Quotes About Happiness

The security comes, as an actor, in knowing that you're not in control. If you try to control your career, or how people perceive you, you'll make yourself unhappy, because life doesn't work like that. So much is luck. It's much better to let yourself off, to think, 'There's nothing I can do.'

There's nothing better than a world where everybody's just trying to make each other laugh.

Loving-kindness and compassion are the two faces of altruism. It is their object that distinguishes them: loving-kindness wants all beings to experience happiness, while compassion focuses on eradicating their suffering.

By happiness I mean here a deep sense of flourishing that arises from an exceptionally healthy mind. This is not a mere pleasurable 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.

Incapaces de encontrar la felicidad en nosotros mismos, la buscamos desesperadamente en objetos, en experiencias, en maneras de pensar o de comportarse cada vez más extrañas. En pocas palabras: nos alejamos de la felicidad buscándola donde no existe.

The happiest man is he who has no trace of malice in his soul. PLATO

La felicidad de la existencia es esa plenitud de todos los instantes acompañada de un amor por todos los seres, y no ese amor individualista que la sociedad actual no inculca permanentemente. La verdadera felicidad procede de una bondad esencial que desea de todo corazón que cada persona encuentre sentido a su existencia. Es un amor siempre disponible, sin ostentación ni cálculo. La sencillez inmutable de un corazón bueno.

Ceux qui, espérant le bonheur, n'ont soif que de plaisirs, de richesses, de gloire, de pouvoir et d'héroïsme, sont aussi naïfs que l'enfant qui cherche à attraper un arc-en-ciel pour s'en faire un manteau.

We all strive, consciously or unconsciously, competently or clumsily, passionately or calmly, adventurously or routinely, to be happier and suffer less. Yet we so often confuse genuine happiness with merely seeking enjoyable emotions.

The belief that human nature is essentially corrupt taints our vision of life with pessimism and makes us question the very basis of the search for happiness, that is, every human being's potential for perfection.

lasting happiness is boring because it is always the same, while suffering is more exciting because it is always different.

We look for happiness outside ourselves when it is basically an inner state of being. If it were an exterior condition, it would be forever beyond our reach. Our desires are boundless and our control over the world is limited, temporary, and, more often than not, illusory. We forge bonds of friendship

It is not possible to live happily if one does not lead a beautiful, righteous, and wise life, or to lead a beautiful, righteous, and wise life if one is not happy. EPICURUS

LOOKING WITHIN, LOOKING WITHOUT Seeking happiness outside ourselves is like waiting for sunshine in a cave facing north. TIBETAN SAYING

To imagine happiness as the achievement of all our wishes and passions is to confuse the legitimate aspiration to inner fulfillment with a utopia that inevitably leads to frustration.

With the help of experience, we can deal with negative emotions before they surface. We can "see them coming" and learn to distinguish those that bring suffering from those that contribute to happiness.

Seeking happiness outside ourselves is like waiting for sunshine in a cave facing north.

achieving durable happiness as a way of being is a skill. It requires sustained effort in training the mind and developing a set of human qualities, such as inner peace, mindfulness, and altruistic love.

eudaimonia, one of the Greek words translated as "happiness," implies flourishing, fulfillment, accomplishment

Happiness is not given to us, nor is misery imposed. At every moment we are at a crossroads and must choose the direction we will take.

Pleasure is the happiness of madmen, while happiness is the pleasure of sages," wrote the French novelist and critic Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly.

Happiness is thus viewed as being just a deceptively calm moment in the middle of a storm.

Algunos piensan que hay que sentirse a disgusto, que en la vida debe haber "días nulos" para apreciar mejor la riqueza de instantes de dicha y "beneficiarse de lo agradable del contraste". Pero ¿son sinceros los que afirman cansarse de una felicidad duradera? ¿De qué clase de felicidad hablan? ¿De la euforia que degenera en aburrimiento, de los placeres que decaen, de los goces que languidecen?.

On s'imagine a priori que la santé devrait influer considérablement sur le bonheur et qu'il est difficile d'être heureux quand on est frappé d'une maladie grave et contraint d'être hospitalisé. Mais il s'avère que ce n'est pas le cas, et que, même dans ces conditions, on retrouve vite le niveau de bonheur qui était le sien avant la maladie.