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100 Quotes About Being Happy, Content, and Full of Joy

Updated on September 9, 2019
Source

"Happiness is a warm puppy."

  • Charles M. Schulz

"It's not money that brings happiness, it's lots of money."

  • Russian Proverb

"All happiness depends on a leisurely breakfast."

  • John Gunther

"You can't have everything. Where would you put it?"

  • Steven Wright

"We are no longer happy so soon as we wish to be happier."

  • Walter Savage Landor

"Be happy, and a reason will come along."

  • Robert Brault


Humorous Quotes About Happiness

"Happiness is like peeing in your pants: everyone can see it, but only you can feel its warmth."

  • Anonymous

"When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life."

  • John Lennon

"Who is rich? He who is content. Who is that? Nobody."

  • Benjamin Franklin

“You ought to live your life with such freedom and joy that uptight Christians will doubt your salvation.”

  • Steve Brown

"A man doesn't know what happiness is until he's married. By then it's too late."

  • Frank Sinatra

"What's the use of happiness? It can't buy you money..."

  • Unknown

"It is bad to suppress laughter. It goes back down and spreads to your hips."

  • Fred Allen

“Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.”

  • Oscar Wilde

“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

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

  • George Burns



Poets, Writers and Artists Talk About How to Be Happy

"Don't cry because it's over; smile because it happened."

  • Dr. Seuss

"Happiness lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort."

  • Vincent Van Gogh

“For after all, the best thing one can do when it is raining is let it rain.”

  • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

"Happy the man, and happy he alone, he who can call today his own; he who, secure within, can say, tomorrow do thy worst, for I have lived today."

  • John Dryden

"There are some days when I think I'm going to die from an overdose of satisfaction."

  • Salvador Dali

"Happiness is in your ability to love others."

  • Leo Tolstoy

"For every minute you are angry, you lose sixty seconds of happiness."

  • Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Against the assault of laughter, nothing can stand."

  • Mark Twain

"My crown is in my heart, not on my head, nor decked with diamonds and Indian stones, nor to be seen. My crown is called "Content," a crown it is that seldom kings enjoy."

  • William Shakespeare


“The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.”

  • Oprah Winfrey

Spiritual Leaders on Happiness

"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."

  • Mahatma Gandhi

"Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your actions."

  • The Dalai Lama

“Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God's kindness: kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile.”

  • Mother Teresa

“Those who are not looking for happiness are the most likely to find it, because those who are searching forget that the surest way to be happy is to seek happiness for others.”

  • Martin Luther King Jr.

“Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.”

  • Thich Nhat Hanh

“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.”

  • Siddhartha Gautama Bhuddha

"Happy are those who find wisdom... She is more precious than jewels, and nothing you desire can compare with her. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace."

  • Solomon

"The remarkable thing is, we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day."

  • Chuck Swindoll

"Riches are not from an abundance of worldly goods, but from a contented mind."

  • Mohammed

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

  • Jesus Christ


Quotes About Joy

“Joy is what happens to us when we allow ourselves to recognize how good things really are.”

  • Marianne Williamson

“I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.”

  • Rabindranath Tagore

“Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet.”

  • Thich Nhat Hanh

“Joy does not simply happen to us. We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day.”

  • Henri Nouwen

“Joy multiplies when it is shared among friends, but grief diminishes with every division. That is life.”

  • R.A. Salvatore

"Isn't it good just to be alive on a day like this? I pity the people who aren't born yet for missing it."

  • L.M. Montgomery

"Believe me! The secret of reaping the greatest fruitfulness and the greatest enjoyment from life is to live dangerously!"

  • Friedrich Nietzsche

"I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you."

  • Jesus Christ

Celebrity Quotes on Happiness

"The most important thing is to enjoy your life -- to be happy; it's all that matters."

  • Audrey Hepburn

"Count your age by friends, not years. Count your life by smiles, not tears."

  • John Lennon

"I've got nothing to do today but smile."

  • Paul Simon

“I think happiness is what makes you pretty. Period. Happy people are beautiful. They become like a mirror and they reflect that happiness.”

  • Drew Barrymore

“I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be."

  • Groucho Marx

“Everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you're climbing it.”

  • Andy Rooney

"When you're in a relationship and it's good, even if nothing else in your life is right, you feel like your whole world is complete."

