Quotes about happiness
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“He was persuaded he could know no happiness but in the society of one with whom he could for ever indulge the melancholy that had taken possession of his soul.”

Horace Walpole book The Castle of Otranto

Source: The Castle of Otranto

Happiness, Soul

“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.”

Dale Carnegie How to Win Friends and Influence People

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

Happiness, Thinking, Happy, Attitude

“These things sneak up on him for no reason, these flashes of irrational happiness. It's probably a vitamin deficiency.”

Margaret Atwood book Oryx and Crake

Source: Oryx and Crake

Happiness

“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

Life, Happiness

“That no matter what i did, I would always be missing something else. And the only way to live, the only way to be happy, was to make sure the things I didn't miss meant more to me than the things I missed.”

David Levithan (1972) American author and editor

Source: How They Met, and Other Stories

Happiness, Way

“Dreams, books, are each a world; and books, we know,
Are a substantial world, both pure and good:
Round these, with tendrils strong as flesh and blood,
Our pastime and our happiness will grow.”

William Wordsworth (1770–1850) English Romantic poet

Personal Talk, sonnet 3 (1806).

Happiness, Books, World, Dreams

“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.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Glass

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

Happiness, Thinking

“Happiness is the china shop; love is the bull.”

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

Love, Happiness, Heartbreaking

“Then why haven’t you killed yourself? (Astrid)
Why should I? The only enjoyment I have in my life is knowing I piss off everyone around me. If I were dead, it would make them all happy. God forbid I should ever do that. (Zarek)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon book Dance with the Devil

Source: Dance with the Devil

Life, God, Happiness, Dead

“I think that hurting gives us a way to measure being happy. How can you know one without knowing the other.”

Lurlene McDaniel (1944) American writer

Source: Time to Let Go

Happiness, Way, Thinking, Hurt

“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

Life, Happiness

“Life is like topography, Hobbes. There are summits of happiness and success, flat stretches of boring routine and valleys of frustration and failure.”

Bill Watterson (1958) American comic artist

Life, Happiness, Failure, Success

“Is he making you happy? I don’t mean some of the time, on rare occasions, not that often, “but the good still outweighs the bad.” Does he make it clear in his actions every day that your happiness is important to him?”

Greg Behrendt (1963) American comedian

Source: He's Just Not That Into You: The No-Excuses Truth to Understanding Guys

Happiness, Time

“Why did happy memories fade and blur until one could scarcely recall them at all, while horrible memories seemed to retain their blinding clarity and painful sharpness?”

Judith McNaught (1944) American writer

Source: Almost Heaven

Pain, Happiness, Memory

“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

Happiness

“Our happiness depends on the habit of mind we cultivate. So practice happy thinking every day. Cultivate the merry heart, develop the happiness habit, and life will become a continual feast." ~”

Norman Vincent Peale (1898–1993) American writer

Life, Happiness, Thinking, Heart

“And I wonder if anyone is really happy. I hope they are. I really hope they are.”

Stephen Chbosky (1970) American writer

Happiness, Hope

“Real life doesn’t have many happy endings. Why shouldn’t books make up the difference?”

Scott Westerfeld book Afterworlds

Source: Afterworlds

Life, Happiness, Books

“Everybody in the world is seeking happiness—and there is one sure way to find it. That is by controlling your thoughts. Happiness doesn't depend on outward conditions. It depends on inner conditions.”

Dale Carnegie How to Win Friends and Influence People

Source: How to Win Friends and Influence People

Happiness, World, Way, Dependency

“Is this what sadness is all about? Is it what comes over us when beautiful memories shatter in hindsight because the remembered happiness fed not just on actual circumstances but on a promise that was not kept?”

Bernhard Schlink book The Reader

Source: The Reader

Happiness, Sadness, Beauty, Memory

“Everyone has a right to be a little happy, asshole.”

John Irving book Last Night in Twisted River

Source: Last Night in Twisted River

Happiness

“Everyone likes happiness, no one likes pain. But you can't have a rainbow without a little rain.”

Ingmar Bergman (1918–2007) Swedish filmmaker

Pain, Happiness

“It is incredible how one can be happy for so many years in the midst of so many squabbles, so many problems, damn it, and not really know if it was love or not.”

Gabriel García Márquez book Love in the Time of Cholera

Source: Love in the Time of Cholera

Love, Happiness, Problem

“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.”

Stephen Chbosky book The Perks of Being a Wallflower

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

Life, Happiness, Kiss

“I'm always happy," Sasha said. "Sometimes I just forget.”

Jennifer Egan A Visit from the Goon Squad

Source: A Visit from the Goon Squad

Happiness, Forgetting

“Novels aren’t just happy escapes; they are slivers of people’s souls, nailed to the pages, dripping ink from veins of wood pulp. Reading the right one at the right time can make all the difference.”

