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Been living on this earth for so long now and still don’t know what a happy life feels like. I’m ready for a change. Jonathan Anthony Burkett
Only the soul that loves is happy. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1749-1832, German poet & novelist
God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing. C S Lewis
Happy? Yes I remember that. Fawlty Towers s2e1: Communication Problems, Basil to Sybil, BBC 1979
Why, son, we hope you’re happy here. I mean, I’m not happy here. I’m as miserable as sin here. This house is nothing but a pit of misery and despair. A coffin with windows. Anyway, enjoy. Rab C Nesbitt: New, BBC 1998
If anybody thinks that kings, nobles and priests are good conservators of the public happiness, send him here [Paris]. It is the best school in the universe to cure him of that folly. He will see here with his own eyes that these descriptions of men are in abandoned confederacy against the happiness of the mass of people. Thomas Jefferson
Our greatest happiness does not depend on the condition of life in which chance has placed us, but is always the result of a good conscience, good health, occupation, and freedom in all just pursuits. Thomas Jefferson
It is neither wealth nor splendour; but tranquillity and occupation which give you happiness. Thomas Jefferson
The happiness of the domestic fireside is the first boon of Heaven; and it is well it is so, since it is that which is the lot of the mass of mankind. Thomas Jefferson, 1813
The happiest moments of my life have been the few I have passed at home in the bosom of my family. Thomas Jefferson
Why doesn’t it [religion] make them happy? Christopher Hitchens v Tony Blair: Is Religion a Force for Good in the World? 2010
We all find ways of making ourselves happy. Derren Brown: Fear and Faith, Channel 4 2012
Don’t shed a tear, Momma. I ain’t happy here. Tupac Shakur, music video released day after death
The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honourable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well. Ralph Waldo Emerson
The more people I meet the happier I become. Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot starring Stephen Brennan & Barry McGovern & Johnny Murphy & Sam McGovern et al, director Michael Lindsay-Hogg, Pozzo
Why does this magnificent applied science which saves work and makes life easier bring us so little happiness? The simple answer runs: Because we have not yet learned to make sensible use of it. Albert Einstein, cited The New York Times 16th February 1931
From the standpoint of daily life, however, there is one thing we do know: that we are here for the sake of each other – above all for those upon whose smile and well-being our own happiness depends, and also for the countless unknown souls with whose fate we are connected by a bond of sympathy. Many times a day I realize how much my own outer and inner life is built upon the labours of my fellow men, both living and dead, and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received. Albert Einstein
A table, a chair, a bowl of fruit and a violin; what else does a man need to be happy? Albert Einstein
There is nothing which can better deserve our patronage than the promotion of science and literature. Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of public happiness. George Washington
Happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected. George Washington
Men can only be happy when they do not assume that the object of life is happiness. George Orwell
Take the life-lie away from the average man and straight away you take away his happiness. Henrik Ibsen, The Wild Duck, 1884
Happiness depends on being free, and freedom depends on being courageous. Thucydides
Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony. Mahatma Gandhi
No-one can be perfectly free till all are free; no-one can be perfectly moral till all are moral; no-one can be perfectly happy till all are happy. Herbert Spencer
We are not going to change the whole world, but we can change ourselves and feel free as birds. We can be serene even in the midst of calamities and, by our serenity, make others more tranquil. Serenity is contagious. If we smile at someone, he or she will smile back. And a smile costs nothing. We should plague everyone with joy. If we are to die in a minute, why not die happily, laughing? Swami Satchidananda, The Yoga Sutras
There’s no doubt that people do find a Darwinian view of life bleak and unsympathetic. But it’s still true, and we can’t get away from that. And further, in any case, there is a sort of happiness, there’s a sort of bliss, in understanding the elegance with which the world is put together. And Darwinian Natural Selection is a supremely elegant idea; it really does make everything fall into place and make sense. And I find great consolation, great happiness, in that level of understanding. Richard Dawkins, The Genius of Charles Darwin part III, Channel 4 2008
That all who are happy, are equally happy, is not true. A peasant and a philosopher may be equally satisfied, but not equally happy. Happiness consists in the multiplicity of agreeable consciousness. Samuel Johnson
Happy is the man who has broken the chains which hurt the mind, and has given up worrying once and for all. Ovid
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know. Ernest Hemingway
I don’t know what good it is to know so much and be smart as whips and all if it doesn’t make you happy. J D Salinger, Franny and Zooey