happiness you can have is knowing that you do not necessarily require happiness. Existence is a strange bargain. Life owes us little; we owe it everything. The only true happiness comes from squandering ourselves for a purpose. Even if we can't be happy, we must always be cheerful. New Year's Day is every man's birthday. Happiness is the perpetual possession of being well deceived. To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness. For the rational, psychologically healthy man, the desire for pleasure is the desire to celebrate his control over reality. For the neurotic, the desire for pleasure is the desire to escape from reality. It has never been given to a man to attain at once his happiness and his salvation. If thou workest at that which is before thee, following right reason seriously, vigorously, calmly, without allowing anything else to distract thee, but keeping thy divine part pure, as if thou shouldst be bound to give it back immediately; if thou holdest to this, expecting nothing, fearing nothing, but satisfied with thy present activity according to Nature, and with heroic truth in every word and sound which thou utterest, thou wilt live happy. And there is no man who is able to prevent this. We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about. 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. Happiness is the light on the water. The water is cold and dark and deep. Happiness: a good bank account, a good cook and a good digestion. Knowledge of what is possible is the beginning of happiness. Happiness is the interval between periods of unhappiness. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. - Bible Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job. - Bible The will of man is his happiness. Man's happiness springs mainly from moderate troubles, which afford the mind a healthful stimulus, and are followed by a reaction which produces a cheerful flow of spirits. There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will. It is nonsense to speak of 'higher' and 'lower' pleasures. To a hungry man it is, rightly, more important that he eat than that he philosophize. The secret of happiness is not in doing what one likes, but in liking what one has to do. True happiness is of a retired nature and an enemy to pomp and noise; it arises, in the first place, from the enjoyment of one's self; and, in the next, from the friendship and conversations of a few select companions. I have known some quite good people who were unhappy, but never an interested person who was unhappy. My creed is that: 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. My life has no purpose, no direction, no aim, no meaning, and yet I'm happy. I can't figure it out. What am I doing right? Happiness to a dog is what lies on the other side of a door. Happiness comes fleetingly now and then, To those who have learned to do without it And to them only. I believe in the possibility of happiness, if one cultivates intuition and outlives the grosser passions, including optimism. Happiness is brief It will not stay. God batters at its sails. To be happy, we must not be too concerned with others. . . . the little hills rejoice on every side. The pastures are clothed with flocks; the valleys also are covered over with corn; they shout for joy, they also sing. - Bible For each ecstatic instant We must an anguish pay In keen and quivering ratio To the ecstasy. At rare moments in history, by a series of accidents never to be repeated, arise flower societies in which the cult of happiness is paramount, hedonistic, mindless, intent upon the glorious physical instant. Man is that he might have joy. The formula for complete happiness is to be very busy with the unimportant. Make happy those who are near, and those who are far will come. Remember that happiness is a way of travel - not a destination. If we cannot live so as to be happy, let us at least live so as to deserve it. I never admired another's fortune so much that I became dissatisfied with my own. - Cicero Happiness is essentially a state of going somewhere, wholeheartedly, one-directionally, without regret or reservation. Happiness? That's nothing more than health and a poor memory. Happiness is the only sanction of life; where happiness fails, existence remains a mad and lamentable experiment. Happiness makes up in height for what it lacks in length. It is not easy to find happiness in ourselves, and it is not possible to find it elsewhere. Happiness depends, as Nature shows, Less on exterior things than most suppose. Happiness is a small and unworthy goal for something as big and fancy as a whole lifetime, and should be taken in small doses. To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness. 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. Happiness is itself a kind of gratitude. I am happy and content because I think I am. Unhappy is the man, though he rule the world, who doesn't consider himself supremely blessed. The happiness which is lacking makes one think even the happiness one has unbearable. Happiness is a result of the relative strengths of positive and negative feelings, rather than an absolute amount of one or the other. The best way for a person to have happy thoughts is to count his blessings and not his cash. Surfeits of happiness are fatal. If thou wouldst be happy ... have an indifference for more than what is sufficient. You will live wisely if you are happy in your lot. - Horace We always have enough to be happy if we are enjoying what we do have- and not worrying about what we don't have. Talk happiness. The world is sad enough without your woe. No path is wholly rough. When a man has lost all happiness, he's not alive. Call him a breathing corpse. Whether you are talking about education, career, or service, you are talking about life. And life must really have joy. It's supposed to be fun. Why is it that people who cannot show feeling presume that that is a strength and not a weakness? Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence Happiness is the only sanction in life; where happiness fails, existence remains a mad and lamentable experiment. The pursuit of happiness ... is the greatest feat man has to accomplish. Make us happy and you make us good. A good laugh makes any interview, or any conversation, so much better. The joyfulness of a man prolongeth his days. - Bible I love myself when I am laughing. Everyone, without exception, is searching for happiness. I will not be just a tourist in the world of images, just watching images passing by which I cannot live in, make love to, possess as permanent sources of joy and ecstasy. Celebrate the happiness that friends are always giving, make every day a holiday and celebrate just living! Live all you can; it's a mistake not to. It doesn't so much matter what you do in particular, so long as you have your life. If you haven't had that, what have you had? Is life worth living? Aye, with the best of us, Heights of us, depths of us- Life is the test of us! The general rule is that people who enjoy life also enjoy marriage. It is only by expressing all that is inside that purer and purer streams come. Age does not protect you from love but love to some extent protects you from age. There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval. I don't want to get to the end of my life and find that I lived just the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well. Men are made for happiness, and anyone who is completely happy has a right to say to himself: "I am doing God's will on earth." To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else. Living well and beautifully and justly are all one thing. - Socrates Without pleasure man would live like a fool and soon die. Life has got to be lived-that's all that there is to it. All animals except man know that the principle business of life is to enjoy it. Everything holds its breath except spring. She bursts through as strong as ever. To live as fully, as completely as possible, to be happy ... is the true aim and end to life. This is life! It can harden and it can exalt! All I can say about life is, Oh God, enjoy it! It is in his pleasure that a man really lives. Happiness hates the timid! I have smelt all the aromas there are in the fragrant kitchen they call Earth; and what we can enjoy in this life, I surely have enjoyed just like a lord! Man is that he might have joy. It is better to be happy for a moment and be burned up with beauty than to live a long time and be bored all the while. If you want to die happily, learn to live; if you would live happily, learn to die. Happiness comes more from loving than being loved; and often when our affection seems wounded it is only our vanity bleeding. To love, and to be hurt often, and to love again-this is the brave and happy life. The true object of all human life is play. The right to happiness is fundamental. Love lights more fires than hate extinguishes, And men grow better as the world grows old. The Eskimos had fifty-two names for snow because it was important to them; there ought to be as many for love. Not all of us have to possess earth-shaking talent. Just common sense and love will do. The secret of a happy marriage is finding