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HAPPINESS

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[QUOTES FOLLOW LINKS]

see:

AMUSEMENT

ANIMALS

BLESSINGS

CALM

CAREFREE

CELEBRATIONS

CHEERFULNESS

CHILDREN

COMFORT

CONTENTED

FRIENDS / FRIENDSHIP

FUN

HOME & FAMILY

INNER PEACE

JOY

LAUGHTER

LIGHT-HEARTED

LOVE

PARADISE

PEACE (OF MIND)

PLAY, PLEASANT, PLEASURE

SATISFACTION

SERENITY

SIMPLICITY

SMILES

SUCCESS


-

A man should always consider how much he has more
than he wants; and secondly, how much more unhappy
he might be than he really is.
--Joseph Addison (1672—1719)
English essayist, poet, and dramatist.
"The Spectator" [30 July 1714]


The grand essentials to happiness in this life are something
to do, something to love, and something to hope for.
--Joseph Addison (1672—1719)
English essayist, poet, and dramatist.
Quoted in Tryon Edwards _A Dictionary of Thoughts_, p. 217 [1908 ed.].

-

He who has no wish to be happier is the happiest of men.
--William R. Alger (1822—1905)
American minister and writer.
Quoted in James Wood (ed.) _Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient
and Modern, English and Foreign Sources_, p. 150 [1899].

Probably the happiest period in life most frequently
is in middle age, when the eager passions of youth
are cooled, and the infirmities of age not yet begun;
as we see that the shadows, which are at morning
and evening so large, almost entirely disappear at
midday.
--Thomas Arnold (1795—1842)
English educator and father of Matthew Arnold.
Attributed in Henry Southgate (ed.)
_Many Thoughts of Many Minds_, p. 14 [1862, 3rd edition].

If you love to read, if you love nature and
if you have a dog, you've got it made.
--Brooke Astor (1902—2007)
American philanthropist and socialite.
Quoted in _Town & Country Dogs_
by The Editors of Town & Country, p. 69 [2008].

-

All happiness depends on courage and work.
I have had many periods of wretchedness, but
with energy and above all with illusions, I
pulled through them all.
--Honorι de Balzac (1799—1850)
French journalist and writer.
Letter to Monsieur Laurent-Jan [10 December 1849].


The world will avenge itself upon all
happiness in which it has no share.
--Honorι de Balzac (1799—1850)
French journalist and writer.
_Illusions Perdues_ (Lost Illusions) [Published in three parts between 1837—1843]

-

Those who bring sunshine to the lives of
others cannot keep it from themselves.
--Sir James Matthew Barrie (1860—1937)
Scottish writer and dramatist.
_A Window in Thrums_, ch. XVIII [1890]

-

Happiness is not the end of life; character is.
--Henry Ward Beecher (1813—1887)
American Congregational minister; brother of
Harriet Beecher Stowe, son of Lyman Beecher.
_Life Thoughts: Gathered from the Extemporaneous
Discourses of Henry Ward Beecher_ [1858]


The body is like a piano, and happiness is like music.
It is needful to have the instrument in good order.
--Henry Ward Beecher (1813—1887)
American Congregational minister; brother of
Harriet Beecher Stowe, son of Lyman Beecher.
_Norwood; or, Village Life in New England_, v. I [1867]


Good-nature is worth more than knowledge, more than
money, more than honor, to the persons who possess it,
and certainly to everybody who dwells with them, in so
far as mere happiness is concerned.
--Henry Ward Beecher (1813—1887)
American Congregational minister; brother of
Harriet Beecher Stowe, son of Lyman Beecher.
_Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit_ [1887]

-

To live happily with other people one should
ask of them only what they can give.
--Tristan [Paul] Bernard (1866—1947)
French playwright, novelist, journalist, and lawyer.
_L'Enfant Prodigue du Vesinet_ [1921]

A merry heart doeth good like a medicine.
--Bible
"Proverbs" 17:22

Happiness, n. An agreeable sensation arising
from contemplating the misery of others.
--Ambrose Bierce (1842—1914)
American newspaperman, wit, and satirist.
_The Cynic's Word Book_ [1906]
(Retitled in 1911 as _The Devil's Dictionary_.)

There is no cosmetic for beauty like happiness.
--Marguerite Blessington (1789—1849)
Irish novelist and poet.
_Desultory Thoughts and Reflections_ [1839]

In every kind of adversity, the bitterest part of a man's
affliction is to remember that he once was happy.
--Boethius [Anicius Manlius Severinus] (480?—524)
Roman scholar and Christian philosopher.
_The Consolation of Philosophy_ [c. 524, written in prison while awaiting execution.]

No man is happy without a delusion of some kind.
Delusions are as necessary to our happiness as realities.
--Christian Nestell Bovee (1820—1904)
American writer.
Quoted in Louis Klopsch _Many Thoughts of Many Minds_ p. 66 [1896].

People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness.
Just because they're not on your road doesn't mean they've
gotten lost.
--H. Jackson Brown, Jr. (b. 1940)
American author.
_Life's Little Instruction Book_ [1991]

Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single
candle, and the life of the single candle will not
be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being
shared.
--Buddha [Gautama] (c. 6th—4th century B.C.)
Founder of Buddhism.
Attributed in _Teaching of Buddha (the Buddhist Bible)_, p. 120
by Federation of All Young Buddhist Associations of Japan [1934].

