# Quotes about happiness - Quotes: 30 - Authors: 15 - Topic page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness ## Quotes > Now no joy but lacks salt, > > That is not dashed with pain > > And weariness and fault; > > I crave the stain Of tears, the aftermark > > Of almost too much love, > > The sweet of bitter bark > > And burning clove. [Robert Frost](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-frost.md) · [New Hampshire](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-frost/new-hampshire.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-frost/new-hampshire/now-no-joy.md) Topics: [happiness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness.md), [suffering](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/suffering.md) > Happiness is a mystery like religion, and should never be rationalised. [G. Chesterton](https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton.md) · [Heretics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/heretics.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/heretics/happiness-is-a-mystery.md) Topics: [happiness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness.md) > Those only are happy (I thought) who have their minds fixed on some object other than their own happiness; on the happiness of others, on the improvement of mankind, even on some art or pursuit, followed not as a means, but as itself an ideal end. Aiming thus at something else, they find happiness by the way. Autobiography · p. 142 Topics: [happiness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness.md) > All those to whom I looked up, were of opinion that the pleasure of sympathy with human beings, and the feelings which made the good of others, and especially of mankind on a large scale, the object of existence, were the greatest and surest sources of happiness. Of the truth of this I was convinced, but to know that a feeling would make me happy if I had it, did not give me the feeling. Autobiography · p. 138 Topics: [happiness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness.md) > In this frame of mind it occurred to me to put the question directly to myself: "Suppose that all your objects in life were realized; that all the changes in institutions and opinions which you are looking forward to, could be completely effected at this very instant: would this be a great joy and happiness to you?" And an irrepressible self-consciousness distinctly answered, "No!" At this my heart sank within me: the whole foundation on which my life was constructed fell down. All my happiness was to have been found in the continual pursuit of this end. The end had ceased to charm, and how could there ever again be any interest in the means? I seemed to have nothing left to live for. Autobiography · p. 133 Topics: [happiness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness.md), [meaning of life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life.md) > [T]he question was, whether, if the reformers of society and government could succeed in their objects, and every person in the community were free and in a state of physical comfort, the pleasures of life, being no longer kept up by struggle and privation, would cease to be pleasures. Autobiography · p. 145 Topics: [happiness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness.md) > I needed to be made to feel that there was real, permanent happiness in tranquil contemplation. Wordsworth taught me this, not only without turning away from, but with a greatly increased interest in the common feelings and common destiny of human beings. Autobiography · p. 148 Topics: [happiness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness.md) > Scott does this still better than Wordsworth, and a very second-rate landscape does it more effectually than any poet. What made Wordsworth's poems a medicine for my state of mind, was that they expressed, not mere outward beauty, but states of feeling, and of thought coloured by feeling, under the excitement of beauty. They seemed to be the very culture of the feelings, which I was in quest of. In them I seemed to draw from a Source of inward joy, of sympathetic and imaginative pleasure, which could be shared in by all human beings; which had no connexion with struggle or imperfection, but would be made richer by every improvement in the physical or social condition of mankind. From them I seemed to learn what would be the perennial sources of happiness, when all the greater evils of life shall have been removed. And I felt myself at once better and happier as I came under their influence. Autobiography · p. 147 Topics: [happiness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness.md), [poetry](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/poetry.md) > The enjoyments of life (such was now my theory) are sufficient to make it a pleasant thing, when they are taken en passant, without being made a principal object. Once make them so, and they are immediately felt to be insufficient. They will not bear a scrutinizing examination. Ask yourself whether you are happy, and you cease to be so. The only chance is to treat, not happiness, but some end external to it, as the purpose of life. Let your self-consciousness, your scrutiny, your self-interrogation, exhaust themselves on that; and if otherwise fortunately circumstanced you will inhale happiness with the air you breathe, without dwelling on it or thinking about it, without either forestalling it in imagination, or putting it to flight by fatal questioning. This theory now became the basis of my philosophy of life. And I still hold to it as the best theory for all those who have but a moderate degree of sensibility and of capacity for enjoyment; that is, for the great majority of mankind. Autobiography · p. 142 Topics: [happiness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness.md), [meaning of life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life.md) > Happiness is beautiful, all by itself. A happy person is beautiful, per se. [Larry Niven](https://www.leafyquotes.com/larry-niven.md) · [Flatlander](https://www.leafyquotes.com/larry-niven/flatlander.md) · p. 33 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/larry-niven/flatlander/happiness-is-beautiful.md) Topics: [happiness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness.md), [beauty](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/beauty.md) > Happiness is doing it rotten your own way. [Isaac Asimov](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov.md) · [I, Asimov](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/i-asimov.md) · p. 277 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/i-asimov/happiness-is-doing.md) Topics: [happiness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness.md) > “As for