  • Keith Sweat

"Don't worry. Be happy."

  • Bobby McFerrin


“Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.”

  • Aristotle

"Happiness is your nature. It is not wrong to desire it. What is wrong is seeking it outside when it is inside."

  • Ramana Maharshi

"We either make ourselves happy or miserable. The amount of work is the same."

  • Carlos Castaneda

"I began learning long ago that those who are happiest are those who do the most for others."

  • Booker T. Washington

"Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning."

  • Psalm 30:5 (The Bible)

"From joy springs all creation, by joy it is sustained, towards joy it proceed, and unto joy it returns."

  • The Upanishads

"The greatest gift that one human being can give another is unconditional love. It's the only thing, ultimately, that really matters."

  • Joy Gardner

"Every object, every being...is a jar full of delight."

  • Rumi

"We find that the more a cultivated reason devotes itself to the aim of enjoying life and happiness, the further does man get away from true contentment."

  • Immanuel Kant

Famous Philosophers on Happiness

“Learn to value yourself, which means: fight for your happiness.”

  • Ayn Rand

"Happiness depends upon ourselves."

  • Aristotle

"He is happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home."

  • Johann Von Goethe

“The advantage of a bad memory is that one enjoys several times the same good things for the first time.”

  • Friederich Nietzsche

"When the sun rises, I go to work. When the sun goes down, I take my rest. I dig the well from which I drink. I farm the soil which yields my food. I share creation. Kings can do no more."

  • Ancient Chinese Proverb

"True happiness is to enjoy the present without anxious dependence upon the future."

  • Seneca

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

"My advice to you is to get married: if you find a good wife you'll be happy; if not, you'll become a philosopher."

  • Socrates


“Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.”

  • Benjamin Franklin

Leaders on Happiness

People are just as happy as they make up their minds to be."

  • Abraham Lincoln

“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.”

  • Marcus Aurelius

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

  • Benjamin Franklin

"Very little is needed to make a happy life."

  • Marcus Aurelius

"The Constitution only guarantees the American people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself."

  • Benjamin Franklin


"He who is contented is rich."

  • Lao Tzu

"By and large, I have come to see that if we complain about life, it is because we are thinking only of ourselves.”

  • Gordon B. Hinckley

“Maybe the truth is, there's a little bit of loser in all of us. Being happy isn't having everything in your life be perfect. Maybe it's about stringing together all the little things.”

  • Ann Brashares

“That's the difference between me and the rest of the world! Happiness isn't good enough for me! I demand euphoria!”

  • Bill Watterson

“Children are happy because they don't have a file in their minds called "All the Things That Could Go Wrong.”

  • Marianne Williamson

"Regardless of sunshine or rain, be thankful for another great day, and treat life as the ultimate gift -- because it is!"

  • Pablo Valle

"True happiness involves the pursuit of worth goals; without dreams, without risks, only a trivial semblance of living can be achieved."

  • Dan Buettner

"Most people would rather be certain they're miserable, than risk being happy. "

  • Robert Anthony


"When Alexander saw the breadth of his domain, he wept for there were no more worlds to conquer."

  • Hans Gruber

"Happiness is not so much in having as sharing. We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give."

  • Norman MacEwan

"The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance; the wise grows it under his feet."

  • James Openheim

"All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them."

  • Walt Disney

"Never miss an opportunity to see anything that is beautiful."

  • Janet Hobson

"It’s okay to be fat. So you’re fat. Just be fat and shut up about it."

  • Roseanne Barr

"You have to sniff out joy. Keep your nose to the joy trail."

  • Buffy Sainte-Marie

"Follow your bliss."

  • Joseph Campbell

"Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not."

  • Ann Brashares

" At some point, you gotta let go, and sit still, and allow contentment to come to you."

  • Elizabeth Gilbert

Quotes About Contentment

"When you are discontent, you always want more, more, more. Your desire can never be satisfied. But when you practice contentment, you can say to yourself, ‘Oh yes – I already have everything that I really need.’"

  • Dalai Lama

“He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have.”

  • Socrates

“You say, 'If I had a little more, I should be very satisfied.' You make a mistake. If you are not content with what you have, you would not be satisfied if it were doubled.”

  • Charles H. Spurgeon

"Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do. Let your garments be always white. Let not oil be lacking on your head. Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain life that he has given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun."