Happiness and Virtue react upon each other,— the best are
not only the happiest, but the happiest are usually the best.
--Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803—1873)
British novelist and politician.
_The Duchess de la Valliθre_ [1836]

You should have fallen in love with a happy man, if
you wanted happiness. But no, you had to fall for
the breathtaking beauty of pain.
--Lois McMaster Bujold (b. 1949)
American science fiction author.
_Cordelia's Honor_ [1999]

I am convinced we have a degree of delight, and that no
small one, in the real misfortunes and pains of others.
--Edmund Burke (1729—1797)
Irish-born Whig politician and man of letters.
_On the Sublime and Beautiful_, in "The Harvard Classics" [1909-1914].

The first duty towards children is to make them happy. If you
have not made them happy, you have wronged them. No other
good they may get can make up for that.
--Charles Buxton (1823—1871)
English author.
_Notes of Thought_ [1873]

To be happy, we must not be too concerned with others.
--Albert Camus (1913—1960)
French novelist, dramatist, and essayist who won the 1957 Nobel Prize for Literature.
_La Chute_ ("The Fall") [1956]

It is not what a man outwardly has or wants that constitutes
the happiness or misery of him. Nakedness, hunger, distress
of all kinds, death itself have been cheerfully suffered, when
the heart was right. It is the feeling of injustice that is
insupportable to all men.
--Thomas Carlyle (1795—1881)
Scottish historian and political philosopher.
_Chartism_, ch. 3 [1839]

Oh, frabjous day! Callooh. Callay!
He chortled in his joy.
--Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832—1898)
English writer and logician.
_Thorough the Looking-Glass_ [1872]

Can we ever have too much of a good thing?
--Miguel de Cervantes (1547—1616)
Spanish novelist.
_Don Quixote de la Mancha_, pt. 1, bk. 1, ch. 6 [1605]

Nothing in life is so exhilarating
as to be shot at without result.
--Winston Churchill (1874—1965)
British Conservative statesman and Prime Minister [1940—1945, 1951—1955].
_The Malakand Field Force_ [1898]

-

If you want happiness for a day - go fishing.
If you want happiness for a month - get married.
If you want happiness for a year - inherit a fortune.
If you want happiness for a lifetime - help someone else.
--Chinese Proverb


Make happy those who are near,
and those who are far will come.
--Chinese Proverb


A bird does not sing because it has an
answer, it sings because it has a song.
--Chinese Proverb

-

But a perverse temper and fretful disposition make any state of life unhappy.
[Latin: Importunitas autem, et inhumanitas omni aetati molesta est.]
--Marcus Tullius Cicero (106—43 BC)
Roman orator and statesman.
_De senectute_ [45—44 BC]

It is because we have but a small portion
of enjoyment ourselves that we feel so little
pleasure in the good fortune of others. Is
it possible for the happy to be envious?
--William Benton Clulow (1802—1882)
English clergyman.
_Aphorisms and Reflections_, XXIX [1843]

The happiness of life is made up of minute fractions — the
little soon forgotten charities of a kiss or smile, a kind look,
a heartfelt compliment, and the countless other infinitessimals
of pleasurable thought and genial feeling.
--Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772—1834)
English poet, critic, and philosopher.
_The Friend_ [1828]

Make
Someone happy,
Make just one
Someone happy,
And you
Will be happy too.
--Betty Comden (1919—2006) & Adolph Green (1915—2002)
Lyricists and screenwriting duo.
"Make Someone Happy" [1960 song]

-

They must often change who would be
constant in happiness and wisdom.
--Confucius (551—479 B.C.)
K'ung Ch'iu, Chinese philosopher.
Quoted in Oliver Goldsmith, "The Citizen of the World or, Letters from a Chinese
Philosopher, Residing in London, to his Friends in the East" [1762], # 123.


We take greater pains to persuade others that we
are happy than in endeavoring to think so ourselves.
--Attributed to Confucius by Oliver Goldsmith; quoted in John Timbs
_Laconics: Or, The Best Words of the Best Authors_, p. 125 [1856, 8th ed.].

-

To admire nothing, (as most are wont to do),
It is the only method that I know,
To make men Happy, and to keep 'em so.
--Thomas Creech (1659—1700)
English classical scholar and translator.
_The Odes , Satires and Epistles of Horace_ [1684]

Happiness lies, first of all, in health.
--George William Curtis (1824—1892)
American essayist, editor, and reformer.
In a letter from the collection _Lotus Eating_ [1852].

. . . Nessun maggior dolore,
Che ricordarsi del tempo felice
Nella miseria.
(There is no greater pain than to remember
a happy time when one is in misery.)
--Dante Alighieri (1265—1321)
Italian poet, literary theorist, and moral philosopher.
_La dinina commedia_ (The Divine Comedy) [c. 1310—1321] "Inferno"

-

Money, it is often said, does not bring happiness; it must
be added, however, that it makes it possible to support
unhappiness with exemplary fortitude.
--Robertson Davies (1913—1995)
Canadian author and playwright.
_Tempest-Tost_ [1951]


Happiness is always a by-product. It is probably a matter of
temperament, and for anything I know it may be glandular.
But it is not something that can be demanded from life, and
if you are not happy you had better stop worrying about it
and see what treasures you can pluck from your own brand
of unhappiness.
--Robertson Davies (1913—1995)
Canadian author and playwright.
"The Table Talk of Robertson Davies" in _Maclean's_ (mag.) [September 1972].

