Happiness.
What is it? Where does it come from? Why does it have to be so fleeting and evasive?
No one truly knows, but those that have found it can teach us how to find it. I like to think that it’s a state of mind, rather than a place or a situation.
If you’re looking for happiness, but can’t seem to find it, or you’ve forgotten where it is, let these happiness quotes inspire you, daily if necessary:
- “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.” ― Dr. Seuss
- “The Constitution only guarantees the American people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.” – Commonly attributed to Benjamin Franklin
- “For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
- “Even if happiness forgets you a little bit, never completely forget about it.” ― Jacques Prévert
- “Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.” ― Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land
- “If you want to be happy, be.” – Leo Tolstoy
- “Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.” ― Marthe Troly-Curtin, Phrynette
- “People are just as happy as they make up their minds to be.” ― Abraham Lincoln
- “Happiness is not something readymade. It comes from your own actions.” ― Dalai Lama XIV
- “Seven Deadly Sins: Wealth without work. Pleasure without conscience. Science without humanity. Knowledge without character. Politics without principle. Commerce without morality. Worship without sacrifice.” ― Mahatma Gandhi
- “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
- “Happiness is never stopping to think if you are.” ― Palmer Sondreal
- “Count your age by friends, not years. Count your life by smiles, not tears.” ― John Lennon
- “There’s nothing like deep breaths after laughing that hard. Nothing in the world like a sore stomach for the right reasons.” ― Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower
- “The most important thing is to enjoy your life—to be happy—it’s all that matters.” ― Audrey Hepburn
- “If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien
- “Man is fond of counting his troubles, but he does not count his joys. If he counted them up as he ought to, he would see that every lot has enough happiness provided for it.” ― Fyodor Dostoevsky
- “Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness.” ― Bertrand Russell, The Conquest of Happiness
- “Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” ― Marcel Proust
- “I’ve got nothing to do today but smile.” ― Paul Simon
- “Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings. And once you have achieved a state of happiness, you must never become lax about maintaining it. You must make a mighty effort to keep swimming upward into that happiness forever, to stay afloat on top of it.” ― Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love
- “The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance; the wise grows it under his feet.” ― James Openheim
- “Sanity and happiness are an impossible combination.” ― Mark Twain
- “Success is getting what you want, happiness is wanting what you get” ― W.P. Kinsella
- “Often people attempt to live their lives backwards; they try to have more things, or more money, in order to do more of what they want, so they will be happier. The way it actually works is the reverse. You must first be who you really are, then do what you need to do, in order to have what you want.” ― Margaret Young
- “It’s been my experience that you can nearly always enjoy things if you make up your mind firmly that you will.” ― L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables
- “Happiness is like a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.” ― Nathaniel Hawthorne
- “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 Keonig
- “Happiness is a direction, not a place.” ― Sydney J. Harris
- “A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery while on a detour.” ― Author Unknown
- “There is no cosmetic for beauty like happiness.” ― Lady Blessington
- “Happiness held is the seed; happiness shared is the flower.” ― Author Unknown
- “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
- “Plant seeds of happiness, hope, success, and love; it will all come back to you in abundance. This is the law of nature.” ― Steve Maraboli, Unapologetically You: Reflections on Life and the Human Experience
- “The trick is in what one emphasizes. We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves happy. The amount of work is the same.” ― Carlos Castaneda
- “There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power or our will.” ― Epictetus
- “What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. These are but trifles, to be sure; but scattered along life’s pathway, the good they do is inconceivable.” ― Joseph Addison
- “Happiness does not come from without, it comes from within.” ― Helen Keller
- “I am still determined to be cheerful and happy, in whatever situation I may be; for I have also learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions, and not upon our circumstances.” ― Martha Washington
- “Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt
- “The way I define happiness is being the creator of your experience, choosing to take pleasure in what you have, right now, regardless of the circumstances, while being the best you that you can be.” ― Leo Babauta
- “Happiness is not a life without pain, but rather a life in which the pain is traded for a worthy price.” ― Orson Scott Card, Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus
- “Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.” – Mahatma Gandhi
- “It is only possible to live happily ever after on a daily basis.” ― Margaret Bonanno
- “Remember this, that very little is needed to make a life happy.” ― Marcus Aurelius
- “I wake up every morning with a great desire to live joyfully.” ― Anna Howard Shaw
- “Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.” – Buddha
- “Happiness is the art of never holding in your mind the memory of any unpleasant thing that has passed.” – Author Unknown
- “Don’t rely on someone else for your happiness and self-worth. Only you can be responsible for that. If you can’t love and respect yourself – no one else will be able to make that happen. Accept who you are – completely; the good and the bad – and make changes as YOU see fit – not because you think someone else wants you to be different.” – Stacey Charter
- It’s a helluva start, being able to recognize what makes you happy.” ― Lucille Ball
- “Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.” ― Tich Nhat Hanh
Image by Celestine Chua.
2 Comments