Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,161,747 quotes Who coined it · How we decide
EnglishItalianoPolskiעבריתFrançaisPortuguêsفارسیEspañol中文РусскийDeutschالعربيةहिन्दी日本語ΕλληνικάLatinaNederlands
Happiness
LoveFriendshipHappinessHopeFearCourageDeathLifeTimeWarPeaceFreedomTruthWisdomKnowledgeScienceArtMusicNatureMoneyWorkPowerGodBeautyLaughterFamilySuccess and failureChangeDreamsBooks and reading
“Benefactor of the Human Race,—I avowed myself on the hustings this day to be a ‘Benthamite,’ and explained the leading principles of your disciples—the ‘greatest happiness principle’—our sect will prosper. I begin my parliamentary career by tendering you my constant, zealous, and active services in the promotion of that principle. You have now one Member of Parliament your own.”
Daniel O'Connell (1775–1847) first seen 1829 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Jeremy Bentham (30 July 1829), quoted in The Works of Jeremy Bentham, Vol. XI (1843), p. 20
“The security and happiness of all minority groups in South Africa depend on the Afrikaner. Whether they are English- or German- or Portuguese- or Italian-speaking, or even Jewish-speaking, makes no difference.”
P. W. Botha (1916–2006) first seen 1981 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speaking to the House of Assembly on February 20, 1981, as cited by Andrew Donaldson, Sunday Times, 5 November 2006
“'Once upon a time there was a lady. She had no children, and no happiness either. And at first she cried for a long time, but then she became wicked . . .'”
Mikhail Bulgakov (1891–1940) said by 1940 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The hope that she might regain her happiness made her fearless.”
Mikhail Bulgakov (1891–1940) said by 1940 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is no happiness in life, there is no misery, like that growing out of the dispositions which consecrate or desecrate a Home.”
Edwin Hubbell Chapin (1814–1880) said by 1880 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Thinking more of others’ happiness than of her own was very fine; but did it not mean giving up her very individuality, quenching all the warm love, the true desires, that made her herself? Yet in this deadness lay her only comfort; so it seemed.”
Elizabeth Gaskell (1810–1865) said by 1865 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am convinced that those societies (as the Indians) which live without government enjoy in their general mass an infinitely greater degree of happiness than those who live under the European governments.”
Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) first seen 1787 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Colonel Edward Carrington, Paris, (16 January 1787)
“Believing that the happiness of mankind is best promoted by the useful pursuits of peace, that on these alone a stable prosperity can be founded, that the evils of war are great in their endurance, and have a long reckoning for ages to come, I have used my best endeavors to keep our country uncommitted in the troubles which afflict Europe, and which assail us on every side.”
Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) said by 1826 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Blest is that nation whose silent course of happiness furnishes nothing for history to say.”
Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) first seen 1807 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Count Diodati (29 March 1807)
“If, in my retirement to the humble station of a private citizen, I am accompanied with the esteem and approbation of my fellow citizens, trophies obtained by the blood-stained steel, or the tattered flags of the tented field, will never be envied. The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only legitimate object of good government.”
Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) said by 1826 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The doctrines of Jesus are simple, and tend all to the happiness of man.”
Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) said by 1826 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As a result we shall have the necessary variety of clothes, even if the people of a given city lack the imagination themselves. The happiness of our Futurist clothes will help to spread the kind of good humour aimed at by my great friend PaIazzeschi in his futurist 'Manifesto against Sadness'.”
Giacomo Balla (1871–1958) first seen 1913 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: (Manuscript, 1913); as quoted at dekorera.tumblr: futurist manifesto of men's clothing
“I think happiness comes from self-acceptance. We all try different things, and we find some comfortable sense of who we are. We look at our parents and learn and grow and move on. We change.”
Jamie Lee Curtis (born 1958) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nevertheless, the motto of Garveyism appealed to me.— “One God, One Aim, One Destiny’—and I resolved to formulate my philosophy of life, so far as was practicable, towards the evangelisation of universal fatherhood, universal brotherhood, and universal happiness.”
