This is a compilation of thoughts and quotes that I have found or written recently, as well as many that I've collected throughout the years. Most thoughts are posted randomly, as I feel inspired. A listing of quotes can be found alphabetically (check the 2008 and 2009 archives listing), or by source.

Feel free to suggest additions!


“For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.” – Proverbs 23:7

Monday, December 29, 2008

Happiness / Cheerfulness Quotes

1. The foolish person seeks happiness in the distance, the wise person grows it under his feet. - James Oppenheim

2. If you want to cheer yourself up, try cheering someone else up. – Unknown

3. The secret of happiness is to admire without desiring. - F. H. Bradley

4. Greater than the gold of kings are the memories of happy things. – Unknown

5. Health and cheerfulness mutually beget each other. - Joseph Addison

6. Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves. - Sir James Matthew Barrie

7. The secret of happiness is not in doing what one likes, but in liking what one has to do. - Sir James Matthew Barrie

8. Don’t Worry. Be Happy.- Bobby McFerrin

9. Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be. - Abraham Lincoln

10. Happiness is not what you have, but what you are. - Winston K. Pendleton

11. Everything you need for a happy life is within yourself. – Unknown

12. He is the happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his own home. – Goethe

13. It is neither wealth nor splendor, but tranquility and occupation which give happiness. - Thomas Jefferson

14. This is happiness: to be dissolved into something completely great. - Willa Cather

15. That load becomes light which is cheerfully borne. - Ovid

16. So of cheerfulness, or a good temper - the more it is spent, the more it remains. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

17. Happiness is nothing more than good health and a bad memory. - Albert Schweitzer

19. Happiness is not a station you arrive at, but a manner of traveling. - Margaret Lee Runbeck

20. The happiest of people don't necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the most of everything that comes along their way. - Unknown

21. The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself. - Benjamin Franklin

22. The greater part of our happiness or misery depends on our dispositions, and not on our circumstances. - Martha Washington

23. Happiness is the only thing one should ever be resigned to. - Alfred Capus

24. Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared. - Chinese Proverb

25. Happiness is not a destination. It is a method of life. - Burton Hillis

26. I have observed the happiest among you refuse to whine. - Robert Wilkes

27. Happiness is like a stampede. Whether you're happy depends not just on your own actions and behaviors and thoughts, but on those of people you don't even know. - Nicholas Chistakis

28. Save a little happiness for tomorrow and don’t forget to use it first thing in the morning. - Unknown

29. Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love and something to hope for. - Joseph Addison

30. The more we care for the happiness of others, the greater our own sense of well-being becomes. – Dalai Lama

31. It is only possible to live happily-ever-after on a day-to-day basis. - Margaret Bonano

32. The best way to secure future happiness is to be as happy as is rightfully possible today. - Charles W. Eliot

33. I'm not happy. I'm cheerful. There's a difference. A happy woman has no cares at all. A cheerful woman has cares but has learned how to deal with them. - Beverly Sills

34. Be happy. It's one way of being wise. - Colette

35. The most unhappy of all men is he who believes himself to be so. - David Hume

36. Happiness is not a matter of events, it depends upon the tides of the mind. - Alice Meynell

37. Happy the human mind can bear plenty of reality, but not too much intermittent gloom. - Margaret Drabble

38. Happiness walks on busy feet. - Kitte Turmell

39. Happy people plan actions, they don't plan results. - Dennis Wholey

40. A great obstacle to happiness is to expect too much happiness. - Bernard de Fontenelle

41. Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace and gratitude. - Kay Stott

42. What a man is contributes much more to his happiness than what he has. - Arthur Schopenhauer

43. Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared. - Buddha

44. Man is fond of counting his troubles, but he does not count his joys. If he counted them up as he ought to, he would see that every lot has enough happiness provided for it. - Fyodor Dostoevsky

45. May we never let the things we can't have, or don't have, or shouldn't have, spoil our enjoyment of the things we do have and can have. As we value our happiness let us not forget it, for one of the greatest lessons in life is learning to be happy without the things we cannot or should not have. - Richard Paul Evans

46. One does not achieve happiness through the pursuit of pleasure or entertainment, but through virtuous endeavours. - Aristole

47. ‎The most manifest sign of wisdom is a continual cheerfulness. - Michel de Montaigne