Brandon Sanderson (1975) American fantasy writer

Happiness, People, Soul, Time

“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

Happiness

“Happiness is a myth. It was invented to make us buy new things.”

Gregory David Roberts book Shantaram

Source: Shantaram

Happiness

“Happiness is an accident of nature, a beautiful and flawless aberration.”

Pat Conroy The Lords of Discipline

Source: The Lords of Discipline

Happiness, Beauty, Nature, Happy

“One is never alone with a book nearby, don't you agree? Every page reminds us of a day that has passed and makes us relive the emotions that filled it. Happy hours underlined in red pencil, dark ones in black…”

Arturo Pérez-Reverte book The Club Dumas

Source: The Club Dumas

Happiness, Books

“Changing the world is good for those who want their names in books. But being happy, that is for those who write their names in the lives of others, and hold the hearts of others as the treasure most dear.”

Orson Scott Card book Children of the Mind

Source: Children of the Mind

Happiness, Books, World, Change

“This emotion I'm feeling now, this is love, right?"

"I don't know. Is it a longing? Is it a giddy stupid happiness just because you're with me?"

"Yes," she said.

"That's influenza," said Miro. "Watch for nausea or diarrhea within a few hours.”

Orson Scott Card book Children of the Mind

Source: Children of the Mind

Love, Happiness, Stupidity, Feeling

“I secretly wondered if Dimitri's problem might be that he was jealous. He hadn't pulled Lissa aside to yell at her. The thought made me slightly happy, but then I remembered my earlier curiosity about why Dimitri had even wandered by.”

Richelle Mead book Frostbite

Source: Frostbite

Happiness, Problem

“There is no happiness in love, except at the end of an English novel.”

Anthony Trollope book Barchester Towers

Source: Barchester Towers (1857), Ch. 27

Love, Happiness

“I think happiness is what makes you pretty. Period. Happy people are beautiful. They become like a mirror and they reflect that happiness.”

Drew Barrymore (1975) American actress, director and producer

Happiness, People, Beauty, Thinking

“I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend. Make me happy, and I shall again be virtuous.”

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus

Source: Frankenstein

Happiness

“I guess forgiveness, like happiness, isn’t a final destination. You don’t one day get there and get to stay.”

Deb Caletti (1963) American writer

Happiness, Forgiveness

“when I think about sex, you know, I want it to feel good. Not feel good, shut up, but right. Happy, not just banging away somewhere. You know, you should not just do it to do it. You should love the guy.”

Daniel Handler book Why We Broke Up

Source: Why We Broke Up

Love, Happiness, Sex, Guy

“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

Happiness, Past

“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

Happiness, Selfishness

“My happiness is not the means to any end. It is the end. It is its own goal. It is its own purpose.”

Ayn Rand book Anthem

Source: Anthem

Happiness

“The therapists told you that you needed to find happiness within yourself before you got it from another person.”

Ned Vizzini book It's Kind of a Funny Story

Source: It's Kind of a Funny Story

Happiness, Personality

“Well, I am happy, and I won't fret, but it does seem as if the more one gets the more one wants…”

Louisa May Alcott book Little Women

Source: Little Women

Happiness

“Just me and the future, finally together. Now there was a happy ending I could believe in.”

Sarah Dessen book This Lullaby

Source: This Lullaby

Happiness, Future

“This is the trouble with all happiness -all of it is built on top of something men want.”

Rick Riordan book The Sea of Monsters

Source: The Sea of Monsters

Men, Happiness

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

Jodi Picoult book Nineteen Minutes

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

Happiness, Way, Reality, Happy

“Life is a slope. As long as you're going up you're always looking towards the top and you feel happy, but when you reach it, suddenly you can see the road going downhill and death at the end of it all. It's slow going up and quick going down.”

Guy De Maupassant Bel-Ami

Source: Bel-Ami

Life, Death, Happiness, Feeling

“My family shouldn't have to put up with me. They're good people, solid, happy. Sometimes when I'm with them I think I'm on television.”

Ned Vizzini book It's Kind of a Funny Story

Source: It's Kind of a Funny Story

Happiness, People, Family, Thinking

“If you find it hard to laugh at yourself, I would be happy to do it for you.”

Groucho Marx (1890–1977) American comedian

Happiness, Funny

“It wasn't until I started reading and found books they wouldn't let us read in school that I discovered you could be insane and happy and have a good life without being like everybody else.”

John Waters (1946) American filmmaker, actor, comedian and writer

Life, Happiness, Books, School

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

L. Frank Baum book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

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."

Happiness, World, Heart