21 English quotes

Quotes about happiness

What thinkers and writers say makes people happy, and why it is often simpler than we think.

“Happiness depends upon ourselves.”
– Often attributed to Aristotle
Meaning: Happiness comes mainly from our own choices and character, not from luck or other people.
“Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.”
– Often attributed to Dalai Lama
Meaning: You can't buy or find happiness already finished. You build it through the way you live and act.
ready made
– already prepared, so you don't have to make it
“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”
– Often attributed to Mahatma Gandhi
Meaning: We feel at peace when our thoughts, words and actions match. Saying one thing and doing another makes us unhappy.
in harmony
– fitting together well, without conflict
“Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.”
– Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
Meaning: Even in very hard times, we can find some happiness if we choose to look for hope. The line is in the film, not the book.
“When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.”
– Helen Keller, We Bereaved (1929)
Meaning: When we lose something good, a new chance usually appears. But we are often too busy feeling sad about the loss to notice it.
“Happiness is a warm puppy.”
– Charles M. Schulz, Peanuts (1960)
Meaning: Happiness is often found in small, simple pleasures, like holding a soft, friendly little dog.
“Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.”
– Often attributed to Marcus Aurelius
Meaning: You don't need many things to be happy. Happiness comes mostly from how you think about your life.
“Happiness only real when shared.”
– Christopher McCandless, Note in his copy of Doctor Zhivago (1992)
Meaning: Written near the end of his life alone in the wild, it means that happiness feels truly real only when we share it with other people. The missing "is" is in his original note.
“Ask yourself whether you are happy, and you cease to be so.”
– John Stuart Mill, Autobiography (1873)
Meaning: If you keep checking whether you are happy, you start to worry and lose the feeling. Happiness comes more easily when you focus on other things.
cease
– stop
“Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
– Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina (1878)
Meaning: Happy families share the same basic good things, but there are countless different ways for a family to go wrong.
alike
– similar
“Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance.”
– Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813)
Meaning: Charlotte Lucas says, with dry humour, that you can't plan a happy marriage, so it's not worth knowing your partner too well before you marry. Austen is gently mocking this practical view.
“The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved; loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves.”
– Victor Hugo, Les Misérables (1862)
Meaning: The greatest happiness is being sure that someone loves us as we are, even with all our faults.
supreme
– highest; greatest
conviction
– a strong belief
in spite of
– even though something is true
“A calm and modest life brings more happiness than the pursuit of success combined with constant restlessness.”
– Albert Einstein, Note written in Tokyo (1922)
Meaning: A quiet, simple life makes people happier than always chasing success and never feeling at peace.
pursuit
– the act of trying to get something
restlessness
– being unable to relax or stay still
“There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.”
– Often attributed to Epictetus
Meaning: Stop worrying about things you can't control. Put your energy into what you can change.
beyond the power of our will
– outside our control
“Whoever is happy will make others happy too.”
– Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl (1944)
Meaning: Happiness spreads. A happy person naturally lifts the mood of the people around them.
“It isn't what you have or who you are or where you are or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about it.”
– Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People (1936)
Meaning: Your situation matters less than your attitude toward it. Two people in the same place can feel very differently.
“There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy.”
– Robert Louis Stevenson, An Apology for Idlers (1877)
Meaning: We think of happiness as a bonus, but Stevenson says being happy is something we owe to ourselves and others, and we forget how important it is.
underrate
– think something is less important than it really is
“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, First inaugural address (1933)
Meaning: Money alone doesn't make us happy. Real happiness comes from achieving things and making something with our own effort.
mere
– only; nothing more than
possession
– the state of owning something
“Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action.”
– Benjamin Disraeli, Lothair (1870)
Meaning: Doing things doesn't guarantee happiness, but sitting and doing nothing will never make you happy.
“Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.”
– Ernest Hemingway, The Garden of Eden (1986)
Meaning: Clever people often think too much and see too many problems, so they find it hard to be happy.
“Happiness is not having what you want. It is wanting what you have.”
– Hyman Schachtel, The Real Enjoyment of Living (1954)
Meaning: Getting more things won't make you happy for long. Being grateful for what you already have will.