210 Happiness Quotes That Will Make You Smile (Instantly)

Here are 210 of the best happiness quotes I could find. And please remember, the happiest and wisest people are the ones who chase nothing. They just say “yes” to what happens. Happy reading!

Happiness comes from peace. Peace comes from indifference. Naval Ravikant Click to tweet

Happiness is not doing fun things. Happiness is doing meaningful things. Maxime Lagacé Click to tweet

One of the keys to happiness is a bad memory. Rita Mae Brown Click to tweet

Happiness is a state where nothing is missing. Naval Ravikant Click to tweet

Cry. Forgive. Learn. Move on. Let your tears water the seeds of your future happiness. Steve Maraboli Click to tweet

He who lives in harmony with himself lives in harmony with the universe. Marcus Aurelius Click to tweet

Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for. Joseph Addison Click to tweet

If you want to be happy, be. Leo Tolstoy Click to tweet

Happiness is a function of accepting what is. Werner Erhard Click to tweet

You can only have bliss if you don’t chase it. Henepola Gunaratana Click to tweet

Difficult roads often leads to beautiful destinations. Click to tweet

For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness. Ralph Waldo Emerson Click to tweet

It’s the little things in life. Click to tweet

True happiness is not attained through self-gratification, but through fidelity to a worthy purpose. Helen Keller Click to tweet

Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated. Confucius Click to tweet

If you aren’t grateful for what you already have, what makes you think you would be happy with more. Roy T. Bennett Click to tweet

Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time. Marthe Troly-Curtin Click to tweet

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

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

The truly wise and happy are never rushed. Maxime Lagacé Click to tweet

See also: zen quotes, strength quotes, kindness quotes

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The Best Happiness Quotes

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We don’t laugh because we’re happy – we’re happy because we laugh. William James

That’s your unlimited desires that are clouding your peace, your happiness. Naval Ravikant

Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened. Ludwig Jacobowski

Doing what you like is freedom. Liking what you do is happiness. Frank Tyger

There is more to life than increasing its speed. Mahatma Gandhi

Enjoy it. Because it’s happening. Stephen Chbosky

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

Life is 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent how you respond to it. Lou Holtz

True happiness arises, in the first place, from the enjoyment of one’s self. Joseph Addison

Happiness? That’s nothing more than health and a poor memory. Albert Schweitzer

Happiness, not in another place but this place…not for another hour, but this hour. Walt Whitman

Folks are usually about as happy as they make their minds up to be. Abraham Lincoln

Don’t take life too seriously. You’ll never get out of it alive. Elbert Hubbard

Seek it outside and you’ll be exhausted. Seek it inside and you’ll find a path. Maxime Lagacé

It’s the moments that I stopped just to be, rather than do, that have given me true happiness. Richard Branson

I am very happy because I have conquered myself and not the world. I am very happy because I have loved the world and not myself. Sri Chinmoy

What a wonderful life I’ve had! I only wish I’d realized it sooner. Colette

My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style. Maya Angelou

Our greatest happiness does not depend on the condition of life in which chance has placed us, but is always the result of a good conscience, good health, occupation, and freedom in all just pursuits. Thomas Jefferson

People don’t notice whether it’s winter or summer when they’re happy. Anton Chekhov

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

Boredom is the feeling that everything is a waste of time…serenity, that nothing is. Thomas Szasz

See also: quotes to live by

Part 2. Happiness Quotes And Happy Quotes That ARE…

The Most Famous Happiness Quotes (Einstein, Gandhi, Buddha, etc.)

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Learn to value yourself, which means: fight for your happiness. Ayn Rand Click to tweet

The best way to cheer yourself is to try to cheer someone else up. Mark Twain

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion. Dalai Lama

Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions. Dalai Lama

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

In our lives, change is unavoidable, loss is unavoidable. In the adaptability and ease with which we experience change, lies our happiness and freedom. Buddha

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. Buddha

The biggest adventure you can take is to live the life of your dreams. Oprah Winfrey

Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know. Ernest Hemingway

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

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

Indeed, man wishes to be happy even when he so lives as to make happiness impossible. Augustine of Hippo

Happiness depends upon ourselves. Aristotle

Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile. Albert Einstein

More famous quotes

See also: Stumbling on Happiness (Amazon book)

Short Happiness Quotes

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One-liners, short happiness quotes for your bio, social status, self-talk, motto, mantra, signs, posters, wallpapers, backgrounds.

