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Happiness quotes

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“Happiness is a hard master—particularly other people's happiness.” Aldous Huxley, “Brave New World” - 1932

“I was liked, and what a difference it made.” Maya Angelou, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” - 1969

“I suppose all great happiness is a little sad.” F. Scott Fitzgerald, “This Side of Paradise” - 1920

“BRIDE, n. A woman with a fine prospect of happiness behind her.” Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil's Dictionary” - 1911

“Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.” Franklin D. Roosevelt, “Looking Forward” - 1933

“A man can be happy with any woman, as long as he does not love her.” Oscar Wilde, “The Picture of Dorian Gray” - 1890

“The bitter past, more welcome is the sweet.” William Shakespeare, “All's Well That Ends Well” - 1623

“Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance.” Jane Austen, “Pride and Prejudice” - 28 January 1813

“Do anything rather than marry without affection.” Jane Austen, “Pride and Prejudice” - 28 January 1813

“They were expressions of life, and life is always happy when it is expressing itself.” Jack London, “White Fang” - 1906

“Happiness is self-contained and self-sufficient. Happy men have no time and no use for you. Happy men are free men.” Ayn Rand, “The Fountainhead” - 1943

“A happy life must be to a great extent a quiet life, for it is only in an atmosphere of quiet that true joy can live.” Bertrand Russell, “The Conquest of Happiness” - 1930

“All the conditions of happiness are realised in the life of the man of science.” Bertrand Russell, “The Conquest of Happiness” - 1930

“The secret of happiness is to see all the marvels of the world, and never to forget the drops of oil on the spoon.” Paulo Coelho, “The Alchemist” - 1988

“Now it is evident that the form of government is best in which every man, whoever he is, can act best and live happily.” Aristotle, “Politics”

“Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Leo Tolstoy, “Anna Karenina” - 1877

“The more you know the more unhappy you are.” Henry James, “The Portrait of a Lady” - 1881

“I think you are wrong to want a heart. It makes most people unhappy. If you only knew it, you are in luck not to have a heart.” L. Frank Baum, “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” - 1900

“It has ever been my fate to give pain to those whose happiness I should have promoted.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, “The Sorrows of Young Werther” - 1774

“Happiness is the poetry of woman, as the toilette is her tinsel.” Honoré de Balzac, “Father Goriot” - 1835

“Of happiness the chiefest part is a wise heart: And to defraud the gods in aught with peril's fraught.” Sophocles, “Antigone” - c. 441 BC

“Lovers who love truly do not write down their happiness.” Anatole France, “The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard” - 1881

“Nothing is more idle than to inquire after happiness which Nature has kindly placed within our reach.” Samuel Johnson, “The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia” - 1759

“We have everything we need to be happy, but we aren't happy. Something's missing.” Ray Bradbury, “Fahrenheit 451” - 1953

“None of us could be happy for long, doing nothing.” Orson Scott Card, “Ender's Game” - 1985

“People don't know when they are happy. They're never so unhappy as they think they are.” Marcel Proust, “Swann's Way” - 1913

“If, for example, you come at four o'clock in the afternoon, then at three o'clock I shall begin to be happy.” Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, “The Little Prince” - 1943

“The natural thing to do is to work—to recognize that prosperity and happiness can be obtained only through honest effort.” Henry Ford, “My Life and Work” - 1922

“It’s so hard to forget pain, but it’s even harder to remember sweetness. We have no scar to show for happiness.” Chuck Palahniuk, “Diary” - 2003

“I must learn to brook being happier than I deserve.” Jane Austen, “Persuasion” - 1816

“With freedom, flowers, books, and the moon, who could not be perfectly happy?” Oscar Wilde, “De Profundis” - 1905

“Are you so unobservant as not to have found out that sanity and happiness are an impossible combination?” Mark Twain, “The Mysterious Stranger” - 1916

“Know your own happiness. You want nothing but patience—or give it a more fascinating name, call it hope.” Jane Austen, “Sense and Sensibility” - 1811

“A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of.” Jane Austen, “Mansfield Park” - 1814

“You must be the best judge of your own happiness.” Jane Austen, “Emma” - 1815

“I am not proud, but I am happy, and happiness blinds, I think, more than pride.” Alexandre Dumas, “The Count of Monte Cristo” - 1845

“A person who longs to leave the place where he lives is an unhappy person.” Milan Kundera, “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” - 1984

“My happiness is not the means to any end. It is the end.” Ayn Rand, “Anthem” - 1938

“I am never merry when I hear sweet music.” William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice” - 1600

“But a lifetime of happiness! No man alive could bear it: it would be hell on earth.” George Bernard Shaw, “Man and Superman” - 1903

“Affliction may one day smile again; and till then, sit thee down, sorrow!” William Shakespeare, “Love's Labour's Lost” - 1598

“Which of us is happy in this world? Which of us has his desire? or, having it, is satisfied?” William Makepeace Thackeray, “Vanity Fair” - 1847

“Long brooding over those lost pleasures exaggerates their charm and sweetness.” William Makepeace Thackeray, “Vanity Fair” - 1847

“Tis a happy thing to be the father unto many sons.” William Shakespeare, “Henry VI, Part 3” - 1595

“When you make love you're using up energy; and afterwards you feel happy and don't give a damn for anything. They can't bear you to feel like that. They want you to be bursting with energy all the time. All this marching up and down and cheering...” George Orwell, “1984” - 1949

“God isn't compatible with machinery and scientific medicine and universal happiness. You must make your choice. Our civilization has chosen machinery and medicine and happiness.” Aldous Huxley, “Brave New World” - 1932

“It isn't only art that's incompatible with happiness; it's also science. Science is dangerous; we have to keep it most carefully chained and muzzled.” Aldous Huxley, “Brave New World” - 1932

“But that's the price we have to pay for stability. You've got to choose between happiness and what people used to call high art. We've sacrificed the high art.” Aldous Huxley, “Brave New World” - 1932

“The supreme happiness of life consists in the conviction that one is loved; loved for one's own sake—let us say rather, loved in spite of one's self; this conviction the blind man possesses.” Victor Hugo, “Les Misérables” - 1862

“The secret of happiness is this: let your interests be as wide as possible, and let your reactions to the things and persons that interest you be as far as possible friendly rather than hostile.” Bertrand Russell, “The Conquest of Happiness” - 1930

Related topics

life love misery unhappiness heart virtue desire action marriage God knowledge sadness world freedom art science wisdom sacrifice past friendship

Related authors

Jane Austen (14)
Bertrand Russell (6)
Aldous Huxley (5)
William Shakespeare (4)
Paulo Coelho (4)
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (4)
Honoré de Balzac (3)
Orson Scott Card (3)
Gustave Flaubert (3)
Oscar Wilde (2)
William Makepeace Thackeray (2)
Ayn Rand (2)
Leo Tolstoy (2)
Henry James (2)
W. Somerset Maugham (2)
Ambrose Bierce (2)
Samuel Johnson (2)
Chuck Palahniuk (2)
Voltaire (2)
Ray Bradbury (2)

Related sources

The Conquest of Happiness (6)
Pride and Prejudice (5)
Brave New World (5)
The Sorrows of Young Werther (4)
Emma (4)
The Alchemist (3)
Ender's Game (3)
Madame Bovary (3)
Sense and Sensibility (2)
Vanity Fair (2)
Anna Karenina (2)
The Portrait of a Lady (2)
Letters of Two Brides (2)
Of Human Bondage (2)
The Devil's Dictionary (2)
The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia (2)
Candide (2)
Fahrenheit 451 (2)
The Unbearable Lightness of Being (2)
Frankenstein (2)