happiness - quotes

Helen (Adams) Keller, 1880-1968

was an US blind and deaf educator

Many persons have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.

Helen (Adams) Keller, 1880-1968

was an US blind and deaf educator

When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.

(Dr) Samuel Johnson, 1709-1784

was an English author, critic, and lexicographer

It is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust.

Thomas Jefferson, 1743-1826

was a 3rd president of US

I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.

John Stuart Mill, 1806-1873

was an English economist and philosopher

Those only are happy who have their minds fixed on some object other than their own happiness: on the happiness of others, on the improvement of mankind, even on some art or pursuit followed not as a means, but as itself an ideal end. Aiming at something else, they find happiness by the way.

François de La Rochefoucauld, 1613-1680

was a French author and moralist

We are more interested in making others believe we are happy than in trying to be happy ourselves.

George Bernard Shaw, 1856-1950

was an Irish dramatist and socialist

A lifetime of happiness! No man alive could bear it; it would be hell on earth.

George Santayana, 1863-1952

was an US (Spanish-born) philosopher

Happiness is the only sanction of life; where happiness fails, existence remains a mad and lamentable experiment.

( The Life of Reason, p 183, 1905 )

Don(ald Robert Perry) Marquis, 1878-1937

was an US humorist

Happiness is the interval between periods of unhappiness.

John Stuart Mill, 1806-1873

was an English economist and philosopher

Ask yourself whether you are happy and you cease to be so.

Marilyn Monroe, 1926-1962

was an US actress

It is better to be unhappy alone than unhappy with someone else.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882

was an US essayist and poet

Happiness is a perfume which you cannot pour on someone without getting some on yourself.

Robert (Lee) Frost, 1874-1963

was an American poet

Happiness makes up in height for what it lacks in length.

Henry David Thoreau, 1817-1862

was an US Transcendentalist author

Man is the artificer of his own happiness.

( Journal, January 21, 1838 )

Anatole France (François-Anatole Thibault), 1844-1924

was a French novelist

Ignorance is a necessary condition of human happiness, and it must be owned that in most cases we fulfill it well. We know almost nothing about ourselves; absolutely nothing about our neighbors. Ignorance constitutes our peace of mind; self- deception our felicity.

( “The Gods are Thirsty”, 1912 )