“The noblest art is that of making others happy”
P.T. Barnum (1810–1891) American showman and businessman
Quotes about happiness
A collection of quotes on the topic of happiness, happiness, life, making.
Quotes about happiness
Yuzuru Hanyu (1994) Japanese figure skater (1994-)
CBC interview with Scott Russell
Original: (ja) いろんな方々が僕の演技を見た時に勇気を感じたとか、何か幸せになったとか、そういったことを言ってくれて、それが自分にとってのスケートのモチベーションだと思ってますし、それが僕が今スケートを最後までやり通す意味になってるなって思います。
“There is only one happiness in life, to love and be loved.”
George Sand (1804–1876) French novelist and memoirist; pseudonym of Lucile Aurore Dupin
Bob Marley (1945–1981) Jamaican singer, songwriter, musician
Variant: You may not be her first, her last, or her only. She loved before she may love again. But if she loves you now, what else matters? She's not perfect — you aren't either, and the two of you may never be perfect together but if she can make you laugh, cause you to think twice, and admit to being human and making mistakes, hold onto her and give her the most you can. She may not be thinking about you every second of the day, but she will give you a part of her that she knows you can break — her heart. So don't hurt her, don't change her, don't analyze and don't expect more than she can give. Smile when she makes you happy, let her know when she makes you mad, and miss her when she's not there.
“Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action.”
William James (1842–1910) American philosopher, psychologist, and pragmatist
Robert Baden-Powell (1857–1941) lieutenant-general in the British Army, writer, founder and Chief Scout of the Scout Movement
“There are no mistakes, only happy accidents.”
Bob Ross (1942–1995) American painter, art instructor, and television host
John Lennon (1940–1980) English singer and songwriter
Variant: When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.
“I wish I could throw off the thoughts which poison my happiness.”
Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849) Polish composer
As quoted in Chopin.
Variant translation: I wish I could throw off the thoughts which poison my happiness. And yet I take a kind of pleasure in indulging them.
Variant: I wish I could throw off the thoughts that poison my happiness, and yet I love to indulge in them;
Source: Chopin's Letters
“I’m not mad. I’m in a perfectly happy mood, you asshole.”
Kurt Cobain (1967–1994) American musician and artist
“The most worth-while thing is to try to put happiness into the lives of others.”
Robert Baden-Powell (1857–1941) lieutenant-general in the British Army, writer, founder and Chief Scout of the Scout Movement
Letter (September 1940)
“Action may not always bring happiness but there is no happiness without action.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) British Conservative politician, writer, aristocrat and Prime Minister
Books, Coningsby (1844), Lothair (1870)
Variant: Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action.
“To be happy does not mean to indulge in foolishness!”
José Rizal book Noli Me Tángere
Source: Noli Me Tángere
“There is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way.”
Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist
“Happiness is a good flow of life.”
Zeno of Citium (-334–-263 BC) ancient Greek philosopher
As quoted by Stobaeus, ii. 77.
“Happiness is a perfume which you cannot pour on someone without getting some on yourself.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet
Variant: Happiness is a perfume you cannot pour on others without getting some on yourself.
Variant: Happiness is a perfume you cannot pour on others without getting a few drops on yourself.
“We don’t even ask happiness, just a little less pain.”
Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer
Variant: We don't even ask for happiness, just a little less pain.
Source: From a letter to William Packard from 1985 (published in Reach for the Sun - the 3rd volume of Bukowski correspondence)
Context: Sex, love, duty, God, family are not to be bargained with against happiness, and we don’t even ask happiness, just a little less pain.
“Happiness consists in getting enough sleep. Just that, nothing more.”
Robert A. Heinlein book Starship Troopers
Source: Starship Troopers
“I think I'm dumb
or maybe just happy
think I'm just happy…”
Kurt Cobain (1967–1994) American musician and artist
Variant: I think I'm dumb or maybe just happy.
“It is very simple to be happy, but it is very difficult to be simple.”
Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) Bengali polymath
Ariana Grande (1993) American singer-songwriter
Twitter statement on the Manchester terrorist attack https://twitter.com/ArianaGrande/status/868164986887176192 (26 May 2017)
Freddie Mercury (1946–1991) British singer, songwriter and record producer
On his relationship with Mary Austin, as quoted in "Rock On Freddie" (1985).
“You need a reason to be angry. You don't need a reason to be happy.”
Louis Sachar book Sideways Stories From Wayside School
Sideways Stories From Wayside School
Source: Sideways Stories from Wayside School
Kurt Cobain (1967–1994) American musician and artist
Lithium.
Song lyrics, Nevermind (1991)
Variant: I'm so happy
'Cause today I found my friends
They're in my head.
I'm so ugly, that's okay
'Cause so are you,
Broke our mirrors.
Source: Nirvana
“Happiness cannot be pursued; it must ensue.”
Viktor E. Frankl book Man's Search for Meaning
Man's Search for Meaning
Variant: But happiness cannot be pursued; it must ensue.
David Steindl-Rast (1926) American theologian
Source: Music of Silence: A Sacred Journey Through the Hours of the Day
“A happy marriage is the union of two good forgivers.”