the right person. You know they're right if you love to be with them all of the time. We can sometimes love what we do not understand, but it is impossible completely to understand what we do not love. To serve thy generation, this thy fate: "Written in water," swiftly fades thy name; But he who loves his kind does, first or late, A work too great for fame. Love and respect are the most important aspects of parenting, and of all relationships. Perhaps the best function of parenthood is to teach the young creature to love with safety, so that it may be able to venture unafraid when later emotion comes; the thwarting of the instinct to love is the root of all sorrow and not sex only but divinity itself is insulted when it is repressed. To disapprove, to condemn-the human soul shrivels under barren righteousness. Love, I find, is like singing. Everybody can do enough to satisfy themselves, though it may not impress the neighbors as being very much. Love is the same as like except you feel sexier. Love is the only thing we can carry with us when we go, and it makes the end so easy. Love, by its very nature, is unworldly, and it is for this reason rather than its rarity that it is not only apolitical but anti-political, perhaps the most powerful of all anti-political human forces. I love, and the world is mine! When love is out of your life, you're through in a way. Because while it is there it's like a motor that's going, you have such vitality to do things, big things, because love is goosing you all the time. A caress is better than a career. I don't want to live-I want to love first, and live incidentally. What is it that love does to a woman? Without it, she only sleeps; with it alone, she lives. - Ouida What a richly colored strong warm coat is woven when love is the warp and work is the woof. We cannot really love anybody with whom we never laugh. There is only one happiness in life, to love and be loved. When you come right down to it, the secret of having it all is loving it all. Where there is great love, there are always wishes. The cure for all ills and wrongs, the cares, the sorrows and the crimes of humanity, all lie in the one word 'love.' It is the divine vitality that everywhere produces and restores life. To love is to receive a glimpse of heaven. Love is a force more formidable than any other. It is invisible-it cannot be seen or measured, yet it is powerful enough to transform you in a moment, and offer you more joy than any material possession could. Love is the only effective counter to death. There are only two things that are absolute realities, love and knowledge, and you can't escape them. There is nothing ridiculous in love. Our society allows people to be absolutely neurotic and totally out of touch with their feelings and everyone else's feelings, and yet be very respectable. From the moment we walk out the door until we come back home our sensibilities are so assaulted by the world that we have to soak up as much love as we can get, simply to arm ourselves. Infatuation is when you think that he's as sexy as Robert Redford, as smart as Henry Kissinger, as noble as Ralph Nader, as funny as Woody Allen, and as athletic as Jimmy Conners. Love is when you realize that he's as sexy as Woody Allen, as smart as Jimmy Conners, as funny as Ralph Nader, as athletic as Henry Kissinger, and nothing like Robert Redford-but you'll take him anyway. I was in love with the whole world and all that lived in its rainy arms. 'Tis what I love determines how I love. Not only is there a right to be happy, there is a duty to be happy. So much sadness exists in the world that we are all under obligation to contribute as much joy as lies within our powers. There is no duty so much underrated as the duty of being happy. Pleasure is the object, duty and the goal of all rational creatures. - Voltaire Different men seek ... happiness in different ways and by different means. What's joy to one is a nightmare to the other. People genuinely happy in their choices seem less often tempted to force them on other people than those who feel martyred and broken by their lives. Happiness ... leads none of us by the same route. Even the lowliest, provided he is whole, can be happy, and in his own . way, perfect. Happiness, to some, is elation; to others it is mere stagnation. 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 Your readiest desire is your path to joy ... even if it destroys you. All men have happiness as their object: there are no exceptions. However different the means they employ, they aim at the same end. We all live with the objective of being happy; our lives are all different and yet the same. The world is so full of a number of things, I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings. There is no cosmetic for beauty like happiness. Love is a great beautifier. Taking joy in life is a woman's best cosmetic. Beauty is a radiance that originates from within and comes from inner security and strong character. Real happiness is cheap enough, yet how dearly we pay for its counterfeit. False happiness renders men stern and proud, and that happiness is never communicated. True happiness renders kind and sensible, and that happiness is always shared. Don't mistake pleasures for happiness. They are a different breed of dog. Mirth is better than fun, and happiness is better than mirth. Amusement is the happiness of those who cannot think. Happiness is a small and unworthy goal for something as big and fancy as a whole lifetime, and should be taken in small doses. False happiness is like false money; it passes for a long time as well as the true, and serves some ordinary occasions; but when it is brought to the touch, we find the lightness and alloy, and feel the loss. There is more to life than just existing and having a pleasant time. The test of enjoyment is the remembrance which it leaves behind. 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. Happiness depends upon ourselves. The U.S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. Your have to catch up with it yourself. 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. Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be. One is happy as a result of one's own efforts-once one knows the necessary ingredients of happiness-simple tastes, a certain degree of courage, self-denial to a point, love of work, and, above all, a clear conscience. Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Discontent is want of self-reliance; it is infirmity of will. I'm happier. ... I guess I made up my mind to be that way. The essence of philosophy is that a man should so live that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things. No one gives joy or sorrow. ... We gather the consequences of our own deeds. Happiness, happiness ... the flavor is with you-with you alone, and you can make it as intoxicating as you please. Few are they who have never had the chance to achieve happiness ... and fewer those who have taken that chance. To win one's joy through struggle is better than to yield to melancholy. Life is a romantic business, but you have to make the romance. To be obliged to beg our daily happiness from others bespeaks a more lamentable poverty than that of him who begs his daily bread. Some pursue happiness, others create it. Man is the artificer of his own happiness. The man who makes everything that leads to happiness depend upon himself, and not upon other men, has adopted the very best plan for living happily. - Plato 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. Happy is he that chastens himself. How unhappy is he who cannot forgive himself. There is always something left to love. And if you ain't learned that, you ain't learned nothing. Like swimming, riding, writing or playing golf, happiness can be learned. Being happy is something you have to learn. I often surprise myself by saying, "Wow, this is it. I guess I'm happy. I've got a home that I love. A career that I love. I'm even feeling more and more at peace with myself." If there's something else to happiness, let me know. I'm ambitious for that, too. Learn how to feel joy. - Seneca Someone once asked me what I regarded as the three most important requirements for happiness. My answer was: "A feeling that you have been honest with yourself and those around you; a feeling that you have done the best you could both in your personal life and in your work; and the ability to love others." Nine requisites for contented living: Health enough to make work a pleasure. Wealth enough to support your needs. Strength to battle with difficulties and overcome them. Grace enough to confess your sins and forsake them. Patience enough to toil until some good is accomplished. Charity enough to see some good in your neighbor. Love enough to move you to be useful and helpful to others. Faith enough to make real the things of God. Hope enough to remove all anxious fears concerning the future. Happiness comes of the capacity to feel deeply, to enjoy simply, to think freely, to risk life, to be needed. Do not worry; eat three square meals a day; say your prayers; be courteous to your creditors; keep your digestion good; exercise; go slow and easy. Maybe there are other things your special case requires to make you happy; but, my friend, these I reckon will give you a good lift. To love deeply in one direction makes us more loving in all others. Have a variety of interests. ... These interests relax the mind and lessen tension on the nervous system. People with many interests live, not only longest, but happiest. Build a little fence of trust Around today; Fill the space with loving work, And therein stay. This is wisdom: to love wine, beauty, and the heavenly spring. That's sufficient-the rest is worthless. If a man has important work, and enough leisure and income to enable him to do it properly, he is in possession of as much happiness as is good for any of the children of Adam. The secret of happiness ... is to be in harmony with existence, to be always calm, always lucid, always willing "to be joined to the universe without being more conscious of it than an idiot," to let each wave of life wash us a little farther up the shore. Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life. The grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love and something to hope for. The best philosophy is to do one's duties, to take the world as it comes, submit respectfully to one's lot, and bless the goodness that has given us so much happiness with it, whatever it is. One is happy as a result of one's own efforts-once one knows the necessary ingredients of happiness-simple tastes, a certain degree of courage, self-denial to a point, love of work, and, above all, a clear conscience. 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. From birth to age eighteen, a girl needs good parents. From eighteen to thirty-five, she needs good looks. From thirty-five to fifty-five, she needs a good personality. From fifty-five on, she needs good cash. To make a man happy, fill his hands with work, his heart with affection, his mind with purpose, his memory with useful knowledge, his future with hope, and his stomach with food. For me, happiness came from prayer to a kindly God, faith in a kindly God, love for my fellow man, and doing the very best I could every day of my life. I had looked for happiness in fast living, but it was not there. I tried to find it in money, but it was not there, either. But when I placed myself in tune with what I believe to be fundamental truths of life, when I began to develop my limited ability, to rid my mind of all kinds of tangled thoughts and fill it with zeal and courage and love, when I gave myself a chance by treating myself decently and sensibly, I began to feel the stimulating, warm glow of happiness. There are three ingredients in the good life: learning, earning and yearning. Work and love-these are the basics. Without them there is neurosis. If thou workest at that which is before thee ... expecting nothing, fearing nothing, but satisfied with thy present activity according to Nature, and with heroic truth in every word and sound which thou utterest, thou wilt live happy. And there is no man who is able to prevent this. Our greatest happiness does not depend on the condition of life in which chance has placed us, but is always the result of a good conscience, good health, occupation and freedom in all just pursuits. I believe the recipe for happiness to be just enough money to pay the monthly bills you acquire, a little surplus to give you confidence, a little too much work each day, enthusiasm for your work, a substantial share of good health, a couple of real friends and a wife and children to share life's beauty with you. If we could learn how to balance rest against effort, calmness against strain, quiet against turmoil, we would assure ourselves of joy in living and psychological health for life. Five great enemies to peace inhabit us: avarice, ambition, envy, anger and pride. If those enemies were to be banished, we should infallibly enjoy perpetual peace. True happiness... arises, in the first place, from the enjoyment of one's self, and in the next, from the friendship and conversation of a few select companions. May you have warmth in your igloo, oil in your lamp, and peace in your heart. What can be added to the happiness of man who is in health, out of debt, and has a clear conscience? To do the useful thing, to say the courageous thing, to contemplate the beautiful thing: that is enough for one man's life. Let your boat of life be light, packed only with what you need-a homely home and simple pleasures, one or two friends worth the name, someone to love and to love you, a cat, a dog, enough to eat and enough to wear, and a little more than enough to drink, for thirst is a dangerous thing. To be glad of life, because it gives you the chance to love and to work and to play and to look up at the stars; to be satisfied with your possessions, but not contented with yourself until you have made the best of them; to despise nothing in the world except falsehood and meanness, and to fear nothing except cowardice; to be governed by your admirations rather than by your disgusts; to covet nothing that is your neighbor's except his kindness of heart and gentleness of manners; to think seldom of your enemies, often of your friends, and every day of Christ; and to spend as much time as you can, with body and with spirit, in God's out-of-doors- these are little guideposts on the footpath to peace. Order your soul; reduce your wants; live in charity; associate in Christian community; obey the laws; trust in Providence. Simplicity, clarity, singleness: these are the attributes that give our lives power and vividness and joy. To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich; to study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly; to listen to the stars and birds, to babes and sages, with open heart; to bear on cheerfully, do all bravely, awaiting occasions, worry never; in a word to, like the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common. The attributes of a great lady may still be found in the rule of the four S's: Sincerity, Simplicity, Sympathy, and Serenity. Manifest plainness, Embrace simplicity, Reduce selfishness, Have few desires. - Lao-Tzu Happiness comes of the capacity to feel deeply, to enjoy simply, to think freely, to risk life, to be needed. Fear less, hope more; eat less, chew more; whine less, breathe more; talk less, say more; love more, and all good things will be yours. Practice easing your way along. Don't get het up or in a dither. Do your best; take it as it comes. You can handle anything if you think you can. Just keep your cool and your sense of humor. To live and let live, without clamor for distinction or recognition; to wait on divine Love; to write truth first on the tablet of one's own heart-this is the sanity and perfection of living, and my human ideal. Do all the good you can, By all the means you can, In all the ways you can, In all the places you can, At all the times you can. Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible without surrender, be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly, and listen to others, even the dull and ignorant; they too have their story. . . . Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass. Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be, and whatever your labours and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Accept the pain, cherish the joys, resolve the regrets; then can come the best of benedictions-"If I had my life to live over, I'd do it all the same." The way of a superior man is threefold: Virtuous, he is free from anxieties; wise, he is free from perplexities; bold, he is free from fear. The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are. It is not easy to find happiness in ourselves, and it is not possible to find it elsewhere. Joy is the feeling of grinning on the inside. It is those who have a deep and real inner life who are best able to deal with the irritating details of outer life. To live happily is an inward power of the soul. The secret of staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly, and lie about your age. Virtue, like a dowerless beauty, has more admirers than followers. We can build upon foundations anywhere, if they are well and truly laid. Though language forms the preacher, 'Tis "good works" make the man. All times are beautiful for those who maintain joy within them; but there is no happy or favorable time for those with disconsolate or orphaned souls. When you're in your nineties and looking back, it's not going to be how much money you made or how many awards you've won. It's really what did you stand for. Did you make a positive difference for people? For attractive lips, speak words of kindness. For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people. For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry. For beautiful hair, let a child run his or her fingers through it once a day. For poise, walk with the knowledge you'll never walk alone. What you become is what counts. If an Arab in the desert were suddenly to discover a spring in his tent, and so would always be able to have water in abundance, how fortunate he would consider himself; so too, when a man who ... is always turned toward the outside, thinking that his happiness lies outside him, finally turns inward and discovers that the source is within him. Happiness is not in our circumstances, but in ourselves. It is not something we see, like a rainbow, or feel, like the heat of a fire. Happiness is something we are. Seek not outside yourself, heaven is within. If we have not peace within ourselves, it is in vain to seek it from outward sources. Most true happiness comes from one's inner life, from the disposition of the mind and soul. Admittedly, a good inner life is difficult to achieve, especially in these trying times. It takes reflection and contemplation and self-discipline. It's what you do that makes your soul, not the other way around. The happiest people seem to be those who have no particular cause for being happy except that they are so. I think the inner person is the most important. ... I would like to see an invention that keeps the mind alert. That's what is important. 