-

If you want to be happy living a king's life
Never make a pretty woman your wife.
[...]
That's from a logical point of view
To always love a woman uglier than you.
--Raphael De Leon (1908—1999)
Trinidadian calypso singer and songwriter.
"Ugly Woman" [1934 song]

-

'My other piece of advice, Copperfield,' said Mr. Micawber,
'you know. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure
nineteen nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty
pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds nought and six,
result misery.
--Charles Dickens (1812—1870)
English novelist.
_David Copperfield_, ch. 12 [1850]


Cheerfulness and contentment are great beautifiers
and are famous preservers of youthful looks.
--Charles Dickens (1812—1870)
English novelist.
Attributed in _The Sabbath Recorder_ [6 December 1920].

-

His labor is a chant,
His idleness a tune;
Oh, for a bee's experience
Of clovers and of noon!
--Emily Dickinson (1830—1886)
American poet.
"The Bee" in _Poems_ [1890].

Action may not always bring happiness;
but there is no happiness without action.
--Benjamin Disraeli (1804—1881)
British Tory statesman, novelist, and Prime Minister [1868, 1874—1880].
_Lothair_, ch. 3 [1870]

A happy person is not a person in a certain set of
circumstances, but rather a person with a certain
set of attitudes.
--Hugh Downs (b. 1921)
American televison host.
Quoted in Roy B. Zuck
_The Speaker's Quote Book: Over 4,500 Illustrations_, p. 185 [1997].

-

Happy the man, and happy he alone,
He, who can call to-day his own:
He who, secure within, can say,
Tomorrow do thy worst, for I have lived today.
--John Dryden (1631—1700)
English poet, critic, and dramatist.
_Imitation of Horace_, bk. 3, ode 29, l. 65 [1685]


Only man clogs his happiness with care, destroying
what is, with thoughts of what may be.
--John Dryden (1631—1700)
English poet, critic, and dramatist.
Quoted in Tryon Edwards _A Dictionary of Thoughts_, p. 56 [1908 ed.].

-

Whatever your labors and aspirations in the noisy
confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. With
all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams; it is
still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to
be happy.
--Max Ehrmann (1872—1945)
American lawyer.
"Desiderata" [1927]

If you want to live a happy life, tie it
to a goal, not to people or objects.
--Albert Einstein (1879—1955)
German-American physicist who developed the
special and general theories of relativity.
In A. P. French's _Einstein: A Centenary Volume_ [1979].

So of cheerfulness, or a good temper, the
more it is spent, the more it remains.
--attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803—1882)
American philosopher and poet.

-

The essence of philosophy is that a man should so live
that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on
external things.
--Epictetus (55—135)
Greek philosopher.
In Dale Carnegie
_How To Stop Worrying And Start Living_, p. 270 [1948].


There is only one way to happiness and that
is to cease worrying about things which are
beyond the power of our will.
--Epictetus (55—135)
Greek philosopher.
Attributed in Sam Goodman
_Cogitator's Treasury-Thoughts and Wisdom From Many Minds_ [1962].

-

It is impossible to live pleasurably without living
wisely, well, and justly, and impossible to live
wisely, well, and justly without living pleasurably.
--Epicurus (341—270 B.C.)
Greek philosopher.
In Diogenes Laertius _Lives of Eminent Philosophers_ Book X, section 140.

-

The better part of happiness is
to wish to be what you are.
--Desiderius Erasmus (1469—1536)
Dutch humanist and theologian.
_The Praise of Folly_ [c.1511]


To know nothing is the happiest life.
--Desiderius Erasmus (1469—1536)
Dutch humanist and theologian.
_The Praise of Folly_ [c.1511]

-

Happiness means quiet nerves.
--W. C. Fields [William Claude Dukenfield]
(1880—1946) American vaudeville star and film actor.
In Robert Lewis Taylor
_W.C. Fields, His Follies and Fortunes_ [1949].

It is a great obstacle to happiness to expect too much.
--Bernard de Bovier de Fontenelle (1657—1757)
French author.
Attributed in J. De Finod (coll. & trans.)
_A Thousand Flashes of French Wit_, p. 175 [1880].

Happiness in the ordinary sense is not what one needs in life,
though one is right to aim at it. The true satisfaction is to come
through and see those whom one loves come through.
--E.M. [Edward Morgan] Forster (1879—1970)
English novelist.
1922 letter in Mary Lago & Philip Nicholas Furbank (eds.)
_Selected Letters of E.M. Forster: 1921-1970 , Vol. II (1921-1970)_ [1985].

-

Happiness depends more on the inward Disposition
of Mind than on the outward Circumstances.
--Benjamin Franklin (1706—1790)
American politician, inventor, and scientist.
_Poor Richard's Almanack_ [November 1757]


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 Franklin (1706—1790)
American politician, inventor, and scientist.
_Autobiography_, pt. 3 [written 1788, pub. 1798]

-

To spare oneself from grief at all cost can be achieved only
at the price of total detachment, which excludes the ability
to experience happiness.
--Erich Fromm (1900—1980)
American philosopher and psychologist.
_Man for Himself: An Inquiry into the Psychology of Ethics_ [1947]

Do you want my one-word secret
of happiness - It's growth, mental,
financial, you name it.
--Harold S. Geneen (1910—1997)
English-born American communications executive.
Quoted in Neil A. Hamilton _American Business Leaders:
From Colonial Times to the Present_ [1999].

