“Could it be that to truly love a thing is not to desire it, but to desire happiness for it?”
Richard Paul Evans (1962) American writer
Source: The Letter
Quotes about happiness page 20
Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer
Source: You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense
“if it makes you happy, then why the hell are you so sad?”
Sheryl Crow (1962) American musician and actress
Benjamin Rush (1745–1813) American physician, educator, author
Source: A Memorial Containing Travels Through Life or Sundry Incidents in the Life of Dr Benjamin Rush
Bill Watterson (1958) American comic artist
Source: It's a Magical World: A Calvin and Hobbes Collection
Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English writer
Essay "Distractions I" in Vedanta for the Western World (1945) edited by Christopher Isherwood
“The only really happy people are those who have learned how to serve.”
Rick Warren (1954) Christian religious leader
Source: The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here for?
“Grab it while you can — grab every scrap of happiness while you can”
Noel Coward (1899–1973) English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer
Christopher Pike (1954) American author Kevin Christopher McFadden
Source: Black Blood
Alex Shakar (1968) American writer
Source: Luminarium
“Happiness isn't wanting what you can get, but wanting what you have.”
Beverly Lewis (1949) American writer
Source: The Judgment
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet
Attributed to Emerson in Life’s Instructions for Wisdom, Success, and Happiness (2000) by H. Jackson Brown Jr., as well as numerous on-line sources since, the article "The Purpose of Life Is Not To Be Happy But To Matter" at the Quote Investigator https://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/11/29/purpose/ indicates that this quote is probably derived from various statements first made by Leo Rosten, including the following words delivered at the National Book Awards held in New York in 1962: "The purpose of life is not to be happy — but to matter, to be productive, to be useful, to have it make some difference that you lived at all." <br class="br">Misattributed
Sharon Salzberg (1952) American writer
“I’d rather be happy and odd than miserable and ordinary,' she said, sticking her chin in the air.”
Michelle Magorian (1947) English children's writer
Source: Good Night, Mr. Tom
“The secret of happiness is not doing what we like but in liking what we do.”
J.M. Coetzee (1940) South African writer
“JB’s mother had taught him early on that appreciated women are happy women.”
Charlaine Harris book Living Dead in Dallas
Source: Living Dead in Dallas
Source: Lonesome Dove
Charles Darwin (1809–1882) British naturalist, author of "On the origin of species, by means of natural selection"
Source: The Autobiography of Charles Darwin, 1809–82
Richard Carlson (1961–2006) Author, psychotherapist and motivational speaker
Source: Don't Sweat the Small Stuff ... and it's all small stuff: Simple Ways to Keep the Little Things from Taking Over Your Life
Nicholas Sparks book The Best of Me
Evelyn Collier, Chapter 15, p. 223
Source: 2009, The Best of Me (2011)
Melody Carlson (1956) American writer
Source: Deep Green: Color Me Jealous
“For those who are poor in happiness, each time is a first time; happiness never becomes a habit.”
Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962) American actress, model, and singer
Source: My Story
“You are not my high school crush, idiot.”
“Great. I can die happy, then.”
Rachel Caine book Glass Houses
Source: Glass Houses
“no one dies happy, you can only die well”
Stephen King book Different Seasons
Source: Different Seasons
“How could you love someone and not want them to be happy?”
Laurell K. Hamilton book Danse Macabre
Source: Danse Macabre
Elizabeth Gilbert book Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage
Source: Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage
Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880) French writer (1821–1880)
13 August 1846
Correspondence, Letters to Madame Louise Colet
“Only the happy ones return to contentment. Those who were sad return to despair.”
Kóbó Abe book The Woman in the Dunes
Source: The Woman in the Dunes
David Deida (1958) American writer
Source: Intimate Communion
“If you want a happy ending, it just depends on where you close the book!”
Orson Welles (1915–1985) American actor, director, writer and producer
From the published screenplay for "The Big Brass Ring" (Santa Barbara, Calif.: Santa Teresa Press, 1987)
Variant: If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story.
Benedict Freedman book Mrs. Mike
Source: Mrs. Mike
Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist
From a review of the revised edition of “The Elements of Style” by William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White published in Esquire, November 1959.
Jacques-Yves Cousteau (1910–1997) French naval officer, explorer, conservationist, filmmaker, innovator, scientist, photographer, author and …
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
Cormac McCarthy book No Country for Old Men
Source: No Country for Old Men (2005)
Context: I aint got all that many regrets. I could imagine lots of things that you might think would make a man happier. I think by the time you're grown you're as happy as you're goin to be. You'll have good times and bad times, but in the end you'll be about as happy as you was before. Or as unhappy. I've knowed people that just never did get the hang of it.
Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo
Source: On the Edge
“My children are so rarely happy. I… I would like to see you be an exception.”
Rick Riordan book The Blood of Olympus
Source: The Blood of Olympus
Charles Bukowski book Women
Source: Women (1978)
Context: I was glad I wasn't in love, that I wasn't happy with the world. I like being at odds with everything. People in love often become edgy, dangerous. They lose their sense of perspective. They lose their sense of humor. They become nervous, psychotic bores. They even become killers.
“I was still hesitant to let myself let go, because I still believed in the fragility of happiness.”
Ishmael Beah book A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
Source: A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
“All happy families resemble one another, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
Leo Tolstoy book Anna Karenina
Все счастливые семьи похожи друг на друга, каждая несчастливая семья несчастлива по-своему.
Pt. I, ch. 1
Variant translations: Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
All happy families resemble one another; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
Variant: Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
Source: Anna Karenina (1875–1877; 1878)
“Many people see happiness only in their future.”
François Lelord book Hector and the Search for Happiness
Source: Hector and the Search for Happiness
“You make do with what you have. As you age you learn even to be happy with what you have.”
Haruki Murakami book What I Talk About When I Talk About Running
Source: What I Talk About When I Talk About Running
“The only happy marriages I know are arranged ones.”
Leo Tolstoy book Anna Karenina
Source: Anna Karenina