Quotes about happiness
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Horace Walpole photo

“It isn't what you have or who you are or where you are or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about it.”

Variant: It isn't what you have, or who you are, or where you are, or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about.
Source: How to Win Friends and Influence People

Margaret Atwood photo
Christopher Moore photo

“Life is messy. Would that every puzzle piece fell into place, every word was kind, every accident happy, but such is not the case. Life is messy”

Christopher Moore (1957) American writer of comic fantasy

Source: The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror

David Levithan photo
William Wordsworth photo
Cassandra Clare photo

“You're not happy to see me, then?' Jace said. 'I have to say, I'm surprised. I've always been told my presence brightened up any room. One might think that went doubly for dank underground cells.”

Variant: I'm glad you think this is funny."
"You'rehappy to see me, then?" Jace asked. "I have to say, I'm surprised. I've always been told my presence brightened up any room. One might think that went doubly for dank underground cells.
Source: City of Glass

Sherrilyn Kenyon photo
Lurlene McDaniel photo
Thich Nhat Hanh photo

“Life is a miracle, and being aware of simply this can already make us very happy.”

Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist

Source: Savor: Mindful Eating, Mindful Life

Greg Behrendt photo
Augusten Burroughs photo

“Imperfections are attractive when their owners are happy with them.”

Augusten Burroughs (1965) American writer

Source: This Is How: Surviving What You Think You Can't

Norman Vincent Peale photo
Scott Westerfeld photo
Bernhard Schlink photo
Ingmar Bergman photo
Gabriel García Márquez photo
Stephen Chbosky photo

“It was the kind of kiss I could never tell my friends about out loud. It was the kind of kiss that made me know I was never so happy in my whole life.”

Variant: And she kissed me. It was the kind of kiss that I could never tell my friends about out loud. It was the kind of kiss that made me know that I was never so happy in my whole life.
Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Jennifer Egan photo
Brandon Sanderson photo
Leo Tolstoy photo

“If you want to be happy, be.”

Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian writer

As quoted in Wisdom for the Soul : Five Millennia of Prescriptions for Spiritual Healing (2006) by Larry Chang, p. 352; this statement appears in late 20th century inspirational books, but with no known citation to original material by Tolstoy.
Disputed

Pat Conroy photo
Arturo Pérez-Reverte photo
Orson Scott Card photo
Orson Scott Card photo
Richelle Mead photo
Anthony Trollope photo
Drew Barrymore photo
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley photo
Deb Caletti photo
Daniel Handler photo
Walter Benjamin photo

“Our image of happiness is indissolubly bound up with the image of the past.”

Walter Benjamin (1892–1940) German literary critic, philosopher and social critic (1892-1940)

Source: (1940), II

John Wooden photo

“Happiness begins where selfishness ends.”

John Wooden (1910–2010) American basketball coach

Source: Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court

Ayn Rand photo
Ned Vizzini photo
Louisa May Alcott photo
Sarah Dessen photo
Rick Riordan photo
Jodi Picoult photo

“There are two ways to be happy: improve your reality, or lower your expectations.”

Variant: There were two ways to be happy: improve your reality, or lower your expectations
Source: Nineteen Minutes

Guy De Maupassant photo
Ned Vizzini photo
John Waters photo
L. Frank Baum photo

“I shall take the heart. For brains do not make one happy, and happiness is the best thing in the world.”

Source: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900)
Context: "All the same," said the Scarecrow, "I shall ask for brains instead of a heart; for a fool would not know what to do with a heart if he had one."
"I shall take the heart," returned the Tin Woodman; "for brains do not make one happy, and happiness is the best thing in the world."

Laurell K. Hamilton photo
Nikos Kazantzakis photo
Neil Jordan photo
Sherrilyn Kenyon photo
Joyce Carol Oates photo
Nathaniel Hawthorne photo
Scott Adams photo
Brian Jacques photo
Jerry Spinelli photo
Jerry Spinelli photo
Cornelia Funke photo
Trudi Canavan photo

“Happy endings are a luxury of fiction.”

Trudi Canavan (1969) Australian writer

Source: Priestess of the White

John Adams photo
Cassandra Clare photo
Jeffrey Eugenides photo
John Milton photo
Ludwig Van Beethoven photo

“He bared his teeth in a happy feral grin. My own personal psycho.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Bleeds

Leo Tolstoy photo
Cassandra Clare photo

“Who said we were owed happiness?”

Source: Clockwork Prince

H.L. Mencken photo

“Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.”

H.L. Mencken (1880–1956) American journalist and writer

Sententiæ: The Citizen and the State, p. 624
1940s–present, A Mencken Chrestomathy (1949)
Source: A Mencken Chrestomathy

Abraham Joshua Heschel photo
Jodi Picoult photo
Tom Waits photo
Francesca Lia Block photo
Cassandra Clare photo
Richelle Mead photo

“It made you happy…”

Source: The Golden Lily

Mitch Albom photo

“The secret to happiness… be satisfied and be grateful.”

Mitch Albom (1958) American author

Source: Have a Little Faith: a True Story

Franz Kafka photo
Ian McEwan photo
Jean Vanier photo
Nicholas Sparks photo
Charlaine Harris photo
John Dewey photo
Stephen Chbosky photo
Sherrilyn Kenyon photo
Margaret Atwood photo
Leo Tolstoy photo
Vikram Seth photo