Theme
Happiness
Joy, contentment, and the good life.
Every quote here is provenance-checked. AI will happily put a fake quote on a beautiful slide — these are the ones you can actually use, with the right name on them.
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Verified quotes about happiness
Each is traced to a real source and correctly credited. ✓ Free to use = public domain, cleared for commercial reuse. Open one for a paste-ready credit line and its reuse status.
“A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone”
“A thing of beauty is a joy forever”
“Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery”
“Ask yourself whether you are happy, and you cease to be so”
“Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky”
“Follow your bliss”
“For without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods”
“Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair”
“Happiness is an activity of the soul in accordance with virtue”
“Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort”
“Hope is itself a species of happiness, and, perhaps, the chief happiness which this world affords”
“I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual”
“I would always rather be happy than dignified”
“I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder”
“I'm for whatever gets you through the night”
“Isn't it a pleasure to study and practice what you have learned?”
“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”
“My general attitude to life is to enjoy every minute of every day”
“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well”
“One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture”
“Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy”
“Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has many; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some”
“That is happiness: to be dissolved into something complete and great”
“That man is the richest whose pleasures are the cheapest”
“The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable”
“The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain”
“The more difficult the victory, the greater the happiness in winning”
“The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid”
“The soul is healed by being with children”
“The time to be happy is now. The place to be happy is here. The way to be happy is to make others so”
“The wise find pleasure in water; the virtuous find pleasure in hills”
“There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy”
“There is no wealth but life”
“Very little is needed to make a happy life”
“We can only be said to be alive in the moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasure”
“We cannot cure the world of sorrows, but we can choose to live in joy”
“We should not spoil what we have by desiring what we do not have, but remember that what we have too was the gift of fortune”
“When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life”
“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 which has been opened for us”
“Where should one use perfume? Wherever one wants to be kissed”
“Whoever is happy will make others happy too”
“You'll never find a rainbow if you're looking down”
“Adventure is worthwhile in itself”
“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony”
“I Have the Simplest Tastes; I Am Always Satisfied with the Best”
“I wonder what chairs think about all day: 'Oh, here comes another asshole.'”
“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need”
“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion”
“In a world of individuals, comparison is a senseless activity”
“It is utterly false and cruelly arbitrary to put all the play and learning into childhood, all the work into middle age, and all the regrets into old age”
“Money cannot buy health, but I'd settle for a diamond-studded wheelchair”
“The dry martini is the only American invention as perfect as a sonnet”
“The most important thing is to enjoy your life - to be happy”
“Too much of a good thing can be wonderful”
“Your true home is in the here and the now”
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Don’t get caught out
Commonly shared about happiness — but misattributed
Popular happiness lines that get pinned on the wrong name. If you use one, credit it correctly.
“Those Who Love Deeply Never Grow Old”
ReallyArthur Wing Pinero · not Benjamin Franklin
“We Can Complain Because Rose Bushes Have Thorns, or Rejoice Because Thorn Bushes Have Roses”
ReallyAlphonse Karr · not Abraham Lincoln
“A pessimist is one who, when he has the choice of two evils, chooses both”
ReallyUnknown (anonymous quip) · not Oscar Wilde
“I don't want to go to heaven. None of my friends are there”
ReallyUnknown · not Oscar Wilde
“Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go”
ReallyAnonymous · not Oscar Wilde
“To me, there are three things everyone should do every day. Number one is laugh. Number two is think. And number three, you should have your emotions moved to tears”
ReallyJim Valvano · but not in these words
“Be careful to trust a person who does not like wine”
ReallyKarl Marx
“Surround yourself with people who make you happy. People who make you laugh, who help you when you're in need. People who genuinely care. They are the ones worth keeping in your life. Everyone else is just passing through”
ReallyUnknown · not Karl Marx
“He who lives in harmony with himself lives in harmony with the universe”
ReallyUnknown · not Marcus Aurelius
“If you want to be happy, be”
ReallyKozma Prutkov · not Leo Tolstoy
“You've gotta dance like there's nobody watching, love like you'll never be hurt”
ReallySusanna Clark & Richard Leigh · not Mark Twain
“It is possible to live happily in the present moment. It is the only moment we have”
ReallyThích Nhất Hạnh · not Gautama Buddha
“A Day Without Laughter Is a Day Wasted”
ReallyNicolas Chamfort · not Charlie Chaplin
“A Man Is a Fool If He Drinks Before He Reaches Fifty, and a Fool If He Doesn't Drink Afterward”
ReallyUnknown — an anonymous medical saying · not Frank Lloyd Wright
“A Master in the Art of Living Makes Little Distinction Between His Work and His Play”
ReallyL. P. Jacks · not James Michener
“Bigamy Is Having One Spouse Too Many. Monogamy Is the Same”
ReallyAnonymous · not Erica Jong
“How Old Cary Grant?" "Old Cary Grant Fine, How You?”
ReallyTom Ferris · not Cary Grant
“I Would Rather Have Two Girls at 21 Each Than One At 42”
ReallyW. C. Fields · but not in these words