99 Happiness Quotes Reminding You To Appreciate Life More

Need a quick injection of happiness?

There’s a quote for that.

Happiness quotes can remind you to savor the small joys, inspire you to see the good in all things, and help you find your own happiness.

Enjoy our favorite ones.

Where Happiness Comes From

Our first set of quotes is about finding happiness’s elusive origin.

Philosophers, scholars, famous poets, songwriters, and thought leaders from across time and culture have fascinating ideas on the true source of happiness.

May these quotes inspire you to think about what happiness means.

“Happiness is a choice that requires effort at times.” – Aeschylus

“If you want to be happy, be.” – Leo Tolstoy

“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.” – Dale Carnegie

“Happiness is not a possession to be prized, it is a quality of thought, a state of mind.” – Daphne du Maurier

“There is no path to happiness: happiness is the path.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

“Happiness is two different things, what you take and then what you bring.” – The Strokes

“Happiness depends upon ourselves.” – Aristotle

“Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions.” – Dalai Lama

“Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.” – Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

“Half the world is on the wrong scent in the pursuit of happiness. They think it consists in having and getting, and in being served by others. It consists in giving and in serving others.” – Drummond

“Happiness is the joy you feel moving toward your potential.” – Shawn Achor

“Happiness doesn’t come from achievements, or money, or any sort of treasure. Happiness is a frame of mind, not a destination. It’s appreciating what you’ve got and building relationships with those around you.” – Janette Rallison

“I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn’t arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I’m going to be happy in it.” – Groucho Marx

“So we shall let the reader answer this question for himself: who is the happier man, he who has braved the storm of life and lived or he who has stayed securely on shore and merely existed?” – Hunter S. Thompson

“The greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions, and not upon our circumstances.” – Martha Washington

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

“Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” – Abraham Lincoln

“If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy, and inspires your hopes.” – Andrew Carnegie

“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

“Do not look for happiness outside yourself. The awakened seek happiness inside.” – Peter Deunov

When a dutiful man has a heart good and kind, True happiness surely is his.” – Richard Lynott O’Malley

“Happiness is a journey, not a destination.” – Ben Sweetland

“Happiness is not a station you arrive at, but a manner of traveling.” – Margaret Lee Runbeck

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

“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.” – Mahatma Gandhi

“I’m choosing happiness over suffering, I know I am. I’m making space for the unknown future to fill up my life with yet-to-come surprises.” – Elizabeth Gilbert

“The reason people find it so hard to be happy is that they always see the past better than it was, the present worse than it is, and the future less resolved than it will be.” – Marcel Pagnol

“All happiness depends on courage and work.” – Honoré de Balzac

“I shall take the heart. For brains do not make one happy, and happiness is the best thing in the world.” – L. Frank Baum

Quotes About How to Be Happy

Do you find happiness, or is it a state of being? Or is there something else you can do that brings lasting happiness?

The competing thoughts about the true meaning of happiness are actually a positive – it means there’s not just one path.

These quotes highlight a wide range of ideas on achieving happiness.

Which one speaks to you?

“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

“Happy people plan actions; they don’t plan results.” – Dennis Waitley

“There is only one cause of unhappiness: the false beliefs you have in your head, beliefs so widespread, so commonly held, that it never occurs to you to question them.” – Anthony de Mello

“Don’t underestimate the value of doing nothing, of just going along, listening to all the things you can’t hear, and not bothering.” – Winnie the Pooh

“If you plan on being anything less than you are capable of being, you will probably be unhappy all the days of your life.” – Abraham Maslow

“The only thing that will make you happy is being happy with who you are.” – Goldie Hawn

“The secret of a happy life is respect. Respect for yourself and respect for others.” – Ayad Akhtar

“Of all the means to ensure happiness throughout the whole life, by far the most important is the acquisition of friends.” – Epicurus

“They say a person needs just three things to be truly happy in this world: someone to love, something to do, and something to hope for.” – Tom Bodett

“Happiness is not the absence of problems; it’s the ability to deal with them.” – Steve Maraboli

“Happiness comes from being who you actually are instead of who you think you are supposed to be.” – Shonda Rhimes

“A butterfly, which when pursued, seems always just beyond your grasp; but if you sit down quietly, may alight upon you.” – unknown

“Happiness is a risk. If you’re not a little scared, then you’re not doing it right.” – Sarah Addison Allen

“The only happy people I know are those who work well at something they consider important.” – Abraham Maslow

“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

“One must believe in the possibility of happiness in order to be happy.” – Leo Tolstoy

