50+ Quotes on Happiness & Joy
I think one of the biggest mistakes modern-day society has made is to make happiness the goal, when it is really just a mindset — a fringe benefit of having a grateful and contented heart.
The Bible has a lot to say about happiness. A lot of deep-thinking men and women throughout history have some great insights on the topic, as well. I’ve been collecting such words of wisdom for years now, much of which I’ve shared in other Favorite Quotes posts.
So here is my newest collection of great quotes for that series — these on the topic of Happiness and Joy. I share them with a prayer that you will learn to “Rejoice in the LORD always” and that He will fill your heart to overflowing with deep, abiding joy as only He can do!
50+ Quotes about Happiness & Joy:
“Your mind is a garden
– Rumi
Your thoughts are the seeds
You can plant flowers
Or you can plant weeds.”
“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.”
— Dale Carnegie
“Happiness is not a goal…it’s a by-product of a life well-lived.”
– Eleanor Roosevelt
“Happiness consists more in small conveniences or pleasures that occur every day, than in great pieces of good fortune that happen but seldom to a man in the course of his life.”
– Benjamin Franklin
“Plenty of people miss their share of happiness, not because they never found it, but because they didn’t stop to enjoy it.”
“Happiness is a how; not a what. A talent, not an object.”
– Herman Hesse
“I am determined to be cheerful and happy in whatever situation I may find myself. For I have learned that the greater part of our misery or unhappiness is determined not by our circumstance but by our disposition.”
– Martha Washington
“Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy.”
– Anne Frank
“Happiness depends upon ourselves.”
– Aristotle
“If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy, and inspires your hopes.”
– Andrew Carnegie
“Success is getting what you want, happiness is wanting what you get”
– W. P. Kinsella
“Happy are the people whose God is the LORD!”
– Psalm 144:15
“If you are too busy to laugh, you are too busy.”
– Author Unknown
“Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.”
– Benjamin Franklin
“Happiness is not doing fun things. Happiness is doing meaningful things.”
– Maxime Lagacé
“Happy is he who is gracious to the poor.”
– Proverbs 14:21
“Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.”
– Thich Nhat Hanh
“Enjoy your own life without comparing it with that of another.”
– Marquis de Condorcet
“Folks are usually about as happy as they make their minds up to be.”
– Abraham Lincoln
“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
“I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today.”
– Groucho Marx
“A joyful heart is good medicine.”
– Proverbs 17:22
“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
“It is more fitting for a man to laugh at life than to lament over it.”
– Seneca
“Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions.”
– Dalai Lama
“Happiness is something that comes into our lives through doors we don’t even remember leaving open.”
– Rose Lane
“Happy is the man who finds wisdom.”
– Proverbs 3:13
“Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.”
– Marcel Proust
“Happy are those who trust in the Lord.”
– Proverbs 16:20
“Happiness… consists in giving, and in serving others.”
– Henry Drummond
“The secret of happiness is not in doing what one likes, but in liking what one does.”
– James M. Barrie
“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
“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
“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”
– Mahatma Gandhi
“It’s been my experience that
– L.M. Montgomery
you can nearly always enjoy things
if you make up your mind firmly
that you will.”
“Children are happy because they don’t have a file in their minds called “All the Things That Could Go Wrong.”
– Marianne Williamson
“Happiness is acceptance.”
– Author Unknown
“Optimism is a happiness magnet. If you stay positive, good things and good people will be drawn to you.”
– Mary Lou Retton
“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success.”
– Albert Schweitzer
“A table, a chair, a bowl of fruit and a violin; what else does a man need to be happy?”
– Albert Einstein
“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
“A calm and modest life brings more happiness than the pursuit of success combined with constant restlessness.”
– Albert Einstein
“Happy he who learns to bear what he cannot change.”
– Friedrich Schiller
“The best way to cheer yourself is to try to cheer someone else up.”
– Mark Twain
“Happiness is a gift and the trick is not to expect it, but to delight in it when it comes.”
– Charles Dickens
“Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.”
– Oscar Wilde
“Thousands of candles can be lighted
– Buddha
from a single candle…
Happiness never decreases by being shared.”
“Happiness makes up in height for what it lacks in length.”
– Robert Frost
“Rejoice in the LORD always, and again I say, rejoice.”
– Philippians 4:4
“The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance, the wise grows it under his feet.”
– James Oppenheim
“Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life.”
– Omar Khayyam
“To be kind to all, to like many and love a few, to be needed and wanted by those we love, is certainly the nearest we can come to happiness.”
– Mary Stuart
“Happy people plan actions, they don’t plan results.”
– Dennis Waitley
“A happy face makes the heart cheerful.”
– Proverbs 15:13
“The joy of the Lord is your strength.”
– Nehemiah 8:10
“Everyone wants to live on top of the mountain,
– Andy Rooney
but all the happiness and growth
occurs while you’re climbing it.”
“A well-developed sense of humor is the pole that adds balance to your steps as you walk the tightrope of life.”
– William Arthur Ward
“So I commended the enjoyment of life, because there is nothing better for a man under the sun than to eat and drink and be merry. For this joy will accompany him in his labor during the days of his life that God gives him under the sun.”
– Ecclesiastes 8:15
“There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.”
– Epictetus
“Being happy doesn’t mean everything is perfect. It means you’ve decided to look beyond the imperfections.”
– Author Unknown
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.”
– James 1:2-3
More on Cultivating a Joyful Heart
Happiness, joy, contentment: All are different facets of the same character trait.
To read what you can do to become the kind of person who is characterized by a deep, abiding joy, who cultivates contentment unquenched by circumstances, and who can recognize and be grateful for the bright side of every situation in which you find yourself, check out the following posts on my Loving LIfe at Home blog:
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