Happiness is something we all want in our lives. It’s those little moments that make life special. Whether it’s a warm hug, a sunny morning, or just a good laugh with friends, happiness can pop up in so many ways. Sometimes, a simple quote can brighten our day and give us a new perspective.
So, I’ve gathered some of the best quotes about happiness, from well-known figures to a few personal favorites. They’re all about finding joy, sharing love, and appreciating life.
Table of Contents
Short Quotes About Happiness
- “Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions.” — Dalai Lama
- “For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
- “Happiness depends upon ourselves.” — Aristotle
- “Be happy with what you have. Be excited about what you want.” — Alan Cohen
- “Happiness is a warm puppy.” — Charles M. Schulz
- “Happiness is the best makeup.” — Drew Barrymore
- “Happiness is only real when shared.” — Chris McCandless
- “The purpose of our lives is to be happy.” — Dalai Lama
- “Smile, it is the key that fits the lock of everybody’s heart.” — Anthony J. D’Angelo
- “Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life.” — Omar Khayyam
- “Happiness depends upon ourselves.” — Aristotle
- “The secret of happiness is to admire without desiring.” — Carl Sandburg
- “There is no path to happiness; happiness is the path.” — Buddha
- “Happiness is not by chance, but by choice.” — Jim Rohn
- “Happiness is only real when shared.” — Jon Krakauer
- “Happiness is not a goal; it’s a by-product of a life well-lived.” — Eleanor Roosevelt
- “Life is short, and it is up to you to make it sweet.” — Sarah Louise Delany
- “Happiness is the secret to all beauty.” — Christian Dior
- “It is more fitting for a man to laugh at life than to lament over it.” — Seneca
Wisdom on Happiness
- “Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.” — Mahatma Gandhi
- “The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.” — Marcus Aurelius
- “True happiness arises, in the first place, from the enjoyment of one’s self.” — Joseph Addison
- “The greatest happiness you can have is knowing that you do not necessarily require happiness.” — William Saroyan
- “Happiness is not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt
- “The art of being happy lies in the power of extracting happiness from common things.” — Henry Ward Beecher
- “Happiness is not found in things you possess, but in what you have the courage to release.” — Nathaniel Hawthorne
- “True happiness is… to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future.” — Lucius Annaeus Seneca
- “There is only one happiness in this life, to love and be loved.” — George Sand
- “Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be.” — Abraham Lincoln
- “Happiness not in another place but this place, not for another hour but this hour.” — Walt Whitman
- “It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness.” — Charles Spurgeon
- “There is no way to happiness—happiness is the way.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
Practical Happiness Advice
- “Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action.” — William James
- “The best way to cheer yourself is to try to cheer someone else up.” — Mark Twain
- “If you want happiness for an hour, take a nap. If you want happiness for a day, go fishing. If you want happiness for a year, inherit a fortune. If you want happiness for a lifetime, help someone.” — Chinese Proverb
- “Count your age by friends, not years. Count your life by smiles, not tears.” — John Lennon
- “To be kind to all, to like many and love a few, to be needed and wanted by those we love, is certainly the nearest we can come to happiness.” — Mary Stuart
- “Happiness is a habit – cultivate it.” — Elbert Hubbard
- “Learn to let go. That is the key to happiness.” — Buddha
- “Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.” — Robert Brault
- “Happiness is often the result of being too busy to be miserable.” — Unknown
- “The happiest people don’t have the best of everything; they make the best of everything.” — Unknown
- “Happiness is not the absence of problems, it’s the ability to deal with them.” — Steve Maraboli
- “The key to being happy is knowing you have the power to choose what to accept and what to let go.” — Dodinsky
- “Happiness doesn’t result from what we get, but from what we give.” — Ben Carson
- “Happiness is not something you postpone for the future; it is something you design for the present.” — Jim Rohn
- “Surround yourself with only people who are going to lift you higher.” — Oprah Winfrey
- “Do not set aside your happiness. Do not wait to be happy in the future. The best time to be happy is always now.” — Roy T. Bennett
- “Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times if one only remembers to turn on the light.” — Albus Dumbledore, J.K. Rowling
Happiness in Life
- “The most important thing is to enjoy your life—to be happy—it’s all that matters.” — Audrey Hepburn
- “A calm and modest life brings more happiness than the pursuit of success combined with constant restlessness.” — Albert Einstein
- “The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.” — Eleanor Roosevelt
- “The moments of happiness we enjoy take us by surprise. It is not that we seize them, but that they seize us.” — Ashley Montagu
- “Happiness is living in the moment with a mind free from worry.” — Unknown
- “Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.” — Maya Angelou
- “Happiness often sneaks in through a door you didn’t know you left open.” — John Barrymore
- “Life is full of happiness and tears; be strong and have faith.” — Kareena Kapoor Khan
- “Life’s greatest happiness is to be convinced we are loved.” — Victor Hugo
- “Enjoy life. There’s plenty of time to be dead.” — Hans Christian Andersen
- “Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn, or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude.” — Denis Waitley
- “Life is a journey, and if you fall in love with the journey, you will be in love forever.” — Peter Hagerty
- “Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
- “Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word happy would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.” — Carl Jung
Happiness in Relationships
- “The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved; loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves.” — Victor Hugo
- “Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.” — Robert A. Heinlein
- “Happiness grows at our own firesides, and is not to be picked in strangers’ gardens.” — Douglas William Jerrold
- “Shared joy is a double joy; shared sorrow is half a sorrow.” — Swedish Proverb
- “The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.” — Helen Keller
- “Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city.” — George Burns
- “The happiest moments of my life have been the few which I have passed at home in the bosom of my family.” — Thomas Jefferson
- “To get the full value of joy you must have someone to divide it with.” — Mark Twain
Spreading Happiness to Others
- “Happiness held is the seed; happiness shared is the flower.” — John Harrigan
- “Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.” — Buddha
- “Making one person smile can change the world—maybe not the whole world, but their world.” — John Spence
- “If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.” — Dalai Lama
- “Happiness is a perfume you cannot pour on others without getting some on yourself.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
Humorous Takes on Happiness
- “All happiness depends on a leisurely breakfast.” — John Gunther
- “Money can’t buy happiness, but it can make you awfully comfortable while you’re being miserable.” — Clare Boothe Luce
- “The only thing that will make you happy is being happy with who you are.” — Goldie Hawn
- “You can’t buy happiness, but you can buy ice cream and that is pretty much the same thing.” — Unknown
- “If you’re too busy to laugh, you are too busy.” — Proverb
- “If you find it hard to laugh at yourself, I would be happy to do it for you.” — Groucho Marx
Final Thoughts
I like to think that happiness is hand-made, crafted from the little moments and the lessons we pick up along the way. So, take these quotes with you. Scribble them on sticky notes or tuck them into your memory.
Feel free to come back to these quotes whenever you need a little boost. Sharing happiness with others can make the world a brighter place. So, why not spread these quotes and make someone’s day a bit happier?
