Happiness

Explore 65 quotes about Happiness

A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people to whom it is easy to do good, and who are not accustomed to have it done to them; then work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books, music, love for one's neighbor-such is my idea of happiness.

Leo Tolstoy

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Topic

Happiness Contentment The good life

Speaker

Sergey Mikhalych

Author

Leo Tolstoy

Source

Family Happiness

Language

Russian

Time

1859 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 0

Original Citation

Tolstoy, Leo. Семейное счастіе [Family Happiness]. The Russian Messenger, 1859.

Current Citation

Tolstoy, Leo. Family Happiness, translated by J. D. Duff. Harper Perennial, 2009.

Thou hast no right to bliss.

Matthew Arnold

Empedocles on Etna

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Topic

Happiness

Author

Matthew Arnold

Source

Empedocles on Etna

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1852 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Arnold, Matthew, [published as A]. "Empedocles on Etna." Empedocles on Etna, and Other Poems. London: B. Fellowes, 1852, act 1, sc. 2.

There is only one happiness in life, to love and be loved.

George Sand

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Topic

Happiness Love Relationships Connecting with others

Author

George Sand

Medium

Letter

Language

French

Time

1862 1860s 19th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Sand, George. Letter to Lina Calamatta. 31 Mar. 1862.

That is happiness; to be dissolved into something complete and great. When it comes to one, it comes as naturally as sleep.

Willa Cather

My Antonia

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Topic

Happiness Contentment

Author

Willa Cather

Source

My Antonia

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1918 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Cather, Willa. My Ántonia. Houghton Mifflin, 1918, bk. 1, ch. 2.

Current Citation

Cather, Willa. My Ántonia. W. W. Norton & Co., 2015, bk. 1, ch. 2.

True happinesse
Consists not in the multitude of friends,
But in the worth, and choice.

Ben Jonson

Cynthia's Revels, or The Fountain of Self-Love

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Topic

Happiness Friends

Speaker

Arete

Author

Ben Jonson

Source

Cynthia's Revels, or The Fountain of Self-Love

Medium

Play

Genre

Satire

Language

English

Time

1600 1600s 17th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Jonson, Ben. Cynthia's Revels, or The Fountain of Self-Love. Children of the Chapel, 1600, Blackfriars Theatre, London, England, UK, act 3, sc. 4.

Of all the calamities, all the sufferings, all the terrors of this world, the only principle is the feeling or love of the self: it must be renounced.

Shantideva

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Topic

Happiness

Author

Shantideva

Source

Bodhicaryavatara

Genre

Religious literature

Language

Sanskrit

Time

700 700s 8th century

Authentication Score 1

Original Citation

Shantideva. बोधिसत्त्वाचर्यावतार [Bodhicaryavatara]. c. 700, ch. 8.

Current Citation

Shantideva. The Bodhicaryavatara, translated by Kat Crosby and Andrew Skilton. Oxford University Press, 2008, ch. 8.

Happiness makes up in height for what it lacks in length.

Robert Frost

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Topic

Happiness

Author

Robert Frost

Source

A Witness Tree

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1942 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Frost, Robert. "Happiness Makes Up in Height for What it Lacks in Length." A Witness Tree. Henry Holt and Company, 1942.

For all the happiness Mankind can gain
Is not in pleasure, but in rest from pain.

John Dryden

More information about this quote

Topic

Happiness Pleasure and pain Pleasure Pain

Speaker

Cortez

Author

John Dryden

Source

The Indian Emperor

Medium

Play

Genre

Drama (play)

Language

English

Time

1665 1660s 17th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Dryden, John. The Indian Emperor. King's Company, 1665, Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London, England, UK, act 4, sc. 1.

Current Citation

Dryden, John. "The Indian Emperor." The Works of John Dryden. Vol. 9. University of California Press, 1967, act 4, sc. 1.

You ask if they were happy. This is not a characteristic of a European. To be contented-that's for the cows.

Coco Chanel

More information about this quote

Topic

Happiness Europeans

Speaker

Coco Chanel

Language

English

Time

1990 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Coco Chanel. Quoted in Coco Chanel: A Biography, written by Axel Madsen. Bloomsbury Publishing, 1990, ch. 35.

It might be that to surrender to happiness was to accept defeat, but it was a defeat better than many victories.

W. Somerset Maugham

Of Human Bondage

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Topic

Happiness

Author

W. Somerset Maugham

Source

Of Human Bondage

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1915 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Maugham, William Somerset. Of Human Bondage. George H. Doran Company, 1915, ch. 122.

Current Citation

Maugham, William Somerset. Of Human Bondage. Signet, 2007, ch. 122.

One loses joy and happiness in the attempt to possess them.

Masanobu Fukuoka

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Topic

Seeking happiness Seeking Happiness Letting go

Author

Masanobu Fukuoka

Source

The One-Straw Revolution

Statement Type

Paradox Zen koan

Language

Japanese

Time

1975 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Fukuoka, Masanobu. 自然農法 わら一本の革命 [One-Straw Revolution]. Hakujusha, 1975.