“There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power or our will. ” – Epictetus

“Happiness is not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt

“My happiness grows in direct proportion to my acceptance, and in inverse proportion to my expectations.” – Michael J. Fox

“When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me, speaking words of wisdom, let it be.” – The Beatles

“Since you get more joy out of giving joy to others, you should put a good deal of thought into the happiness that you are able to give.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

“The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance, the wise grows it under his feet.” – James Oppenheim

“I needed to stop being what everyone thought I was.” – Sarah Addison Allen

“Happy people don’t fail. Happy people just learn.” – Little Big Town

“It is more fitting for a man to laugh at life than to lament over it.” – Seneca

“Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action. ” – William James

“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.” – Carl Jung

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

“It is essential to happiness that our way of living should spring from our own deep impulses and not from the accidental tastes and desires of those who happen to be our neighbors, or even our relations.” – Bertrand Russell

“If you look to others for fulfillment, you will never be fulfilled. If your happiness depends on money, you will never be happy with yourself. Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the world belongs to you.” – Lao Tzu

“The secret of happiness is not in doing what one likes, but in liking what one does.” – J.M. Barrie

“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

“In short, the musician must play, the painter must paint and the poet must write, if they want to live at peace with themselves.” – Abraham Maslow

“The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved.” – Victor Hugo

Happiness Quotes Inspiring Us to Be Happy

Sometimes you just need some inspiration for happiness. These quotes deliver.

Find your reason to be happy. 

“A flower blossoms for its own joy.” – Oscar Wilde

“You must be the best judge of your own happiness.” – Jane Austen

“Well, you know you wanna make me (shout). Kick my heels up and (shout). Throw my hands up and (shout). Throw my head back and (shout). Come on now (shout).” – The Isley Brothers

“Joy to the world, all the boys and girls. Joy to the fishes in the deep blue sea. Joy to you and me.” – Three Dog Night

“I’d far rather be happy than right any day.” – Douglas Adams

“For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“This, too, shall pass.” – proverb

“People are not bad, they are unhappy.” – Abraham Maslow

“I just want to celebrate another day of livin’. I just want to celebrate another day of life.” – Rare Earth

“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

“There’s always a reason to always choose joy.” – Sidewalk Prophets

“Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” – Marcel Proust

“This is gonna be the best day of my life. My li-i-i-i-i-ife.” – American Authors

“If only we’d stop trying to be happy, we could have a pretty good time.” – Edith Wharton

“Now and then it’s good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy.” – Guillaume Apollinaire

“We are all happy if we but knew it.” – Fyodor Dostoyevsky

“Happiness is a gift and the trick is not to expect it, but to delight in it when it comes.” – Charles Dickens

“Sometimes, the sun shines in my heart and every little thing feels fine.” – The Lightning Seeds

“Happiness is a perfume you cannot pour on others without getting some on yourself.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Whoever is happy will make others happy.” – Anne Frank

“Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get.” – Dale Carnegie

“Laughter is a sunbeam of the soul.” – Thomas Mann

“When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us.” – Helen Keller

“The happiness of life is made up of the little charities of a kiss or smile, a kind look, a heartfelt compliment.” – Samuel Taylor Coleridge

“Happiness is a warm puppy.” – Charles M. Schulz

“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.” – J.R.R. Tolkien

“The most important thing is to enjoy your life—to be happy—it’s all that matters.” – Audrey Hepburn

“(Because I’m happy) Clap along if you feel like a room without a roof. (Because I’m happy) Clap along if you feel like happiness is the truth.” – Pharrell Williams

“Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life.” – Omar Khayyam

“Why not seize the pleasure at once? — How often is happiness destroyed by preparation, foolish preparation!” – Jane Austen

“I’m singin’ in the rain, just singin’ in the rain. What a glorious feeling. I’m happy again.” – Gene Kelly

“Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.” – Marthe Troly-Curtin

“You have to be willing to get happy about nothing.” – Andy Warhol

“I’m walking on sunshine, whoa. And don’t it feel good?” – Katrina and the Waves

“Don’t worry, be happy” – Robert McFerrin Jr.

“Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.” – Dr. Seuss

“Tonight, I’m gonna have myself a real good time, I feel alive, And the world, I’ll turn it inside out, yeah, I’m floatin’ around in ecstasy So don’t stop me now Don’t stop me ‘Cause I’m havin’ a good time Havin’ a good time” – Queen

What’s Your Favorite Happiness Quote?

What’s your favorite quote about happiness? Which quote inspires a great mood?

Share in the comments!