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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

“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

“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

“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 don't know what good it is to know so much and be smart as whips and all if it doesn't make you happy.” J. D. Salinger, “Franny and Zooey” - 1961

“It is better to be unhappy and know the worst, than to be happy in a fool's paradise!” Fyodor Dostoyevsky, “The Idiot” - 1874

“one must believe in the possibility of happiness in order to be happy” Leo Tolstoy, “War and Peace” - 1869

“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

Related topics

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

Related authors

Jane Austen (14)
Bertrand Russell (6)
Aldous Huxley (5)
Leo Tolstoy (5)
William Shakespeare (4)
Paulo Coelho (4)
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (4)
Honoré de Balzac (3)
Milan Kundera (3)
Orson Scott Card (3)
Gustave Flaubert (3)
Oscar Wilde (2)
William Makepeace Thackeray (2)
F. Scott Fitzgerald (2)
Ayn Rand (2)
Fyodor Dostoyevsky (2)
Henry James (2)
W. Somerset Maugham (2)
Ambrose Bierce (2)
Alexandre Dumas (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)
Anna Karenina (3)
The Unbearable Lightness of Being (3)
Ender's Game (3)
Madame Bovary (3)
Sense and Sensibility (2)
Vanity Fair (2)
The Portrait of a Lady (2)
Letters of Two Brides (2)
Of Human Bondage (2)
The Devil's Dictionary (2)
The Count of Monte Cristo (2)
The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia (2)
Candide (2)
Fahrenheit 451 (2)