Famous quotes
Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,158,269 quotes Who coined it · How we decide
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Happiness
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“A life devoted to science is therefore a happy life, and its happiness is derived from the very best sources that are open to dwellers on this troubled and passionate planet.”
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) said by 1970 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Happiness is beautiful, all by itself. A happy person is beautiful, per se.”
Larry Niven (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
John Stuart Mill (1806–1873) said by 1873 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Happiness is often presented as being very dull but, he thought, lying awake, that is because dull people are sometimes very happy and intelligent people can and do go around making themselves and everyone else miserable.”
Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) said by 1961 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Happiness is not a goal, it is a by-product. Paradoxically, the one sure way not to be happy is deliberately to map out a way of life in which one would please oneself completely and exclusively.”
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) said by 1962 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Drug misuse is not a disease, it is a decision, like the decision to step out in front of a moving car. You would call that not a disease but an error in judgement. When a bunch of people begin to do it, it is a social error, a life-style. In this particular life-style the motto is “Be happy now because tomorrow you are dying,” but the dying begins almost at once, and the happiness is a memory.”
Philip K. Dick (1928–1982) said by 1982 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Everybody strains after happiness, and the result is that nobody's happy.”
Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All the same," said the Scarecrow, "I shall ask for brains instead of a heart; for a fool would not know what to do with a heart if he had one." "I shall take the heart," returned the Tin Woodman; "for brains do not make one happy, and happiness is the best thing in the world.”
L. Frank Baum (1856–1919) said by 1919 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I used to think the secret to a happy ending was to bring down the curtain at the exact right time. A moment after happiness, then everything's all wrong again." p76”
Chuck Palahniuk (born 1962) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I used to think the secret to a happy ending was to bring down the curtain at the exact right time. A moment after happiness, then everything's all wrong, again.”
Chuck Palahniuk (born 1962) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Oh happy, (if his happiness he knows) The Countrey Swain! on whom kind Heav'n bestows At home all Riches that wise Nature needs; Whom the just Earth with easie plenty feeds.”
Abraham Cowley (1618–1667) said by 1667 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Anyone who actually admires money as the most precious thing in life, and rests his security on it to the extent of believing that as long as he possesses it he will be happy, has fashioned too many false gods for himself. Too many people put money in the place of Christ, as if it alone has the key to their happiness or unhappiness. p. 100”
Erasmus (1466–1536) said by 1536 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Some say I am a good person, some say I am a charlatan — I am just a monk... I never asked people like Richard Gere to come, but it is foolish to stop them. I have Tibetans, Indians, backpackers, AIDS patients, religious people, politicians, actors and princesses. My attitude is to give everyone some of my time. If I can contribute in any way to their happiness, that makes me happy.”
Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Morality is not properly the doctrine of how we may make ourselves happy, but how we may make ourselves worthy of happiness.”
Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) said by 1804 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This age, which should adjudge happiness to be as valuable as soap or munitions, would never come so long as the workers accepted the testimony of paid spokesmen... to the effect that they were contented and happy, rather than the evidence of their own wincing nerves to the effect that they live in a polite version of hell.”
Sinclair Lewis (1885–1951) said by 1951 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Shut up, be happy. Obey all orders without question. The happiness you have demanded is now mandatory.”
Jello Biafra (born 1958) first seen 1987 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Message From Our Sponsor", No More Cocoons (1987) (Also appears in Ice-T's track "Shut Up, Be Happy" on Freedom of Speech, Just Watch What You Say)
“I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year. May, 2019 be full of happiness, prosperity, and peace for everybody. Jesus loved everyone and wanted us to love all. God Bless”
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (born 1956) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Twitter 24 Dec 2018
“Don't wish me happiness — I don't expect to be happy; it's gotten beyond that, somehow. Wish me courage and strength and a sense of humor — I will need them all.”
Anne Morrow Lindbergh (1906–2001) first seen 1928 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Corliss Lamont on her engagement (1928)
“Fame does not define me. If you are looking for fame to define you, then you will never be happy and you’ll always be searching for happiness, and you will never find it in fame. Fulfillment comes from within you, by being authentic to yourself — not chasing fame.”
Cameron Diaz (born 1972) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“(The gnani) "(…) tastes of the pure, uncaused, undiluted bliss. He is happy and fully aware that happiness is his very nature and that he need not do anything, nor strive for anything to secure it. It follows him, more real than the body, nearer than the mind itself. (…).”
Nisargadatta Maharaj (1897–1981) said by 1981 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There are, of course, good happy endings as well as bad ones, but surely they are of a kind that in some way expresses happiness rather than glibly promises it..”
Louis Kronenberger (1904–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I'm fulfilled in what I do... I never thought that a lot of money or fine clothes — the finer things of life — would make you happy. My concept of happiness is to be filled in a spiritual sense.”
Coretta Scott King (1927–2006) first seen 2000 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Mary Lou Retton's Gateways to Happiness (2000) by Mary Lou Retton, David Bender, p. 213
“The end of government is to make the governed and the governors happy. That government then is thebest, which in practice produces the greatest happiness to the greatest number; including those who govern, and those who obey.”
Robert Owen (1771–1858) said by 1858 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am every day more convinced that happiness in Heaven is for those who know how to be happy on earth.”
Josemaría Escrivá (1902–1975) first seen 1005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: #1005
“If happiness is liking the life one lives, I can say I have been happy, and still am.”
Arsène Wenger (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I truly believe that when you're funny, you're blessed. Your whole life is kind of golden. I was happy, although it was not perfect happiness. There was illness and sadness and death.”
