Quotes about happiness page 2
Hunter S. Thompson (1937–2005) American journalist and author
Source: The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967
Victor Hugo book Les Misérables
Variant: The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved -- loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves.
Source: Les Misérables
“The tragedy of this world is that no one is happy, whether stuck in a time of pain or joy.”
Alan Lightman book Einstein's Dreams
Source: Einstein's Dreams
“Rules for happiness: something to do, someone to love, something to hope for.”
Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) German philosopher
“A man can be happy with any woman as long as he does not love her.”
Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray
Variant: A man can be happy with any woman, as long as he does not love her.
Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray
Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977) Russian-American novelist, lepidopterist, professor
Source: Ada, or Ardor: A Family Chronicle
“It's a helluva start, being able to recognize what makes you happy.”
Lucille Ball (1911–1989) American actress and businesswoman
Cameron Diaz (1972) American actress
Human the movie: Cameron's interview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-HvL3TSf-8 ( New York Post http://nypost.com/2015/12/17/cameron-diaz-fame-will-never-make-you-happy/)
Bob Ross (1942–1995) American painter, art instructor, and television host
Bob Ross: Beauty Is Everywhere. Collection 1: Ep. 8 "Wintertime Blues"; The Joy of Painting Season 20: Episode 3 Bob Ross: Winter in Pastel.
Nikola Tesla (1856–1943) Serbian American inventor
"Roentgen Rays or Streams", Electrical Review (12 Aug 1896). Reprinted in The Nikola Tesla Treasury (2007), 307. By Nikola Tesla
Montesquieu (1689–1755) French social commentator and political thinker
As quoted in A Dictionary of Thoughts : Being a Cyclopedia of Laconic Quotations from the Best Authors, Both Ancient and Modern (1891) edited by Tryon Edwards.
“There is no greater sorrow
Than to be mindful of the happy time
In misery.”
Dante Alighieri book Inferno
Canto V, lines 121–123 (tr. Longfellow).
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Inferno
“Happy painting and God Bless, my friend.”
Bob Ross (1942–1995) American painter, art instructor, and television host
Ken Tucker (2006) Kissing Bill O'Reilly, Roasting Miss Piggy: 100 Things to Love and Hate about TV, Macmillan: ISBN 0312330588, p. 155.
Attributed
Leonardo DiCaprio (1974) American actor and film producer
http://www.popmonk.com/actors/leonardo-dicaprio/quotes-leonardo-dicaprio.htm
“Let's build us a happy, little cloud that floats around the sky.”
Bob Ross (1942–1995) American painter, art instructor, and television host
Ann Curry (September 22, 2004) "Painter Bob Ross remains an iconic figure years after his death", NBC News.
Attributed
Kanye West (1977) American rapper, singer and songwriter
Video Music Awards 2009, Taylor Swift and Kanye West https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUHQpCM7yyY (video)
“And if you save yourself
You will make him happy.”
Kurt Cobain (1967–1994) American musician and artist
Sappy
Song lyrics, B-sides and compilation tracks (1989-1993)
“No burden is so heavy for a man to bear as a succession of happy days.”
Max Planck (1858–1947) German theoretical physicist
Max Müller, as quoted in Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern English and Foreign Sources (1899) by James Wood
Misattributed
“In every adversity of fortune, to have been happy is the most unhappy kind of misfortune.”
Nam in omni adversitate fortunae infelicissimum est genus infortunii fuisse felicem.
Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius (480) philosopher of the early 6th century
Prose IV, line 2
The Consolation of Philosophy · De Consolatione Philosophiae, Book II
“Whoever sows good shall harvest happiness, and whoever sows evil shall harvest regret.”
Hasan al-Askari (846–874) Eleventh of the Twelve Imams
Majlisi, Bihārul Anwār, vol.78, p. 338
Religious Wisdom
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)
Dolly Parton (1946) American singer-songwriter and actress
I Will Always Love You from the album Jolene
Song lyrics
John Roecker (1966) American film director
An Epic Interview with John Roecker, FilmJerk, www.filmjerk.com, Kristopher, Terrell, August 23, 2003 http://www.filmjerk.com/interviews/article.php?id_int=12,
“Happiness is not pleasure — it is victory.”
Zig Ziglar (1926–2012) American motivational speaker
See You at the Top (2000)
“The more difficult the victory, the greater the happiness in winning.”
Pelé (1940–2022) Brazilian association football player
“You need to be happy to live, I don’t.”
Keanu Reeves (1964) Canadian actor, director, producer and musician
Romain Rolland (1866–1944) French author
Gottfried to Jean-Christophe. Part 3: Ada
Jean-Christophe (1904 - 1912), Youth (1904)
Jigme Singye Wangchuck (1955) King of Bhutan 1972–2006
Quoted in The Modern Path to Enlightenment, by John Elliott of the Financial Times of London (2 May 1987,
“Let no man be called happy before his death. Till then, he is not happy, only lucky.”
Solón (-638–-558 BC) Athenian legislator
Sunisa Lee (2003) American artistic gymnast; first Hmong American Olympic gold medalist
"Sunisa Lee Says She's 'Going to Delete Twitter' So She Can Focus on Preparing for Beam Final" in People (1 August 2021) https://people.com/sports/tokyo-olympics-sunisa-lee-going-to-delete-twitter-focus-preparing-beam-final/
Keanu Reeves (1964) Canadian actor, director, producer and musician
Source: Discovering Buddhism, 2004 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=226w04QMPzQ
“You always get more respect when you don't have a happy ending.”
