Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,159,190 quotes Who coined it · How we decide
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Happiness
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“American society [...] not only sanctions gross and unfair relations among men, but it encourages them. Now, can that be denied? No. Rivalry, competition, envy, jealousy, all that is malignant in human character is nourished by the system. Possession, money, property — on such corrupt standards as these do you people measure happiness and success.”
Philip Roth (1933–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Moderation, the Golden Mean, the Aristonmetron, is the secret of wisdom and of happiness. But it does not mean embracing an unadventurous mediocrity: rather it is an elaborate balancing-act, a feat of intellectual skill demanding constant vigilance. Its aim is a reconciliation of opposites.”
Robertson Davies (1913–1995) said by 1995 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Childhood may have periods of great happiness, but it also has times that must simply be endured. Childhood at its best is a form of slavery tempered by affection.”
Robertson Davies (1913–1995) said by 1995 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Children and fools speak the truth; and somehow they find happiness in their sincerity.”
Will Durant (1885–1981) said by 1981 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Happiness is the free play of the instincts, and so is youth.”
Will Durant (1885–1981) said by 1981 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Let us ask the Gods not for possessions, but for things to do; happiness is in making things rather than consuming them.”
Will Durant (1885–1981) said by 1981 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Happiest are the people who give most happiness to others.”
Denis Diderot (1713–1784) said by 1784 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is only one passion, the passion for happiness.”
Denis Diderot (1713–1784) said by 1784 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Happiness is an imaginary condition, formerly attributed by the living to the dead, now usually attributed by adults to children, and by children to adults.”
Thomas Szasz (1920–2012) said by 2012 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it except the pleasure of seeing it.”
Adam Smith (1723–1790) said by 1790 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Hatred and anger are the greatest poison to the happiness of a good mind.”
Adam Smith (1723–1790) said by 1790 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is a constitutional right for people to own guns, but there's also a constitutional right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness...”
Hillary Clinton (born 1947) first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with Steve Harvey, quoted in "Clinton confuses Constitution with Declaration of Independence in gun pitch", FoxNews.com (25 February 2016)
“Hairbreadth missings of happiness look like the insults of Fortune.”
Henry Fielding (1707–1754) said by 1754 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The rich philistinism emanating from advertisements is due not to their exaggerating (or inventing) the glory of this or that serviceable article but to suggesting that the acme of human happiness is purchasable and that its purchase somehow ennobles the purchaser.”
Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977) said by 1977 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Maturity: among other things, the unclouded happiness of the child at play, who takes it for granted that he is at one with his play-mates.”
Dag Hammarskjöld (1905–1961) first seen 1953 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 7 April 1953
“Magnificent spectacle of human happiness.”
Sydney Smith (1771–1845) first seen 1824 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: America", published in The Edinburgh Review (July 1824)
“A comfortable house is a great source of happiness. It ranks immediately after health and a good conscience.”
Sydney Smith (1771–1845) first seen 1843 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Vol. II, letter to Lord Murray (29 September 1843), p. 501
“O my good fortune, please subdue the anguish of your Soul. Nobody is destined only to happiness or to pain. The wheel of life takes one up and down by turn.”
Kalidasa (active around 400) first seen 1984 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Meghadūta (tr. C. R. Devadhar, 1984)
“Our image of happiness is indissolubly bound up with the image of the past.”
Walter Benjamin (1892–1940) said by 1940 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ultimately, the reason why love and compassion bring the greatest happiness is simply that our nature cherishes them above all else. The need for love lies at the very foundation of human existence. It results from the profound interdependence we all share with one another.”
Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is very important to generate a good attitude, a good heart, as much as possible. From this, happiness in both the short term and the long term for both yourself and others will come.”
Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama (born 1935) first seen 1984 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Kindness, Clarity, and Insight (1984).
“There is a saying in Tibetan that “at the door of the miserable rich man sleeps the contented beggar”. The point of this saying is not that poverty is a virtue, but that happiness does not come with wealth, but from setting limits to one’s desires, and living within those limits with satisfaction.”
Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Human happiness and human satisfaction must ultimately come from within oneself. It is wrong to expect some final satisfaction to come from money or from a computer.”
Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama (born 1935) first seen 1998 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Path to Tranquility: Daily Wisdom (1998) edited by Renuka Singh
“We use up in the passions the stuff that was given us for happiness.”
Joseph Joubert (1754–1824) said by 1824 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The truth. They make it consist of nothing they cannot prove. The greatest happiness they find in it is being able to put forth incontestable assertions. This is what they like, and they consider it a sign of prestige, a prerogative, a power, a dignity, etc., a liberation from error.”
Joseph Joubert (1754–1824) said by 1824 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“True happiness Consists not in the multitude of friends, But in the worth and choice.”
Ben Jonson (1572–1637) first seen 1600 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Cynthia's Revels (1600), Act III, scene ii
“He loved me true did Harry-boy and I loved him true, and if the happiness we gave each other was wicked and wrong in the eyes of the Law and the Church and God Almighty, then the Law and the Church and God Almighty can go dig a hole and fall down it.”
