It’s a classic… Every so often, the bac exams in philosophy provide their share of happiness quotes, which get students to work hard for hours on end. However, happiness, in addition to getting high school students and great philosophers to write essays, is a subject that inspires us all! Indeed, who among us doesn’t want to be happy?
Everywhere, everyone talks about it! With our friends, in magazines, on the internet, on TV, at work. Simple happiness, happiness together, family happiness, happiness at work, personal happiness, happiness to live, happiness here, happiness there… While for some, happiness is found in the very simple things in life, others feel happy by pursuing big projects. Some say they have experienced happiness only a few times in their life and then let it escape, while others claim that it is possible to attain it every day in the wan and discreet light of each morning.
And for you, what is happiness? Joy, peace, simplicity, self-realization, impossible quest, perspective on life?
I’m giving you an overview of feel-good phrases and happiness quotes to light up your daily life: 140 quotes among which you should, of course, find the quote that fits your idea of what happiness is!
Let’s dive in, happiness won’t wait!
“Happiness is…” Quotes
- “Happiness is when you want tomorrow to be another today.”
Bernard Werber
- “Happiness is the smell of coffee, rarely its taste.”
French proverb
- “Happiness is to continue to desire what one possesses.”
Saint Augustine
- “Happiness is pleasure without remorse.”
Socrates
- “Happiness is knowing what you want and wanting it passionately.”
Félicien Marceau
- “Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”
- “Happiness is good health and a bad memory.”
Ingrid Bergman
- “Happiness is about feeling beautiful in the eyes of others.”
Albert Jacquard
- “Happiness is well-being of which we become aware.”
Christophe André
- “Happiness is to be happy, not to make others believe that you are.”
Jules Renard
- “Happiness is the ability to find joy in anything.”
Alexandre Jollien
- “Happiness is finding joy in what you give, not in what you earn.”
Unknown author
Simple Happiness Quotes
- “Life is made up of these small daily pleasures that we get tired of, of which we must be deprived to appreciate their value.”
René Ouvrard
- “Life is made of simple pleasures to enjoy every day.”
Malek Bensafia
- “A calm and modest life brings more happiness than the pursuit of success combined with constant restlessness.”
- “Happiness is not always in an eternally blue sky, but in the simplest things in life.”
Confucius
- “Do not seek to achieve perfect happiness, but be content with the little things in life, which, strung together, allow you to go the distance.”
Agnes Ledig
- “Plenty of people miss their share of happiness, not because they never found it, but because they didn’t stop to enjoy it.”
William Feather
- “Happiness comes from paying attention to the little things, and unhappiness from neglecting the little things.”
Chinese proverb
- “Many small happy moments increase our feeling of happiness more than a few very great satisfactions.”
Unknown author
- “Happiness is very small, so small that sometimes you can’t see it. And we try to find it in concrete, steel, fortune, but happiness is not there. Neither in ease nor in comfort. We want to build it, but it is here, next to us, and we pass by without seeing it. Because happiness is very small. It doesn’t hide, that is its secret. It is there, very close to us and sometimes within us.”
Unknown author (sometimes attributed to Maurice Carême, sometimes to Mother Teresa, sometimes to Antoine de Saint-Exupéry)
- “Men always forget that human happiness is a disposition of the mind, not a condition of the circumstances.”
John Locke
Short Happiness Quotes
- “You have to believe in your happiness.”
Victor Cherbuliez
- “The very fact of existing is true happiness.”
Blaise Cendrars
- “All the happiness in the world is in the unexpected.”
Jean d’Ormesson
- “Happiness comes to those who believe in it.”
Ali Ibn Abu Talb
- “Everyone brings their own happiness.”
Witold Gombrowicz
- “True happiness ignores itself.”
Charles Régismanset
- “Melancholy is the happiness of being sad.”
Victor Hugo
- “The happier we are, the less we pay attention to our happiness.”
Alberto Moravia
- “Happiness is in the minimal.”
Francine Jay
- “You can never appreciate your own happiness enough.”
Alice Parizeau
- “Happiness is not a state to arrive at, but a manner of traveling”.
Margaret Lee Runbeck
- “Happiness is ideal, it is the work of the imagination.”
Marquis de Sade
- “Happiness is a childhood dream realized in adulthood.”
Sigmund Freud
- “Happiness is the only thing that multiplies when you share it.”
Albert Schweitzer
- “Happiness is contagious, surround yourself with happy faces.”
Dominique Glocheux
- “An obstacle to too much happiness is to expect too much happiness.”
Bernard Le Bouyer de Fontenelle
- “Happiness is an end in itself.”
Aristotle
- “It is more blessed to give to the poor than to receive.”
Saint Luke
- “Happiness is of this world; it is necessary and it is enough to create it.”
Paule Solomon
- “You get happiness insofar as you expect it only from yourself.”
Marcel Jouhandeau
- “Happiness itself never gives what the name promises.”
Edward Young
- “Happiness consists not of having, but of being.”
Unknown author
- “True happiness of this world is not to receive, but to give!”
Anatole France
- “Pleasure is gathered, joy is gathered, and happiness is cultivated.”