Happiness lies in conquering one's enemies, in
driving them in front of oneself, in taking their
property, in savouring their despair, in outraging
their wives and daughters.
--Genghis Khan (1167—1227)
Mongolian warrior-ruler.
Attributed in Witold Rodzinski
_The Walled Kingdom: A History of China_ [1979].

The first and indispensable requisite
of happiness is a clear conscience.
--Edward Gibbon (1737—1794)
English historian.
_Memoirs of My Life and Writings_ [1796], Alex Murray edition [1869]

A happy life is one spent in learning, earning, and yearning.
--Lillian Gish (1896—1993)
American stage and movie actress.
In _Esquire_ [1969] as quoted in Larry Chang _Wisdom for the Soul:
Five Millennia of Prescriptions for Spiritual Healing_, p. 354 [2006].

The greatest happiness for the thinking man is to
have fathomed the fathomable, and to quietly
revere the unfathomable.
--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749—1832)
German poet, novelist, and playwright.
_Proverbs in Prose_ [1819]

Whichever way we look the prospect is disagreeable.
Behind, we have left pleasures we shall never enjoy,
and therefore regret; and before, we see pleasures
which we languish to possess, and are consequently
uneasy till we possess them.
--Oliver Goldsmith (1728—1774)
Anglo-Irish writer, poet, and dramatist.
_The Citizen of the World_, Letter XLIV [1762]

No human being can really understand another,
and no one can arrange another's happiness.
--Graham Greene (1904—1991)
English novelist.
_The Heart of the Matter_, pt. 3, ch. I [1948]

Happiness in this world, when it comes, comes incidentally. Make
it the object of pursuit, and it leads us 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.
--Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804—1864)
American novelist and short-story writer.
Undated entry (1851 or 1852) in
_American Note-Books_ (ed.) Sophia Hawthorne [1868].

-

Indolence is a delightful but distressing state; we must be
doing something to be happy. Action is no less necessary
than thought to the instinctive tendencies of the human
frame.
--William Hazlitt (1778—1830)
English essayist.
_Table Talk_ [1821—1822] "On the Pleasure of Painting"


Even in the common affairs of life, in love, friendship,
and marriage, how little security have we when we
trust our happiness in the hands of others!
--William Hazlitt (1778—1830)
English essayist.
_Table Talk_ [1821—1822] "On Living To One's Self"

-

Happiness in intelligent people
is the rarest thing I know.
--Ernest Hemingway (1889—1961)
American novelist.
_The Garden of Eden_ [pub. 1986]

If I were to choose among all gifts and qualities that which,
on the whole, makes life pleasantest, I should select the
love of children. No circumstance can render this world
wholly a solitude to one who has this possession.
--Thomas Wentworth Higginson (1823—1911)
American abolitionist and writer.
"The Shadow" pub. in _The Atlantic Monthly_ [July 1870].

I care not much for gold or land;
Give me a mortgage here and there,
Some good bank-stock, some note of hand,
Or trifling railroad share,
I only ask that Fortune send
A *little* more than I shall spend.
--Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809—1894)
American physician, poet, and essayist.
"Contentment" in _The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table_ [1858].

I know, indeed, of nothing more subtly satisfying and
cheering than a knowledge of the real good will and
appreciation of others. Such happiness does not
come with money, nor does it flow from a fine physical
state. It cannot be brought. But it is the keenest joy,
after all, and the toiler's truest and best reward.
--William Dean Howells (1837—1920)
American novelist and critic.
Quoted in Orison Swett Marden _How They Succeeded: Life Stories
of Successful Men Told by Themselves_, ch. XI [1901] (From an
interview in Success Magazine.)

The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that
we are loved — loved for ourselves, or rather, loved
in spite of ourselves.
--Victor Hugo (1802—1885)
French poet, dramatist, and novelist.
_Les Misιrables_, bk V, ch. 4 [1862]

To be happy, the passions must be cheerful and gay,
not gloomy and melancholy. A propensity to hope
and joy is real riches; one to fear and sorrow, real
poverty.
--David Hume (1711—1776)
Scottish philosopher.
Attributed in _The Phrenological Journal and Science of Health_ [October 1885].

That action is best which procures the greatest
happiness for the greatest numbers.
--Francis Hutcheson (1694—1746)
British philosopher.
_An Inquiry into the Original of Our Ideas of
Beauty and Virtue_, Treatise II, Section 3 [1725]

I can sympathize with people's pains, but not with
their pleasures. There is something curiously boring
about somebody else's happiness.
--Aldous Huxley (1894—1963)
English novelist (Grandson of T.H. Huxley.)
"Cynthia" in _Limbo_ [1920].

