Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.

Abraham Lincoln (1809 - 1865)

The secret of happiness is to make others believe they are the cause of it.

Al Batt, in National Enquirer¹

Happiness is nothing more than good health and a bad memory.

Albert Schweitzer (1875 - 1965)

The happiness of a man in this life does not consist in the absence but in the mastery of his passions.

Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809 - 1892)

A person is never happy except at the price of some ignorance.

Anatole France (1844 - 1924)

Happiness arises in a state of peace, not of tumult².

Ann Radcliffe (1764 - 1823), The Mysteries of Udolpho, 1764

The discovery of a new dish does more for human happiness than the discovery of a new star.

Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1755 - 1826), Physiologie du Gout, 1825

Happiness depends upon ourselves.

Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC)

Happiness is that state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one's values.

Ayn Rand (1905 - 1982)

Do not weep; do not wax indignant. Understand.

Baruch Spinoza (1632 - 1677)

Content makes poor men rich; discontentment makes rich men poor.

Benjamin Franklin (1706 - 1790)

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 paradise in a few years.

Bertrand Russell (1872 - 1970)

All I can say about life is, Oh God, enjoy it!

Bob Newhart (1929 - )

The pursuit of happiness is a most ridiculous phrase; if you pursue happiness you'll never find it.

C. P. Snow (1905 - 1980)

Happiness is not the absence of problems, but the ability to deal with them.

Charles de Montesquieu (1689 - 1755)

Cherish all your happy moments: they make a fine cushion for old age.

Christopher Morley (1890 - 1957)

This is the best kind of voyeurism³, hearing joy from your neighbors.

Chuck Sigars, The World According to Chuck weblog, October 14, 2003

With coarse rice to eat, with water to drink, and my bended arm for a pillow - I have still joy in the midst of these things. Riches and honors acquired by unrighteousness are to me as a floating cloud.

Confucius (551 BC - 479 BC), The Confucian Analects

Sometimes it's hard to avoid the happiness of others.

David Assael, Northern Exposure, Our Tribe, 1992

He wanted to live life in such a way that if a photograph were taken at random⁴ it would be a cool photograph. Things should look right. Fun; there should be a lot of fun and no more sadness than absolutely necessary.

David Nicholls, One Day, 2010

All sanity⁵ depends on this: that it should be a delight to feel heat strike the skin, a delight to stand upright, knowing the bones are moving easily under the flesh.

Doris Lessing

Slow down and enjoy life. It's not only the scenery you miss by going too fast - you also miss the sense of where you are going and why.

Eddie Cantor (1892 - 1964)

Happiness is a mystery like religion, and should never be rationalized.

G. K. Chesterton (1874 - 1936)

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

George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950), "Man and Superman" (1903), act I

Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city.

George Burns (1896 - 1996)

Happiness is the only sanction of life; where happiness fails, existence remains⁶ a mad and lamentable⁷ experiment.

George Santayana (1863 - 1952)

To be stupid, selfish, and have good health are three requirements for happiness, though if stupidity is lacking, all is lost.

Gustave Flaubert (1821 - 1880)

Many persons have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained⁸ through self-gratification but through fidelity⁹ to a worthy¹⁰ purpose.

Helen Keller (1880 - 1968)

Man is the artificer of his own happiness.

Henry David Thoreau (1817 - 1862), Journal, January 21, 1838

If we cannot live so as to be happy, let us least live so as to deserve it.

Immanuel Hermann Fichte