48. Happiness doesn't mean everything in life is perfect. It means you 'Choose' to look beyond life's imperfections! - Unknown

49. Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success! - Herman Cain

50. If you want to be happy, put your effort into controlling the sail, not the wind. - Unknown

51. It is not in the pursuit of happiness that we find fulfillment, it is in the happiness of pursuit. - Denis Waitley

52. People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they’re not on your road doesn’t mean they’ve gotten lost. - H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

53. Being happy doesn’t mean that everything is perfect. It means that you’ve decided to look beyond the imperfections. - Unknown

54. Being happy doesn't mean everything's perfect. It means you've decided to see beyond the imperfections. - Unknown

55. The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer someone else up. - Mark Twain

56. The happiest excitement in life is to be convinced that one is fighting for all one is worth on behalf of some clearly seen and deeply felt good. - Ruth Benedict

57. The supreme happiness in life is the conviction that we are loved. - Victor Hugo

58. If you count all your assets you always show a profit. - Robert Quillen

59. 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 Keller

60. Everyone chases after happiness, not noticing that happiness is right at their heels. - Bertolt Brecht

61. Man is fond of counting his troubles, but he does not count his joys. If he counted them up as he ought to, he would see that every lot has enough happiness provided for it. - Fyodor Dostoevsky

62. It is only possible to live happily ever after on a day-to-day basis. - Margaret Bonnano

63. I know well that happiness is in little things. - John Ruskin

64. Wherever you go, whatever the weather, always bring your own sunshine. - Anthony J. D'angelo

65. A single sunbeam is enough to drive away many shadows. – St. Francis of Assisi

66. Even if happiness forgets you a little bit, never completely forget about it. - Jacques Prèvert

67. Every one wants happiness, no one wants pain, but you can't have a rainbow without a little rain. - Unknown

68. The real secret of happiness is simply this: to be willing to live and let live, and to know very clearly in one's own mind that the unpardonable sin is to be an unpleasant person. - Galen Starr Ross

69. Better the cottage where one is merry than the palace where one weeps. - Chinese Proverb

70. The path to cheerfulness is to sit cheerfully and to act and speak as if cheerfulness were already there. - William James

71. The clearest sign of wisdom is continued cheerfulness. - Montaigne

72. Ever since happiness heard your name, it has been running through the streets trying to find you. - Hafiz of Persia

73. The first recipe for happiness is: Avoid too lengthy meditations on the past. -Andre Maurois

74. For every minute you are angry or in conflict... you lose sixty seconds of happiness. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

75. You're going to have to learn to fake cheerfulness. Believe it or not eventually that effort will pay off: you'll actually start feeling happier. - Jean Bach

76. It isn't our position, but our disposition, that makes us happy. - Unknown

77. A pessimist is a man who is never happy unless he is miserable: even then he is not pleased. - Unknown

78. A happy person is not a person in a certain set of circumstances, but rather a person with a certain set of attitudes. - Hugh Downs

79. A well spent day brings happy sleep. - Leonardo Da Vinci

80. The place to be happy is here, the time to be happy is now. - Robert Ingersoll

81. To be happy, drop the words 'if only,' and substitute instead the words 'next time.' - Dr. Smiley Blanton

82. Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action. - Benjamin Disraeli

83. The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself. - Benjamin Franklin

84. He is happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home. - Johann von Goethe

85. Cheerfulness is what greases the axles of the world. Don't go through life creaking. - H. W. Byles

86. Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony. -Mohandas K. Gandhi

87. Real happiness is cheap enough, yet how dearly we pay for its counterfeit. -Hosea Ballou

88. One of the sanest, surest, and most generous joys of life comes from being happy over the good fortune of others. - Archibald Rutledge

89. No joy is complete unless it is shared. - Unknown

90. True happiness is not made in getting something. True happiness is becoming something. This can be done by being committed to lofty goals. We cannot become something without commitment. - Ashton

91. Nobody really cares if you're miserable, so you might as well be happy. - Cynthia Nelms

92. Shared joy is a double joy; shared sorrow is half a sorrow. - Swedish proverb

93. Only one thing has to change for us to know happiness in our lives: where we focus our attention. – Greg Anderson

94. Happiness doesn’t depend on what we have, but it does depend on how we feel toward what we have. We can be happy with little and miserable with much. - William Dempster Hoard

