This page lists my all-time favorite happiness quotes to live your best life.
You can find links to more intentional living quotes at the bottom of this page.
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Also, here’s some recommended reading on happiness:
75+ Happiness Quotes to Live Your Best Life
“Consciously or not, directly or indirectly, in the short or the long term, whatever we do, whatever we hope, whatever we dream—somehow, is related to a deep, profound desire for well-being or happiness.” — Matthieu Ricard
“The grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.” — Washington Burnap
“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.” — Gandhi
“(The word happiness) is commonly used to designate something intricate and ambiguous, one of those ideas which humanity has intentionally left vague, so that each individual might interpret it in his own way.” — Henri Bergson
“In our quest for happiness and the avoidance of suffering, we are all fundamentally the same, and therefore equal. Despite all the characteristics that differentiate us — race, language, religion, gender, wealth … we are all equal in terms of our basic humanity.” — Dalai Lama
“The struggle is great, the task divine—to gain mastery, freedom, happiness, and tranquility.” — Epictetus
“Happiness is a place between too little and too much.” — Finnish Proverb
“Once a person or family reaches a moderate level of income, here are the factors that research has shown contribute most to happiness: good health, personal growth, strong social relationships, service to others, connection with nature.” — Duane Elgin
“Most smart people over time realize that possessions don’t make them happy. You have to go through that … As you get older, you just realize that there’s no happiness in material possessions.” — Naval Ravikant
“I can think of no greater happiness in life than to be surrounded only by the things I love. How about you?” — Marie Kondo
“Appoint certain days on which to give up everything and make yourself at home with next to nothing … For no one is worthy of god unless he has paid no heed to riches. I am not, mind you, against your possessing them, but I want to ensure that you possess them without tremors; and this you will only achieve in one way, by convincing yourself that you can live a happy life even without them, and by always regarding them as being on the point of vanishing.” — Seneca
“A quiet and modest life brings more joy than a pursuit of success bound with constant unrest.” — Einstein
“May I not also say that the simplest pleasures are the most enduring, the commonest delights are the most invigorating, the form of happiness which is the most easily available is the best? The further we stray from Nature the harder are we to please, and he knows the truest pleasure who can find it in the simplest forms.” — W. J. Dawson
“We need examples of people who, leaving to Heaven to decide whether they are to rise in the world, decide for themselves that they will be happy in it, and have resolved to seek—not greater wealth, but simpler pleasure, not higher fortune, but deeper felicity; making the first of possessions, self-possession.” — Ruskin
“Happiness is simple pleasures, is spending time doing what you love and spending time with those you love.” — Leo Babauta
“Simplicity of living plus high thinking lead to the greatest happiness!” — Paramahansa Yogananda via Swami Kriyananda
“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.” — Siddhārtha Gautama
“Happiness only real when shared.” — Christopher McCandless
“Good relationships keep us happier and healthier. Period … Looking back on their lives, people most often report their time with others as being the most meaningful part of life and what they’re proudest of.” — Robert Waldinger
“Emotional happiness is primarily social … The very best thing that can happen to people is to spend time with other people they like. That is when they are happiest.” — Dr. Daniel Kahneman
“One of the best ways to make yourself happy is to make other people happy; one of the best ways to make other people happy is to be happy yourself.” — Gretchen Rubin
“You don’t need huge ambition to be very happy, you just need a bunch of friends to drink green tea and talk with.” — Héctor García
“A man is not rightly conditioned until he is a happy, healthy, and prosperous being; and happiness, health, and prosperity are the result of a harmonious adjustment of the inner with the outer…” — James Allen
“The essence of philosophy … happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things.” — Epictetus
“The way we think about the events of our life and compare them to realistic expectations is what makes us happy or unhappy.” — Mo Gawdat
“Happiness is very much like staying fit. You start with the decision that you are going to get fit, you find out how – but knowing that is not enough, you have to go to the gym to work out and eat healthily. To me the whole topic of happiness is exactly the same. First you understand that happiness is a choice, that you can actually achieve it and that there is a method to make it happen. Happiness is not a coincidence, it is not given to you by life, it’s entirely our responsibility.” — Mo Gawdat
“In every moment, in everything that happens, you can look on the bright side of something. So I used to do that forcibly and then I trained it until it became second nature.” — Naval Ravikant
“I’d always believed that a life of quality, enjoyment, and wisdom were my human birthright … I never suspected that I would have to learn how to live … ways of seeing the world I had to master before I could awaken to a simple, happy, uncomplicated life.” — Dan Millman