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. There is no other solution to man's progress but the day's honest work, the day's honest decisions, the day's generous utterances, and the day's good deed. You have much more power when you are working for the right thing than when you are working for the wrong thing. I am convinced that we must train not only the head, but the heart and hand as well. Live virtuously, and you cannot die too soon, or live too long. A happy life is one which is in accordance with its own nature. People see God every day, they just don't recognize Him. We hear voices in solitude, we never hear in the hurry and turmoil of life; we receive counsels and comforts we get under no other condition. Happiness is not a possession to be prized, it is a quality of thought, a state of mind. Happiness is a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you. Happiness is something that comes into our lives through doors we don't even remember leaving open. To seek after beauty as an end, is a wild goose chase, a will-o'-the-wisp, because it is to misunderstand the very nature of beauty, which is the normal condition of a thing being as it should be. Perfect happiness is the absence of striving for happiness. This will be triumph! This will be happiness! Yea, that very thing, happiness, which I have been pursuing all my life, and have never yet overtaken. I don't sit around thinking that I'd like to have another husband; only another man would make me think that way. Pleasure is very seldom found where it is sought. Our brightest blazes are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks. A sure way to lose happiness, I found, is to want it at the expense of everything else. Those who seek happiness miss it, and those who discuss it, lack it. Inspiration never arrived when you were searching for it. Nothing is more hopeless than a scheme of merriment. Happiness is never stopping to think if you are. It is the paradox of life that the way to miss pleasure is to seek it first. The very first condition of lasting happiness is that a life should be full of purpose, aiming at something outside self. If you pursue happiness you'll never find it. Some of us might find happiness if we quit struggling so desperately for it. Seek not happiness too greedily, and be not fearful of unhappiness. - Lao-Tzu The man of pleasure, by a vain attempt to be more happy than any man can be, is often more miserable than most men. The bird of paradise alights only on the hand that does not grasp. The only way to happiness is never to give happiness a thought. Everyone chases after happiness, not noticing that happiness is at their heels. Seek to do good, and you will find that happiness will run after you. Deliberately to pursue happiness is not the surest way of achieving it. Seek it for its own sake and I doubt whether you will find it. Enjoyment is not a goal, it is a feeling that accompanies important ongoing activity. If only we'd stop trying to be happy we'd have a pretty good time. Most men pursue pleasure with such breathless haste that they hurry past it. Happiness comes most to persons who seek it least, and think least about it. It is not an object to be sought, it is a state to be induced. It must follow and not lead. It must overtake you, and not you overtake it. Happiness sneaks in through a door you didn't know you left open. 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 no attention to it and go about your business, you'll find it rubbing against your legs and jumping into your lap. One must never look for happiness: one meets it by the way. They seemed to come suddenly upon happiness as if they had surprised a butterfly in the winter woods. Happiness in this world, when it comes, comes incidentally. Make it the object of pursuit, and it leads us on a wild-goose chase, and is never attained. Follow some other object, and very possibly we may find that we have caught happiness without dreaming of it. Happiness and beauty are by-products. Folly is the direct pursuit of happiness and beauty. It is the very pursuit of happiness that thwarts happiness. If you ever find happiness by hunting for it, you will find it, as the old woman did her lost spectacles, safe on her nose all the time. Happiness is not a goal, it is a byproduct. Happiness is mostly a by-product of doing what makes us feel fulfilled. Happiness is something you get as a by-product in the process of making something else. Happiness is not a horse, you cannot harness it. The attainment of justice is the highest human endeavor. Conscience, as I understand it, is the impulse to do the right thing because it is right, regardless of personal ends, and has nothing whatever to do with the ability to distinguish between right and wrong. I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year's fashions. The principles we live by, in business and in social life, are the most important part of happiness. If you aren't good at loving yourself, you will have a difficult time loving anyone, since you'll resent the time and energy you give another person that you aren't even giving to yourself. Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony. A good message will always find a messenger. It's no good saying one thing and doing another. There can be no happiness if the things we believe in are different from the things we do. Let how you live your life stand for something, no matter how small and incidental it may seem. Happy is the man who ventures boldly to defend what he holds dear. - Ovid It is necessary to the happiness of man that he be mentally faithful to himself. Happiness is that state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one's values. - Ayn Rand It is the chiefest point of happiness that a man is willing to be what he is. - Erasmus Resolve to be thyself; and know that who finds himself, loses his misery. There is only one history of any importance, and it is the history of what you once believed in, and the history of what you came to believe in. The needle of our conscience is as good a compass as any. But what is happiness except the simple harmony between a man and the life he leads? That kind of life is most happy which affords us most opportunities of gaining our own esteem. Happiness is not something you get, but something you do. Happiness is action. I am enjoying to a full that period of reflection which is the happiest conclusion to a life of action. Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action. I want a busy life, a just mind, and a timely death. Happiness is often the result of being too busy to be miserable. Painting's not important. The important thing is keeping busy. To attain happiness in another world we need only to believe something; to secure it in this world, we must do something. To fill the hour, and leave no crevice ... that is happiness. If you observe a really happy man, you will find ... that he is happy in the course of living life twenty-four crowded hours of each day. I find my joy of living in the fierce and ruthless battles of life. Happiness is an expression of the soul in considered actions. We must be doing something to be happy. Happiness lies in the fulfillment of the spirit through the body. We must not seek happiness in peace, but in conflict. Happiness walks on busy feet. Our actions are the springs of our happiness or misery. The formula for complete happiness is to be very busy. The busiest man is the happiest man. To be busy is man's only happiness. The only way to avoid being miserable is not to have enough leisure to wonder whether you are happy or not. The happiest people are those who are too busy to notice whether they are or not. In great moments life seems neither right nor wrong, but something greater: it seems inevitable. Happiness ... can exist only in acceptance. Knowledge of what is possible is the beginning of happiness. There is only one way to happiness, and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will. Happiness comes from ... some curious adjustment to life. Happy is he who learns to bear what he cannot change! The secret of happiness is not in doing what one likes, but in liking what one has to do. He is happy whose circumstances suit his temper; but he is more excellent who suits his temper to any