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Quotes about happiness

248 quotes from 159 people

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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 conversation of a few select companions.
Joseph Addison1672–1719The Spectator (1711–1714), No. 15 (March 17, 1711)
- Friendship
The world owes all its onward impulses to men ill at ease. The happy man inevitably confines himself within ancient limits.
Nathaniel Hawthorne1804–1864The House of the Seven Gables (1851), Ch. XX: The Flower of Eden
- Change
To be stupid, selfish, and have good health are three requirements for happiness, though if stupidity is lacking, all is lost.
Gustave Flaubert1821–1880Letters to Madame Louise Colet, 13 August 1846
- Intelligence
Every day I see or hear something that more or less kills me with delight, that leaves me like a needle in the haystack of light.
MOMary Oliver1935–2019Why I Wake Early (2004), “Mindful”
Human Felicity is produc’d not so much by great Pieces of good Fortune that seldom happen, as by little Advantages that occur every Day.
Benjamin Franklin1706–1790The Autobiography (1818), Part III, p. 108
It is not the possession of truth, but the success which attends the seeking after it, that enriches the seeker and brings happiness to him.
Max Planck1858–1947Where Is Science Going? (1932), “Is the External World Real?”, p. 83
- Truth & Lies
The fact is always obvious much too late, but the most singular difference between happiness and joy is that happiness is a solid and joy a liquid.
J. D. Salinger1919–2010De Daumier-Smith’s Blue Period (1952)
The cruel law of life is that a solved problem creates two new problems, and the best prescription for happy living is not to solve any more problems than you have to.
Russell Baker1925–2019“The Big Problem Binge,” The New York Times (1965-03-18)
The end and aim of the Cynic philosophy, as indeed of every philosophy, is happiness, but happiness that consists in living according to nature, and not according to the opinions of the multitude.
Julian331–363Oration to the Uneducated Cynics (tr. W. C. Wright, ii, 1913)
- Philosophy
Almost all our misfortunes in life come from the wrong notions we have about the things that happen to us. To know men thoroughly, to judge events sanely, is, therefore, a great step towards happiness.
Stendhal1783–1842Journal entry (10 December 1801)
Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding.
Solomon990–931 BCProverbs 3:13 (KJV)In context
- Wisdom
Complete pleasure and happiness in life can only be found in working for the honor, existence and happiness of future generations.
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk1881–1938Conversation with Romanian Foreign Minister Victor Antonescu on 20 March 1937
- Work
Compulsion is not indeed the final appeal to man, but joy is. And joy is everywhere.
Rabindranath Tagore1861–1941Sādhanā: The Realisation of Life (1916)
My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky
William Wordsworth1770–1850My Heart Leaps Up (The Rainbow), ll. 1-2 (wr. 1802; pub. 1807)In context
- Nature
Who is the happiest of men? He who values the merits of others,
And in their pleasure takes joy, even as though ‘twere his own.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe1749–1832“Distichs” in The Poems of Goethe (1853) as translated in the original metres by Edgar Alfred Bowring