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Happiness
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“When there were periods of crisis, you stood beside him. When there were periods of happiness, you laughed with him. And when there were periods of sorrow, you comforted him.”
Robert F. Kennedy (1925–1968) first seen 1964 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Tribute to John F. Kennedy, 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City (27 August 1964)
“The Constitution of the United States has for its almost sole purpose the protection of the freedom of the people. We must combat every attempt to break down or to make it easy, under the pretended guise of legal procedure, to throw open the way to reaction or revolution. To adopt any other course is to put in jeopardy the sacred right to life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness.”
Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) said by 1933 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If money can't buy happiness, I guess I'll have to rent it.”
"Weird Al" Yankovic (born 1959) first seen 1984 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: This Is the Life", Dare to Be Stupid (1984).
“But who can say what's best? That's why you need to grab whatever chance you have of happiness where you find it, and not worry about other people too much. My experience tells me that we get no more than two or three such chances in a life time, and if we let them go, we regret it for the rest of our lives.”
Haruki Murakami (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Happiness, satisfaction, and success in life depend on making the right choices, the winning choices. There are forces in life working for you and against you. One must distinguish the beneficial forces from the malevolent ones and choose correctly between them.”
A. P. J. Abdul Kalam (1931–2015) said by 2015 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I wanna be your happiness. I wanna be your common sense pain.”
Conor Oberst (born 1980) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There can... be no freedom if a man-made absolute is set up as the one and exclusive goal of human endeavor, or as the one and exclusive rule of individual or social conduct. The man-made absolute may be peace or war, economic progress or security, the Nordic Race or the greatest happiness of the greatest number. Each of these must destroy freedom if it is set up as The Absolute.”
Peter Drucker (1909–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Here where I lie is the hot pit Crowding on the mind with coal And the will turned against it Only drills new seams of darkness Through the dark-surrounding whole. Our vivid suns of happiness Withered from summer, drop their flowers; Hands of the longed, withheld tomorrow Fold on the hands of yesterday In double sorrow.”
Stephen Spender (1909–1995) said by 1995 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Wisdom remembers. Happiness forgets.”
Mason Cooley (1927–2002) first seen 1986 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: City Aphorisms, Third Selection (1986)
“A woman's exterior beauty is a reflection of her internal peace and happiness.”
Gloria Estefan (born 1957) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: www.beautyblabber.com (July 31, 2007)
“There is no happiness without patriotism.”
Władysław Sikorski (1881–1943) said by 1943 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: in Święto szkoły, 25.05.2012 and Cytatybaza: Władysław Sikorski
“Justice is happiness according to virtue.”
John Rawls (1921–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Relegating grizzlies to Alaska is about like relegating happiness heaven; one may never get there.”
Aldo Leopold (1887–1948) said by 1948 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Happiness is the most insidious prison of all.”
Alan Moore (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Our country will be the better, and you will be the happier, because nothing brings greater happiness in life than to serve a cause greater than yourself.”
John McCain (1936–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[I]nstitutions and communities need to be able to exploit their comparative advantages. It’s not just that the Marine Corps demands more from its members than the Peace Corps; it’s that the Marines demand different things. For some people, being a Marine would be a kind of living Hell; for others it is a reason to live. That’s what the individual pursuit of happiness means.”
Jonah Goldberg (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I don't particularly believe all love is doomed. But I guess, one is usually kinda suffering from some aborted love affair or association, rather than being at the peak of one. I think it's fairly obvious that a lot more suffering goes on in the name of love than the little happiness you can squeeze out of it. But I wouldn't like to dwell on it. Perhaps you could lighten up a bit.”
Nick Cave (born 1957) first seen 1988 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Blissed Out: The Raptures of Rock, by Simon Reynolds (1988)
“We are buried beneath the weight of information, which is being confused with knowledge; quantity is being confused with abundance and wealth with happiness....We are monkeys with money and guns.”
Tom Waits (born 1949) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview All Songs Considered, NPR, May 20, 2008
“Love is the master-key that opens the gates of happiness, of hatred, of jealousy, and, most easily of all, the gate of fear. How terrible is the one fact of beauty!”
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. (1809–1894) first seen 1885 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Mortal Antipathy (1885) ch. 20
“Every thought, every word, and every action that adds to the positive and the wholesome is a contribution to peace. Each and every one of us is capable of making such a contribution. Let us join hands to try to create a peaceful world where we can sleep in security and wake in happiness.”
Aung San Suu Kyi (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One who has drunk at the fountain of spiritual happiness says good-by of his own accord to the satisfactions that come from a higher professional status … What is the greatest sign of success for a teacher thus transformed? It is to be able to say, "The children are now working as if I did not exist.”
Maria Montessori (1870–1952) said by 1952 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Did you ever sum up these prizes and think how very little the millionaire has beyond the peasant, and how very often his additions tend not to happiness but to misery!”
Andrew Carnegie (1835–1919) said by 1919 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Happiness is the indication that man has found the answer to the problem of human existence: the productive realization of his potentialities and thus, simultaneously, being one with the world and preserving the integrity of his self. In spending his energy productively he increases his powers, he "burns without being consumed.”
Erich Fromm (1900–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It may be confidently asserted that no man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks. And the desire of rectifying these mistakes, is the noble ambition of an enlightened understanding, the impulse of feelings that Philosophy invigorates.”
Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797) first seen 1790 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Vindication of the Rights of Men (1790)
“Happiness! Can any human being undertake to define it for another?”
Dinah Craik (1826–1887) said by 1887 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Happiness is not an end — it is only a means, and adjunct, a consequence. The Omnipotent Himself could never be supposed by any, save those who out of their own human selfishness construct the attributes of Divinity, to be absorbed throughout eternity in the contemplation of His own ineffable bliss, were it not identical with His ineffable goodness and love.”
Dinah Craik (1826–1887) said by 1887 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is no happiness in love, except at the end of an English novel.”
Anthony Trollope (1815–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Happiness comes out of contentment, and contentment always comes out of service.”
Harbhajan Singh Yogi (1929–2004) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Treasury of Spiritual Wisdom : A Collection of 10, 000 Powerful Quotations (2003) by Andy Zubko, p. 71
“It is possible for every man to go deep within and saturate his conscious mind with inner happiness with that unlimited intelligence that dwells at the source of thought.”
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (1917–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And because the nature of inner being is bliss, infinite happiness, therefore the mind during TM takes that inward course in a most spontaneous manner.”
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (1917–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In this meditation we do not concentrate or control the mind. We let the mind follow its natural instinct toward greater happiness, and it goes within and it gains bliss consciousness in the being.”
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (1917–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“How to control my sex instinct so as to make it conduce my permanent happiness and not to disease, mental misery, and the wrecking of my career.”
Frank Crane (1861–1928) said by 1928 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Happiness is not pleasure — it is victory.”
Zig Ziglar (1926–2012) said by 2012 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To insist on racial divisions, on racial differences, in an already divided people, is to place obstacles in the way of public and individual happiness, which can only be obtained by bringing people together as a nation.”
José Martí (1853–1895) said by 1895 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Happiness exists on earth, and it is won through prudent exercise of reason, knowledge of the harmony of the universe, and constant practice of generosity. He who seeks it elsewhere will not find it for, having drunk from all the glasses of life, he will find satisfaction only in those.”
José Martí (1853–1895) said by 1895 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is happiness in duty, although it may not seem so. To fulfill one's duty elevates the soul to a state of constant sweetness. Love is the bond between men, the way to teach and the center of the world.”
José Martí (1853–1895) said by 1895 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For the majority of contemporary Americans, the essence of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness centers on a relentless personal quest to acquire, to consume, to indulge, and to shed whatever constraints might interfere with those endeavors.”
Andrew Bacevich (born 1947) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism (2008).
“It is time that we labored for the happiness of the people. Legislators who are to bring light and order into the world must pursue their course with inexorable tread, fearless and unswerving as the sun.”
Louis Antoine de Saint-Just (1767–1794) first seen 1792 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the National Convention (December 27, 1792). [Source: Oeuvres Complètes de Saint-Just, Vol. 1 (2 vols., Paris, 1908), p. 383]
“What produces the general good is always terrible or seems bizarre when begun too soon ... The Revolution must stop itself at the perfection of public happiness and liberty through the laws.”
Louis Antoine de Saint-Just (1767–1794) first seen 1794 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Fragment 3 (1794). [Source: Saint-Just, Fragments sur les institutions républicaines]
“Happiness is a new idea in Europe.”
Louis Antoine de Saint-Just (1767–1794) first seen 1794 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Sur le mode d'exécution du décret contre les ennemis de la Révolution, speech to the National Convention (March 3, 1794).
“This is a very old argument. The greatest happiness of the greatest number. If you think about it, you'll find it always works out that a few suffer for the good of the rest." "In stories," Gair agreed hopelessly. "brave men die defending the rest. But this isn't like that!" "Call it the modern version," Mr Claybury suggested kindly.”
Diana Wynne Jones (1934–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Happiness isn't a thing. You can't go out and get it like a cup of tea. It's the way you feel about things.”
Diana Wynne Jones (1934–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My own duty and my aim is to try and raise people out of their misery, away from catastrophe; to provide them with happiness, with a contented existence, with harmony. My own goal is to establish or re-establish harmony between people and their environment.”
Le Corbusier (1887–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Le Corbusier: Architect, Painter, Poet by Jean Jenger (1996).
“Happiness is a matter of one's most ordinary everyday mode of consciousness being busy and lively and unconcerned with self. To be damned is for one's ordinary everyday mode of consciousness to be unremitting agonising preoccupation with self.”
Iris Murdoch (1919–1999) first seen 1968 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Nice and the Good (1968), ch. 22.
“One of the keys to happiness is a bad memory.”
Rita Mae Brown (born 1944) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Chess is a game by its form, an art by its content and a science by the difficulty of gaining mastery in it. Chess can convey as much happiness as a good book or work of music can.”
Tigran Petrosian (1929–1984) said by 1984 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Better the myth of happiness,” Harlequin murmured, “than the myth of despair.”
Michael Moorcock (born 1939) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Somewhere you can hear them whimpering, as if the evidence of their own mortality were emphasised by the knowledge of other people’s happiness.”
Michael Moorcock (born 1939) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When we are collecting books, we are collecting happiness.”
Vincent Starrett (1886–1974) said by 1974 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Attributed to Starrett in Michael Dirda, On Conan Doyle: Or, The Whole Art of Storytelling (2012), page 112.
“Everything is what it is: liberty is liberty, not equality or fairness or justice or culture, or human happiness or a quiet conscience.”
Isaiah Berlin (1909–1997) said by 1997 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source