circumstances. Happiness is experienced when your life gives you what you are willing to accept. Peace of mind is that mental condition in which you have accepted the worst. Life is not always what one wants it to be, but to make the best of it as it is, is the only way of being happy. We deem those happy who from the experience of life have learned to bear its ills, without being overcome by them. - Juvenal This is true joy of life-being used for a purpose that is recognized by yourself as a mighty one ... instead of being a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. Never mind your happiness; do your duty. Human happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected. When we ... devote ourselves to the strict and unsparing performance of duty, then happiness comes of itself. Seek happiness for its own sake, and you will not find it; seek for duty, and happiness will follow as the shadow comes with the sunshine. True happiness ... is not attained through self-gratification, but through fidelity to a worthy purpose. The only true happiness comes from squandering ourselves for a purpose. Happiness is the natural flower of duty. The happiest excitement in life is to be convinced that one is fighting for all one is worth on behalf of some clearly seen and deeply felt good. True happiness, we are told, consists in getting out of one's self. But the point is not only to get out, you must stay out. And to stay out, you must have some absorbing errand. The secret of living is to find ... the pivot of a concept on which you can make your stand. A man's happiness: to do the things proper to man. Happy [is] the man who knows his duties! The only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve. He who never sacrificed a present to a future good, or a personal to a general one, can speak of happiness only as the blind speak of color. There is no happiness except in the realization that we have accom plished something. I believe half the unhappiness in life comes from people being afraid to go straight at things. The full-grown modern human being ... is conscious of touching the highest pinnacle of fulfillment... when he is consumed in the service of an idea, in the conquest of the goal pursued. Happiness is essentially a state of going somewhere, wholeheartedly, one-directionally, without regret or reservation. Happiness is the overcoming of not unknown obstacles toward a known goal. Give a man health and a course to steer, and he'll never stop to trouble about whether he's happy or not. Having a goal is a state of happiness. Happiness lies in the joy of achieve ment and the thrill of creative effort. Without duty, life is soft and bone less. It is always the simple that produces the marvelous. Happiness consists not in having much, but in being content with little. Man is meant for happiness and this happiness is in him, in the satisfaction of the daily needs of his existence. I have had more than half a century of such happiness. A great deal of worry and sorrow, too, but never a worry or a sorrow that was not offset by a purple iris, a lark, a bluebird, or a dewy morning glory. A multitude of small delights constitute happiness. The happiness of life is made up of minute fractions-the little, soon-forgotten charities of a kiss or smile, a kind look, a heart-felt compliment, and the countless infinitesimals of pleasurable and genial feeling. For me it is sufficient to have a corner by my hearth, a book and a friend, and a nap undisturbed by creditors or grief. A happy life is made up of little things ... a gift sent, a letter written, a call made, a recommendation given, transportation provided, a cake made, a book lent, a check sent. Yes, there is a Nirvanah; it is in leading your sheep to a green pasture, and in putting your child to sleep, and in writing the last line of your poem. First health, then wealth, then pleasure, and do not owe anything to anybody. I know well that happiness is in little things. Sooner or later we all discover that the important moments in life are not the advertised ones, not the birthdays, the graduations, the weddings, not the great goals achieved. The real milestones are less prepossessing. They come to the door of memory. There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort. I don't think about whether people will remember me or not. I've been an okay person. I've learned a lot. I've taught people a thing or two. That's what's important. What would life be without art? Science prolongs life. To consist of what-eating, drinking, and sleeping? What is the good of living longer if it is only a matter of satisfying the requirements that sustain life? All this is nothing without the charm of art. It is by studying little things that we attain the great knowledge of having as little misery and as much happiness as possible. The happiest people I have known in this world have been the Saints-and, after these, the men and women who get immediate and conscious enjoyment from little things. The little things are infinitely the most important. We women ought to put first things first. Why should we mind if men have their faces on the money, as long as we get our hands on it? Eating is not merely a material pleasure. Eating well gives a spectacular joy to life and contributes immensely to goodwill and happy companionship. It is of great importance to the morale. I am beginning to learn that it is the sweet, simple things of life which are the real ones after all. Happiness consists more in small conveniences or pleasures that occur every day, than in great pieces of good fortune that happen but seldom. The happiness of most people is not ruined by great catastrophes or fatal errors, but by the repetition of slowly destructive little things. Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things. Why not learn to enjoy the little things-there are so many of them. Anyone who's a great kisser I'm always interested in. - Cher Moderation. Small helpings. Sample a little bit of everything. These are the secrets of happiness and good health. The best things are nearest: breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of God 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 of life. In violent and chaotic times such as these, our only chance for survival lies in creating our own little islands of sanity and order, in making little havens of our homes. Small kindnesses, small courtesies, small considerations, habitually practiced in our social intercourse, give a greater charm to the character than the display of great talents and accomplishments. For most of life, nothing wonderful happens. If you don't enjoy getting up and working and finishing your work and sitting down to a meal with family or friends, then the chances are you're not going to be very happy. If someone bases his happiness or unhappiness on major events like a great new job, huge amounts of money, a flawlessly happy marriage or a trip to Paris, that person isn't going to be happy much of the time. If, on the other hand, happiness depends on a good breakfast, flowers in the yard, a drink or a nap, then we are more likely to live with quite a bit of happiness. The mere sense of living is joy enough. The true way to soften one's troubles is to solace those of others. To complain that life has no joys while there is a single creature whom we can relieve by our bounty, assist by our counsels or enliven by our presence, is... just as rational as to die of thirst with the cup in our hands. We learn the inner secret of happiness when we learn to direct our inner drives, our interest, and our attention to something besides ourselves. Little deeds of kindness, little words of love, Help to make earth happy like the heaven up above. In about the same degree as you are helpful, you will be happy. Hire the best. Pay them fairly. Communicate frequently. Provide challenges and rewards. Believe in them. Get out of their way and they'll knock your socks off. Treat a horse like a woman and a woman like a horse. And they'll both win for you. Invest in the human soul. Who knows, it might be a diamond in the rough. All the goodness, beauty, and perfection of a human being belong to the one who knows how to recognize these qualities. You cannot always have happiness, but you can always give happiness. The nice thing about teamwork is that you always have others on your side. No one can sincerely try to help another without helping himself. Happiness is a by-product of helping others. The most exquisite pleasure is giving pleasure to others. No man can live happily who regards himself alone, who turns everything to his own advantage. Thou must live for another if thou wishest to live for thyself. Scatter seeds of kindness everywhere you go; Scatter bits of courtesy-watch them grow and grow. Gather buds of friendship, keep them till full-blown; You will find more happiness than you have ever known. If all our happiness is bound up entirely in our personal circumstances, it is difficult not to demand of life more than it has to give. No man is more cheated than the selfish man. The habit of being uniformly considerate toward others will bring increased happiness to you. If you have not often felt the joy of doing a kind act, you have neglected much, and most of all yourself. We cannot hold a torch to light another's path without brightening our own. Life becomes harder for us when we live for others, but it also becomes richer and happier. Happiness ... consists in giving, and in serving others. Pleasure is a reciprocal; no one feels it who does not at the same time give it. To be pleased, one must please. He that despiseth his neighbor sin-neth; but he that hath mercy on the poor, happy is he. - Bible Instinct teaches us to look for happiness outside ourselves. A bit of fragrance always clings to the hand that gives you roses. When you dig another out of their troubles, you find a place to bury your own. 