This article was last updated on January 26, 2022
True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future, not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears but to rest satisfied with what we have, which is sufficient. The greatest blessings of mankind are within us and within our reach, we just haven’t realized that. The only person who can hurt your happiness in the long run is YOU.
Here are 101 thought-provoking happiness quotes, that might change the way you feel about life.
“People are just as happy as they make up their minds to be.” – Abraham Lincoln
101 Inspiring Happiness Quotes
It is not what happens to you, but how you respond to what happens to you. Count your blessings while others are adding up their troubles.
Happiness comes more easily when you feel good about yourself without feeling the need for anyone else’s approval.
Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.
Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.
The most important thing is to enjoy your life—to be happy—it’s all that matters.
Be nice to people on your way up because you might meet them again on your way back down.
When other people treat you poorly, walk away, smile and keep being YOU. Don’t ever let someone else’s bitterness change the person you are.
One of the most freeing things we learn in life is that we don’t have to like everyone, everyone doesn’t have to like us, and that’s OK.
Happiness and success is all about spending your life in your own way. Be yourself. No one can ever tell you you’re doing it wrong.
It’s always better to be at the bottom of the ladder you want to climb than the top of the one you don’t.
You can’t always wait for the perfect moment. Sometimes you must dare to do it because life is too short to regret and wonder what could have been.
No medicine cures what happiness cannot.
Success is getting what you want, happiness is wanting what you get.
It’s been my experience that you can nearly always enjoy things if you make up your mind firmly that you will.
Great challenges make life interesting; overcoming them makes life meaningful. It’s how you deal with failure that determines your happiness and success.
Any fool can be happy when times are good. It takes a strong soul with real heart to develop smiles out of situations that make us weep.
No matter how long it takes, it will get better. Tough situations build strong people in the end.
Whatever you do, don’t get stuck on the one thing that ruins your day. Smile and be grateful. Life is too short to waste on negativity.
Do not dwell so much on creating your perfect life that you forget to live.
You can’t base your idea of success and happiness on other people’s opinions and expectations.
The best way to cheer yourself is to try to cheer someone else up.
Generally speaking, the most miserable people I know are those who are obsessed with themselves; the happiest people I know are those who lose themselves in the service of others…By and large, I have come to see that if we complain about life, it is because we are thinking only of ourselves.
No amount of money will make you happy if you aren’t happy with yourself.
Your value doesn’t decrease based on someone’s inability to see your worth.
Happiness comes more easily when you feel good about yourself without feeling the need for anyone else’s approval.
Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.
When someone says, “You’ve changed,” it’s not always a bad thing. Sometimes it just means you stopped living your life their way.
Don’t rely on someone else for your happiness and self-worth. Only you can be responsible for that. If you can’t love and respect yourself – no one else will be able to make that happen. Accept who you are – completely; the good and the bad – and make changes as YOU see fit – not because you think someone else wants you to be different.
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.
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.
What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.
Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.
I’d far rather be happy than right any day.
Look for something positive about this moment. Even if you have to look a little harder than usual, it still exists.
Stop focusing on how stressed you are and remember how blessed you are. It could be so much worse.
The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.
Sometimes life knocks you on your ass… get up, get up, get up!!! Happiness is not the absence of problems, it’s the ability to deal with them.
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 it.
Remember, social comparison is the thief of happiness. You could spend a lifetime worrying about what others have, but it wouldn’t get you anything.
The greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions, and not upon our circumstances.
It is sometimes easier to be happy if you don’t know everything.
Everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you’re climbing it.
Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself in your way of thinking.
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.
Happiness is not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.
The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance, the wise grows it under his feet.
Work to create a life that feels right to YOU, not one that looks right to everyone else.
What is coming is better than what is gone. Don’t give up hope. Good things often happen when you least expect it.
Plenty of people miss their share of happiness, not because they never found it, but because they didn’t stop to enjoy it.
The happiest people in the world are those who feel absolutely terrific about themselves, and this is the natural outgrowth of accepting total responsibility for every part of their life.
Being happy doesn’t mean everything is perfect. It means you’ve decided to look beyond the imperfections.
Life will bring you pain all by itself. Your responsibility is to create joy.
The trick is to enjoy your life today. Don’t wish it away by waiting for better days ahead.
Pay attention to the little things, because when you really miss “the good old days,” you miss the little things the most, like just laughing with someone special.
Happiness is like a kiss. You must share it to enjoy it.
Happiness is like a butterfly; the more you chase it, the more it will elude you, but if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder.
Most people would rather be certain they’re miserable, than risk being happy.
Often people attempt to live their lives backwards; they try to have more things, or more money, in order to do more of what they want, so they will be happier. The way it actually works is the reverse. You must first be who you really are, then do what you need to do, in order to have what you want.
Of all the things you wear, your expression is the most important.
Man must search for what is right, and let happiness come on its own.
He is rich or poor according to what he is, not according to what he has.
The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness.
Be happy, and a reason will come along.
I think the key to life is just being a happy person, and happiness will bring you success.
There is no way to happiness – happiness is the way.
One of the most rewarding moments in life is when you finally find the courage to let go of what you can’t change.
Whatever you do, don’t get stuck on the one thing that ruins your day. Smile and be grateful. Life is too short to waste on negativity.
No matter how long it takes, it will get better. Tough situations build strong people in the end.
Great challenges make life interesting; overcoming them makes life meaningful. It’s how you deal with failure that determines your happiness and success.
Happiness is a by-product of an effort to make someone else happy.
Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.
When a man has lost all happiness, he’s not alive. Call him a breathing corpse.
Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word happy would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. It is far better to take things as they come along with patience and equanimity.
Happiness is not something you postpone for the future; it is something you design for the present.
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 month – get married. If you want happiness for a year – inherit a fortune. If you want happiness for a lifetime – help someone else
Live simply. Love generously. Speak truthfully. Breathe deeply. Do your best. Leave everything else to the powers above you.
Why fit in when you were born to stand out?
Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.
There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.
Be kind to everyone you meet, for everyone is fighting some kind of battle.
It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness.
When everything seem to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it…
You have to have music in your soul to make your life dance.
Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a a mystery, today is a GIFT, that why they call it “the present”.
If being happy is important to you, try this:
instead of regretting all you lack, celebrate all you’ve got.The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up.
Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.
If you want to be happy, be.
A man’s as miserable as he thinks he is.
We are no longer happy so soon as we wish to be happier.
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.
Children are happy because they don’t have a file in their minds called “All the Things That Could Go Wrong.
True happiness is to enjoy the present without anxious dependence upon the future.
The remarkable thing is, we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day.
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.
I think happiness is what makes you pretty. Period. Happy people are beautiful. They become like a mirror and they reflect that happiness.
Happiness is not a state to arrive at, but a manner of traveling.
For every minute you are angry, you lose sixty seconds of happiness.
On the whole, the happiest people seem to be those who have no particular cause for being happy except that they are so.
If you observe a really happy man you will find him building a boat, writing a symphony, educating his son, growing double dahlias in his garden, or looking for dinosaur eggs in the Gobi desert. He will not be searching for happiness as if it were a collar button that has rolled under the radiator. He will not be striving for it as a goal in itself. He will have become aware that he is happy in the course of living life twenty-four crowded hours of the day.
Your turn now…
What is your favorite quote from the ones on the list? Is there any other quote you would like to add? Please share your thoughts in the comments below and if you enjoyed these quotes help us by sharing them with your friends and family.
Featured image source: Moyan Brenn