Happy Quotes

Each happiness quote below is arranged in general categories for ease of use. They were chosen to provide encouragement, food for thought, and a check on our own views of happiness.

Some of the messages may sound basic or quaint, but there is wisdom in the words. Many highlight attitudes and practices that promote happiness.

When we are aligned with these sayings we feel inspired and positive. Other quotes point out attitudes that interfere with our personal sense of well-being. We can use these to find attitudes and beliefs that need healing.

Being happy is a fundamental desire. It is ultimately behind many of our goals and dreams. If you are struggling with how to find happiness for yourself, I encourage you to find a happiness quote or two that really speaks to you. Then read the section below for ideas on using it for healing and self-growth.

Happy Quotes - Money and Things

We have no more right to consume happiness without producing it than to consume wealth without producing it. ~George Bernard Shaw

Happiness grows at our own firesides, and is not to be picked in strangers' gardens. ~Douglas Jerrold

We tend to forget that happiness doesn't come as a result of getting something we don't have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have. ~Frederick Keonig

Often people attempt to live their lives backwards; they try to have more things, or more money, in order to do more of what they want, so they will be happier. The way it actually works is the reverse. You must first be who you really are, then do what you need to do, in order to have what you want. ~Margaret Youn

We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements in life, when all we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about. ~Charles Kingsley

Money never made a man happy yet, nor will it. There is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. The more a man has, the more he wants. Instead of filling a vacuum, it makes one. ~Benjamin Franklin

It isn't what you have, or who you are, or where you are, or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about.
~Dale Carnegie

Until you make peace with who you are, you'll never be content with what you have. ~Doris Mortman

Happy Quotes - Positive Attitudes

You must love yourself before you love another. By accepting yourself and fully being what you are, your simple presence can make others happy. ~Author Unknown

A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery while on a detour. ~Author Unknown

Happiness is a function of accepting what is. ~Werner Erhard

Happiness is a conscious choice, not an automatic response.
~Mildred Barthel

Being happy doesn't mean everything is perfect. It means you have decided to look beyond the imperfections. ~Author Unknown

If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance. ~George Bernard Shaw

One joy scatters a hundred griefs. ~Chinese Proverb

On the whole, the happiest people seem to be those who have no particular cause for being happy except that they are so. ~William R. Inge

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony. ~Mahatma Gandhi

Happy Quotes - Reasons for Unhappiness

Most people would rather be certain they’re miserable, than risk being happy. ~Robert Anthony

The reason people find it so hard to be happy is that they always see the past better than it was, the present worse than it is, and the future less resolved than it will be. ~Marcel Pagnol

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 opened for us. ~Helen Keller

A man's as miserable as he thinks he is. ~Seneca

Misery is almost always the result of thinking. ~Joseph Joubert

For every minute you are angry, you lose sixty seconds of happiness. ~Author Unknown

The happiness of most people is not ruined by great catastrophes or fatal errors, but by the repetition of slowly destructive little things.
~Ernest Dimnet

If there were in the world today any large number of people who desired their own happiness more than they desired the unhappiness of others, we could have a paradise in a few years. ~Bertrand Russell

Happy Quotes - The Pursuit of Happiness

The art of living does not consist in preserving and clinging to a particular mode of happiness, but in allowing happiness tochange its form without being disappointed by the change; happiness, like a child, must be allowed to grow up. ~Charles L. Morgan

Now and then it's good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy. ~Guilaume Apollinaire

Some pursue happiness, others create it. ~Author Unknown

If you observe a really happy man you will find him building a boat, writing a symphony, educating his son, growing double dahlias in his garden, or looking for dinosaur eggs in the Gobi desert. He will not be searching for happiness as if it were a collar button that has rolled under the radiator. He will not be striving for it as a goal in itself. He will have become aware that he is happy in the course of living life twenty-four crowded hours of the day. ~W. Beran Wolfe

Happiness is not a state to arrive at, but a manner of traveling.
~Margaret Lee Runbeck

Happy Quotes - Follow Your Bliss

Happy are those who dream dreams and are ready to pay the price to make them come true. ~Leon Joseph Cardinal Suenens

This life is yours. Take the power to choose what you want to do and do it well. Take the power to love what you want in life and love it honestly. Take the power to walk in the forest and be a part of nature. Take the power to control your own life. No one else can do it for you. Take the power to make your life happy. ~Susan Polis Schutz

The way to find out about happiness is to keep your mind on those moments when you feel most happy, when you are really happy — not excited, not just thrilled, but deeply happy. This requires a little bit of self-analysis. What is it that makes you happy? Stay with it, no matter what people tell you. This is what is called following your bliss. ~Joseph Campbell

"Follow your bliss. If you do follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while waiting for you, and the life you ought to be living is the one you are living.

When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in the field of your bliss, and they open the doors to you. I say, follow your bliss and don't be afraid, and doors will openwhere you didn't know they were going to be. If you follow your bliss, doors will open for you that wouldn't have opened for anyone else." ~Joseph Campbell

Using Happy Quotes for Healing and Self-Growth

Did you feel sad or angry when reading some of the quotes?

It's tempting to feel bad about ourselves when we see areas where we fall short. That isn't helpful. Instead, think of these happy quotes as lights shining on the areas where growth and healing are needed. We all have them. We can only heal what we see and acknowledge. That's the first step.

Perhaps you took exception to a happy quote? That's okay. We all have different beliefs. Consider exploring your attitudes and beliefs to see if you do find a kernel of truth in it. Do you have a victim or entitlement mentality? Are there wounds that need to be healed?

Meridian tapping techniques and/or spiritual practices could be beneficial to you, depending on your needs.

Also check out What Makes People Happy. If you are feeling very down, are in a fragile mental state, please consult your health care provider for help and advice before using any of these self-help methods.

Which happiness quote inspired happy or hopeful feeling in you?

Post your happy quotes around your living and work space to inspire and uplift you often. Use them as healing affirmations or as motivational tools as you create your own happiness wherever you are.



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