Quotes by American Authors - Page 154

It's pretty hard to tell what does bring happiness. Poverty and wealth have both failed.
Kin Hubbard
Most folk are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.
Abraham Lincoln
Part of the happiness of life consists not in fighting battles but in avoiding them. A masterly retreat is in itself a victory.
Norman Vincent Peale
Suffering is not a prerequisite for happiness.
Judy Tatelbaum
If you always do what interests you at least one person is pleased.
Katharine Hepburn
If only we'd stop trying to be happy we'd have a pretty good time.
Edith Wharton
We may fail of our happiness strive we ever so bravely but we are less likely to fail if we measure with judgement our chances and our capabilities.
Agnes Repplier
Human life is basically a comedy. Even its tragedies often seem comic to the spectator and not infrequently they actually have comic touches to the victim. Happiness probably consists largely in the capacity to detect and relish them.
H.L. Mencken
If you obey all the rules you miss all the fun.
Katharine Hepburn
The truth is laughter always sounds more perfect than weeping. Laughter flows in a violent riff and is effortlessly melodic. Weeping is often fought choked half strangled or surrendered to with humiliation.
Anne Rice
If happiness truly consisted in physical ease and freedom from care then the happiest individual... would be I think an American cow.
William Lyon Phelps
I don't think being an athlete is unfeminine. I think of it as a kind of grace.
Jackie Joyner-Kersee
Happiness is not the end of life character is.
Henry Ward Beecher
We always have enough to be happy if we are enjoying what we do have- and not worrying about what we don't have.
Ken Keyes
If all were gentle and contented as sheep all would be as feeble and helpless.
John Lancaster Spalding
Contentment is not happiness. An oyster may be contented. Happiness is compounded of richer elements.
Christian Bovee
Each moment in time we have it all even when we think we don't.
Melody Beattie
The major job was getting people to understand that they had something within their power that they could use.
Ella Baker
Paradise is exactly like where you are right now ... only much much better.
Laurie Anderson
Happiness is a Swedish sunset it is there for all but most of us look the other way and lose it.
Mark Twain
Those who are the most happy appear to know it the least happiness is something that for the most part seems to mainly consist in not knowing it.
Dr. Joyce Brothers
Why is it that so many people are afraid to admit that they are happy?
William Lyon Phelps
Eden is that old-fashioned house we dwell in every day Without suspecting our abode until we drive away.
Emily Dickinson
The world is full of people looking for spectacular happiness while they snub contentment.
Doug Larson
Everything has its wonders even darkness and silence and I learn whatever state I may be in therein to be content.
Helen Keller
Happiness comes fleetingly now and then to those who have learned to do without it and to them only.
Don Marquis
The sweetest joy the wildest woe is love.
Pearl Bailey
For a long time it seemed to me that real life was about to begin but there was always some obstacle in the way. Something had to be got through first some unfinished business time still to be served a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life.
Bette Howland
People who postpone happiness are like children who try chasing rainbows in an effort to find the pot of gold at the rainbow's end. ... Your life will never be fulfilled until you are happy here and now.
Ken Keyes
My life has no purpose no direction no aim no meaning and yet I'm happy. I can't figure it out. What am I doing right?
Charles M. Schulz
The greatest happiness you can have is knowing that you do not necessarily require happiness.
William Saroyan
Most people ask for happiness on condition. Happiness can only be felt if you don't set any condition.
Arthur Rubinstein
My advice to you is not to inquire why or whither but just enjoy your ice cream while it's on your plate.
Thornton Wilder
Love is like a beautiful flower which I may not touch but whose fragrance makes the garden a place of delight just the same.
Helen Keller
Happiness is a way station between too little and too much.
Channing Pollock
Spiritual life is like a moving sidewalk. Whether you go with it or spend your whole life running against it you're still going to be taken along.
Bernadette Roberts
Happiness is to be found along the way not at the end of the road for then the journey is over and it is too late.
Robert R. Updegraff
I believe that a worthwhile life is defined by a kind of spiritual journey and a sense of obligation.
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Everyone only goes around the track once in life and if you don't enjoy that trip it's pretty pathetic.
Gary Rogers
Happiness is not a station to arrive at but a manner of traveling.
Margaret Lee Runbeck
Growth itself contains the germ of happiness.
Pearl S. Buck
To be happy means to be free not from pain or fear but from care or anxiety.
W.H. Auden
For the happiest life days should be rigorously planned nights left open to chance.
Mignon McLaughlin
It takes great wit and interest and energy to be happy. The pursuit of happiness is a great activity. One must be open and alive. It is the greatest feat man has to accomplish.
Robert Henri
The happiest man is he who learns from nature the lesson of worship.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Happiness has many roots but none more important than security.
E. R. Stettinius
It is neither wealth nor splendor but tranquility and occupation which give happiness.
Thomas Jefferson
Talk happiness. The world is sad enough without your woe. No path is wholly rough.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
All happiness depends on a leisurely breakfast.
John Gunther
Happiness to a dog is what lies on the other side of the door.
Charlton Ogburn
Happiness is a resultant of the relative strengths of positive and negative feelings rather than an absolute amount of one or the other.
Norman Bradburn
Joy is the holy fire that keeps our purpose warm and our intelligence aglow.
Helen Keller
Knowledge is the prime need of the hour.
Mary McLeod Bethune
She knew what all smart women knew: Laughter made you live better and longer.
Gail Parent
Few rich men own their own property. Their property owns them.
Robert G. Ingersoll
Those who have easy cheerful attitudes tend to be happier than those with less pleasant temperaments regardless of money "making it" or success.
Dr. Joyce Brothers
A life of frustration is inevitable for any coach whose main enjoyment is winning.
Chuck Noll
There are two things to aim at in life: first to get what you want and after that to enjoy it. Only the wisest of mankind achieve the second.
Logan Pearsall Smith
Success can also cause misery. The trick is not to be surprised when you discover it doesn't bring you all the happiness and answers you thought it would.
Prince
Getting what you go after is success but liking it while you are getting it is happiness.
Bertha Damon