Noël Coward (1899–1973) first seen 1964 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Me and the Girls (1964)
“If your happiness depends on what somebody else does, I guess you do have a problem.”
Richard Bach (born 1936) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Science of Economics does not deal with true happiness nor even with well-being in material things. It deals with a strictly limited field of what is called "Economic Wealth," and if it goes outside its own boundaries it goes wrong.”
Hilaire Belloc (1870–1953) said by 1953 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Life cannot exist without a certain conformity to the surrounding universe — that conformity involves a certain amount of happiness in excess of pain. In short, as we live we are paid for living.”
Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–1895) said by 1895 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Absolute morality is the most common type of morality, and it can be pretty intimidating. You can be made to appear 'selfish,' 'whim-worshiping,' 'egoistic,' 'hedonistic,' or 'ruthless,' if you merely assert that your own happiness is the most important thing in your life.”
Harry Browne (1933–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If an individual is required to give up his own happiness for society, of what value is society to him?”
Harry Browne (1933–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In seeking your own freedom and happiness, you have to deal with those who tell you that you shouldn't put yourself first. That creates a situation in which you're pressured to act negatively — to put aside your plans and desires in order to avoid the condemnation of others.”
Harry Browne (1933–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Don't be so afraid of sudden, sharp discomfort that you willingly tolerate chronic, continual, deadening pain the rest of your life. If you refuse to undergo temporary discomfort, you're resigning yourself to a lifetime with little happiness. The chronic pain can deaden your senses, destroy your love of life, and make you bitter.”
Harry Browne (1933–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“...happiness is not an ideal of reason but of imagination, resting solely on empirical grounds.”
Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) first seen 1785 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Ethics (1785), Second Section.
“Nature has willed that man should, by himself, produce everything that goes beyond the mechanical ordering of his animal existence, and that he should partake of no other happiness or perfection than that which he himself, independently of instinct, has created by his own reason.”
Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) said by 1804 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“... happiness is not an ideal of reason, but of imagination, resting on merely empirical grounds,”
Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) said by 1804 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The happiest man is the one who knows how to obtain the greatest sum of happiness without ever failing in the discharge of his duties, and the most unhappy is the man who has adopted a profession in which he finds himself constantly under the sad necessity of foreseeing the future.”
Giacomo Casanova (1725–1798) said by 1798 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Let us teach ourselves and others that politics should be an expression of a desire to contribute to the happiness of the community rather than of a need to cheat or rape the community.”
Václav Havel (1936–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The war has made us a nation of great power and intelligence. We have but little to do to preserve peace, happiness and prosperity at home, and the respect of other nations. Our experience ought to teach us the necessity of the first; our power secures the latter.”
Ulysses S. Grant (1822–1885) said by 1885 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Small farms make economic sense. They also produce more happiness, more beauty, more health—those things that aren’t so quantifiable...”
Wendell Berry (1934–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is by the progress of philosophy and by the spectacle of the happiness of France, that you will extend the empire of our revolution, and not by the force of arms and by the calamities of war.”
Maximilien Robespierre (1758–1794) first seen 1793 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the National Convention, 10th April 1793
“By sealing our work with our blood, we may see at least the bright dawn of universal happiness. That is our ambition, that is our goal.”
Maximilien Robespierre (1758–1794) said by 1794 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To devote your life to the good of all and to the happiness of all is religion. Whatever you do for your own sake is not religion.”
Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902) said by 1902 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Not that freedom ensured happiness. Indeed, to be free was to live in absence. Of responsibilities, of loyalties, of the pressures that expectation imposed.”
Steven Erikson (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We are not simple people who believe in happiness; nor weaklings who crumple to the ground in distress at the first reverse; nor skeptics observing the bloody effort of marching humanity from the lofty heights of a mocking, sterile wit. Believing in the fight, though we entertain no illusions about it, we are armed against every disappointment.”
Nikos Kazantzakis (1883–1957) first seen 1934 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Toda Raba (1934), ch. 10 (tr. Amy Mims, 1964)
“As far as women are concerned, I am old-fashioned enough to like the idea of a woman's managing the household. This is an important activity. A woman does not have to be a bank vice-president to find happiness. I should think routine work like sitting at a desk writing letters, making reports, or punching data into computers would be much less interesting and satisfying than running a home.”
Linus Pauling (1901–1994) first seen 1992 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Lifelong Quest for Peace (1992) by Linus Pauling and Daisaku Ikeda
“My wife, my child, my music, Nature and the sun; they are my happiness.”
Richard Strauss (1864–1949) said by 1949 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: written on the sketches for his Domestic Symphony. Charles Youmans, Mahler and Strauss in Dialogue, Indiana University press (2016), found on page 60.
“Happiness and strength endure only in the absence of hate. To hate alone is the road to disaster. To love is the road to strength. To love in spite of all is the secret of greatness. And may very well be the greatest secret in this universe.”
L. Ron Hubbard (1911–1986) said by 1986 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A New Slant on Life (1998).
“Film makers, whether they are producers, directors, script writers, actors and actresses, are endowed with such special qualities that they can contribute in one way or the other towards the happiness of their audience.”
Mahathir Mohamad (born 1925) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source