Happiness
Helen Keller on Knowledge
“Knowledge is happiness, because to have knowledge – broad, deep knowledge – is to know true ends from false, and lofty things from low. To know the thoughts and deeds that have marked man’s progress is to feel the great heartthrobs of humanity through the centuries; and if one does not feel in these pulsations a heavenward striving, one must indeed be deaf to the harmonies of life.” Helen Keller
Pearl S. Buck on Work
“To find joy in work is to discover the fountain of youth.” Pearl S. Buck
Hobart Brown on Money and Happiness
“Money doesn’t always bring happiness. People with ten million dollars are no happier than people with nine million dollars.” Hobart Brown
John Stuart Mill on Happiness
“Ask yourself whether you are happy and you cease to be so.” John Stuart Mill English economist & philosopher (1806 – 1873)
Helen Keller on Comfort
“To me a lush carpet of pine needles or spongy grass is more welcome than the most luxurious Persian rug.” Helen Keller US blind & deaf educator (1880 – 1968)
Socrates on Marriage
“My advice to you is get married: if you find a good wife you’ll be happy; if not, you’ll become a philosopher.” Socrates
Victor Hugo on Age
“When grace is joined with wrinkles, it is adorable. There is an unspeakable dawn in happy old age.” Victor Hugo
Louis L’Amour on Contentment
“Nobody got anywhere in the world by simply being content.” Louis L’Amour US novelist of westerns (1908 – 1988)
C. P. Snow on Happiness
“The pursuit of happiness is a most ridiculous phrase; if you pursue happiness you’ll never find it.” C. P. Snow English novelist & scientist (1905 – 1980)
Edith Wharton on Happiness
“If only we’d stop trying to be happy we could have a pretty good time.” Edith Wharton US novelist (1862 – 1937)
Bertrand Russell on Love and Happiness
“Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness.” Bertrand Russell, Conquest of Happiness (1930) ch. 12 British author, mathematician, & philosopher (1872 – 1970)
William Feather on Society
“One of the indictments of civilizations is that happiness and intelligence are so rarely found in the same person.” William Feather (1908 – 1976)
Leo Rosten on Happiness
“Money can’t buy happiness, but neither can poverty.” Leo Rosten US (Polish-born) author (1908 – 1997)
Bertrand Russell on Happiness
“If there were in the world today any large number of people who desired their own happiness more than they desired the unhappiness of others, we could have paradise in a few years.” Bertrand Russell British author, mathematician, & philosopher (1872 – 1970)
E. V. Lucas on Tardiness
“I have noticed that the people who are late are often so much jollier than the people who have to wait for them.” E. V. Lucas
Iris Murdoch on Nature
“People from a planet without flowers would think we must be mad with joy the whole time to have such things about us.” Iris Murdoch
Robert G. Ingersoll on Happiness
“The way to be happy is to make someone happy.” Robert G. Ingersoll
W. Lee Grant on Laughter
“Shared laughter creates a bond of friendships. When people laugh together, they cease to be young and old, teacher and pupils, worker and boss. They become a single group of human beings.” W. Lee Grant
Edith Wharton on Happiness
“There are lots of ways of being miserable, but there’s only one way of being comfortable, and that is to stop running round after happiness. If you make up your mind not to be happy there’s no reason why you shouldn’t have a fairly good time.” Edith Wharton, The Last Asset, 1904 US novelist (1862 – 1937)
Anne Frank on Happiness
“Whoever is happy will make others happy too.” Anne Frank
Aldous Huxley on Happiness
“Happiness is not achieved by the conscious pursuit of happiness; it is generally the by-product of other activities.” Aldous Huxley, Vedanta for the Western World, 1945 English critic & novelist (1894 – 1963)
Burton Hillis on Christmas and Family
“The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other.” Burton Hillis