-

Reason, Observation and Experience — the Holy
Trinity of Science — have taught us that happiness
is the only good; that the time to be happy is now,
the place to be happy is here, and the way to be
happy is to make others so. This is enough for us.
In this belief we are content to live and die. If by
any possibility the existence of a power superior
to, and independent of, nature shall be demonstrated,
there will then be time enough to kneel. Until then,
let us stand erect.
--Robert Green Ingersoll (1833—1899)
American politician and orator know as "The Great Agnostic."
_The Gods_ [1872]


Happiness is not a reward — it is a consequence.
Suffering is not a punishment — it is a result.
--Robert Green Ingersoll (1833—1899)
American politician and orator know as "The Great Agnostic."
"The Christian Religion", pt. 2 in
_The North American Review_ [November 1881].

-

The first thing to learn in intercourse with others
is non-interference with their own peculiar ways of
being happy, provided those ways do not assume to
interfere by violence with ours.
--William James (1842—1910)
American philosopher.
_Talks to Teachers and Students_ [1899]

-

[H]appiness ... 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.
--Thomas Jefferson (1743—1826)
American statesman and president [1801—1809].
_Notes on the State of Virginia_, Query XIV [1781-83]


The most uninformed mind with a healthy body
is happier than the wisest valetudinarian.
--Thomas Jefferson (1743—1826)
American statesman and president [1801—1809].
In a letter to Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr. [6 July 1787].

-

A waistcoat of broadcloth or of fustian is alike to an aching
heart, and we laugh no merrier on velvet cushions than we
did on wooden chairs. Often have I sighed in those low-
ceilinged rooms, yet disappointments have come neither
less nor lighter since I quitted them. Life works upon a
compensating balance, and the happiness we gain in one
direction we lose in another. As our means increase, so do
our desires; and we ever stand midway between the two.
--Jerome K Jerome (1859—1927)
English novelist and playwright.
"On Furnished Apartments" in _The Idle Thoughts of
an Idle Fellow; A Book for an Idle Holiday_ [1892].

Let me smile with the wise, and feed with the rich.
--Samuel Johnson (1709—1784)
English poet, critic, and lexicographer.
Entry of 5 October 1769, in James Boswell
_The Life of Samuel Johnson_ [1791].

The trick is not how much pain you feel — but how
much joy you feel. Any idiot can feel pain. Life is full
of excuses to feel pain, excuses not to live, excuses,
excuses, excuses.
--Erica Jong (b. 1942)
American novelist.
_How To Save Your Own Life_ [1977]

Unhappiness is the hunger to get; happiness is the hunger to give.
--William George Jordan (1864—1928)
American editor and essayist.
_Majesty of Calmness_ [1900], ch. 7 "The Royal Road to Happiness"

Youth is happy because it has the capacity to see
beauty. Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty
never grows old.
--attributed to Franz Kafka (1883—1924)
Czech novelist.

Happiness is not an ideal of reason but of imagination.
--Immanuel Kant (1724—1804)
Prussian philosopher.
_Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Ethics_ [1785]

How simple and frugal a thing is happiness: a glass
of wine, a roast chestnut, a wretched little brazier,
the sound of the sea. . . . All that is required to feel
that here and now is happiness is a simple, frugal
heart.
--Nikos Kazantzakis (1883—1957)
Cretan civil servant and foreign correspondent.
_Zorba the Greek_, ch. 7 [1946]

One of the reasons that so many people who achieve
fame and fortune don't find happiness is because,
almost by definition, if you reach that high estate
you are going to find yourself surrounded by the
lowest hangers-on in the world. It is not that you
get cut off from the real people; you just get cut
off from the good people. And pretty soon, if you
don't watch out, you can start to turn into a creep
yourself.
--Billie Jean King (b. 1943)
American professional tennis player.
_Billie Jean_ [1982]

We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief
requirements of life, when all we need to make us
really happy is something to be enthusiastic about.
--Charles Kingsley (1819—1875)
English writer and clergyman.
Attributed in _Journal of the Canadian Dental Association_, vol. 5 [1939].

Few things are needed to make a wise man happy;
nothing can make a fool content; that is why most
men are miserable.
--Franηois de La Rochefoucauld (1613—1680)
French classical author.
_Pensιes de La Rochefoucauld_ (ed. Claude Barbin) [1693]
"Third Supplement" Maxim LXXX

A man enjoys the happiness he feels,
a woman the happiness she gives.
--Pierre Choderlos de Laclos (1741—1803)
French soldier and writer.
Les Liaisons dangereuses [1782]

My motto is, 'contented with little, yet wishing for more.'
--Charles Lamb (1775—1834)
English essayist.
Letter to William Wordsworth [13 October 1804].

Whoever has really seen Russia will find himself content
to live anywhere else. It is always good to know that a
society exists where no happiness is possible because,
by a law of nature, man cannot be happy unless he is
free.
--Astolphe Louis Leonard, Marquis de Custine (1790—1857)
French writer, playwright, poet and traveler.
_La Russia en 1839_ "Peterhof, July 23, 1839"

People are just as happy as they make up their minds to be.
--attributed to Abraham Lincoln (1809—1865)
American Republican statesman, President [1861—1865].

Part of the happiness of life consists not
in fighting battles but in avoiding them.
A masterly retreat is in itself a victory.
--Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807—1882)
American poet.
In Samuel Longfellow (ed.) _Final Memorials of Henry
Wadsworth Longfellow_, ch. XIX "Table-Talk" [1887].

