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 else. --Chinese Proverb (in Why Happiness Is The Wrong Pursuit)

The art of living does not consist in preserving and clinging to a particular mode of happiness, but in allowing happiness to change its form without being disappointed by the change; happiness, like a child, must be allowed to grow up. --Charles L. Morgan (in Harvard's Crowded Course On Happiness)

Happiness is a journey, not a destination; happiness is to be found along the way not at the end of the road, for then the journey is over and it's too late. The time for happiness is today not tomorrow. --Paul H. Dunn (in 20 Simple Tools for Happiness)

"All those who suffer in the world do so because of their desire for their own happiness. All those happy in the world are so because of their desire for the happiness of others." --Bodhicaryavatara (in Untitled)

There is no way to peace, Peace is the Way. There is no way to happiness, Happiness is the Way. There is no way to love, Love is the Way. --Dan Millman (in Untitled)

As all living beings desire to be happy always, without misery, as in the case of every one there is observed supreme love for one's self, and as happiness alone is the cause for love, in order to gain that happiness which is one's nature and which is experienced in the state of deep sleep where there is no mind, one should know one's self. For that, the path of knowledge, the inquiry of the form 'Who am I?' is the prinicpal means. --Ramana Maharishi (in Deep Sleep)

What we sow is what we reap. When we choose actions that bring happiness and success to others, the fruit of our karma is happiness and success. --Deepak Chopra (in Karma Army)

Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. --Albert Schweitzer (in Growing Happy)

Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. --Albert Schweitzer (in Bhutan)

Realize that true happiness lies within you. Waste no time and effort searching for peace and contentment and joy in the world outside. Remember that there is no happiness in having or in getting, but only in giving. Reach out. Share. Smile. Hug. --Og Mandino (in Leading A Happier Life)

Our intentions -- noticed or unnoticed, gross or subtle -- contribute either to our suffering or to our happiness. Intentions are sometimes called seeds. The garden you grow depends on the seeds you plant and water. Long after a deed is done, the trace or momentum of the intention behind it remains as a seed, conditioning our future happiness or unhappiness. --Gil Fronsdal (in Getting All She Wanted -- And ALS)

Character is the basis of happiness and happiness the sanction of character. --George Santayana (in Dow Jones Average of Well Being)

By happiness I mean here a deep sense of flourishing that arises from an exceptionally healthy mind. This is not a mere pleasureable feeling, a fleeting emotion, or a mood, but an optimal state of being. Happiness is also a way of interpreting the world, since while it may be difficult to change the world, it is always possible to change the way we look at it. --Matthieu Ricard (in Lessons from the World's Happiest Man)

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 Waitely (in What About Me?)

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 (in Designing Cities for Happiness?)

Happiness is the absence of the striving for happiness. --Chuang Tzu (in In the Pursuit of Happy)

It is the very pursuit of happiness that thwarts happiness. --Viktor Frankl (in There's More to Life Than Being Happy)

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 (in 6 Habits of Highly Grateful People)

In the Light of interbeing, peace and happiness in your daily life means peace and happiness in the world.
--Thich Nhat Hanh (in The New and Ancient Story of Interbeing)

Can the joy of yesterday ever be repeated today? The desire for repetition arises only when there is no joy today; when today is empty we look to the past or the future. The desire for repetition is desire for continuity, and in continuity there is never the new. There is happiness, not in the past or the future, but only in the movement of the present. --J. Krishnamurti (in Untitled)

To be able to find joy in another's joy: that is the secret of happiness. --George Bernanos (in Untitled)

All who would win joy, must share it; happiness was born a twin. --Lord Byron (in Untitled)

The sculptor, Michelangelo, was once asked how it was that he could create such beautiful works. "It's very simple," he answered. "When I look at a block of marble, I see the sculpture inside it. All I have to do is remove what doesn't belong." The master says: "There is a work of art each of us was destined to create. That is the central point of our life, and -- no matter how we try to deceive ourselves -- we know how important it is to our happiness. Usually, that work of art is covered by years of fears, guilt and indecision. But, if we decide to remove those things that do not belong, if we have no doubt as to our capability, we are capable of going forward with the mission that is our destiny. That is the only way to live with honor." --Paulo Coelho (in Untitled)

An act of goodness is of itself an act of happiness. No reward coming after the event can compare with the sweet reward that went with it. --Maurice Maeterlinck (in Untitled)

Unfortunately, happiness is often equated with physical health and material goods. One of life's cruel paradoxes is that the more we are afraid of losing what we have, the less free we are. As much as we should cherish life, it is a slippery slope to becoming slaves to the fear of death. The most free men and women I have ever known are those who are not afraid of losing it all. They are not reckless about life but have simply and miraculously matched political freedom with spiritual freedom. --Bob Kerry (in Untitled)

The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance; the wise grows it under his feet. --James Openheim (in Untitled)

It is pretty hard to tell what does bring happiness; poverty and wealth have both failed. --Kin Hubbard (in Untitled)

I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright. I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun more. I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive. I wish you enough pain so that the smallest joys in life appear much bigger. I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting. I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess. I wish enough "Hello's" to get you through the final "Good-bye." --Author Unknown (in Untitled)

My own experience has taught me this: if you wait for the perfect moment when all is safe and assured, it may never arrive. Mountains will not be climbed, races won or lasting happiness achieved. --Maurice Chevalier (in Untitled)