Stop being busy. Start being present. Maxime Lagacé

The constant happiness is curiosity. Alice Munro

Be happy. It’s one way of being wise. Colette

Being happy is being satisfied. Being satisfied means accepting. Maxime Lagacé

Doing what you were born to do… That’s the way to be happy. Agnes Martin

Being happy is not the only happiness. Alice Walker

Happiness is inversely correlated with desire. Unknown

No medicine cures what happiness cannot. Gabriel García Márquez

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

The thicker the skin, the happier the man. @LifeMathMoney

Happiness is acceptance. Unknown

All happiness depends on courage and work. Honoré de Balzac

It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness. Charles Spurgeon

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

There is only one happiness in this life, to love and be loved. George Sand

Nobody can be uncheered with a balloon. Winnie the Pooh Click to tweet

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

I must learn to be content with being happier than I deserve. Jane Austen

Whoever is happy will make others happy. Anne Frank

Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort. Franklin D. Roosevelt

We forge the chains we wear in life. Charles Dickens

I’m happy. Which often looks like crazy. David Henry Hwang

More short quotes

You may also like: inspirational quotes motivational quotes love quotes life quotes

Inspirational And Positive Happiness Quotes

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What is happiness? The feeling that power is growing, that resistance is overcome. Friedrich Nietzsche

Happiness does not lead to gratitude. Gratitude leads to happiness. David Steindl-Rast Click to tweet

The deepest satisfaction you’ll find will be when you give all you’ve got on one thing, or when you’ll do absolutely nothing and accept life as it is. Think On and Off. Avoid the middle. Maxime Lagacé

A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people to whom it is easy to do good, and who are not accustomed to have it done to them; then work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books, music, love for one’s neighbor — such is my idea of happiness. Leo Tolstoy (Family Happiness)

It is the very mark of the spirit of rebellion to crave for happiness in this life. Henrik Ibsen

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 only way to find true happiness is to risk being completely cut open. Chuck Palahniuk Click to tweet

People are unhappy when they get something too easily. You have to sweat – that’s the only moral they know. Dany Laferrière

The greatest secret to happiness and peace is letting every life situation be what it is, instead of what you think it should be. Then, make the very best of it. Thibaut

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

Today is life – the only life you are sure of. Make the most of today. Get interested in something. Shake yourself awake. Develop a hobby. Let the winds of enthusiasm sweep through you. Live today with gusto. Dale Carnegie

The greatest happiness you can have is knowing that you do not necessarily require happiness. William Saroyan

What we think determines what happens to us, so if we want to change our lives, we need to stretch our minds. Wayne Dyer

There is no passion to be found playing small – in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living. Nelson Mandela

If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much. Jim Rohn

Live with intention. Walk to the edge. Listen hard. Practice wellness. Play with abandon. Laugh. Choose with no regret. Do what you love. Live as if this is all there is. Mary Anne Roadacher-Hershey

In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years. Abraham Lincoln

Pleasure is very seldom found where it is sought. Our brightest blazes are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks. Samuel Johnson

On the whole, the happiest people seem to be those who have no particular cause for being happy except that they are so. William R. Inge

Plenty of people miss their share of happiness, not because they never found it, but because they didn’t stop to enjoy it. William Feather

I have only two kinds of days: happy and hysterically happy. Allen J. Lefferdink

See also: positive quotes, best quotes

Funny Happiness Quotes (Some Will Surprise You)

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Life is short. Smile while you still have teeth. Unknown

Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go. Unknown Click to tweet

There is no cosmetic for beauty like happiness. Lady Blessington

To be stupid, selfish, and have good health are three requirements for happiness, though if stupidity is lacking, all is lost. Gustave Flaubert

Sanity and happiness are an impossible combination. Mark Twain

Expecting life to treat you well because you are a good person is like expecting an angry bull not to charge because you are a vegetarian. Shari R. Barr

Of all the things you wear, your expression is the most important. Janet Lane

You can’t buy happiness but you can buy ice cream. And that’s kind of the same thing. Unknown

When someone told me I lived in a fantasy land I nearly fell of my unicorn. Unknown

Some days I amaze myself. Other days I put my keys in the fridge. Unknown

Happiness does not have a price tag so smile. Unknown

The best vitamin to be a happy person is B1. Unknown

Be happy. It really annoys negative people. Ricky Gervais

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Happiness Quotes From Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, Twitter

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Happiness is not out there, it’s in you.