Kissing your hand may make you feel very very good
but a diamond and safire bracelet lasts forever.
--Anita Loos (1893—1981)
American novelist and Hollywood screenwriter.
_Gentlemen Prefer Blondes_ [1925]

Just give me a comfortable couch, a dog, a good
book, and a woman. Then if you can get the dog
to go somewhere and read the book, I might have
a little fun!
--Groucho [Julius Henry] Marx (1895—1977)
American film comedian.
Quoted in Stefan Kanfer
_Groucho: The Life and Times of Julius Henry Marx_ [2000].

'The way to happiness'
Keep your heart free from hate, your mind from worry.
Live simply, expect little, give much. Fill your life with
love. Scatter sunshine. Forget self, think of others. Do
as you would be done by. Try this for a week and you
will be surprised.
--attributed to H.C. Mattern by Norman Vincent Peale
in _The Power of Positive Thinking_ [1952]

-

Puritanism — The haunting fear that someone,
somewhere, may be happy.
--H.L. (Henry Louis) Mencken (1880—1956)
American journalist and literary critic.
_A Mencken Chrestomathy_, ch. 30 [1949]


There is no record in history of a happy philosopher.
--H.L. (Henry Louis) Mencken (1880—1956)
American journalist and literary critic.
Quoted in Herbert V. Prochnow
_Speaker's Handbook of Epigrams and Witticisms_ [1955].

-

The logic of worldly success rests on a fallacy:
the strange error that our perfection depends
on the thoughts and opinions and applause of
other men!
--Thomas Merton (1915—1968)
American Trappist monk and author.
_The Seven Storey Mountain_ [1948]

Ask yourself whether you are
happy, and you cease to be so.
--John Stuart Mill (1806—1873)
English philosopher and social reformer.
_Autobiography_, ch. 5 [1873]

It's good to be just plain happy, it's a little better to know that
you're happy; but to understand that you're happy and to know
why and how . . . and still be happy, be happy in the being and
the knowing, well that is beyond happiness, that is bliss.
--Henry Miller (1891—1980)
American novelist and essayist.
_The Colossus of Maroussi_, pt. 1 [1941]

If one only wished to be happy, this could be easily
accomplished; but we wish to be happier than other
people, and this is always difficult, for we believe
others to be happier than they are.
--Baron de Montesquieu (Charles Louis de Secondat) (1689—1755)
French philosopher, jurist, and satirist.
Attributed in Tryon Edwards _A Dictionary of Thoughts_ [1891].

There is only one way to achieve happiness on this terrestrial ball.
And that is to have either a clear conscience, or none at all.
--Ogden Nash (1902—1971)
American writer of humorous poetry.
"Interoffice Memorandum" in _I'm a Stranger Here Myself_ [1938].

But it's alright now. I've learned my lesson well.
You see, you can't please everyone, so you've
got to please yourself.
--Ricky Nelson [Eric Hilliard Nelson] (1940—1985)
American singer and TV actor.
"Garden Party" [1972 song]

[On ... I-Pods?:]
Those who were seen dancing were thought to
be insane by those who did not hear the music.
--attributed to Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844—1900)
German classical scholar, philosopher, and critic of culture.

Any woman who does not thoroughly enjoy tramping
across the country on a clear, frosty morning with a
good gun and a pair of dogs does not know how to
enjoy life.
--Annie Oakley [Phoebe Anne Oakley Mozee] (1860—1926)
American sharpshooter.
Interview with "Minneapolis Times" [1900], as quoted in
Isabelle S. Sayers _Annie Oakley and Buffalo Bill's Wild West_ [1981].

The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance;
The wise grows it under his feet.
--James Oppenheim (1882—1932)
American poet and novelist.
"The Wise" in _War and Laughter_ [1916].

[On the most beautiful words in the English language:]
The ones I like . . . are 'cheque' and 'inclosed.'
--Dorothy Parker (1893—1967)
American critic and humorist.
Quoted in "N.Y. Herald Tribune" [12 December 1932].

Happiness is where we find it, but very rarely where we seek it.
--Jean-Antoine Petit-Senn (1792—1870)
French-Swiss lyric poet.
Quoted in Julia B. Hoitt
_Excellent Quotations For Home and School_, p. 150 [1890].

Happiness is a way-station between
too little and too much.
--Channing Pollack (1880—1946)
American playwright, dramatist, and critic.
"Mr. Moneypenny" [1928]

Happy the man, whose wish and care
A few paternal acres bound,
Content to breathe his native air
In his own ground.
--Alexander Pope (1688—1744)
English poet.
"Ode On Solitude" [c. 1700]

Happiness is a sunbeam which may pass through
a thousand bosoms without losing a particle of its
original ray; nay, when it strikes a kindred heart,
like the converged light upon a mirror, it reflects
itself with redoubled brightness. It is not perfected
until it is shared.
--Jane Porter (1776—1850)
Scottish novelist.
Attributed in _Day's Collacon: An Encyclopaedia Of Prose Quotations_, p. 358 [1884].

