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Happiness

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“Happiness is the only sanction of life; where happiness fails, existence remains a mad and lamentable experiment.”
George Santayana (1863–1952) said by 1952 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Just as eunuchs will never know aesthetics as applied to the selection of beautiful women, so neither will pure rationalists ever know ethics, nor will they ever succeed in defining happiness, for happiness is a thing that is lived and felt, not a thing that is reasoned or defined.”
Miguel de Unamuno (1864–1936) said by 1936 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To use the established phrase, three months of uninterrupted happiness glided away—a phrase, though in frequent use, whose accuracy I greatly doubt ; there being no such thing as uninterrupted happiness any how or any where.”
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) said by 1838 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Happiness ! pleasure I should rather say, Happiness never made on earth a stay —”
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) first seen 1825 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: (5th June 1825) Portraits II
“The pursuit of individual happiness within those limits prescribed by social conditions, is the first requisite to the attainment of the greatest general happiness.”
Herbert Spencer (1820–1903) said by 1903 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Ethics (New York:1915), § 70, pp. 190-191
“In any country, regardless of what its laws say, wherever people act upon the idea that the disadvantage of one man is the good of another, there slavery exists. Wherever, in any country the whole people feel that the happiness of all is dependent upon the happiness of the weakest, there freedom exists.”
Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) first seen 1909 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: An Address on Abraham Lincoln before the Republican Club of New York City (12 February 1909)
“Seclusion is happiness for the content one, one who sees the Dhamma that was heard; No ill-will is happiness in the world, restraint to living beings.”
Gautama Buddha (501–501 BC) said by 501 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The end and aim of the Cynic philosophy, as indeed of every philosophy, is happiness, but happiness that consists in living according to nature, and not according to the opinions of the multitude.”
Julian (emperor) first seen 1913 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Oration to the Uneducated Cynics (tr. W. C. Wright, ii, 1913)
“Happiness is not achieved by the conscious pursuit of happiness; it is generally the by-product of other activities.”
Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) first seen 1945 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Religion and Time" in C. Isherwood (ed.) Vedanta for the Western World (1945)
“History is not the soil of happiness. The periods of happiness are blank pages in it.”
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831) said by 1831 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Variant, as translated by H. B. Nisbet (1975): History is not the soil in which happiness grows. The periods of happiness in it are the blank pages of history.
“The comedy is always the same. In the first act the hero imagines a place where happiness exists. In the second he strives towards that goal. In the third he comes up short or what amounts to the same thing he achieves his goal only to find that happiness lies a little further down the road.”
James Branch Cabell (1879–1958) first seen 1923 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Horvendile, in The High Place: A Comedy of Disenchantment (1923), Ch. XVI: Some Victims of Flamberge.
“I wanted your songs. You wanted my songs more than you wanted my happiness. So you took my happiness, and stole my songs.”
Orson Scott Card (born 1951) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Who does not see that we are likely to ascertain the distinctive significance of religious melancholy and happiness, or of religious trances, far better by comparing them as conscientiously as we can with other varieties of melancholy, happiness, and trance, than by refusing to consider their place in any more general series, and treating them as if they were outside of nature's order altogether?”
William James (1842–1910) said by 1910 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The most exciting happiness is the happiness generated by forces beyond your control.”
Ogden Nash (1902–1971) said by 1971 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Money is human happiness in the abstract: he, then, who is no longer capable of enjoying human happiness in the concrete devotes his heart entirely to money.”
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) said by 1860 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The sense of unhappiness is so much easier to convey than that of happiness. In misery we seem aware of our own existence, even though it may be in the form of a monstrous egotism: this pain of mine is individual, this nerve that winces belong to me and to no other. But happiness annihilates us: we lose our identity.”
Graham Greene (1904–1991) said by 1991 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Dr. Harshaw says that ’the word “love” designates a subjective condition in which the welfare and happiness of another person are essential to one’s own happiness.’”
Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988) said by 1988 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Happiness is a by-product. It is not a primary product of life. It is a thing which you suddenly realize you have because you're so delighted to be doing something which perhaps has nothing whatever to do with happiness.”
Robertson Davies (1913–1995) said by 1995 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Beauty was the promise of happiness, not happiness itself; and the anticipated world was often more rich than anything real.”
Kim Stanley Robinson (born 1952) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Understand the obstructions you are putting in the way of love, freedom, and happiness and they will drop. Turn on the light of awareness and the darkness will disappear. Happiness is not something you acquire; love is not something you produce; love is not something you have; love is something that has you.”
Anthony de Mello (1931–1987) said by 1987 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The happiness which is lacking makes one think even the happiness one has unbearable.”
Joseph Roux (1834–1905) said by 1905 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Truth is not always the best basis for happiness. There are certain lies which may constitute a far better and more secure foundation of happiness. There are people who perish when their eyes are opened.”
Wilhelm Stekel (1868–1940) said by 1940 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If someone says that giving is the key to happiness, isn't he saying that's the key to his happiness? To assume that his opinions are binding upon you is a common form of the Identity Trap.”
Harry Browne (1933–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“How simple and frugal a thing is happiness: a glass of wine, a roast chestnut, a wretched little brazier, the sound of the sea. ... All that is required to feel that here and now is happiness is a simple, frugal heart.”
Nikos Kazantzakis (1883–1957) said by 1957 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Once more I realized to what an extent earthly happiness is made to the measure of man. It is not a rare bird which we must pursue at one moment in heaven, at the next in our minds. Happiness is a domestic bird found in our own courtyards.”
Nikos Kazantzakis (1883–1957) said by 1957 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I refuse to accept other people's ideas of happiness for me. As if there's a "one size fits all" standard for happiness”
Kanye West (born 1977) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To love is to be delighted by the happiness of someone, or to experience pleasure upon the happiness of another. I define this as true love.”