“If you want to be happy, be.” — Leo Tolstoy
“For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Behold the master key to our happiness in our own hands. Moment by moment, we can be grateful for this gift.” — David Steindl-Rast
“I am the happiest man alive. I have that in me that can convert poverty to riches, adversity to prosperity, and I am more invulnerable than Achilles; fortune hath not one place to hit me.” — Sir Thomas Browne
“If you’re so smart, how come you aren’t happy? How come you haven’t figured that out? That’s my challenge to all the people who think they’re so smart and so capable.” — Naval Ravikant
“Happiness is a choice. You are as happy as you choose to be. If you don’t know how to be happy with what you have, you will never be happy with more.” — Rick Warren
“People tend to burden themselves with so many choices. But, in the end, you can throw it all away and just make one basic, underlying decision: Do you want to be happy, or do you not want to be happy? It’s really that simple. Once you make that choice, your path through life becomes totally clear.” — Michael Singer
“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.” — Marcus Aurelius
“Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.” — Marcus Aurelius
“Other people’s wills are as independent of mine as their breath and bodies. We may exist for the sake of one another, but our will rules its own domain. Otherwise the harm they do would cause harm to me. Which is not what God intended— for my happiness to rest with someone else.” — Marcus Aurelius
“The primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation but your thoughts about it.” — Eckhart Tolle
“I’ve learned that there is nothing more consistent with unhappiness than spending your time in a way that doesn’t serve who you are … there is no more profound source of fulfillment and happiness than knowing you are traveling your own path…” — Scott Dinsmore
“Happiness cannot be pursued; it must ensue. One must have a reason to ‘be happy.’ Once the reason is found, however, one becomes happy automatically. As we see, a human being is not one in pursuit of happiness but rather in search of a reason to become happy…” — Viktor Frankl
“Happiness comes from what we do. Fulfillment comes from why we do it.” — Simon Sinek
“The happiest people I know found something they loved and went for it.” — Dan Harris
“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
“Stop hoping for happiness tomorrow. Happiness is being engaged in the process.” — Helen Morales
“The happiest people are not the ones who achieve the most. They are the ones who spend more time than others in a state of flow.” — Héctor García and Francesc Miralles
“Could we but fulfil our best selves we should ask no other happiness.” — W. J. Dawson
“But what is happiness except for the simple harmony between a man and the life he leads?” — Albert Camus
“As an afterthought, it seems hardly proper to write of life without once mentioning happiness; 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
“I believe that the very purpose of life is to be happy. From the very core of our being, we desire contentment. In my own limited experience I have found that the more we care for the happiness of others, the greater is our own sense of well-being.” — Dalai Lama
“The Master has no possessions. The more he does for others, the happier he is. The more he gives to others, the wealthier he is.” — Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching
“Now, what, then, will be happiness? And happiness, of course, is such a vague word, so let’s say well-being. And so, I think the best definition, according to the Buddhist view, is that well-being is not just a mere pleasurable sensation. It is a deep sense of serenity and fulfillment. A state that actually pervades and underlies all emotional states, and all the joys and sorrows that can come one’s way.” — Matthieu Ricard
“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
“You have everything you need for happiness, right now … Happiness is realizing the world around us, no matter where we are, is a miracle, is beautiful and filled with sources of joy. Do you have eyes? Then you have the tools to enjoy the sky, the water, greenery, people — all miracles, all wonderful. Do you have ears? You have the tools to enjoy music, and laughter, and conversation. Do you have taste buds? You are blessed with a symphony of wonders … These are the tools for happiness. Use them, and realize you are blessed beyond belief.” — Leo Babauta
“Do you want to be happy? Uninterrupted happiness is uncaused. True happiness is uncaused. You cannot make me happy. You are not my happiness. You say to the awakened person, ‘Why are you happy?’ and the awakened person replies, ‘Why not?’ Happiness is our natural state.” — Anthony de Mello
“Happiness is a default state. It’s what’s there when you remove the sense that something is missing from your life.” — Naval Ravikant
“When you go through life with preferences but don’t let your happiness depend on any one of them, then you’re awake. You’re moving toward wakefulness. Wakefulness, happiness—call it what you wish—is the state of nondelusion, where you see things not as you are but as they are, insofar as this is possible for a human being.” — Anthony de Mello
“You don’t have to do anything to acquire happiness. The great Meister Eckhart said very beautifully, ‘God is not attained by a process of addition to anything in the soul, but by a process of subtraction.’ You don’t do anything to be free, you drop something. Then you’re free.” — Anthony de Mello