Nnamdi Azikiwe (1904–1996) said by 1996 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You may rejoice to think yourselves secure, You may be grateful for the gift divine, That grace unsought which made your black hearts pure And fits your earthborn souls in Heaven to shine. But is it sweet to look around and view Thousands excluded from that happiness, Which they deserve at least as much as you, Their faults not greater nor their virtues less?”
Anne Brontë (1820–1849) said by 1849 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But then to wake and find it flown, The dream of happiness destroyed, To find myself unloved, alone, What tongue can speak the dreary void? A heart whence warm affections flow, Creator, thou hast given to me, And am I only thus to know How sweet the joys of love would be?”
Anne Brontë (1820–1849) said by 1849 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The greater the happiness that nature sets before me, the more I lament that he is not here to taste it: the greater the bliss we might enjoy together, the more I feel our present wretchedness apart.”
Anne Brontë (1820–1849) said by 1849 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Increase of love brings increase of happiness, when it is mutual, and pure as that will be.”
Anne Brontë (1820–1849) said by 1849 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“So he's got to have happiness, he's got to have truth, too, he's got to have eternity — did you ever!”
Wisława Szymborska (1923–2012) said by 2012 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Only a radical cleaning of social and artistic life as, in the domain of art, is already done by Dada, which is anti-sentimental and healthy to the core, since it is anti-art. Only unscrupulously striking down any systematically bred amateurism in any field, can prepare civilization for the 'New Vision's happiness which is greatly and purely alive in a dew people.”
Theo van Doesburg (1883–1931) first seen 1920 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote from Van Doesburg's article: 'Is a Universal Plastic Notion Possible Today?', as cited in 'Bouwkundig weekblad' [a Dutch architectural magazine], XLI 39, 1920, pp. 230–231
“That house with its remoteness and the islands going down like soft gongs all the time into the amazing blue, and I shall never,never ever forget a youth spent there, discovered by accident. It was pure gold. But then of course … youth does mean happiness, it does mean love, and that's something you can't get over.”
Lawrence Durrell (1912–1990) first seen 1975 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: About the pre-WWII days in Kalami on Corfu (1975), as quoted in Amateurs in Eden (2011) by Joanna Hodgkin, p. 6
“The strange superstition has arisen in the Western world that we can start all over again, remaking human nature, human society, and the possibilities of happiness; as though the knowledge and experience of our ancestors were now entirely irrelevant.”
Roger Scruton (1944–2020) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Gentle Regrets: Thoughts from a Life (2005)
“The great mistake of the reformers is to believe that life begins and ends with health, and that happiness begins and ends with a full stomach and the power to enjoy physical pleasures, even of the finer kind.”
Katharine Fullerton Gerould (1879–1944) said by 1944 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Every discord is a harmony not understood. Happiness is a disease, and pain, a medicine.”
Swami Narayanananda (1902–1988) first seen 1945 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Way to Peace, Power and Long Life (1945), p. 121 (2001 edition)
“One writes because one has a burning desire to objectify what it is indispensable to one's happiness to express.”
Marianne Moore (1887–1972) first seen 1958 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Idiosyncrasy and Technique 1958
“I try to forget what happiness was, and when that don't work, I study the stars.”
Derek Walcott (1930–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It's afterwards you realize that the feeling of happiness you had with a man didn't necessarily prove that you loved him.”
Marguerite Duras (1914–1996) first seen 1987 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Chimneys of India Song, from Practicalities (1987, trans. 1990).
“Although Freud said happiness is composed of love and work, reality often forces us to choose love or work.”
Letty Cottin Pogrebin (born 1939) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If our definition of happiness is "experiencing that which is pleasurable," we are going to be disappointed a lot of the time.”
Noah Levine (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“An act of goodness is of itself an act of happiness. No reward coming after the event can compare with the sweet reward that went with it.”