Buddha
Happiness and Unhappiness Quotes
- “Happiness and unhappiness come only from ourselves.”
Meng Tzu
- “Unhappiness can be a step towards happiness.”
Japanese proverb
- “Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.”
Napoleon Hill
- “Perfect happiness is something very close to sadness.”
Charlie Chaplin
Happiness and Money/Material Quotes
- “Remember that happiness is not about who you are or what you have, but only how you think.”
Dale Carnegie
- Despite what the rich maintain, money is enough to make the poor happy; Despite what the poor imagine, money is not enough to make the rich happy.
Jean d’Ormesson
- “Success is having what you want, happiness is loving what you have.”
Jackson Brown Jr.
- “Happiness is found in doing, not merely possessing.”
Napoleon Hill
- “My happiness consists in knowing how to appreciate what I have and not to excessively desire what I don’t.”
Tolstoy
- “Happiness is not to have what you want but to appreciate what you have.”
Paulo Coelho
- “Happiness is having these intangible things: love, friendship, spirituality… that all the gold in the world can never buy.”
Catherine Rambert
- “The secret to happiness is not to always seek more, but to develop the capacity to enjoy with less.”
Dan Millman
- “Inner happiness is not subject to material circumstances or the satisfaction of the senses. It has its source in our own mind.”
Dalai Lama
- “Happiness is often the only thing you can give without having it and it is by giving it that you acquire it.”
Voltaire
- “Happiness does not depend on what you have but on what you experience.”
Unknown author
- “Happiness is inward, and not outward; and so, it does not depend on what we have, but on what we are.”
Henry Van Dyke
Philosophical Happiness Quotes
- “The secret of happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less.”
Socrates
- “We have to meditate on what brings happiness, since when we have it, we have everything, and when it is lacking, we do everything to have it.”
Epicurus
- “Happiness is for those who are self-sufficient.”
Aristotle
- “It is not to live according to the science that brings happiness, nor even to bring all the sciences at a time, but to have the only knowledge of good and evil.”
Plato
- “Our happiness will never consist in full enjoyment, where there would be nothing more to desire; but in perpetual progress to new pleasures and new perfections.”
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
- “Happiness is the satisfaction of all our inclinations.”
Immanuel Kant
- “Power, riches, honor, even health, and the general well-being and contentment with one’s condition which is called happiness.”
Immanuel Kant
- “Happiness is not a singular pleasure, but a sustainable state, on the one hand an emotional pleasure, on the other hand also the circumstances and means by which, at will, cause of pleasure.”
Hegel
- “Happiness is not perfect and positive, one should only expect a state comparatively less painful.”
Shopenhauer
- “What is happiness? Happiness is the feeling that power increases – that resistance is being overcome.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
- “There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.”
Epictetus
- “Happiness is a reward that comes to those that have not looked for it.”
Alain
- “Be happy, act happily, feel happy, for no reason.”
Socrates
Buddhism Happiness Quotes
- “There is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way.”
Laozi
- “So many conditions of happiness are available—more than enough for you to be happy right now. You don’t have to run into the future in order to get more.”
- “True happiness depends on no being, no external object. It only depends on us.”
Dalai Lama
- “Happiness is not easy. It is very difficult to find it in us; it is impossible to find it elsewhere.”
Buddha
- “Pleasure exists, and so does happiness. Give up the first to attain the second.”
Buddha
- “Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions.”
Dalai Lama
- “All happiness in this world comes from openness to others; all suffering comes from confinement within oneself.”
Buddha
- “Happiness creates a feeling of fullness which, over time, becomes a fundamental feature of our temperament.”
Matthieu Ricard
- “Peace and happiness are available when we can calm our distracted thoughts to return to the present moment and notice the blue sky, the smile of a child, the beauty of a sunrise.”
Thich Nhat Hanh
- “Everyone is the master of their own destiny; it is up to us to create the causes of happiness.”
Dalai Lama
- “Happiness cannot be decreed, cannot be summoned, but is cultivated and built little by little over time.”
Matthieu Ricard
- “Happiness is a state of inner fulfillment, not the gratification of inexhaustible desires for outward things.”
Matthieu Ricard
- “If we speak or act with a peaceful and luminous heart and mind, happiness will follow as surely as our shadow, which never leaves us.”
Buddha
Lost and Newfound Happiness Quotes
- “What does happiness provide us? Hope and memory.”
John Petit-Senn
- “I experienced happiness, but it wasn’t that which made me the happiest.”
Jules Renard
- “Happiness, while leaving, told me it would be back.”
Jacques Prévert
- “I learned that happiness is knowing that happiness does not exist.”
René Fallet
- “Happiness is of yesteryear or of tomorrow, in nostalgia or hope, never of today.”
Pascal Bruckner
- “We often believe that happiness is for tomorrow; but if it is possible tomorrow, it is also possible today.”
Unknown author
- “I recognized my happiness at the noise it made when I left.”
Unknown author
- “Even if happiness forgets you a little bit, never completely forget about it.”
