Quotes about happiness
248 quotes from 159 people
Some of you say religion makes people happy. So does laughing gas. So does whiskey.
Clarence Darrow1857–1938In a debate with religious leaders in Kansas City, as quoted in a eulogy for Darrow by Emanuel Haldeman-Julius (1938)
Albert Camus1913–1960The Myth of Sisyphus
Thích Nhất Hạnh1926–2022Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life (1992) Bantam reissueThe root of happiness is altruism — the wish to be of service to others.
Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lamaborn 1935The Dalai Lama at Harvard: Lectures on the Buddhist Path to Peace (1988) by Jeffrey Hopkins.Happiness and the absurd are two sons of the same earth. They are inseparable.
Albert Camus1913–1960The Myth of SisyphusPleasure is always derived from something outside you, whereas joy arises from within.
Eckhart Tolleborn 1948The Power of Now (1997)
Karl Popper1902–1994The Open Society and Its Enemies (1945), Vol. 1, Notes to the Chapters: Ch. 9, Note 2.
Virgil70–19 BCAeneid (29–19 BC), Book I, Line 207 (tr. Fairclough); spoken by Aeneas.There ‘s not a joy the world can give like that it takes away.
Lord Byron1788–1824Stanzas for Music (March 1815), reported in Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).Kings may be blest, but Tam was glorious,
O’er a’ the ills o’ life victorious.
Charles Dickens1812–1870Sketches by Boz (1836), Characters, Ch. 2: A Christmas Dinner
Nathaniel Hawthorne1804–1864The American Notebooks (1835—1853), 1851
José Martí1853–1895Martí: Thoughts/Pensamientos (1994)
Jeremy Bentham1748–1832“Extracts from Bentham’s Commonplace Book”, in Collected Works, x, p. 142
Kurt Vonnegut1922–2007Playboy interview (1973)