One day, or day one, you decide. Click to tweet

The key to being happy is knowing you have the power to choose what to accept and what to let go.

Don’t let the silly little things steal your happiness.

People wait all week for Friday, all year for summer, all life for happiness. Click to tweet

Cheerfulness is the very flower of health.

There is no happiness; there are only moments of happiness.

The secret of being happy is accepting where you are in life and making the most out of everyday.

There are so many beautiful reasons to be happy.

Life only comes around once, so do whatever makes you happy, and be with whoever makes you smile.

Someday you’ll look back and understand why it all happened the way it did.

Doing what you like is freedom. Liking what you do is happiness.

We can’t direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails.

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Cute Happiness Quotes

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Blessed are those who can give without remembering and take without forgetting. Bernard Meltzer Click to tweet

Happiness: A butterfly, which when pursued, seems always just beyond your grasp; but if you sit down quietly, may alight upon you. Daily Crescent

Gather the crumbs of happiness and they will make you a loaf of contentment. Unknown

Happy girls are the prettiest. Audrey Hepburn

Be you. Do you. For you. Unknown Click to tweet

Happiness Proverbs

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Tension is who you think you should be, relaxation is who you are. Chinese proverb

Happiness is a place between too much and too little. Finnish proverb Click to tweet

Seeking happiness is a straight way to misery. English proverb

You cannot prevent the birds of sadness from passing over your head, but you can prevent their making a nest in your hair. Chinese proverb

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

See also: 20 Ways to Relax & Unwind (psychcentral.com)

Deep And Wise Happiness Quotes (Words Of Wisdom)

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If we would just slow down, happiness would catch up to us. Richard Carlson Click to tweet

Don’t let your happiness depend on something you may lose. C.S. Lewis

Not wanting something is as good as having it. Naval Ravikant

With my desire to improve everything, I destroy the moment. Naval Ravikant

Happiness is a choice and a skill and you can dedicate yourself to learning that skill and making that choice. Naval Ravikant

School, politics, sports, and games train us to compete against others. True rewards – wealth, knowledge, love, fitness, and equanimity – come from ignoring others and improving ourselves. Naval Ravikant

One happiness scatters a thousand sorrows. Chinese proverb Click to tweet

There is great happiness in not wanting, in not being something, in not going somewhere. Jiddu Krishnamurti

Your mind will seek security and comfort in accumulation (of knowledge, material, status, etc.). This is a never ending game. Be above that. Play the long game. Maxime Lagacé

Say “no” more often so you can say “yes” to what’s important. Maxime Lagacé

Truly happy people don’t need to show others that they are. Maxime Lagacé

It’s been my experience that you can nearly always enjoy things if you make up your mind firmly that you will. L.M. Montgomery

If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway. Mother Teresa

There are two ways to be happy: improve your reality, or lower your expectations. Jodi Picoult

Don’t postpone joy until you have learned all of your lessons. Joy is your lesson. Alan Cohen

Happiness does not consist in pastimes and amusements but in virtuous activities. Aristotle

It is difficult to find happiness within oneself, but it is impossible to find it anywhere else. Arthur Schopenhauer

The secret of happiness is to admire without desiring. Carl Sandburg

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Reinhold Niebuhr

Happiness is the default state. It’s what’s there when you remove the sense that something is missing in life. Naval Ravikant

Security is when everything is settled, when nothing can happen to you; security is the denial of life. Germaine Greer Click to tweet

There is some kind of a sweet innocence in being human- in not having to be just happy or just sad- in the nature of being able to be both broken and whole, at the same time. C. JoyBell C.

There can be no happiness if the things we believe in are different from the things we do. Freya Stark

In every part and corner of our life, to lose oneself is to be a gainer; to forget oneself is to be happy. Robert Louis Stevenson

A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery while on a detour. Unknown

Is it not clear, however, that bliss and envy are the numerator and denominator of the fraction called happiness? Yevgeny Zamyatin

Ask yourself whether you are happy and you cease to be so. John Stuart Mill

There is no way to happiness — happiness is the way. Thich Nhat Hanh (notable-quotes.com)

Enjoyment is just the sound of being centered. Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh

When neither their property nor their honor is touched, the majority of men live content. Niccolo Machiavelli

Happiness in this world, when it comes, comes incidentally. Make it the object of pursuit, and it leads us a wild-goose chase, and is never attained. Nathaniel Hawthorne

Sometimes we don’t find the thing that will make us happy because we can’t give up the thing that was supposed to. Robert Brault