Maurice Maeterlinck (1862–1949) said by 1949 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in The New Dictionary of Thoughts: A Cyclopedia of Quotations (1960) by Tryon Edwards and C. N. Catrevas, p. 259
“Never mind... Don't cry... I will catch him again... [Stepping to the front of the stage and addressing the audience.] If any of you should find him, would you be so very kind as to give him back to us?... We need him for our happiness, later on...”
Maurice Maeterlinck (1862–1949) said by 1949 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Glamour cannot exist without personal social envy being a common and widespread emotion. The industrial society which has moved towards democracy and then stopped half way is the ideal society for generating such an emotion. The pursuit of individual happiness has been acknowledged as a universal right. Yet the existing social conditions make the individual feel powerless.”
John Berger (1926–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Freud's prescription for personal happiness as consisting of work and love must be taken with the proviso that the work has to be loved, and the love has to be worked at.”
Sydney J. Harris (1917–1986) said by 1986 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[T]hink of many things. Never place your happiness in one person’s power. Be just to yourself.”
Vikram Seth (born 1952) first seen 1993 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Suitable Boy (1993) 17.4
“We fall short when we ascribe all the modes of happiness to walking in paths of rectitude. There are joys which only tramps and thieves know.”
Henry S. Haskins (1875–1957) said by 1957 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As to pay, Sir, I beg leave to assure the Congress that as no pecuniary consideration could have tempted me to accept this arduous employment at the expense of my domestic ease and happiness, I do not wish to make any profit from it.”
George Washington (1732–1799) first seen 1775 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Acceptance speech after being "elected" by the Continental Congress as commander of the yet-to-be-created Continental Army (15 June 1775)
“The golden toad was the first documented victim of global warming. We had killed it with our profligate use of coal-fired electricity and our oversize cars just as surely as if we had flattened its forest with bulldozers. It was as if, having experienced it, we did not recognize what happiness was.”
Tim Flannery (born 1956) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Calm and peaceful mind/ Prevents us from being a slave to the other/ Ana makde us in charge of/ Our own happiness and fulfilment.”
Kuruvilla Pandikattu (born 1957) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The more you chase happiness, the faster it runs. Stand still. Be still. It finds you.”
Kuruvilla Pandikattu (born 1957) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Real happiness is cheap enough, yet how dearly we pay for its counterfeit.”
Hosea Ballou (1771–1852) said by 1852 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Manuscript, Sermons; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 350.
“But it may be that there is happiness in the very things we rejected - in work and responsibility. In the rearing of children and in the challenge of permanent love.”
Edmund Cooper (1926–1982) said by 1982 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Learning to cherish others is the best solution to our daily problems, and it is the source of all our future happiness and good fortune.”
Kelsang Gyatso (1931–2022) first seen 2011 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Modern Buddhism: The Path of Compassion and Wisdom (2011)
“Happiness and suffering are states of mind and so their main causes are not to be found outside the mind.”
Kelsang Gyatso (1931–2022) first seen 2011 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Modern Buddhism: The Path of Compassion and Wisdom (2011)
“I loved too much and by such and such is happiness thrown away.”
Patrick Kavanagh (1904–1967) said by 1967 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Happiness may be difficult to obtain. The obstacles are not primarily financial.”
Alain de Botton (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Berlusconi today is essentially a lonely person, trying to buy a happiness he does not have. My feelings for him are of humana pietas. And anger towards the courtiers who take advantage of him, who feed off him, who further humiliate the institutions, hiding behind his face.”
Antonio Di Pietro (born 1950) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Three coins in a fountain Each one seeking happiness Thrown by three hopeful lovers Which one will the fountain bless?”
Sammy Cahn (1913–1993) first seen 1954 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Three Coins in a Fountain (1954)
“Happiness, like water, is always available, but so often it seems we’d prefer a different drink.”
James Richardson (born 1950) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The achievement of happiness requires not the ... satisfaction of our needs ... but the examination and transformation of those needs.”
Stanley Cavell (1926–2018) first seen 1984 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Pursuits of Happiness (1984)
“For me there’s no good or bad, as long as I’m feeling everything to the greatest degree, whether it’s sadness or happiness.”
Paz de la Huerta (born 1984) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source