“Happiness is like a butterfly: the more you chase it, the more it will elude you. But if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder.”

— Henry David Thoreau

According to The Quote Investigator http://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/04/17/butterfly/, "the earliest instance of this saying was crafted by the enigmatic “L” for “The Daily Crescent” newspaper in New Orleans [in June 1848]. ... The linkage to Henry David Thoreau is unsupported." <br class="br">Misattributed

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Do you have more details about the quote "Happiness is like a butterfly: the more you chase it, the more it will elude you. But if you turn your attention to oth…" by Henry David Thoreau?

Henry David Thoreau385

1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitio… 1817–1862

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Love in the Afternoon

“Happiness is like a cat. If you try to coax it or call it, it will avoid you. It will never come. But if you pay no attention to it and go about your business, you'll find it rubbing up against your legs and jumping into your lap.”

William J. Bennett (1943) American politician

“If you find that you're spending almost all your time on theory, start turning some attention to practical things; it will improve your theories. If you find that you're spending almost all your time on practice, start turning some attention to theoretical things; it will improve your practice.”

Donald Ervin Knuth (1938) American computer scientist

Donald Knuth, quoted in: Arturo Gonzalez-Gutierrez (2007) Minimum-length Corridors: Complexity and Approximations. p. 99

“Happiness is like a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.”

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–1864) American novelist and short story writer (1804 – 1879)

“You think you know your possibilities.
Then other people come into your life
and suddenly there are so many more.”

David Levithan The Realm of Possibility

Source: The Realm of Possibility

“If you are wired to your memory, repetitions will happen and redundancy will come; but if you are paying attention, that changes your ability to look at things”

Sadhguru (1957) Yogi, mystic, visionary and humanitarian

Economic Times http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2012-12-21/news/35953428_1_human-body-indian-business-isha-foundation, 21 December 2012 <br class="br">Sourced from newspapers and magazines