Joy is more divine than sorrow; for joy is bread, and sorrow is medicine. Henry Ward Beecher

Usefulness is happiness, and… all other things are but incidental. Lydia Maria Child, The American Frugal Housewife

Most of us believe in trying to make other people happy only if they can be happy in ways which we approve. Robert S. Lynd

To be happy, you must fancy that everything you have is a gift, and you the chosen, though you worked your tail off for every bit of it. Robert Brault

The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness and the power of contemplation rather than upon mere survival. Aristotle

Happiness makes up in height for what it lacks in length. Robert Frost

To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness. Bertrand Russell

More wisdom quotes

Part 3. What Is Happiness?

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Happiness is a direction, not a place. Sydney J. Harris Click to tweet

Happiness is a form of courage. Holbrook Jackson

Happiness is not a goal; it is a by-product. Eleanor Roosevelt

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

Happiness is not a state to arrive at, but a manner of traveling. Margaret Lee Runbeck Click to tweet

We can’t control the world. We can only (barely) control our own reactions to it. Happiness is largely a choice, not a right or entitlement. David C. Hill

Real happiness is not of temporary enjoyment, but is so interwoven with the future that it blesses for ever. James Lendall Basford

Happiness is an inside job. William Arthur Ward

Happiness is distraction from the human tragedy. J.M. Reinoso

We cannot be happy if we expect to live all the time at the highest peak of intensity. Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance and order and rhythm and harmony. Thomas Merton

Happiness: a way station between too little and too much. Channing Pollock

Happiness is usually attributed by adults to children, and by children to adults. Thomas Szasz

Unhappiness is not knowing what we want and killing ourselves to get it. Don Herold

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

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

Happiness is the interval between periods of unhappiness. Don Marquis

Happiness is the natural flower of duty. Phillips Brooks

Happiness is not being pained in body or troubled in mind. Thomas Jefferson

Happiness is the resultant of the relative strengths of positive and negative feelings rather than an absolute amount of one or the other. Norman Bradburn

Happiness is your dentist telling you it won’t hurt and then having him catch his hand in the drill. Johnny Carson

Happiness is a conscious choice, not an automatic response. Mildred Barthel

Happiness is holding someone in your arms and knowing you hold the whole world. Orhan Pamuk

Happiness is an accident of nature, a beautiful and flawless aberration. Pat Conroy

Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings. And once you have achieved a state of happiness, you must never become lax about maintaining it. You must make a mighty effort to keep swimming upward into that happiness forever, to stay afloat on top of it. Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love)

Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence. Aristotle (See also: meaningful quotes)

Happiness is that state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one’s values. Ayn Rand

Happiness is the experience of loving life. Being happy is being in love with that momentary experience. And love is looking at someone or even something and seeing the absolute best in him/her or it. Love is happiness with what you see. So love and happiness really are the same thing…just expressed differently. Robert McPhillips

Happiness is always a by-product. It is probably a matter of temperament, and for anything I know it may be glandular. But it is not something that can be demanded from life, and if you are not happy you had better stop worrying about it and see what treasures you can pluck from your own brand of unhappiness. Robertson Davies

Happiness is not an ideal of reason, but of imagination. Immanuel Kant

Happiness is always the serendipitous result of looking for something else. Dr. Idel Dreimer

Happiness is where we find it, but very rarely where we seek it. J. Petit Senn

Happiness is not having what you want. It is appreciating what you have. Click to tweet

Part 4. What Is The Secret To Happiness?

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The secret of happiness is freedom, the secret of freedom is courage. Carrie Jones

The true secret of happiness lies in the taking a genuine interest in all the details of daily life. William Morris Click to tweet

If you ever start taking things too seriously, just remember that we are talking monkeys on an organic spaceship flying through the universe. Joe Rogan

The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, worry about the future, or anticipate troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly. Buddha

The secret to happiness is to put the burden of proof on unhappiness. Robert Brault

The secret of happiness is to find a congenial monotony. V.S. Pritchett

The secret of success is learning how to use pain and pleasure instead of having pain and pleasure use you. If you do that, you’re in control of your life. If you don’t, life controls you. Tony Robbins

Part 5. Conclusion

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Everything is a gift of the universe – even joy, anger, jealously, frustration, or separateness. Everything is perfect either for our growth or our enjoyment. Ken Keyes Jr Click to tweet

Call to action: Read 20+ Simple Tips For Happiness (demilked.com)