“Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself in your way of thinking.”

— Marcus Aurelius, book Meditations

Source: Meditations

Last update June 18, 2026. History

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Marcus Aurelius400

Emperor of Ancient Rome 121–180

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“Very little is needed to make a happy life.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

ἐν ὀλιγίστοις κεῖται τὸ εὐδαιμόνως βιῶσαι
VII, 67
Source: Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VII

“Be Yourself. Life is precious as it is. All the elements for your happiness are already here. There is no need to run, strive, search, or struggle. Just Be.”

Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist

“One of the best ways to make yourself happy is to make other people happy. One of the best ways to make other people happy is to be happy yourself.”

Gretchen Rubin (1966) American writer

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“Try to realize it's all within yourself,
No one else can make you change.
And to see you're really only very small
And life flows in within you and without you.”

George Harrison (1943–2001) British musician, former member of the Beatles

Within You Without You, from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)
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“It is by not always thinking of yourself, if you can manage it, that you might somehow be happy. Until you can make room in your life for someone as important to you as yourself, you will always be searching and lost….”

Richard Bach (1936) American spiritual writer

“A lot of people, they think, ‘Oh, I’m only going to be happy when I find a special person who is going to make me happy.’ No. In life, you have to be happy with yourself first, number one. When you’re happy with yourself, you have to find another person who is happy with herself so you can share your happiness.”

Fabio Lanzoni (1961) Italian model, actor and author

Fifteen hours with Fabio http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/style/2015/12/23/fabio/?utm_term=.55d4ac289b9c (December 23, 2015)

“Be thoughtful of others all your life and you will be very happy.”

Jun Hong Lu (1959) Australian Buddhist leader

Hong Kong, (01 June 2014)[citation needed].

“Keeping busy and making optimism a way of life can restore your faith in yourself.”

Lucille Ball (1911–1989) American actress and businesswoman

Variant: It doesn't pay to get discouraged. Keeping busy and making optismism a way of life can restore your faith in yourself

“The therapists told you that you needed to find happiness within yourself before you got it from another person.”

Ned Vizzini book It's Kind of a Funny Story

Source: It's Kind of a Funny Story

“There is within each of us a "life-instinct," which is forever working toward health, happiness, and all that makes for more life for the individual.”

Maxwell Maltz book Psycho-Cybernetics

Source: Psycho-Cybernetics (1960), p. 12

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