Look to this day! For it is life, the very life of life. In its brief course Lie all the verities and realities of your existence: The bliss of growth The glory of action The splendor of achievement, For yesterday is but a dream And tomorrow is only a vision But today well lived makes every yesterday dream of happiness And tomorrow a vision of hope. Look well, therefore, to this day! Such is the salutation to the Dawn. --Kalidas (in Untitled)

We normally strive to acquire happiness for ourselves and to eliminate our own sufferings, but if we were to take the same responsibility for others as we do for ourselves, we would be pricelessly valuable. --Dalai Lama (in Untitled)

Happiness is not found at the end of the road, it is experienced along the way. So take not for granted each moment of your life and you will find a reason to be happy each day. Don't worry so much about tomorrow that you forget to live today. --Anonymous (in Untitled)

For thousands of years, we've believed that in order to find happiness, we need to change the world around us: a bigger house, more money, a healthier body, a more attractive or understanding partner. With these beliefs as our unconscious religion, we've spent our lives at war with the world. Trying desperately to get reality to match our stories of how we believe it "should" be, we wonder why we don't feel any lasting sense of peace. But how can we feel peace when mentally we're engaged in war, wanting everything to be different than it is. [...] I am simply a woman without a story. --Byron Katie (in Untitled)

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony. --Gandhi (in Inspiration to Action)

The place where we can most directly open to the mystery of life is in what we don't do well; in the places of our struggles and vulnerability. These places always require surrender and letting go; when we let ourselves become vulnerable, new things can be born in us. In risking the unknown we gain a sense of life itself. And most remarkably, that which we have sought is often just here, buried under the problem and the weakness itself. When difficulties arise, we project our frustration into them as if it were the rain, the children, the world outside that was the source of our discomfort. We imagine that we can change the world and then be happy. But it is not by moving the rocks that we find happiness and awakening, but by transforming our relationship to them. --Jack Kornfield (in Mystery of Life)

Quickly, when the children see that I have arrived, they want to share their musical talents ... I am reminded that music is one of the few avenues of happiness that is available to them. --Robin Sukhadia (in Avenues of Happiness)

If you want to go in one direction, the best route may involve going in the other. Paradoxical as it sounds, goals are more likely to be achieved when pursued indirectly. So the most profitable companies are not the most profit-oriented, the richest people are not those most interested in money and the happiest people are not those who make happiness their main aim. The name of this idea? Obliquity. --John Kay (in The Other Direction)

Only our searching for happiness prevents us from seeing it. It's like a vivid rainbow which you pursue without ever catching, or a dog chasing its own tail. Nothing to do or undo, nothing to force, nothing to want, and nothing is missing. --Venerable Lama Gendun Rinpoche (in Nothing is Missing)

Consider the following. We humans are social beings. We come into the world as the result of others' actions. We survive here in dependence on others. Whether we like it or not, there is hardly a moment of our lives when we do not benefit from others' activities. For this reason it is hardly surprising that most of our happiness arises in the context of our relationships with others. --Dalai Lama (in What Makes People Happy)

Now and then it's good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy. --Guillaume Apollinaire (in Do Good To Fly Free)

All the joy the world contains is through wishing happiness for others. All the misery the world contains has come through wanting pleasure for oneself. --Shanti Deva (in Concern for Chickens)

May travelers on the road, Find happiness no matter where they go. And may they gain without hardship, The goals on which their hearts are set. From the songs of birds and the whispering trees, From the shafts of light and the sky itself; May the shower of Truth rain down On thirsty hearts and bring fulfillment. --Shantideva, 7th Century (in Travelers On The Road)

There is a wonderful mythical law of nature that the three things we crave most in life -- happiness, freedom, and peace of mind -- are always attained by giving them to someone else. --Peyton Conway March (in Fairy Godmother)

If we deny our happiness, resist our satisfaction, we lessen the importance of their deprivation. We must risk delight. We can do without pleasure, but not delight. Not enjoyment. We must have the stubbornness to accept our gladness in the ruthless furnace of this world. To make injustice the only measure of our attention is to praise the Devil. If the locomotive of the Lord runs us down, we should give thanks that the end had magnitude. --Jack Gilbert (in Delight)

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 (in Purpose)

True happiness is not attained through self-gratification, but through fidelity to a worthy purpose. --Helen Keller (in An Olympic Hero)

May our lives be ever intertwined, our love keeping us together. We will build a home that is compassionate to all, full of respect and honor for others and each other. May our home be forever filled with peace, happiness and love. --Author Unknown (in Made With Love Café)

When you have once seen the glow of happiness on the face of a beloved person, you know that a man can have no vocation but to awaken that light on the faces surrounding him. --Albert Camus (in Canadian Index of Well Being)

Happiness is neither virtue nor pleasure nor this thing nor that but simply growth. We are happy when we are growing. --Willliam Butler Yeats (in 49 Up: Ongoing Portraits of Life)

Investigating an untrue thought will always lead you back to who you are. It hurts to believe you are other than who you are, to live any story other than happiness. If you put your hand into the fire, does anyone have to tell you to move it? Do you have to decide? No: when your hand starts to burn, it moves. You don’t have to direct it; the hand moves itself. In the same way, once you understand, through inquiry, that an untrue thought causes suffering, you move away from it. --Byron Katie (in Your Life (And How You Tell It))