95. Some pursue happiness - others create it. - Unknown

96. Happiness is not in our circumstances, but in ourselves. - John B. Shereen

97. He who leaves his house in search of happiness pursues a shadow. - Unknown

98. Judge nothing, you will be happy. Forgive everything, you will be happier. Love everything, you will be happiest. - Sri Chinmoy

99. All we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about. - Charles Kingsley

100. Do not look back on happiness, or dream of it in the future. You are only sure of today; do not be cheated out of it. - Henry Ward Beecher

101. I am happy and content because I think I am. - Alain-Rene Lesage

102. Happiness is a decision. - Marie Osmond

103. Some pursue happiness, others create it. - Unknown

104. It is necessary to the happiness of man that he be mentally faithful to himself. - Thomas Paine

105. Remember happiness doesn't depend on who you are or what you have; it depends solely on what you think. So start each day by thinking of all the things you have to be thankful for. Your future will depend very largely on the thoughts you think today. So think thoughts of hope and confidence and love and success. - Dale Carnegie

106. Happiness is not the absence of conflict, but the ability to cope with it. - Unknown

107. Happiness is produced not so much by great pieces of good fortune that seldom happen, as by little advantages that occur every day. - Benjamin Franklin

108. Happiness is as a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but which if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you. - Nathaniel Hawthorne

109. Happy are those who dream dreams and are willing to pay the price to make them come true. - L.J. Cardinal Suenens

110. There can be no happiness if the things we believe in are different from the things we do. - Freya Stark

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

112. The only true happiness comes from squandering ourselves for a purpose. - William Cowper

113. True happiness is not attained through self-gratification, but through fidelity to a worthy purpose. - Helen Keller

114. No one is in control of your happiness but you; therefore, you have the power to change anything about yourself or your life that you want to change. - Barbara De Angelis

115. 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

116. Be of good cheer. Do not think of today’s failures, but of the success that may come tomorrow. You have set yourselves a difficult task, but you will succeed if you persevere; and you will find a joy in overcoming obstacles. Remember, no effort that we make to attain something beautiful is ever lost. - Helen Keller

117. The way to happiness: Keep your heart free from hate, your mind from worry. Live simply, expect little, give much. Scatter sunshine, forget self, think of others. Try this for a week and you will be surprised. - Norman Vincent Peale

118.  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

119. Find something that you love. Something that gets you so excited you can't wait to get out of bed in the morning. Forget about money. Be happy. - Chris Gardner

120. When you're Happy for No Reason, you bring happiness to your outer experiences rather than trying to extract happiness from them. You don't need to manipulate the world around you to try to make yourself happy. You live from happiness, rather than for happiness. - Marci Shimoff

121. Most people keep waiting on happiness, putting off happiness until they're successful or until they achieve some goal, which means we limit both happiness and success. That formula doesn't work. - Shawn Achor

122. Happiness is the joy we feel striving after our potential. - Shawn Achor

123. I don't know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve. - Albert Schweitzer

123. A well-developed sense of humor is the pole that adds balance to your steps as you walk the tightrope of life. - William Arthur Ward

124. Happiness and self-confidence come naturally when you feel yourself moving and progressing toward becoming the very best person you can possibly be. - Brian Tracy

125. Happiness is in action, and every power is intended for action; human happiness, therefore, can only be complete as all the powers have their full and legitimate play. - David Thomas

126. Much unhappiness results from our inability to remember the nice things that happen to us. - W.N. Rieger

127. It is not in the pursuit of happiness that we find fulfillment, it is in the happiness of pursuit. - Denis Waitley

128. You will be happier if you will give people a bit of your heart rather than a piece of your mind. - Unknown

129. Everyone chases after happiness, not noticing that happiness is right at their heels. - Bertolt Brecht

130. Learn to enjoy every minute of your life. Be happy now. Don't wait for something outside of yourself to make you happy in the future. Think how really precious is the time you have to spend, whether it's at work or with your family. Every minute should be enjoyed and savored. - Earl Nightingale

131. The way to happiness: Keep your heart free from hate, your mind from worry. Live simply, expect little, give much. Scatter sunshine, forget self, think of others. Try this for a week and you will be surprised. - Norman Vincent Peale

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