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. Caring about others, running the risk of feeling, and leaving an impact on people, brings happiness. The entire sum of existence is the magic of being needed by just one person. One of the things I keep learning is that the secret of being happy is doing things for other people. Make one person happy each day and in forty years you will have made 14,600 human beings happy for a little time, at least. The most satisfying thing in life is to have been able to give a large part of oneself to others. To be kind to all, to like many and love a few, to be needed and wanted by those we love, is certainly the nearest we can come to happiness. Seldom can the heart be lonely, If it seeks a lonelier still; Self-forgetting, seeking only Emptier cups of love to fill. The older you get, the more you realize that kindness is synonymous with happiness. There is no happiness in having or in getting, but only in giving. Make happy those who are near, and those who are far will come. True happiness consists in making others happy. All who would win joy, must share it; happiness was born a twin. Happiness is not so much in having as sharing. We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give. Happiness quite unshared can scarcely be called happiness; it has no taste. Happiness is a sunbeam which may pass through a thousand bosoms without losing a particle of its original ray; nay, when it strikes on a kindred heart, like the converged light on a mirror, it reflects itself with redoubled brightness. It is not perfected till it is shared. The tourist may complain of other tourists, but he would be lost without them. Unshared joy is an unlighted candle. A joy that's shared is a joy made double. The human heart, at whatever age, opens only to the heart that opens in return. Happiness is the cheapest thing in the world ... when we buy it for someone else. To get the full value of a joy you must have somebody to divide it with. We have no more right to consume happiness without producing it than to consume wealth without producing it. When someone does something good, applaud! You will make two people happy. Happiness is not perfected until it is shared. Happiness ... is achieved only by making others happy. Our Thoughts Determine Our Happiness High above hate I dwell, 0 storms! Farewell. The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts. 1 am happy and content because I think I am. All happiness is in the mind. Happiness is not a matter of events; it depends upon the tides of the mind. A happy life consists in tranquility of mind. - Cicero The real winners in life are the people who look at every situation with an expectation that they can make it work or make it better. A man's as miserable as he thinks he is. The happiest person is the person who thinks the most interesting thoughts. Unhappiness indicates wrong thinking, just as ill health indicates a bad regimen. He is happy that knoweth not himself to be otherwise. The greater part of our happiness or misery depends on our dispositions, and not our circumstances. Happiness does not depend on outward things, but on the way we see them. Happiness will never be any greater than the idea we have of it. We are never so happy or so unhappy as we think. Misery is almost always the result of thinking. A great obstacle to happiness is to expect too much happiness. It isn't our position, but our disposition, that makes us happy. A man's happiness or unhappiness depends as much on his temperament as on his destiny. I went back to being an amateur, in the sense of somebody who loves what she is doing. If a professional loses the love of work, routine sets in, and that's the death of work and life. The high prize of life, the crowning fortune of man, is to be born with a bias to some pursuit which finds him in employment and happiness. The medals don't mean anything and the glory doesn't last. It's all about your happiness. The rewards are going to come, but my happiness is just loving the sport and having fun performing. The road to happiness lies in two simple principles: find what it is that interests you and that you can do well, and when you find it put your whole soul into it-every bit of energy and ambition and natural ability you have. They are happy men whose natures sort with their vocations. Happiness consists in the full employment of our faculties in some pursuit. The happy people are those who are producing something. Congenial labor is the secret of happiness. To find out what one is fitted to do, and to secure an opportunity to do it, is the key to happiness. If I were to suggest a general rule for happiness, I would say "Work a little harder; Work a little longer; Work!" To make a man happy, fill his hands with work. Work is the true elixir of life. The busiest man is the happiest man. Happiness ... loves to see men work. She loves sweat, weariness, self-sacrifice. She will not be found in the palaces, but lurking in cornfields and factories, and hovering over littered desks. Every job has drudgery. ... The first secret of happiness is the recognition of this fundamental fact. All happiness depends on courage and work. 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 lie happiness. Employment... is so essential to human happiness that indolence is justly considered the mother of misery. Happiness comes only when we push our brains and hearts to the farthest reaches of which we are capable. A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his work and done his best. There is certainly no greater happiness than to be able to look back on a life usefully and virtuously employed, to trace our own progress in existence by such tokens as excite neither shame nor sorrow. Continuity of purpose is one of the most essential ingredients of happiness in the long run, and for most men this comes chiefly through their work. Blessed is he who has found his work; let him ask no other blessedness. He has a work, a life-purpose. ... Get your happiness out of your work or you will never know what real happiness is. ... Even in the meanest sorts of labor, the whole soul of a man is composed into a kind of real harmony the instant he sets himself to work. Man is happy only as he finds a work worth doing-and does it well. Life without absorbing occupation is hell. Few persons realize how much of their happiness, such as it is, is dependent upon their work. Joy is the will which labours, which overcomes obstacles, which knows triumph. Get happiness out of your work or you may never know what happiness is. When men are rightly occupied, their amusement grows out of their work, as the color-petals out of a fruitful flower. Parents, however old they and we may grow to be, serve among other things to shield us from a sense of our doom. As long as they are around, we can avoid the fact of our mortality; we can still be innocent children. You leave home to seek your fortune and, when you get it, you go home and share it with your family. Sometimes the strength of motherhood is greater than natural laws. He is happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home. My child looked at me and I looked back at him in the delivery room, and I realized that out of a sea of infinite possibilities it had come down to this: a specific person, born on the hottest day of the year, conceived on a Christmas Eve, made by his father and me miraculously from scratch. And when our baby stirs and struggles to be born it compels humility: what we began is now its own. What families have in common the world around is that they are the place where people learn who they are and how to be that way. Family life is the source of the greatest human happiness. Where thou art, that is home. Parenting, at its best, comes as naturally as laughter. It is automatic, involuntary, unconditional love. If this world affords true happiness, it is to be found in a home where love and confidence increase with the years, where the necessities of life come without severe strain, where luxuries enter only after their cost has been carefully considered. There are four things a child needs: plenty of love, nourishing food, regular sleep, and lots of soap and water. Family jokes, though rightly cursed by strangers, are the bond that keeps most families alive. The secret of a happy marriage is finding the right person. You know they're right if you love to be with them all of the time. An easygoing husband is the one indispensable comfort of life. - Ouida My