Quotes about happiness page 4
Matka Tereza (1910–1997) Roman Catholic saint of Albanian origin
This is a variant or paraphrase of The Paradoxical Commandments, by Kent M. Keith, student activist, first composed in 1968 as part of a booklet for student leaders, which had hung on the wall of Mother Teresa's children's home in Calcutta, India, and have sometimes become misattributed to her. The version posted at his site http://www.paradoxicalcommandments.com begins: <br class="br">Misattributed
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) British Conservative politician, writer, aristocrat and Prime Minister
Speech in Taunton (28 April 1835), quoted in William Flavelle Monypenny and George Earle Buckle, The Life of Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield. Volume I. 1804–1859 (London: John Murray, 1929), p. 286
1830s
Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (1058–1111) Persian Muslim theologian, jurist, philosopher, and mystic
in The Alchemist of Happiness
“Gross National Happiness is more important than Gross National Product.”
Jigme Singye Wangchuck (1955) King of Bhutan 1972–2006
Quoted in story of a king, a poor country, and a rich idea. Business Bhutan, Tashi Dorji https://web.archive.org/web/20190112132102/https://earthjournalism.net/stories/6468The (15 June 2012).
Albert Camus (1913–1960) French author and journalist
Source: "Intuitions" (October 1932), published in Youthful Writings (1976)
George Orwell (1903–1950) English author and journalist
Source: "Can Socialists Be Happy?" https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwell/essays-and-other-works/can-socialists-be-happy/, Tribune (20 December 1943). Published under the name ‘John Freeman’.
“A really great talent finds its happiness in execution.”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German writer, artist, and politician
“In order to be happy oneself it is necessary to make at least one other person happy.”
Theodor Reik (1888–1969) austrian-american psychoanalytist
Philipp Mainländer (1841–1876) German poet and philosopher
Source: Philosophie der Erlösung, Erster Band (2014), Ethik, § 11 ISBN 978-1494963262
“And what's the point of changing when I'm happy as I am?”
Paul McCartney (1942) English singer-songwriter and composer
“When he's happy, it makes you happy too.”
Bisco Hatori (1975) Japanese manga artist
Source: Ouran High School Host Club, Vol. 13
“Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet
A version of this quote was published anonymously in an insurance magazine in 1908 https://books.google.com/books?id=S2JJAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA375&dq=%22others+whenever+they+go%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwja94i3iaXLAhUY7mMKHW5fAGIQ6AEIJjAC#v=onepage&q=%22others%20whenever%20they%20go%22&f=false. The earliest attribution to Wilde was in 1955 https://www.google.com/search?tbm=bks&hl=en&q=%22others+whenever+they+go%22+wilde#hl=en&tbs=cdr:1%2Ccd_min:1900%2Ccd_max:1999&tbm=bks&q=%22others+whenever+they+go+oscar+wilde+jive%22; no source in Wilde's writings has been found. <br class="br">Disputed
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American politician, diplomat, and activist, and First Lady of the United States
As quoted in Sheroes: Bold, Brash, and Absolutely Unabashed Superwomen from Susan B. Anthony to Xena (1998) by Varla Ventura, p. 150
“(…) Since I was a kid."
"Which you refer to as 'back when you were happy.'"
"Right.”
Ned Vizzini book It's Kind of a Funny Story
Source: It's Kind of a Funny Story
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist
Alexandre Dumas book The Count of Monte Cristo
Chapter 117 http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Count_of_Monte_Cristo/Chapter_117 <br class="br">Source: The Count of Monte Cristo (1845–1846) <br class="br">Context: Tell the angel who will watch over your future destiny, Morrel, to pray sometimes for a man who, like Satan, thought himself, for an instant, equal to God; but who now acknowledges, with Christian humility, that God alone possesses supreme power and infinite wisdom... There is neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the comparison of one state with another, nothing more. He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness. We must have felt what it is to die, Morrel, that we may appreciate the enjoyments of life.
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist
Anne Frank (1929–1945) victim of the Holocaust and author of a diary
23 February 1944 http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~param/quotes/annefrank.html <br class="br">(1942 - 1944) <br class="br">Source: The Diary of a Young Girl
“A happy ending cannot come in the middle of the story”
William Shakespeare (1564–1616) English playwright and poet
Hugh Prather (1938–2010) American writer
Source: Notes to Myself: My Struggle to Become a Person
Gena Showalter (1975) American writer
Source: Alice in Zombieland
“The hope that she might regain her happiness made her fearless.”
Mikhail Bulgakov book The Master and Margarita
Book Two in 'By Candlelight'
The Master and Margarita (1967)
Anne Frank (1929–1945) victim of the Holocaust and author of a diary
Variant: Those who have courage and faith shall never perish in misery
Source: The Diary of a Young Girl
“When we are happy, we are always good, but when we are good, we are not always happy.”
Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray
Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray
Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926) Austrian poet and writer
Selected Letters of Rainer Maria Rilke (1960)
Rilke's Letters
Context: What is required of us is that we love the difficult and learn to deal with it. In the difficult are the friendly forces, the hands that work on us. Right in the difficult we must have our joys, our happiness, our dreams: there against the depth of this background, they stand out, there for the first time we see how beautiful they are.
Vladimir Nabokov book Lolita
Variant: A change of environment is the traditional fallacy upon which doomed loves, and lungs, rely.
Source: Lolita
“The trick is to find happiness in the brief gaps between disasters.”
Christopher Paolini book Brisingr
Variant: Misfoutune always comes to those who wait. The trick is to find happiness in the breif gaps between distaters.
Source: Brisingr
“I am happy in my prison of passion”
Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray
Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray
“My formula for happiness: a Yes, a No, a straight line, a goal.”
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist
Mikhail Bulgakov book The Master and Margarita
Book Two in 'Flight', B/O, Margarita talking about herself to a young girl
Source: The Master and Margarita (1967)
“Really high-minded people are indifferent to happiness, especially other people's.”
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist
Source: The Impact of Science on Society
Bertrand Russell book The Conquest of Happiness
Variant: The secret of happiness is very simply 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
Source: 1930s, The Conquest of Happiness (1930)
“Be happy now, without reason - or you never will be at all.”
Dan Millman (1946) American self help writer
“One of the secrets of a happy life is continous small treats.”
Iris Murdoch (1919–1999) British writer and philosopher
“Happiness is inseparably connected with decent, clean behavior.”
Boyd K. Packer (1924–2015) American Mormon leader
Washed Clean http://www.lds.org/general-conference/1997/04/washed-clean Boyd K. Packer, General Conference, April 1997
“Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance, order, rhythm and harmony.”
Orison Swett Marden (1850–1924) American writer
“It's a great game - the pursuit of happiness.”
Eugene O'Neill (1888–1953) American playwright, and Nobel laureate in Literature
“The happiness of a married man depends on the people he has not married.”
Oscar Wilde A Woman of No Importance
Source: A Woman of No Importance
“True happiness
Consists not in the multitude of friends,
But in the worth and choice.”
Cynthia's Revels (1600), Act III, scene ii
“I've learned…. That when you harbor bitterness, happiness will dock elsewhere.”
Andy Rooney (1919–2011) writer, humorist, television personality
“Happiness depends upon ourselves”
Aristotle (-384–-321 BC) Classical Greek philosopher, student of Plato and founder of Western philosophy
An interpretative gloss of Aristotle's position in Nicomachean Ethics book 1 section 9, tacitly inserted by J. A. K. Thomson in his English translation The Ethics of Aristotle (1955). The original Greek at Book I 1099b.29 http://perseus.uchicago.edu/perseus-cgi/citequery3.pl?dbname=GreekFeb2011&getid=0&query=Arist.%20Eth.%20Nic.%201099b.25, reads ὁμολογούμενα δὲ ταῦτ’ ἂν εἴη καὶ τοῖς ἐν ἀρχῇ, which W. D. Ross translates fairly literally as [a]nd this will be found to agree with what we said at the outset. Thomson's much freer translation renders the same passage thus: [t]he conclusion that happiness depends upon ourselves is in harmony with what I said in the first of these lectures; the words "that happiness depends upon ourselves" were added by Thomson to clarify what "the conclusion" is, but they do not appear in the original Greek of Aristotle. Rackham's earlier English translation added a similar gloss, but averted confusion by confining it to a footnote. <br class="br">Disputed <br class="br">Variant: Happiness depends upon ourselves <br class="br">Source: See http://www.mikrosapoplous.gr/aristotle/nicom1b.htm#I9 for the original Greek and Ross's translation; Thomson's translation can be viewed on Google Books https://books.google.com/books?id=9SFrNWmO654C&dq=%22happiness+depends+upon+ourselves%22+aristotle&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=%22happiness+depends+upon+ourselves%22+. <br class="br">Source: Rackham's translation of this passage is available here http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0054%3Abook%3D1%3Achapter%3D9%3Asection%3D8
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist
“If you want to learn how to be happy, you have to know what is sadness first.”
Etgar Keret book Missing Kissinger
Source: Missing Kissinger
“A happy marriage is a long conversation which always seems too short.”
André Maurois (1885–1967) French writer
Wendy Mass book Every Soul a Star
Variant: As long as you know who you are, and see what makes you happy, it doesn't matte how others see you
Source: Every Soul a Star
“Cherish all your happy moments: they make a fine cushion for old age.”
Christopher Morley (1890–1957) American journalist, novelist, essayist and poet