“Don’t seek happiness. If you seek it, you won’t find it, because seeking is the antithesis of happiness. Happiness is ever elusive, but freedom from unhappiness is attainable now, by facing what is rather than making up stories about it. Unhappiness covers up your natural state of wellbeing and inner peace, the source of true happiness.” — Eckhart Tolle
“You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.” — Albert Camus
“There is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
“There is no path to happiness: happiness is the path.” — Siddhārtha Gautama
“You become happy by contact with reality. That’s what brings happiness, a moment-by-moment contact with reality. That’s where you’ll find God; that’s where you’ll find happiness.” — Anthony de Mello
“I don’t live in either my past or my future. I’m interested only in the present. If you can concentrate always on the present, you’ll be a happy man … Life will be a party for you, a grand festival, because life is the moment we’re living right now.” — Paulo Coelho
“Peace is happiness at rest, and happiness is peace in motion. You can convert peace to happiness any time you want, but peace is want you want most of the time … If you’re a peaceful person, anything you do will be a happy activity.” — Naval Ravikant
“Happiness is the space between one desire being fulfilled and a new desire forming.” — Caed Budris
“Nothing can satisfy the ego for long. As long as it runs your life, there are two ways of being unhappy. Not getting what you want is one. Getting what you want is the other.” — Eckhart Tolle
“To be calm becomes a kind of revolutionary act. To be happy with your own non-upgraded existence.” — Matt Haig
“Don’t seek that all that comes about should come about as you wish, but wish that everything that comes about should come about just as it does, and then you’ll have a calm and happy life.” — Epictetus
“Happiness is a function of accepting what is.” — Werner Erhard
“Only if you resist what happens are you at the mercy of what happens, and the world will determine your happiness and unhappiness.” — Eckhart Tolle
“Judge nothing, you will be happy. Forgive everything, you will be happier. Love everything, you will be happiest.” — Sri Chinmoy
“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
“We need to start by understanding that true happiness is not reflected in the modern world’s view of it being fun, elation or laughter. Happiness is finding peace and being OK with life exactly as it is.” — Mo Gawdat
“There are many more ordinary hours in life than extraordinary ones. We wait in line at the supermarket. We spend hours commuting to work. We water our plants and feed our pets. Happiness means finding a moment of joy in those ordinary hours.” — Haemin Sunim
“The true secret of happiness lies in the taking a genuine interest in all the details of daily life.” — William Morris
“It’s the moments that I stopped just to be, rather than do, that have given me true happiness.” — Richard Branson
“Many poets and sages throughout the ages have observed that true happiness – I call it the joy of Being – is found in simple, seemingly unremarkable things. Most people, in their restless search for something significant to happen to them, continuously miss the insignificant, which may not be insignificant at all.” — Eckhart Tolle
“For happiness, how little suffices for happiness! … the least thing precisely, the gentlest thing, the lightest thing, a lizard’s rustling, a breath, a wisk, an eye glance – little maketh up the best happiness.” — Nietzsche
“There are three words that convey the secret of the art of living, the secret of all success and happiness: One With Life. Being one with life is being one with Now. You then realize that you don’t live your life, but life lives you. Life is the dancer, and you are the dance.” — Eckhart Tolle
“For unenlightened people, not every day is a good day, because they feel happy only when things happen the way they want them to. For enlightened people, every single day is a good day, because they feel free knowing that nothing can take away their wisdom.” — Haemin Sunim
“If you decide that you’re going to be happy from now on for the rest of your life, you will not only be happy, you will become enlightened. Unconditional happiness is the highest technique there is. You don’t have to learn Sanskrit or read any scriptures. You don’t have to renounce the world. You just have to really mean it when you say that you choose to be happy. And you have to mean it regardless of what happens. This is truly a spiritual path, and it is as direct and sure a path to Awakening as could possibly exist.” — Michael Singer
“Committing yourself to unconditional happiness will teach you every single thing there is to learn about yourself, about others, and about the nature of life.” — Michael Singer
“The key to staying happy is really very simple. Begin by understanding your inner energies. If you look inside, you will see that when you’re happy, your heart feels open and the energy rushes up inside of you. When you aren’t happy, your heart feels closed and no energy comes up inside. So to stay happy, just don’t close your heart.” — Michael Singer
“The joy of Being is the joy of being conscious.” — Eckhart Tolle
“The joy of Being, which is the only true happiness, can not come to you through any form, possession, achievement, person, or event – through anything that happens. That joy cannot come to you – ever. It emanates form the formless dimension within you, from consciousness itself and thus is one with who you are.” — Eckhart Tolle
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