Martin Short (born 1950) first seen 2000 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Parade Magazine; January 23, 2000
“The genius of American culture and its integrity comes from fidelity to the light. Plain as day, we say. Happy as the day is long. Early to bed, early to rise. American virtues are daylight virtues: honesty, integrity, plain speech. We say yes when we mean yes and no when we mean no, and all else comes from the evil one. America presumes innocence and even the right to happiness.”
Richard Rodriguez (born 1944) first seen 1990 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Night and Day" in Frontiers (1990)
“It is very true that we ought to think of the happiness of others; but it is not often enough said that the best thing we can do for those who love us is to be happy ourselves.”
Émile Chartier (1868–1951) said by 1951 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We want the happiness of the Philippines, but we want to obtain it through noble and just means. If I have to commit villainy to make her happy, I would refuse to do so, because I am sure that what is built on sand sooner or later would tumble down.”
José Rizal (1861–1896) first seen 1887 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Blumentritt, (31 January 1887)
“I would like to express my longing for happy experiences. I do not want us to be for ever regretting. Art has been and remains the part of my life that brings me happiness.”
Max Pechstein (1881–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: as quoted by , in Expressionism, ; Praeger Publishers, New York, 1973, p. 89
“I do the very best I can to look upon life with optimism and hope and looking forward to a better day, but I don't think there is anything such as complete happiness. It pains me that there is still a lot of Klan activity and racism. I think when you say you're happy, you have everything that you need and everything that you want, and nothing more to wish for. I haven't reached that stage yet.”
Rosa Parks (1913–2005) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in "Standing Up for Freedom," Academy of Achievement.org (2005-10-31)
“Unless one is happy, one cannot bestow happiness on others.”
Ramana Maharshi (1879–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I never meet anyone nowadays who admits to having had a happy childhood. Everyone appears to think happiness betokens a lack of sensitivity.”
Jessamyn West (writer) first seen 1979 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Life I Really Lived, part 1 (1979)
“Happiness is the readiness to be happy.”
James Richardson (born 1950) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I'm so happy to be engaged and look forward to a life of happiness with Liam.”
Liam Hemsworth (born 1990) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Perhaps no man is happy without a delusion of some kind. Delusions, it may be said, are as necessary to our happiness as realities.”
Christian Nestell Bovee (1820–1904) said by 1904 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I was happy, but I am now in possession of knowledge that this is wrong. Happiness isn't so bad for a woman. She gets fatter, she gets older, she could lie down, nuzzling a regiment of men and little kids, she could just die of the pleasure. But men are different, they have to own money, or they have to be famous, or everybody on the block has too look up to them from the cellar stairs.”
Grace Paley (1922–2007) first seen 1959 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: An Interest in Life" (1959)
“Your happiness on the contrary is quite secure because you place it entirely in making others happy and doing those things to the utmost of your power which you can afterwards reflect upon with satisfaction. I must own your letter had that effect upon me that it made me apply to my work with double eagerness and alacrity with the hopes of being some time what you are at present.”
Joseph Black (1728–1799) said by 1799 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He has everything, he cannot sleep, he gives nice gifts, he is not happy, but he would not trade, even for happiness, what he is....”
Gay Talese (born 1932) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My personal happiness is much more important than my career, my primary aim is to have a happy home life. Those great ladies the silver screen have wanted what I've been able to get, but they've not been able to give up enough to get it.”
Marie Windsor (1919–2000) first seen 1973 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Marie Windsor: Her Face Is Familiar", Lubbock Avalanche-Journal (AP text, April 11, 1973)
“I’ve been on my own before, Mather.” And I hadn’t been happy a moment. But happiness is a fleeting creature. It’s no birthright. Not anything I expect but something I accept when I tumble into it. Meantime, power will do nicely.”
“I have seen it! I have seen it! I know it has horrors that can never be described. I was brought up under its wing. I witnessed for many years its demoralizing influence and its destructiveness to human happiness. I have never seen a happy slave.”
Angelina Grimké (1805–1879) first seen 1838 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Addressing an abolitionist meeting in Philadelphia, May 14, 1838, as a mob howled outside, throwing bricks and stones into the building, as quoted in
“Today, little things make me happy, like going for a walk, getting coffee with a friend, or creating something original. Really, I find happiness in everything now. We all go through grim times. But instead of resisting the struggle like I did, embrace it, accept it, and give the matter time to figure itself out.”
Connor Franta (born 1992) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As soon as we were happy, he tried to get at us by another means, another path. He provoked a new ordeal. One could have thought that it bored him, happiness.”
Anna Karina (1940–2019) first seen 2014 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On Jean-Luc Godard, as quoted in Secret Lives of Great Filmmakers : What Your Teachers Never Told You about the World's Greatest Directors (2014) by Robert Schnakenberg
“When you're in love, you're so happy that you want to tell people about it. But now I have to censor myself. You need to protect the happiness you have.”
Emily Blunt (born 1983) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Do you know what absolute happiness is? For me, it is to wake up my kids in the morning - these little pieces of innocence - to wake them and find they're so happy to see me! It is unequivocal love, no question about it.”
Michael Douglas (born 1944) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If you want happiness for your children, strive to be happy yourself.”
Jeannette Kagame (born 1962) first seen 2023 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Young Leaders Fellowship 2023 Focuses on Parenting KT PRESS (ugust 13, 2023)
“As women, we're nurturers by nature. We want to make sure everyone is happy. That's a good thing, but we also have to put ourselves on that happiness list.”
Victoria Osteen (born 1961) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Yes, you can get that job, get married, but at the end of the day, that is not happiness. It is the people around you that make you happy...”
Stephanie Coker (born 1988) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I think happiness is the best tonic for keeping us youthful, Being happy with who you are inside radiates on the outside.”
Catherine Zeta-Jones (born 1969) first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Catherine reveal secret behind youthful skin in 2016.