  • Solomon

"The world is full of people looking for spectacular happiness while they snub contentment."

  • Doug Larson

"The trick of being contented is to buy one model and never read the ads about the others."

  • Anonymous

"The greatest wealth is to live content with little."

  • Plato

Source

How to Think Positive Thoughts When Your Whole Life Sucks

Is this where you’re at right now?

I’ve been there. Spent a lot of time there. Down in the dumps. Extremely depressed. Feeling worthless, hopeless, useless, powerless.

I was there as a teenager. I mostly hated my life. Sometimes, though, I was just kinda neutral, going through day after day, just existing. Not really feeling much. Those were on the good days. On the bad days…I just hated my life and felt miserable. Looking back, I actually had a lot of happy moments, and I had so much to be grateful for, but I managed not to focus on those things and only focus on the negative things.

But then after high school, I pulled out of that funk for a few years. Moved to another state. Started a new life. Made new friends. Got married. Worked a new job. So you know, things were better in a lot of ways, but deep down inside, not too much had changed.

And before I was 30, I was right back where I had been a decade before. Depressed and just hating my life. I had so much to live for, so much to appreciate, but that just made me feel even worse about myself. How can I be depressed when I have so much to be happy about, right? What an ungrateful loser…

-----

That’s one of the worst things about depression…the self-talk. The self-hatred. Self-loathing.

You feel like the whole world is either against you…or worse...is indifferent to your existence.

Nobody cares.

I could die today and nobody would notice, much less care.

Those are the lies you tell yourself when you’re depressed. You believe every word of it, and no amount of attention or love or affection from family and friends can convince you otherwise.

Ah, the crap we tell ourselves…

But really, few people out there truly hate you like you do. You are often your own worst enemy.

So how do you get past that? How do you reverse the downward spiral? How do you convince yourself that you’re not a waste of existence and that life is worth living and that things can actually get better?

How do you think positively when your whole world seems so negative?

How Do You Think Positive Thoughts?

Well, basically…you just do it.

You’ll feel kinda stupid at first. You’ll feel like you’re just lying to yourself, and that’s okay. You’ll feel fake. Again…that’s okay. Just keep talking positive. Like they sometimes say in the business world, “Fake it til you make it.”

It’s kind of a crappy saying, now that I think about it -- at least in the world of sales and marketing and all that. But when it comes to pulling yourself out of a depression, it’s helpful. Fake it til ya make it. That’s all you can do at first. And your whiny little defeatist inner voice will try to stop you, try to tell you what a loser you are and that you should shut up with all this happy nonsense and just go back to hating yourself.

Feel free to ignore that voice.

Or better yet, punch him in the throat and shut him up. He’s the liar, anyways.

So yeah, the way to think positive thoughts is to just…think them. If you can look back to happier times and focus on that, then do it. If you can’t, then just fake it. Look forward to happier times and see yourself – see your life – as you want it to be in the near future.

It’s okay if you’re not feeling it. You probably won’t feel it at first. That’s how depression works. It sucks away your feelings and makes you just feel dead inside. But we’re not talking about feelings, here. You can’t magically control your feelings, but you can control your thoughts, and you can decide to stop feeding your depression.

Choose to Fill Your Life with Positive Influences

It can help to start surrounding yourself with positive people and influences too. It may sound cheesy, but listening to personal development audio books is a great place to start. I was helped a lot by reading and listening to motivational guys like Brian Tracy, Tony Robbins, John Maxwell, and Larry Winget (God, Larry’s clothes were so ridiculous, but the guy was actually pretty cool).

You know, you can’t spend hours a day listening to someone who has a huge, positive attitude without it rubbing off on you a little bit.

Get Some Small Victories in Your Life

Taking positive action – even just little stuff – really is one of the keys to living a happier and more fulfilling life. It feels good to accomplish something. And when you’re battling depression, even completing small tasks can make a difference. Maybe taking out trash or washing the dishes won’t rock your world, but it can help you just a little. And then you can take that little bit of positive feeling and use it to push yourself to do just a little more. Just as one positive, little thought leads to another, one positive little action leads to another too.

That’s what we call momentum, and it can make a huge difference in your life over time.

But only if you let it.

This content is accurate and true to the best of the author’s knowledge and is not meant to substitute for formal and individualized advice from a qualified professional.

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