-

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy;
they are the charming gardeners who make our
souls blossom.
--Marcel Proust (1871—1922)
French novelist.
_Pleasures and Regrets_ [1896]


Happiness is beneficial for the body but it is
grief that develops the powers of the mind.
--Marcel Proust (1871—1922)
French novelist.
_Remembrance of Things Past_ [1913-1927]

-

It is not easy to find happiness in ourselves,
and it is not possible to find it elsewhere.
--Agnes Repplier (1855—1950)
American author.
_Times and Tendencies _ [1931]

Happiness, — a good bank account,
a good cook, and a good digestion.
--Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712—1778)
French philosopher and novelist.
Attributed in Maturin M. Ballou _Edge-Tools of Speech_, p. 203 [1886].

-

-

The secret of happiness is this: let your interests be as wide as
possible, and let your reactions to the things and persons that
interest you be as far as possible friendly rather than hostile.
--Bertrand Russell (1872—1970)
British philosopher, mathematician, and Nobel laureate.
_The Conquest of Happiness_ [1930]


[Talking to his wife:]
The secret of happiness is to face the fact that
the world is horrible, horrible, horrible.
--Bertrand Russell (1872—1970)
British philosopher, mathematician, and Nobel laureate.
In Alan Wood _Bertrand Russell, The Passionate Sceptic_ [1957].


I believe four ingredients are necessary for
happiness: health, warm personal relations,
sufficient means to keep you from want,
and successful work.
--Bertrand Russell (1872—1970)
British philosopher, mathematician, and Nobel laureate.
Tommy Robbins interview "Redbook" [September 1964].


I've made an odd discovery. Every time I talk to a savant I feel
quite sure that happiness is no longer a possibility. Yet when I
talk with my gardener, I'm convinced of the opposite.
--Bertrand Russell (1872—1970)
British philosopher, mathematician, and Nobel laureate.
Quoted in Clifton Fadiman (ed.) _The Little, Brown Book of Anecdotes_ [1985].

-

Happy is he who learns to bear what he cannot change!
--Friedrich von Schiller (1759—1805)
German poet, historian, and dramatist.
"On the Sublime" in _The Works of Frederick
Schiller_, vol. 4 [S.E. Cassino, Boston, 1884].

The two foes of human happiness are pain and boredom.
--Arthur Schopenhauer (1788—1860)
German philosopher.
"Personality, or What a Man Is" in
_The Wisdom of Life; Counsels and Maxims_ [tr. by T. Bailey Saunders, 1890].

Always look at what you have left.
Never look at what you have lost.
--Robert H. Schuller (b. 1926)
American televangelist.
_Power Thoughts_ [1993]

Happiness is nothing more than good health and a bad memory.
--Albert Schweitzer (1875—1965)
Franco-German theologian, philosopher, and mission doctor.
Attributed in "L.A. Times" [3 May 1959].

Be happy while you're living, for you're a long time dead.
--Scottish Proverb

Pleasure comes with the fulfilment of desire—getting what
you want and wanting what you get. Happiness comes with
the fulfilment of the person. And much of our moral confusion
comes from the fact that we no longer know what happiness
is, nor how to obtain it.
--Roger Scruton (b. 1944)
British writer and philosopher.
_The Good Life_ [1998]

-

'Tis ever common that men are merriest
when they are from home.
--William Shakespeare (1564—1616)
English dramatist.
_King Henry V_, I, ii [1598—1599]


Silence is the perfectest herald of joy:
I were but little happy, if I could say how much.
--William Shakespeare (1564—1616)
English dramatist.
_Much Ado About Nothing_, II, i [1598—1599]


O, how bitter a thing it is to look into happiness
through another man's eyes!
--William Shakespeare (1564—1616)
English dramatist.
_As You Like It_, V, ii [1599]

-

-

Give a man health and a course to steer; and he'll
never stop to trouble about whether he's happy
or not.
--George Bernard Shaw (1856—1950)
Irish comic dramatist, literary critic, Socialist
propagandist, and winner of the Nobel Prize
for Literature in 1925.
"Captain Brassbound's Conversion" [1901]


But a lifetime of happiness! No one alive
could bear it: it would be hell on earth.
--George Bernard Shaw (1856—1950)
Irish dramatist and critic.
_Man and Superman_ [1903]

-

[H]appiness itself may become habitual. There is
a habit of looking at the bright side of things, also
of looking at the dark side. Dr. Johnson has said
that the habit of looking at the best side of a thing
is worth more to a man than a thousand pounds
a year. ... And to bring up men or women with a
genial nature of this sort, a good temper, and a
happy frame of mind, is perhaps of even more
importance, in many cases, than to perfect them
in much knowledge and many accomplishments.
--Samuel Smiles (1812—1904)
Scottish author.
_Self-Help_ [1859]

What can be added to the happiness of the man
who is in health, who is out of debt, and has a
clear conscience?
--Adam Smith (1723—1790)
Scottish economist.
_The Theory of Moral Sentiments_ [1759]

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.
--Logan Pearsall Smith (1865—1946)
American-born man of letters.
_Afterthoughts_ [1931]

Mankind are always happier for having been happy; so
that if you make them happy now, you make them happy
twenty years hence by the memory of it.
--Sydney Smith (1771—1845)
English clergyman and essayist.
"On The Benevolent Affections"
Lecture XXII of a series delivered at the Royal
Institution (London) between 1804—1806.

Gaiety is the soul's health; sadness is its poison.
--Stanislaw I [Stanislaw Leszczynski] (1677—1766)
King of Poland.
Quoted in James Wood (ed.) _Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient
and Modern, English and Foreign Sources_, p. 118 [1899].