status, that’s the sort of push and pull I’d just as soon avoid. I’ve seen many people with status, but I’m still looking for a happy one. Status won’t sit still under you; you have to continually fight to keep from sinking. [Isaac Asimov](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov.md) · [Prelude to Foundation](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/prelude-to-foundation.md) · p. 90 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/prelude-to-foundation/as-for-status.md) Topics: [happiness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness.md) > Finally, I would like to assure my many Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, and Muslim friends that I am sincerely happy that the religion which Chance has given you has contributed to your peace of mind (and often, as Western medical science now reluctantly admits, to your physical well-being). Perhaps it is better to be un-sane and happy, than sane and un-happy. But it is best of all to be sane and happy. Whether our descendants can achieve that goal will be the greatest challenge of the future. Indeed, it may well decide whether we have any future. p. 97, Acknowledgements [Arthur C. Clarke](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke.md) · [3001 The Final Odyssey](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke/3001-the-final-odyssey.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke/3001-the-final-odyssey/finally-i-would.md) Topics: [religion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion.md), [happiness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness.md) > I'm crazy enough to believe that the happiest man on earth is the man with the fewest needs. The Colossus of Maroussi · p. 133 Topics: [happiness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness.md), [desire](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/desire.md) > If people can just love each other a little bit, they can be so happy. Germinal Topics: [love](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/love.md), [happiness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness.md) > What idiot imagined that happiness in this world depended on a share-out of wealth? These starry-eyed revolutionaries could demolish society and build a brave new world if they liked, but they would not by so doing add one single joy to man’s lot, nor relieve him of a single pain merely by sharing out the cake. In fact they would only spread out the unhappiness of the world, and some day they would make the very dogs howl with despair by removing them from the simple satisfaction of their instincts and raising them to the unsatisfied yearnings of passion. Germinal Topics: [happiness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness.md) > Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy. [H.L. Mencken](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hl-mencken.md) · [A Mencken Chrestomathy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hl-mencken/a-mencken-chrestomathy.md) · p. 624 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hl-mencken/a-mencken-chrestomathy/puritanism-the-haunting.md) Topics: [happiness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness.md) > Human life is basically a comedy. Even its tragedies often seem comic to the spectator, and not infrequently they actually have comic touches to the victim. Happiness probably consists largely in the capacity to detect and relish them. A man who can laugh, if only at himself, is never really miserable. [H.L. Mencken](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hl-mencken.md) · [Minority Report](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hl-mencken/minority-report.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hl-mencken/minority-report/human-life-is-basically.md) Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [happiness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness.md) > To be happy, we must not be too concerned with others. [Albert Camus](https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus.md) · [The Fall](https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus/the-fall.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus/the-fall/to-be-happy.md) Topics: [happiness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness.md) > Maman used to say that you can always find something to be happy about. [Albert Camus](https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus.md) · [The Stranger](https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus/the-stranger.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus/the-stranger/maman-used-to-say.md) Topics: [happiness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness.md) > Happiness implied a choice, and within that choice a concerted will, a lucid desire. [Albert Camus](https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus.md) · [A Happy Death](https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus/a-happy-death.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus/a-happy-death/happiness-implied-a-choice.md) Topics: [happiness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness.md), [choices](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/choices.md) > He was sunshine most always—I mean he made it seem like good weather. [Mark Twain](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain.md) · [Adventures of Huckleberry Finn](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain/adventures-of-huckleberry-finn.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain/adventures-of-huckleberry-finn/he-was-sunshine.md) Topics: [happiness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness.md) > Now the activity of the practical virtues is exhibited in political or military affairs, but the actions concerned with these seem to be unleisurely. Warlike actions are completely so (for no one chooses to be at war, or provokes war, for the sake of being at war; any one would seem absolutely murderous if he were to make enemies of his friends in order to bring about battle and slaughter); but the action of the statesman is also unleisurely, and-apart from the political action itself—aims at despotic power and honours, or at all events happiness, for him and his fellow citizens—a happiness different from political action, and evidently sought as being different. So if among virtuous actions political and military actions are distinguished by nobility and greatness, and these are unleisurely and aim at an end and are not desirable for their own sake, but the activity of reason, which is contemplative, seems both to be superior in serious worth and to aim at no end beyond itself, and to have its pleasure proper to itself (and this augments the activity), and the self-sufficiency, leisureliness, unweariedness (so far as this is possible for man), and all the other attributes ascribed to the supremely happy man are evidently those connected with this activity, it follows that this will be the complete happiness of man, if it be allowed a complete term of life. [Aristotle](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle.md) · [Nicomachean Ethics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle/nicomachean-ethics.