Ruth Bell Graham (1920–2007) Congressional Gold Medal recipient
“Come freely, go safely and leave something of the happiness you bring.”
Bram Stoker book Dracula
Variant: Welcome to my house! Enter freely. Go safely, and leave something of the happiness you bring.
Source: Dracula
“The secret of a happy marriage remains a secret.”
Henny Youngman (1906–1998) American comedian
"Forbes" - Vol. 166, Page 156, de Bertie Charles Forbes - Forbes Inc., 2000
Adam Weishaupt (1748–1830) German philosopher and founder of the Order of Illuminati
Die neuesten Arbeiten des Spartacus und Philo in dem Illuminaten-Orden (1794) pp. 9-10.
Claude Monet (1840–1926) French impressionist painter
in a letter to Frédéric Bazille: as cited by K.E. Sullivan. Monet: Discovering Art, Brockhampton press, London (2004), p. 22
1850 - 1870
Marie Antoinette book Let them eat cake
After learning of the bread shortages that were occurring in Paris at the time of Louis XVI's coronation in Rheims, as quoted in Marie Antoinette: The Journey (2001) by Antonia Fraser, p. 135 . Tradition persists that Marie Antoinette joked "Let them eat cake!" (Qu'ils mangent de la brioche.) This phrase, however, occurs in a passage of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Confessions, written in 1766, when Marie Antoinette was 11 years old and four years before her marriage to Louis XVI. Cf. The Straight Dope http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_334.html, "On Language" http://partners.nytimes.com/library/magazine/home/20000625mag-onlanguage.html by William Safire at The New York Times, and in the discussions at Google groups http://groups.google.com/group/alt.talk.royalty/msg/6a7b76d15c411368?dmode=source. <br class="br">Context: It is quite certain that in seeing the people who treat us so well despite their own misfortune, we are more obliged than ever to work hard for their happiness. The king seems to understand this truth; as for myself, I know that in my whole life (even if I live for a hundred years) I shall never forget the day of the coronation.
Dolly Parton (1946) American singer-songwriter and actress
Source: Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business
“Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.”
Ernest Hemingway book The Garden of Eden
Marita in Ch. 11
Source: The Garden of Eden (1986)
“No man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks.”
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797–1851) English novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer
Variant: No man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks.
“If you're happy in a dream, does that count?”
Arundhati Roy book The God of Small Things
Source: The God of Small Things
“Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy.”
Anne Frank (1929–1945) victim of the Holocaust and author of a diary
“The power of finding beauty in the humblest things makes home happy and life lovely.”
Louisa May Alcott (1832–1888) American novelist
Variant: The power of finding beauty in the humblest things makes home happy and life lovely.
Gertrude Stein (1874–1946) American art collector and experimental writer of novels, poetry and plays
“We all live with the objective of being happy; our lives are all different and yet the same.”
Anne Frank (1929–1945) victim of the Holocaust and author of a diary
“Whoever is happy will make others happy.”
Anne Frank (1929–1945) victim of the Holocaust and author of a diary
Source: The Diary of a Young Girl
Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath
The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci (1938), XLV Prophecies
Rosa Parks (1913–2005) African-American civil rights activist
Quoted in "Standing Up for Freedom," Academy of Achievement.org (2005-10-31)
Osamu Tezuka (1928–1989) Japanese cartoonist and animator
Quoted in Helen McCarthy, Osamu Tezuka: God of manga , translated by Fabio Deotto, Edizioni BD, 2010, back cover.
“Be of one mind and one faith, that you may conquer your enemies and lead long and happy lives.”
Genghis Khan (1162–1227) founder and first emperor of the Mongol Empire
As quoted in The Mongol Empire : Its Rise and Legacy (1940) by Michael Prawdin, p. 224
Kanye West (1977) American rapper, singer and songwriter
Source: Thank You and You're Welcome (2009), p.22
Anthony Hopkins (1937) Welsh stage and television actor
"Sir Anthony Hopkins: I couldn't be an atheist". https://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2011/02/11/sir-anthony-hopkins-i-couldnt-be-an-atheist/ (February 11, 2011)
“Happiness is the readiness to be happy.”
James Richardson (1950) American poet
Aphorism #33
Interglacial (2004)
“I HAVE HAD A HAPPY LIFE AND THANK THE LORD. GOODBYE AND MAY GOD BLESS All!”
Christopher McCandless (1968–1992) American hiker and explorer
Final written goodbye, August 13, 1992 http://www.christophermccandless.info/bio.html
David Lynch (1946) American filmmaker, television director, visual artist, musician and occasional actor
Groucho Marx (1890–1977) American comedian
Source: The Essential Groucho: Writings For By And About Groucho Marx
“I'll have to calm down a bit. Or else I'll burst with happiness”
Tove Jansson book Moominsummer Madness
Source: Moominsummer Madness
“Happy Hunger Games! And may the odds be ever in your favor.”
Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games
Variant: May the odds be ever in your favor!
Source: The Hunger Games
“Books are a hard-bound drug with no danger of an overdose. I am the happy victim of books.”
Karl Lagerfeld (1933–2019) German fashion designer
“If two people love each other there can be no happy end to it.”
Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American author and journalist