The happiness of life, on the contrary, is made up of minute fractions-the little, soon-forgotten charities of a kiss, a smile, a kind look, a heartfelt compliment in the disguise of playful raillery, and the countless other infinitesimals of pleasurable thought and genial feeling.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

The Improvisatore

More information about this quote

Topic

Happiness The little things

Author

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Source

The Improvisatore

Language

English

Time

1828 1820s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. The Improvisatore. c. 1828.

Current Citation

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. "The Improvisatore." Samuel Taylor Coleridge: The Complete Poems, edited by William Keach. Penguin Classics, 1997.

Don't aim at success. The more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one's personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one's surrender to a person other than oneself.

Viktor Frankl

Man's Search for Meaning

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Topic

Success Dedication Happiness

Author

Viktor Frankl

Source

Man's Search for Meaning

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Statement Type

Paradox

Language

German

Time

1946 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Frankl, Victor. …trotzdem Ja zum Leben sagen: Ein Psychologe erlebt das Konzentrationslager [Man's Search for Meaning: An Introduction to Logotherapy]. Verlag für Jugend und Volk, 1946.

Current Citation

Frankl, Victor. Man's Search for Meaning. Beacon Press, 2006.

One cannot divine nor forecast the conditions that will make happiness; one only stumbles upon them by chance, in a lucky hour, at the world's end somewhere, and holds fast to the days, as to fortune or fame.

Willa Cather

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Topic

Happiness

Author

Willa Cather

Source

Le Lavandou

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

English

Time

1902 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Cather, Willa. Willa Cather in Europe: Her Own Story of the First Journey. Alfred A. Knopf, 1956, ch. 13. Originally a notebook entry in Le Lavandou. 10 Sept. 1902.

A lifetime of happiness! No man alive could bear it: it would be hell on earth.

George Bernard Shaw

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Topic

Happiness

Speaker

John Tanner

Author

George Bernard Shaw

Source

Man and Superman

Medium

Play

Genre

Drama (play)

Statement Type

Paradox

Language

English

Time

1903 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Shaw, George Bernard. "Man and Superman." Man and Superman, John Bull's Other Island, and Major Barbara. Oxford University Press, 2021, act 1. Originally published by Archibald and Constable Co., Ltd., 1903.

There are as many nights as days, and the one is just as long as the other in the year's course. Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word "happy" would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.

Carl Jung

Quoted in The Times of London

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Topic

Night and day Happiness Sadness Yin and yang

Speaker

Carl Jung

Source

The Times of London

Medium

Newspaper

Language

English

Time

1960 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Jung, Carl. "The Art of Living." Sunday Times, 17 July 1960.

True Happiness is of a retired nature, and an enemy to pomp and noise: it arises, in the first place, from the enjoyment of one's self; and in the next, from the friendship and conversation of a few select companions.

Joseph Addison

The Spectator

More information about this quote

Topic

Happiness Contentment

Author

Joseph Addison

Source

The Spectator

Language

English

Time

1711 1710s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Addison, Joseph. The Spectator. London, 17 March 1711, no. 15.

I've thought myself out of happiness one million times, but never once into it.

Jonathan Safran Foer

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

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Topic

Overthinking Happiness

Author

Jonathan Safran Foer

Source

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

2005 2000s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Foer. Jonathan Safran. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. Houghton Mifflin, 2005.

The two foes of human happiness are pain and boredom.

Arthur Schopenhauer

What a Man Is

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More information about this quote

Topic

Obstacles to happiness Happiness

Author

Arthur Schopenhauer

Source

What a Man Is Parerga and Paralipomena

Language

German

Time

1851 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Schopenhauer, Arthur. "Aphorismen zu Lebensweisheit: Bon Dem, was Einer ist [Aphorisms on the Wisdom of Life: What a Man is]." Parerga und Paralipomena. Vol. 1, Berlin: Druck und Verlag von U. W. Haan, 1851.

Current Citation

Schopenhauer, Arthur. "Aphorisms on the wisdom of life." Parerga and Paralipomena, translated by Sabine Roehr and Christopher Janaway. Vol. 1, Cambridge University Press, 2016.

To crave for happiness in this world is simply to be possessed by a spirit of revolt. What right have we to happiness?

Henrik Ibsen

Ghosts

More information about this quote

Topic

Seeking happiness Happiness

Speaker

Pastor Manders

Author

Henrik Ibsen

Source

Ghosts

Medium

Play

Language

Norwegian

Time

1881 1880s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Ibsen, Henrik. Gengangere [Ghosts]. Kobenhavn: Gyldendalske Boghandel, 1881, act 1.

Current Citation

Ibsen, Henrik. "Ghosts." A Doll's House and Other Plays, translated by Deborah Dawkin and Erik Skuggevik. Penguin Classics, 2016, act 1.