father got me strong and straight and slim And I give thanks to him. My mother bore me glad and sound and sweet, I kiss her feet. A house is not a home unless it contains food and fire for the mind as well as the body. No music is so pleasant to my ears as that word-father. He who leaves his house in search of happiness pursues a shadow. If solid happiness we prize, within our breast this jewel lies, And they are fools who roam; the world has nothing to bestow, From our own selves our bliss must flow, And that dear hut-our home. Happiness grows at our own firesides, and is not to be picked in strangers' gardens. A mother's arms are more comforting than anyone else's. He who would be happy should stay at home. Every family is a "normal" family- no matter whether it has one parent, two, or no children at all. Within our family there was no such thing as a person who did not matter. Second cousins thrice removed mattered. All the wealth of the world cannot be compared with the happiness of living together happily united. There's a thread that binds all of us together, pull one end of the thread, the strain is felt all down the line. Love from one being to another can only be that two solitudes come nearer, recognize and protect and comfort each other. Happiness is good health and a bad memory. Where there is laughter there is always more health than sickness. In the Orient people believed that the basis of all disease was unhappiness. Thus to make a patient happy again was to restore him to health. Loving, like prayer, is a power as well as a process. It's curative. It is creative. The simple truth is that happy people generally don't get sick. Laughter is by definition healthy. Laughter is the best medicine. Love is the great miracle cure. Loving ourselves works miracles in our lives. Happiness is not being pained in body nor troubled in mind. One of the quickest ways to become exhausted is by suppressing your feelings. Being asked one day what was the surest way of remaining happy in this world, the Emperor Sigismund of Germany replied: "Only do in health what you have promised to do when you were sick." The best things in life aren't things. Money, or even power, can never yield happiness unless it be accompanied by the goodwill of others. To fulfill a dream, to be allowed to sweat over lonely labor, to be given the chance to create, is the meat and potatoes of life. The money is the gravy. I don't want to make money. I just want to be wonderful. It's pretty hard to tell what does bring happiness; poverty and wealth have both failed. It is neither wealth nor splendor, but tranquility and occupation, which give happiness. Joy has nothing to do with material things, or with a man's outward circumstance ... a man living in the lap of luxury can be wretched, and a man in the depths of poverty can overflow with joy. Hope costs nothing. - Colette Getting what you go after is success; but liking it while you are getting it is happiness. Success can also cause misery. The trick is not to be surprised when you discover it doesn't bring you all the happiness and answers you thought it would. - Prince No social system will bring us happiness, health and prosperity unless it is inspired by something greater than materialism. The essence of philosophy is that a man should so live that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things. Happiness depends, as Nature shows, less on exterior things than most suppose. There are two things to aim at in life: first, to get what you want; and, after that, to enjoy it. Only the wisest of mankind achieve the second. In this world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it. A life of frustration is inevitable for any coach whose main enjoyment is winning. Money is human happiness in the abstract; he, then, who is no longer capable of enjoying human happiness in the concrete devotes himself utterly to money. Happiness seems to require a modicum of external prosperity. Those who have easy, cheerful attitudes tend to be happier than those with less pleasant temperaments regardless of money, "making it" or success. Money, or even power, can never yield happiness unless it be accompanied by the goodwill of others. The secret of happiness is to admire without desiring. Few rich men own their own property. Their property owns them. We can be wise from goodness and good from wisdom. She knew what all smart women knew: Laughter made you live better and longer. An Arabian proverb says there are four sorts of men: He who knows not and knows not he knows not: he is a fool-shun him. He who knows not and knows he knows not: he is simple-teach him. He who knows and knows not he knows: he is asleep-wake him. He who knows and knows he knows: he is wise-follow him. There are only two things that are absolute realities, love and knowledge, and you can't escape them. Wisdom is the most important part of happiness. Knowledge is the prime need of the hour. Better be happy than wise. Be happy. It's one way of being wise. - Colette With happiness comes intelligence to the heart. Joy is the holy fire that keeps our purpose warm and our intelligence aglow. Our happiness depends on wisdom all the way. The genius of happiness is still so rare, is indeed on the whole the rarest genius. To possess it means to approach life with the humility of a beggar, but to treat it with the proud generosity of a prince; to bring to its totality the deep understanding of a great poet and to each of its moments the abandonment and ingenuousness of a child. What matters most is that we learn from living. Best trust the happy moments. ... The days that make us happy make us wise. It is an aspect of all happiness to suppose that we deserve it. A garden isn't meant to be useful. It's for joy. A reasonable man needs only to practice moderation to find happiness. To forget oneself is to be happy. Happiness is a resultant of the relative strengths of positive and negative feelings rather than an absolute amount of one or the other. The first recipe for happiness is: Avoid too lengthy meditations on the past. Man needs, for his happiness, not only the enjoyment of this or that, but hope and enterprise and change. Happy is the man who can do only one thing; in doing it, he fulfills his destiny. 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 Behold, we count them happy which endure. - Bible The will of man is his happiness. Happiness to a dog is what lies on the other side of the door. The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved. The happiness of a man in this life does not consist in the absence, but in the mastery, of his passions. It is comparison that makes men happy or miserable. Let him that would be happy for a day, go to the barber; for a week, marry a wife; for a month, buy him a new horse; for a year, build him a new house; for all his lifetime, be an honest man. Who will present pleasure refrain, shall in time to come the more pleasure obtain. A happy life must be to a great extent a quiet life, for it is only in an atmosphere of quiet that true joy can live. It is in virtue that happiness consists, for virtue is the state of mind which tends to make the whole of life harmonious. - Zeno To live we must conquer incessantly, we must have the courage to be happy. Happiness has many roots, but none more important than security. No man can be merry unless he is serious. Happy [is] the man who has learned the cause of things and has put under his feet all fear, inexorable fate, and the noisy strife of the hell of greed. - Virgil The happiest man is he who learns from nature the lesson of worship. It takes great wit and interest and energy to be happy. The pursuit of happiness is a great activity. One must be open and alive. It is the greatest feat man has to accomplish. Talk happiness. The world is sad enough without your woe. No path is wholly rough. We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about. What we call happiness is what we do not know. For the happiest life, days should be rigorously planned, nights left open to chance. Happy people plan actions, they don't plan results. If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion. It is neither wealth nor splendor, but tranquility and occupation, which give happiness. The best way for a person to have happy thoughts is to count his blessings and not his cash. All happiness depends on a leisurely breakfast. Happy is he who still loves something he loved in the nursery: He has not been broken in two by time; he is not two men, but one, and he has saved not only his soul, but his life. To be happy means to be free, not from pain or fear, but from care or anxiety. 