Gottfried Leibniz (1646–1716) first seen 1677 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Elements of True Piety (c. 1677), The Shorter Leibniz Texts (2006) edited by Lloyd H. Strickland, p. 189
“At the end of the day, happiness is derived from love — love for others and others’ love for you. When I say “love” I do not mean simply romantic love, though that is obviously one of the greatest wellsprings of true happiness. I mean the love one feels from friends, and the love for places and things that brings people together for shared purpose.”
Jonah Goldberg (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The essence of love is getting out of oneself and into others. When we care less about our feelings, our rights, our happiness, our security, etc., and begin to concern ourselves with the feelings, rights, happiness, and security of others, we will have found the true power of love.”
Leo Buscaglia (1924–1998) said by 1998 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Happiness will never come if it's a goal in itself; happiness is a by-product of a commitment to worthy causes.”
Norman Vincent Peale (1898–1993) first seen 1992 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Power of Positive Living (1992), p. 63
“When God loves a creature he wants the creature to know the highest happiness and the deepest misery … He wants him to know all that being alive can bring. That is his best gift…. There is no happiness save in understanding the whole.”
Thornton Wilder (1897–1975) said by 1975 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I do not like the idea of happiness — it is too momentary — I would say that I was always busy and interested in something — interest has more meaning to me than the idea of happiness.”
Georgia O'Keeffe (1887–1986) first seen 1968 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In notes to Anita Pollitzer, Abiquiu, New Mexico, (after February, 1968); as quoted in The Complete Correspondence of Georgia O’Keeffe & Anita Pollitzer, ed. Clive Giboire, Touchstone Books, Simon & Schuster Inc., New Y…
“The greatest happiness you can have is knowing that you do not necessarily require happiness.”
William Saroyan (1908–1981) said by 1981 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A man forced to spend his life without ever having the right, without ever finding the time, to shut himself up all alone, no matter where, to think, to reflect, to work, to dream? Ah! my dear boy, a key, the key of a door which one can lock — this is happiness, mark you, the only happiness!”
Guy de Maupassant (1850–1893) said by 1893 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The happiness of God-realization is self-sustained, eternally fresh and unfailing, boundless and indescribable. And it is for this happiness that the world has sprung into existence.”
Meher Baba (1894–1969) first seen 1955 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Message of 1955, in God Speaks : The Theme of Creation and Its Purpose (1973), p. 139.
“Happiness in this world, when it comes, comes incidentally. Make it the object of pursuit, and it leads us a wild-goose chase, and is never attained. Follow some other object, and very possibly we may find that we have caught happiness without dreaming of it.”
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–1864) first seen 1851 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1851
“Happiness has no limits, because God has neither bottom nor bounds, and because happiness is nothing but the conquest of God through love.”
Henri-Frédéric Amiel (1821–1881) first seen 1853 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 27 October 1853
“I have never been one of those who cares about happiness. Happiness is a strange notion. I am just not made for it. It has never been a goal of mine; I do not think in those terms.”
Werner Herzog (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“After Nietzsche’s devastating criticism of those “last men” who “invented happiness,” there is probably no need for me to remind you of the naïve optimism with which we once celebrated science, or the technology for the mastery of life based on it, as the path to happiness. Who believes this, apart from a few overgrown children occupying university chairs or editorial offices?”
Max Weber (1864–1920) said by 1920 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Happiness flourishes where there is happiness, and love withers quickly in an atmosphere of constraint and gloom.”
André Maurois (1885–1967) said by 1967 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Meditation … puts into question more or less everything you tend to do in your search for happiness. But if you lose sight of this, it can become just another strategy for seeking happiness—a more refined version of the problem you already have.”
Sam Harris (born 1967) first seen 2014 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Sam Harris, Taming the Mind (April 12, 2014)
“I would say that happiness lies in serving the Land. And I would say that there is no happiness in times of war.”
Stephen R. Donaldson (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I would cling to unhappiness because it was a known, familiar state. When I was happier, it was because I knew I was on my way back to misery. I've never been convinced that happiness is the object of the game. I'm wary of happiness.”
Hugh Laurie (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is because these characters depend to such a high degree on their own sense of integrity that for them, victory has nothing to do with happiness. It has more to do with a settling within oneself, a movement inward that makes them whole. Their reward is not happiness — a word that is central in Austen's novels but is seldom used in James's universe. What James's characters gain is self-respect.”
Azar Nafisi (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Those two, in paradise, were given a choice: happiness without freedom, or freedom without happiness. There was no third alternative.”
Yevgeny Zamyatin (1884–1937) said by 1937 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The two inhabitants of Paradise were given the opportunity to choose: happiness without freedom or freedom without happiness; tertium non datur. And they, donkeys, chose freedom: so what? You understand: then they regretted the chains for centuries.”
Yevgeny Zamyatin (1884–1937) said by 1937 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Giulia Giaume, Noi, o di come nacque la distopia, in Arttrubune.com (in Italian; October 25, 2024)
“The secret of happiness is to admire without desiring. And that is not happiness.”
F. H. Bradley (1846–1924) said by 1924 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Liberal relativism has its roots in the natural right tradition of tolerance or in the notion that everyone has a natural right to the pursuit of happiness as he understands happiness; but in itself it is a seminary of intolerance.”
Leo Strauss (1899–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“he said, 'Madam—may I presume?'—and stopped, offering to take my hand. I...could scarce forbear laughing. 'Allow me, Madam,' continuing he, affectedly breaking off every half moment, 'the honour and happiness...the happiness and honor...'”
Frances Burney (1752–1840) said by 1840 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It was not often that Flay approved of happiness in others. He saw in happiness the seeds of independence, and in independence the seeds of revolt.”
Mervyn Peake (1911–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source