Happiness Quote List
This happiness quote list continues my efforts to not just show you some great quotes about happiness but to explain them as well. My feeling is that if you read a little ditty about being happy, it will affect you for about an hour. If you understand what it is that the quote is trying to get at, it may strike you for a lifetime. If you are interested in learning more about happiness then these quotes can tell you, check out my book The Post-College Guide to Happiness.
Happiness Quote List
Joy has nothing to do with material things, or with man's outward circumstance...A man living in the lap of luxury can be wretched, and a man in the depths of poverty can overflow with joy.
- William Barclay
This is an aspect of happiness that many people forget. Just because you are famous and rich does not mean you are happy because happiness is a matter of what's on the inside, not the outside. If you are happy, it's probably more a result of living life the way you want to and for the purpose that you have laid out for yourself. Don't assume that just because you don't have a lot of money, you are forced to be unhappy.
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 Browne
We like to tell people what to do, it saves us from pointing the blame toward ourselves. If we have put our lives into a 80 hour a week job and we see someone working less than a quarter of that, we automatically tell that person he or she must be miserable and destitute. Since happiness is an inside sensation and has nothing to do with the possession of material goods, we can't really tell if someone's happy from the outside and we shouldn't make assumptions that they aren't. We all have our own paths in life, let's put most of our efforts to staying on the path that will give us deep fulfillment.
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
As we go through life, attempting to correct the "problems" of others, we tend to complain a lot about others and ourselves. If instead of complaining, we showed as much gratitude as possible for what we have, we would feel a lot more fulfilled. If you constantly tell yourself you need more, that is all you will think about, requiring more. If you thank the universe for providing you with what you'll already have, you will be a lot happier than when you were thinking about what you lacked.
Is it not clear, however, that bliss and envy are the numerator and denominator of the fraction called happiness?
- Yevgeny Zamyatin
Once again, with this stop on the happiness quote list we talk about material possessions. For some reason, we don't get excited for other people when we see that they have achieved some material goal. We actually get jealous of their success when we could be focusing on how grateful we are for what we have. The more jealous you are of other people, the more envy you exhibit, the less happy you will be. Bliss is as much about being grateful as it is not being jealous of others. Be happy for them and you'll be happier for yourself!
Nobody really cares if you're miserable, so you might as well be happy.
- Cynthia Nelms
Happiness is as much of a choice as complaining is. Imagine that you have a certain amount of energy each day and the kind of energy you use is directly related to what you feel. Would you rather use negative energy and feel crappy or use positive energy and feel contented? This is not a hypothetical, it is reality. If you want to feel happy in life, stop complaining, stop being jealous, just start being grateful and the happiness will follow.
I hope you enjoyed this happiness quote list! For more on happiness, check out my book The Post-College Guide to Happiness, available now in digital and paperback form.
Done with Happiness Quote List? Go back to Motivation Techniques.
