Deep within all of us lies this inherent desire to be happy. But what does happiness truly mean?
Here are 62 insightful quotes from some great thinkers and personalities on how to achieve happiness.
Here is the list.
A happy life consists in tranquility of mind.
– Cicero
All of a man’s happiness is in his being the master of his ego, while all his suffering is in his ego being his master.
– Al Gazali
Happiness is the resultant of the relative strengths of positive and negative feelings rather than an absolute amount of one or the other.
– Norman Bradburn.
Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.
– Joseph Addison
To be happy, we must not be too concerned with others.
– Albert Camus
“I asked the professors who teach the meaning of life to tell me what is happiness. And I went to famous executives who boss the work of thousands of men. They all shook their heads and gave me a smile as though I was trying to fool with them. And then one Sunday afternoon I wandered out along the Desplaines river and I saw a crowd of Hungarians under the trees with their women and children and a keg of beer and an accordion.”
– Carl Sandburg
If only we’d stop trying to be happy, we could have a pretty good time.
– Edith Wharton
Now and then it’s good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy.
– Guillaume Apollinaire
Those who are not looking for happiness are the most likely to find it, because those who are searching forget that the surest way to be happy is to seek happiness for others. – Martin Luther King Jr.
Happiness is mostly a by-product of doing what makes us feel fulfilled.
– Benjamin Spock
Happiness is not achieved by the conscious pursuit of happiness; it is generally the by-product of other activities.
– Aldous Huxley
Don’t Seek Happiness. If you seek it, you won’t find it, because seeking is the antithesis of happiness.
– Eckhart Tolle
Happiness is like a butterfly; the more you chase it, the more it will elude you, but if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder.
– Henry David Thoreau
It is by being fully involved with every detail of our lives, whether good or bad, that we find happiness, not by trying to look for it directly.
– Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Happiness is a gift and the trick is not to expect it, but to delight in it when it comes.
– Charles Dickens
Happiness is the absence of the striving for happiness. – Zhuangzi
Letting go gives us freedom, and freedom is the only condition for happiness. If, in our heart, we still cling to anything – anger, anxiety, or possessions – we cannot be free.
– Thich Nhat Hanh
Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.
– Marcus Aurelius
The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.
– Marcus Aurelius
Just because you are happy it does not mean that the day is perfect but that you have looked beyond its imperfections.
– Bob Marley
Everybody in the world is seeking happiness — and there is one sure way to find it. That is by controlling your thoughts. Happiness doesn’t depend on outward conditions. It depends on inner conditions.
– Dale Carnegie
I am still determined to be cheerful and happy, in whatever situation I may be; for I have also learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions, and not upon our circumstances. – Martha Washington
A happy person is not a person in a certain set of circumstances, but rather a person with a certain set of attitudes. – Hugh Downs
The primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation, but your thoughts about it. Be aware of the thoughts you are thinking.
– Eckhart Tolle
A disciplined mind leads to happiness, and an undisciplined mind leads to suffering.
– Dalai Lama
The best way to cheer yourself is to try to cheer someone else up.
– Mark Twain
The reason people find it so hard to be happy is that they always see the past better than it was, the present worse than it is, and the future less resolved than it will be.
– Marcel Pagnol
Why should we build our happiness on the opinions of others, when we can find it in our own hearts?
– Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Happiness can only be achieved by looking inward & learning to enjoy whatever life has and this requires transforming greed into gratitude.
– John Chrysostom
People who learn to control inner experience will be able to determine the quality of their lives, which is as close as any of us can come to being happy.
– Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
The consumption society has made us feel that happiness lies in having things, and has failed to teach us the happiness of not having things.
– Elise Boulding
I think instead of happiness we should be working for contentment an inner sense of fulfillment that’s relatively independent of external circumstances.
– Andrew Weil
The summit of happiness is reached when a person is ready to be what he is.
– Desiderius Erasmus
It is essential to happiness that our way of living should spring from our own deep impulses and not from the tastes and desires of those who happen to be our neighbors, or even our relations.
– Bertrand Russell
The formula of happiness and success is just, being actually yourself, in the most vivid possible way you can.
– Meryl Streep
To be happy you must have taken the measure of your powers, tasted the fruits of your passion, and learned your place in the world.
– George Santayana
Happiness is not a state to arrive at, but a manner of traveling.
– Margaret Lee Runbeck
The greatest happiness you can have is knowing that you do not necessarily require happiness.
– William Saroyan
The notion that a human being should be constantly happy is a uniquely modern, uniquely American, uniquely destructive idea.
– Andrew Weil
And I don’t believe in such a thing as “happily ever after”. There’s only happily every now and then. I find the hardest trick is to recognize the now-and-thens, and to bask in them when they come.
– Cindy Bonner
This idea of perpetual happiness is crazy and overrated, because those dark moments fuel you for the next bright moments; each one helps you appreciate the other.
– Brad Pitt
One is happy as a result of one’s own efforts once one knows the necessary ingredients of happiness: simple tastes, a certain degree of courage, self denial to a point, love of work, and above all, a clear conscience. – George Sand
Those who decide to use leisure as a means of mental development, who love good music, good books, good pictures, good company, good conversation, are the happiest people in the world. And they are not only happy in themselves, they are the cause of happiness in others.
– William Lyon Phelps
Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine to the mind. – Luther Burbank
The man is happiest who lives from day to day and asks no more, garnering the simple goodness of life.
― Euripides
Happiness consists not of having, but of being; not of possessing, but of enjoying.
– David O. McKay
Happiness is good health and a bad memory.
– Albert Einstein
The secret to happiness is to admire without desiring.
– Carl Sandburg
All things, even the deepest sorrow or the most profound happiness are all temporary. Hope is fuel for the soul, without hope, forward motion ceases.
– Landon Parham
Rules for happiness: something to do, someone to love, something to hope for.
– Immanuel Kant
It’s a helluva start, being able to recognize what makes you happy.
– Lucille Ball
Take responsibility for your own happiness, do not expect people or things to bring you happiness, or you could be disappointed.
– Rodolfo Costa
I learned from a very young age that if I pursued the things that truly excited me, that they would reward in more important ways, like happiness.
– Brandon Boyd
Happiness does not come from a job. It comes from knowing what you truly value, and behaving in a way that’s consistent with those beliefs.
– Mike Rowe
You must be the best judge of your own happiness.
– Jane Austen
It makes no difference where you go, there you are. And it makes no difference what you have, there’s always more to want. Until you are happy with who you are, you will never be happy because of what you have. – Zig Ziglar
Maybe happiness is this: not feeling that you should be elsewhere, doing something else, being someone else.
– Eric Weiner
Can you be happy with the movies, and the ads, and the clothes in the stores, and the doctors, and the eyes as you walk down the street all telling you there is something wrong with you? No. You cannot be happy. Because, you poor darling baby, you believe them.
– Katherine Dunn
How happy a person is depends upon the depth of his gratitude. You will notice at once that the unhappy person has little gratitude toward life, other people and God.
Gratitude always comes into play; research shows that people are happier if they are grateful for the positive things in their lives, rather than worrying about what might be missing.
– Dan Buettner
Happy people plan actions, they don’t plan results.
– Dennis Waitley
To find out what one is fitted to do, and to secure an opportunity to do it, is the key to happiness.
– John Dewey
Also Read: 38 Thich Nath Hanh Quotes That Will Change Your Entire Perspective On Happiness