Julia Quinn (1970) American novelist
Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist
Source: The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy, and Liberation
Gretchen Rubin (1966) American writer
Source: The Happiness Project: Or Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun
“Men can only be happy when they do not assume that the object of life is happiness.”
George Orwell (1903–1950) English author and journalist
P.T. Barnum (1810–1891) American showman and businessman
Source: The Art of Money Getting: Golden Rules for Making Money
C.G. Jung (1875–1961) Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist who founded analytical psychology
"The Art of Living", interview with journalist Gordon Young first published in 1960
Variant: [T]here are as many nights as days, and the one is just as long as the other in the year's course. Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word "happy" would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.
Max Planck (1858–1947) German theoretical physicist
Where Is Science Going? (1932)
Source: Where is Science Going?
“What doesn't hurt - is not life; what doesn't pass - is not happiness.”
Ivo Andrič (1892–1975) novelist, short story writer
“Happiness is a state of activity.”
Aristotle (-384–-321 BC) Classical Greek philosopher, student of Plato and founder of Western philosophy
Karen Blixen book Out of Africa
Source: Out of Africa (1937)
Context: People who dream when they sleep at night know of a special kind of happiness which the world of the day holds not, a placid ecstasy, and ease of heart, that are like honey on the tongue. They also know that the real glory of dreams lies in their atmosphere of unlimited freedom. It is not the freedom of the dictator, who enforces his own will on the world, but the freedom of the artist, who has no will, who is free of will. The pleasure of the true dreamer does not lie in the substance of the dream, but in this: that there things happen without any interference from his side, and altogether outside his control. Great landscapes create themselves, long splendid views, rich and delicate colours, roads, houses, which he has never seen or heard of...
Patañjali (-200–-150 BC) ancient Indian scholar(s) of grammar and linguistics, of yoga, of medical treatises
§ 1.33
Yoga Sutras of Patañjali
Source: The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
“Learn to value yourself, which means: fight for your happiness.”
Ayn Rand (1905–1982) Russian-American novelist and philosopher
“Success is getting what you want..
Happiness is wanting what you get.”
Dale Carnegie (1888–1955) American writer and lecturer
Variant: Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get.
Hubert Selby Jr. Requiem for a Dream
Source: Requiem for a Dream
Benjamin Hoff book The Tao of Pooh
Source: The Tao of Pooh
Max Ehrmann (1872–1945) American writer, poet, and attorney
Source: Desiderata: A Poem for a Way of Life
“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts; therefore guard accordingly.”
Marcus Aurelius book Meditations
Variant: The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.
Source: Meditations
“Sanity and happiness are an impossible combination.”
Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist
“Go girl, seek happy nights to happy days”
William Shakespeare (1564–1616) English playwright and poet
“As long as a woman can look ten years younger than her daughter, she is perfectly satisfied”
Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray
Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray
“I may never be happy, but tonight I am content.”
Sylvia Plath (1932–1963) American poet, novelist and short story writer
Source: The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath
“Happiness is not a goal… it's a by-product of a life well lived.”
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American politician, diplomat, and activist, and First Lady of the United States
Variant: Happiness is not a goal, it is a by-product.
Source: You Learn by Living (1960), p. 95
Context: Happiness is not a goal, it is a by-product. Paradoxically, the one sure way not to be happy is deliberately to map out a way of life in which one would please oneself completely and exclusively.
“A man is happy so long as he chooses to be happy.”
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn book Cancer Ward
Source: Cancer Ward
“Good food is the foundation of genuine happiness.”
Auguste Escoffier (1846–1935) French chef, restaurateur, and culinary writer
“Love is the condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.”
Robert A. Heinlein book Stranger in a Strange Land
"Jubal Harshaw" in the first edition (1961); the later 1991 "Uncut" edition didn't have this line, because it was one Heinlein had added when he went through and trimmed the originally submitted manuscript on which the "Uncut" edition is based. Heinlein also later used a variant of this in The Cat Who Walks Through Walls where he has Xia quote Harshaw: "Dr. Harshaw says that 'the word "love" designates a subjective condition in which the welfare and happiness of another person are essential to one's own happiness.'"
Source: Stranger in a Strange Land (1961; 1991)
Albert Ellis (1913–2007) American psychologist
“When you wish someone joy, you wish them peace, love, prosperity, happiness… all the good things.”
Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American author and poet
Hugh Laurie (1959) British actor, comedian, writer, musician and director
Source: [2002-06-13, http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-920254-details/A+brighter+life+for+Hugh+Laurie/article.do;jsessionid=KnM3FNTSkpv0R3P22WrQBPZQ00jxPTkDtG2htfqq0LvwTtnLx4by!-81402767, A brighter life for Hugh Laurie, thisislondon.co.uk from the Evening Standard, 2006-08-21]
“Let everyone know, I lived a very happy life.”
Orhan Pamuk book The Museum of Innocence
Source: The Museum of Innocence
“Happiness is nothing more than good health and a bad memory.”
Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965) French-German physician, theologian, musician and philosopher
Variant: Happiness is nothing more than good health and a bad memory.