A collection of happiness-related quotes from influential figures in history.

 
 

“If one speaks or acts with a pure mind, happiness follows like a shadow.”

“The Constitution only guarantees you the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.”

“Knowing something is not as good as liking it. Liking something is not as good as rejoicing in it.”

 

“Happiness is the meaning and purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.”

 

“The myriad things are complete in us. There is no greater joy than to reflect on ourselves and become sincere.”

 

“The ultimate happiness is wu-wei (doing nothing contrived).”

 

“Action may not bring happiness but there is no happiness without action.”

~ William James
 

“What does ‘happy’ mean? Happiness is not a state like Vermont.”

 

“Happiness is nothing more than good health and a bad memory.”

~ Albert Schweitzer
 

“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”

~ Mohandas Gandhi

“If there were in the world today any large number of people who desired their own happiness more than they desired the unhappiness of others, we could have a paradise in a few years.”

~ Bertrand Russell
 

“When a thoughtful human being has overcome incentives to vice and is aware of having done his bitter duty, he finds himself in a state that could be called happiness, a state of contentment and peace of mind in which virtue is its own reward.”

~ Immanuel Kant
 

“The person born with a talent they are meant to use will find their greatest happiness in using it.”

~ Johann Wolfang von Goethe
 

“Some people cause happiness wherever they go, others whenever they go.”

~ Oscar Wilde
 

“A table, a chair, a bowl of fruit and a violin; what else does a man need to be happy?

~ Albert Einstein
 

“Each morning when I open my eyes I say to myself: I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn’t arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I’m going to be happy in it.”

~ Groucho Marx
 

“Happiness is different from pleasure. Happiness has something to do with struggling, enduring, and accomplishing.”

~ George Sheehan
 

“Happiness is a habit – cultivate it.”

~ Elbert Hubbard
 

“Remember that happiness is a way of travel, not a destination.”

~ Roy Goodman
 

“Success is not the key to happiness, happiness is the key to success.”

~ Herman Cain
 

“To live happily is an inward power of the soul.”

~ Aristotle
 

“Very little is needed to make a happy life. It is all within YOURSELF in your way of thinking.”

~ Marcus Aurelius
 

“Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.”

~ Abraham Lincoln
 

“The purpose of our lives is to be happy.”

~ The 14th Dalai Lama
 

“My happiness derives from knowing the people I love are happy.”

~ Holly Ketchel
 

“The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.”

 

“As you travel on life’s ways, with its many ups and downs, remember it’s quite true to say, one smile is worth a dozen frowns. Among the world’s expensive things, a smile is very cheap. And when you give a smile away, you get one back to keep.”

~ Author Unknown
 

“A problem shared is a problem halved. A joy shared is a joy doubled.”

~ Author Unknown