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle/nicomachean-ethics/now-the-activity.md) Topics: [happiness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness.md) > May not we then confidently pronounce that man happy who realizes complete goodness in action, and is adequately furnished with external goods? Or should we add, that he must also be destined to go on living not for any casual period but throughout a complete lifetime in the same manner, and to die accordingly, because the future is hidden from us, and we conceive happiness as an end, something utterly and absolutely final and complete? If this is so, we shall pronounce those of the living who possess and are destined to go on possessing the good things we have specified to be supremely blessed, though on the human scale of bliss. [Aristotle](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle.md) · [Nicomachean Ethics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle/nicomachean-ethics.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle/nicomachean-ethics/may-not-we-then.md) Topics: [happiness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness.md) > For some identify happiness with virtue, some with practical wisdom, others with a kind of philosophic wisdom, others with these, or one of these, accompanied by pleasure or not without pleasure; while others include also external prosperity. Now ... it is not probable that these should be entirely mistaken, but rather that they should be right in at least some one respect or even in most respects. [Aristotle](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle.md) · [Nicomachean Ethics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle/nicomachean-ethics.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle/nicomachean-ethics/for-some-identify.md) Topics: [happiness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness.md) > And happiness is thought to depend on leisure; for we are busy that we may have leisure, and make war that we may live in peace. [Aristotle](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle.md) · [Nicomachean Ethics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle/nicomachean-ethics.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle/nicomachean-ethics/and-happiness-is-thought.md) Topics: [happiness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness.md) > Life seems to be common even to plants, but we are seeking what is peculiar to man. Let us exclude, therefore, the life of nutrition and growth. Next there would be a life of perception, but it also seems to be common even to the horse, the ox, and every animal. There remains, then, an active life of the element that has a rational principle; of this, one part has such a principle in the sense of being obedient to one, the other in the sense of possessing one and exercising thought. And, as "life of the rational element" also has two meanings, we must state that life in the sense of activity is what we mean; for this seems to be the more proper sense of the term. Now if the function of man is an activity of soul which follows or implies a rational principle, and if we say "so-and-so" and "a good so-and-so" have a function which is the same in kind, e.g. a lyre, and a good lyre-player, and so without qualification in all cases, eminence in respect of goodness being added to the name of the function (for the function of a lyre-player is to play the lyre, and that of a good lyre-player is to do so well): if this is the case, and we state the function of man to be a certain kind of life, and this to be an activity or actions of the soul implying a rational principle, and the function of a good man to be the good and noble performance of these, and if any action is well performed when it is performed in accordance with the appropriate excellence: if this is the case, human good turns out to be activity of soul in accordance with virtue, and if there are more than one virtue, in accordance with the best and most complete. > > But we must add "in a complete life." For one swallow does not make a summer, nor does one day; and so too one day, or a short time, does not make a man blessed and happy. [Aristotle](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle.md) · [Nicomachean Ethics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle/nicomachean-ethics.md) · p. 382 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle/nicomachean-ethics/life-seems-to-be-common.md) Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md), [happiness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness.md), [meaning of life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life.md) > Always expecting this and expecting that. May I recommend serenity to you? A life that is burdened with expectations is a heavy life. Its fruit is sorrow and disappointment. Learn to be one with the joy of the moment. [Douglas Adams](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams.md) · [The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/the-long-dark-tea-time-of-the-soul.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/the-long-dark-tea-time-of-the-soul/always-expecting-this.md) Topics: [happiness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness.md) > This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap; the being a force of Nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. [George Bernard Shaw](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw.md) · [Man and Superman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw/man-and-superman.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw/man-and-superman/this-is-the.md) Topics: [happiness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness.md), [meaning of life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life.md) > Life is full of disappointments, [...] and I suppose the art of being happy is to disguise them as illusions. [Saki](https://www.leafyquotes.com/saki.md) · [The Complete Short Stories](https://www.leafyquotes.com/saki/the-complete-short-stories.md) · spoken by The Duchess Irene · Reginald · Reginald at the Carlton · p. 25 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/saki/the-complete-short-stories/life-is-full-of-disappointments-and-i.md) Topics: [happiness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness.md)