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. Just as a cautious businessman avoids investing all his capital in one concern, so wisdom would probably admonish us also not to anticipate all our happiness from one quarter alone. Growth itself contains the germ of happiness. When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us. We live in an ascending scale when we live happily, one thing leading to another in an endless series. Happiness is not a station to arrive at, but a manner of traveling. Everyone only goes around the track once in life, and if you don't enjoy that trip, it's pretty pathetic. I believe that a worthwhile life is defined by a kind of spiritual journey and a sense of obligation. The really happy man is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour. Happiness is to be found along the way, not at the end of the road, for then the journey is over and it is too late. Spiritual life is like a moving sidewalk. Whether you go with it or spend your whole life running against it, you're still going to be taken along. Happiness is a way station between too little and too much. Enjoy your happiness while you have it, and while you have it do not too closely scrutinize its foundation. Suspicion of happiness is in our blood. Love is like a beautiful flower which I may not touch, but whose fragrance makes the garden a place of delight just the same. My advice to you is not to inquire why or whither, but just enjoy your ice cream while it's on your plate. Most people ask for happiness on condition. Happiness can only be felt if you don't set any condition. Ask yourself whether you are happy, and you will cease to be so. Best to live lightly, unthinkingly. The secret of being miserable is to have leisure to bother about whether you are happy or not. To describe happiness is to diminish it. - Stendhal My life has no purpose, no direction, no aim, no meaning, and yet I'm happy. I can't figure it out. What am I doing right? People who postpone happiness are like children who try chasing rainbows in an effort to find the pot of gold at the rainbow's end. ... Your life will never be fulfilled until you are happy here and now. Happiness consists of living each day as if it were the first day of your honeymoon and the last day of your vacation. For a long time it seemed to me that real life was about to begin, but there was always some obstacle in the way. Something had to be got through first, some unfinished business; time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life. Every minute your mouth is turned down you lose sixty seconds of happiness. Why not seize the pleasure at once? How often is happiness destroyed by preparation, foolish preparation? Enjoy yourself. These are the "good old days" you're going to miss in the years ahead. No pleasure without pain. But here's what I've learned in this war, in this country, in this city: to love the miracle of having been born. Pleasure is not pleasant unless it cost dear. The sweetest joy, the wildest woe is love. So they speak soothingly about progress and the greatest possible happiness, forgetting that happiness is itself poisoned if the measure of suffering has not been fulfilled. Life begins on the other side of despair. Sadness and gladness succeed each other. The greatest happiness you can have is knowing that you do not necessarily require happiness. Happiness comes fleetingly now and then to those who have learned to do without it, and to them only. Unquestionably, it is possible to do without happiness; it is done involuntarily by nineteen-twentieths of mankind. Perfect happiness is the absence of striving for happiness. Happiness lies in the consciousness we have of it. There are men who are happy without knowing it. Eden is that old-fashioned house we dwell in every day without suspecting our abode until we drive away. Why is it that so many people are afraid to admit that they are happy? Man's real life is happy, chiefly because he is ever expecting that it soon will be so. What a wonderful life I've had! I only wish I'd realized it sooner. - Colette Those who are the most happy appear to know it the least; happiness is something that for the most part seems to mainly consist in not knowing it. We are all happy, if we only knew it. Eden is that old-fashioned house we dwell in every day Without suspecting our abode until we drive away. Happiness is a Swedish sunset; it is there for all, but most of us look the other way and lose it. Paradise is exactly like where you are right now ... only much, much better. Time is compressed like the fist I close on my knee ... I hold inside it the clues and solutions and the power for what I must do now. The major job was getting people to understand that they had something within their power that they could use. Each moment in time we have it all, even when we think we don't. Happiness always looks small while you hold it in your hands, but let it go, and you learn at once how big and precious it is. Contentment is not happiness. An oyster may be contented. Happiness is compounded of richer elements. Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content. The world is full of people looking for spectacular happiness while they snub contentment. Happiness is a rare plant that seldom takes root on earth-few ever enjoyed it, except for a brief period; the search after it is rarely rewarded by the discovery, but there is an admirable substitute for it... a contented spirit. If all were gentle and contented as sheep, all would be as feeble and helpless. The world of those who are happy is different from the world of those who are not. My heart is like a singing bird. I don't think being an athlete is unfeminine. I think of it as a kind of grace. If happiness truly consisted in physical ease and freedom from care, then the happiest individual... would be, I think, an American cow. My happiness is not the means to any end. It is the end. It is its own goal. It is its own purpose. - Ayn Rand When unhappy, one doubts everything; when happy, one doubts nothing. The more the heart is sated with joy, the more it becomes insatiable. There is a courage of happiness as well as a courage of sorrow. The truth is, laughter always sounds more perfect than weeping. Laughter flows in a violent riff and is effortlessly melodic. Weeping is often fought, choked, half strangled, or surrendered to with humiliation. No man is happy unless he believes he is. Who is the happiest of men? He who values the merits of others, And in their pleasure takes joy, even as though t'were his own. Only man clogs his happiness with care, destroying what is, with thoughts of what may be. If you obey all the rules you miss all the fun. We never enjoy perfect happiness; our most fortunate successes are mingled with sadness; some anxieties always perplex the reality of our satisfaction. Happiness is not the end of life; character is. Human life is basically a comedy. Even its tragedies often seem comic to the spectator, and not infrequently they actually have comic touches to the victim. Happiness probably consists largely in the capacity to detect and relish them. We may fail of our happiness, strive we ever so bravely; but we are less likely to fail if we measure with judgement our chances and our capabilities. We always have enough to be happy if we are enjoying what we do have- and not worrying about what we don't have. That sanguine expectation of happiness which is happiness itself. A great obstacle to happiness is to expect too much happiness. If you always do what interests you, at least one person is pleased. Suffering is not a prerequisite for happiness. He is happy that knoweth not himself to be otherwise. That man is happiest who lives from day to day and asks no more, garnering the simple goodness of a life. Change is an easy panacea. It takes character to stay in one place and be happy there. Such is the state of life that none are happy but by the anticipation of change. The change itself is nothing; when we have made it the next wish is to change again. Life delights in life. I look at what I have not and think myself unhappy; others look at what I have and think me happy. Part of the happiness of life consists not in fighting battles, but in avoiding them. A masterly retreat is in itself a victory. If only we'd stop trying to be happy we'd have a pretty good time. If ignorance is bliss, why aren't there more happy teenagers? As the sergeant said to the recruit: "You might as well be happy, mate - no one cares if you ain't." I am one of those people who just can't help getting a kick out of life - even when it's a kick in the teeth. Most folk are about as happy as they make up their minds to be. Give a man health and a course to steer, and he'll never stop to trouble about whether he's happy or not. It's pretty hard to tell what does bring happiness. Poverty and wealth have both failed. Happiness? That's nothing more than health and a poor memory. When I was young I used to think that wealth and power would bring me happiness. I was right. I look better, feel better, make love better, and I'll tell you something else ... I never lied better. The greatest happiness of the greatest number. What is the worth of anything, But for the happiness 'twill bring? Happiness lies, first of all, in health. Happiness grows at our own firesides, and is not to be picked in strangers' gardens. We are never so happy, nor so unhappy, as we suppose ourselves to be. What happiness is there which is not purchased with more or less of pain? I have learned to seek my happiness by limiting my desires, rather than in attempting to satisfy them. Everyone speaks of it, few know it. Man is the artificer of his own happiness. 
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