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Quotes about happiness

248 quotes from 159 people

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Ah! there is nothing like staying at home for real comfort.
Jane Austen1775–1817Emma (1815), Volume II, Chapter XIVIn context
I’ve done no injustice, and I repent of nothing. I’m too happy; and yet I’m not happy enough. My soul’s bliss kills my body, but does not satisfy itself.
Emily Brontë1818–1848Wuthering Heights (1847), Chapter XXXIVIn context
It is better to be unhappy and know the worst, than to be happy in a fool’s paradise!
Fyodor Dostoyevsky1821–1881The Idiot (1869), Part IV, Chapter VIn context
- Truth & Lies
I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself than be crowded on a velvet cushion.
Henry David Thoreau1817–1862Walden (1854), Economy (2 of 3)In context
- Money
No profit grows where is no pleasure ta’en;
In brief, sir, study what you most affect.
William Shakespeare1564–1616The Taming of the Shrew (c. 1591), Act I, Scene I, spoken by TranioIn context
- Education
Jog on, jog on, the footpath way,
And merrily hent the stile-a:
A merry heart goes all the day,
Your sad tires in a mile-a.
William Shakespeare1564–1616The Winter’s Tale (c. 1611), Act IV, Scene III, spoken by AutolycusIn context
It is an illusion that youth is happy, an illusion of those who have lost it; but the young know they are wretched, for they are full of the truthless ideals which have been instilled into them, and each time they come in contact with the real they are bruised and wounded.
W. Somerset Maugham1874–1965Of Human Bondage (1915), Chapter XXIXIn context
- Youth
There is an ecstasy that marks the summit of life, and beyond which life cannot rise. And such is the paradox of living, this ecstasy comes when one is most alive, and it comes as a complete forgetfulness that one is alive.
Jack London1876–1916The Call of the Wild (1903), Chapter IIIIn context
- Life & Death
Man does not appear to me to be intended to enjoy felicity so unmixed; happiness is like the enchanted palaces we read of in our childhood, where fierce, fiery dragons defend the entrance and approach; and monsters of all shapes and kinds, requiring to be overcome ere victory is ours.
Alexandre Dumas1802–1870The Count of Monte Cristo (1844), Volume One, Chapter 5In context
I will ask on my own account here, an idle question: which is better⁠—cheap happiness or exalted sufferings?
Fyodor Dostoyevsky1821–1881Notes from Underground (1864), Part II: À Propos of the Wet Snow, Chapter XIn context
Oh, you may be perfectly sure that if Columbus was happy, it was not after he had discovered America, but when he was discovering it!
Fyodor Dostoyevsky1821–1881The Idiot (1869), Part III, Chapter VIn context
“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
He chortled in his joy.
Lewis Carroll1832–1898Jabberwocky (1871)In context
- Comedy
I looked upon man’s days, and found a grey
Shadow. And this thing more I surely say,
That those of all men who are counted wise,
Strong wits, devisers of great policies,
Do pay the bitterest toll. Since life began,
Hath there in God’s eye stood one happy man?
Fair days roll on, and bear more gifts or less
Of fortune, but to no man happiness.
Euripides481–407 BCMedea (431 BC), Part 2, spoken by MessengerIn context
- Life & Death
- Wisdom
There is no man under the sun so fortunate as I
Brothers GrimmGrimms’ Fairy Tales (1812–1815), Hans in LuckIn context
- Luck
There is happiness, there it comes; it comes nearer and nearer; I hear its steps already. And if we do not see it we shall not know it, but what does that matter? Others will see it!
Anton Chekhov1860–1904The Cherry Orchard (1904), Act Two, spoken by TrofimovIn context
- Hope