Wealth I ask not, hope nor love,
Nor a friend to know me.
All I ask the heaven above,
And the road below me.
--Robert Louis Stevenson (1850—1894)
Scottish essayist, poet, and novelist.
"The Vagabond"

How easy it is to be amiable in the midst of happiness and success!
--Madame Swetchine [Sophie Soymanof] (1782—1857)
Russian-born French writer and salon hostess.
Quoted in (Count de Falloux (ed.), Harriet W. Preston (trans.)
_Life and Letters of Madam Swetchine_, p. 112 [8th ed., 1875].

Happiness is an imaginary condition, formerly often attributed
by the living to the dead, now usually attributed by adults to
children, and by children to adults.
--Thomas Szasz (b. 1920)
American psychiatrist.
_The Second Sin_ [1973], "Emotions"

The happiness of man in this life does not consist
in the absence, but in the mastery, of his passions.
--Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809—1892)
English poet.
--French proverb, as quoted in D. E. MacDonnel
_A Dictionary of Quotations in Most Frequent Use..._ [1809 ed.].

-

Do not let your peace depend on what people
say of you, for whether they speak good or ill
of you makes no difference to what you are.

True peace and joy is to be found in Me alone.
He who is neither anxious to please nor afraid
to displease men enjoys true peace.

--Thomas a' Kempis (1380—1471)
German ascetical writer.
_The Imitation of Christ_ [c. 1420], bk. 3, ch. 28, "Against Slander"

-

That which makes people dissatisfied with their
condition is the chimerical idea they form of the
happiness of others.
--James Thomson (1700—1748)
Scottish poet.
Attributed in _The Phrenological Journal and Life Illustrated_ [January 1873].

That man is the richest whose
pleasures are the cheapest.
--Henry David Thoreau (1817—1862)
American essayist, poet, and practical philosopher.
_Journal_ [1906], "March 11, 1856" [quoting Thomas Paine.]

Happiness depends on being free, and
freedom depends on being courageous.
The secret of freedom is courage.
--Thucydides (c.460—c.400 B.C.)
Greek historian of Athens.
_History of the Peloponnesian War_, bk. 2, ch. 4

-

There are people who can do all fine and heroic things but
one: keep from telling their happiness to the unhappy.
--Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835—1910)
American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot.
_Following the Equator_ [1897] "Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar"


Happiness ain'ta thing in itself, it's only a contrast with something
that ain't pleasant. ... And so, as soon as the novelty is over and the
force of the contrast dulled, it ain't happiness any longer, and you
have to get something fresh.
--Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835—1910)
American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot.
"Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven"
in _Harper's Monthly Magazine_ [December 1907].

-

Earthly paradise is where I am.
--Voltaire (Franηois Marie Arouet) (1694—1778)
French writer and philosopher.
_Le mondain_ (The Worldly) [1736]

The greater part of our happiness or misery depends
on our disposition and not our circumstances.
--attributed to Martha Washington (1731—1802)
The first First Lady of the U.S..

Happy days are here again,
The skies above are clear again.
Let us sing a song of cheer again,
Happy days are here again!
--Jack Yellen (1892—1991)
Polish-born American songwriter.
"Happy Days are Here Again" from the musical comedy _Chasing Rainbows_ [1929].

-

Hagar to hermit monk on top of icy mountain: What
is the secret to happiness and long life?
Nearly frozen hermit: Chastity, poverty, self-sacrifice
and abstinence.
Hagar: Is there someone else up here I can talk too?
--Dik Browne, Hagar the Horrible strip

-

Some cause happiness wherever
they go; others, whenever they
go.
--anon., in "The Santa Fe Magazine" [1935]

Happiness is a butterfly, which, when pursued, is always
just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down
quietly, may come and alight on you.
--anon., in Granville L. Howe (ed.)
_The Golden Key To Prosperity And Happiness_ [1885].
(In a slightly different form this is often attributed to Nathaniel Hawthorne.)

-----

beatitude (noun)
1. The perfect happiness and inner peace supposed
to be enjoyed by the soul in heaven.
2. Extreme happiness and serenity, bliss

blithe (adjective) [bLIdh]
Joyous, spiritedly if not giddily happy; happy to
the point of ignoring reality.

Cockaigne (noun) [kκ-'keyn or kah-'keyn]
Paradise, utopia, an imaginary land of ease
and luxurious living.

coruscate [KOR-uh-skayt], intransitive verb:
1. To give off or reflect bright beams or flashes of
light; to sparkle.
2. To exhibit brilliant, sparkling technique or style.

felicity (noun)
1. Happiness; bliss; anything producing happiness; good fortune.
2. A quality or knack of appropriate and pleasing expression in
writing, speaking, painting, etc.; an apt expression or thought.

gambol [GAM-buhl], intransitive verb:
1. To dance and skip about in play; to frolic.
2. A skipping or leaping about in frolic.

jovial [JOH-vee-uhl], adjective:
Merry; joyous; jolly; characterized by mirth or jollity.

propitious [pruh-PISH-uhs], adjective:
1. Presenting favorable circumstances or conditions.
2. Favorably inclined; gracious; benevolent.

refulgent (adj.) [ree-'fUl-jκnt]
Shining brightly, resplendent, illustrious.


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