Jacques Prévert
- “The happiness we remember is often lost happiness.”
Hélène Rioux
- “Any lost happiness is only the expectation of greater happiness.”
François Cavanna
- “Stop looking for happiness in the same place where you lost it.”
Unknown author
- “The happiness we want to have spoils the one we already have.”
Jacques Deval
Pursuit of Happiness Quotes
- “Happiness is not at the top of the mountain, but in how to climb.”
Confucius
- “It is in vain that we look for happiness in the distance when we forget to cultivate it ourselves.”
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
- “From time to time, it is good to stop our quest for happiness and just be happy.”
Guillaume Apollinaire
- “Happiness is sometimes a blessing, but more often it is a conquest.”
Paulo Coelho
- “Those who seek happiness in this world find only regret for wasting their time.”
Laure Conan
- “Do not seek happiness. If you seek it, you will not find it, because seeking is the very antithesis of happiness.”
Eckhart Tolle
- “The path that leads to happiness sometimes requires giving up convenience, to follow the demands of one’s will deep inside.”
Laurent Gounelle
- “The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance. The wise person cultivates it under his feet.”
- Robert Oppenheimer
- “We chase after happiness, and we forget to be happy.”
François Cavanna
- “You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.”
Albert Camus
- “It is in vain that we look for happiness in the distance when we forget to cultivate it ourselves.”
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
- “More often than not, we search for happiness like we search for our glasses, when they’re on our nose.”
André Maurois
- “Happiness is very small, so small that sometimes you can’t see it. So, we look for it, we look for it everywhere. It’s there in the tree singing in the wind, in the child’s gaze, the bread that we break and that we share, the hand that we extend.”
Mother Teresa
Happiness and Love Quotes
- “There is only one happiness in this life, to love and be loved.”
George Sand
- “The ultimate happiness in life is the conviction that we are loved.”
Victor Hugo
- “Happiness does not depend on where you live but on the person you are with.”
Zhang Xianliang
- “Everything is happiness for people who love each other.”
Robert Charbonneau
- “Happiness is only real when shared.”
Jon Krakaner
- “There is no greater happiness than to be loved by others, and to feel that your presence is a joy for them.”
Charlotte Bronte
- “To be able to share in another’s joy, that is the secret of happiness.”
Georges Bernanos
- “Human relationships built on mutual compassion and love are fundamentally important and necessary for human happiness.”
Dalai Lama
- “In love, today is better than tomorrow: the happiness that we defer is lost happiness.”
Adolphe Ricard
- “Sow happiness in your neighbor’s field, you will be surprised to see what the wind will do to yours.”
Juliette St-Gelais
- “True happiness comes from an essential goodness which wishes from the bottom of the heart that everyone finds a meaning in their existence. It is a love always available, without ostentation or calculation. The unchanging simplicity of a good heart.”
Matthieu Ricard
- “What is the difference between pleasure and happiness? -Pleasure is to see each other again, happiness is to meet each other again.”
Unknown author
Happiness and Work/Activity Quotes
- “Doing what you love is freedom; loving what you do is happiness.”
Raphaëlle Giordano
- “Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you like what you do, you will succeed.”
Albert Schweitzer
- “The activity is essential for the happiness that man must act, do something if he can do or at least learn something.”
Arthur Shopenhauer
- “Work is essential to human happiness; it raises us, it consoles us; and whatever the nature of the work, as long as it benefits someone: doing what you can is doing what you have to.”
Alexandre Dumas
- “Three essentials of earthly happiness: something to do, someone to love and something to hope for.”
Joseph Addison
- “It takes a lot of courage to dare to be fully happy. It is easier, but more cowardly, to be satisfied with perfunctory happiness that nothing comes to disturb.”
Marcelle Bourgault
Happiness and Philosophy of Life/Happiness in Living Quotes
- “Happiness is simply a state of mind in which our thoughts are pleasant almost permanently.”
Maxwell Maltz
- “The secret of happiness and the height of art is to live like everyone else by being like no one.”
Simone de Beauvoir
- “Happiness comes from the ability to feel deeply, to enjoy simply and to think freely.”
Storm Jameson
- “Our happiness, our well-being does not come from what we have, nor from what we do, but from how we experience it! Our relationship with people, activities and things.”
Thomas of Ansembourg
- “Dream your life in colors, it’s the secret of happiness.”
Walt Disney
- “The capacity for happiness is worked on, built up day after day. You just have to review your value system, re-educate the way you look at life and events.”
Raphaëlle Giordano
- “The secret to happiness is to look at each situation as it is rather than looking at it for what it should be.”
Unknown author
- “Happiness does not come to those who sit and wait.”
Robert Baden-Powell
- “We do not possess happiness as a final acquisition. It is about constantly igniting a spark of joy.”
Sister Emmanuelle
- “Happiness is the result of inner maturity. It depends on us alone, at the cost of patient work, continued from day to day. In the long term, happiness and unhappiness are therefore a way of being, or a life skill.”
Matthieu Ricard
So, did these quotes inspire you? Don’t hesitate to share the quote that best defines what happiness is to you and to share your inspiration.
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