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150 Happiness Quotes to Boost Your Mood

Life can be complicated and messy and it’s not always easy to find happiness in the middle of all the chaos. That’s why we’ve put together this list of 150 happy quotes to give you a sense of joy, put a smile on your face, a spring in your step, and make your day just a little better!  

“Happiness is largely a choice, not a right or entitlement.”  

David C. Hill

“Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.”  

Dalai Lama

“A great obstacle to happiness is to expect too much happiness.” 

Bernard de Fontenelle

“The secret of happiness is freedom, the secret of freedom is courage.”

Carrie Jones 

“Happiness is a journey, not a destination.”  

Buddha

“No medicine cures what happiness cannot.”  

Gabriel García Márquez

“Happiness is a warm puppy.”

Charles M. Schulz 

“Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy.”  

Anne Frank

“Happiness is a state of mind. It’s just according to the way you look at things.”

Walt Disney 

“You cannot protect yourself from sadness without protecting yourself from happiness.”

Jonathan Safran Foer 

“Sanity and happiness are an impossible combination.”  

Mark Twain

“Happiness is not a goal…it’s a by-product of a life well-lived.”  

Eleanor Roosevelt

“Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.”  

Dr. Seuss

“Happiness depends upon ourselves.”

Aristotle 

“A calm and modest life brings more happiness than the pursuit of success combined with constant restlessness.”

Albert Einstein 

“If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway.” 

Mother Teresa 

“Being happy never goes out of style.”

Lily Pulitzer 

“For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson 

“Do not set aside your happiness. Do not wait to be happy in the future. The best time to be happy is always now.”  

Roy T. Bennett

“The thing everyone should realize is that the key to happiness is being happy by yourself and for yourself.” 

Ellen DeGeneres

“Others may know pleasure, but pleasure is not happiness. It has no more importance than a shadow following a man.”  

Muhammad Ali

“Count your age by friends, not years. Count your life by smiles, not tears.”  

John Lennon

“The most important thing is to enjoy your life—to be happy—it’s all that matters.”    

Audrey Hepburn

“Happiness is the secret to all beauty. There is no beauty without happiness.”  

Christian Dior

“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”   

Mahatma Gandhi

“Happiness is not an ideal of reason, but of imagination.” 

Immanuel Kant

“Be healthy and take care of yourself, but be happy with the beautiful things that make you, you.”  

Beyoncé

“If you have only one smile in you, give it to the people you love.”  

Maya Angelou

“Be happy. Be bright. Be you.”  

Kate Spade

“Be happy with what you have. Be excited about what you want.” 

Alan Cohen

“Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action.”    

William James

“I get up and I’m happy and healthy and whole.”  

Huma Abedin

“The only thing that will make you happy is being happy with who you are, and not who people think you are.”  

Goldie Hawn

“Being happy is knowing how to be content with little.”  

Epicurus

“The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.” 

Oprah Winfrey

“The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it.”  

Thich Nhat Hanh

“Happiness is a risk. If you’re not a little scared, then you’re not doing it right.”

Sarah Addison Allen

“My happiness grows in direct proportion to my acceptance, and in inverse proportion to my expectations.”  

Michael J. Fox

“Happiness comes from living as you need to, as you want to. As your inner voice tells you to. Happiness comes from being who you actually are instead of who you think you are supposed to be.”  

Shonda Rhimes

“The happiness you feel is in direct proportion with the love you give.”  

Oprah Winfrey

“There is no path to happiness; happiness is the path.”  

Buddha

“For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson 

“I just think happiness is what makes you pretty. Period. Happy people are beautiful.”

Drew Barrymore 

“We don’t laugh because we’re happy – we’re happy because we laugh.”  

William James

“Happiness does not lead to gratitude. Gratitude leads to happiness.”  

David Steindl-Rast

“People are just as happy as they make up their minds to be.”  

Abraham Lincoln

“Doing what you like is freedom. Liking what you do is happiness.”  

Frank Tyger

“Happiness is like a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.” 

Nathaniel Hawthorne

“Learn to let go. That is the key to happiness.”  

Buddha

“Happiness, search it in the outer world and you’ll be exhausted. Search it inside you’ll find a path.”  

Invajy

“Happiness is the best makeup.”​ 

Drew Barrymore

“Happiness walks step by step just right beside you; if you look at it mindfully.”   

Invajy

“Happiness is a by-product of an effort to make someone else happy.”

Gretta Brooker Palmer 

“Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.”  

Oscar Wilde

“The talent for being happy is appreciating and liking what you have, instead of what you don’t have.”  

Woody Allen

“Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.”  

Buddha

“Folks are usually about as happy as they make their minds up to be.”

Abraham Lincoln 

“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.”  

Herman Cain

“There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.”  

Epictetus

“Happiness is not something you postpone for the future; it is something you design for the present.”  

Jim Rohn

“True happiness is…to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future.”  

Lucius Annaeus Seneca

“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

“The secret of happiness is not in doing what one likes, but in liking what one does.”  

James M. Barrie

“Enjoy your own life without comparing it with that of another.”  

Marquis de Condorcet

“When it rains, look for rainbows. When it’s dark, look for stars.”  

Invajy

“One of the keys to happiness is a bad memory.”  

Rita Mae Brown

“Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.”  

Mother Theresa

“Cry. Forgive. Learn. Move on. Let your tears water the seeds of your future happiness.”  

Steve Marabol

“If you aren’t grateful for what you already have, what makes you think you would be happy with more. ”  

Roy T. Bennett

“Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.”  

Ludwig Jacobowski

“Life is 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent how you respond to it.”  

Lou Holtz

“Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.”  

Joseph Addison

“Happiness is acceptance.”  

Invajy

“Happiness? That’s nothing more than health and a poor memory.”  

Albert Schweitzer

“Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude.”   

Denis Waitley

“I am very happy because I have conquered myself and not the world. I am very happy because I have loved the world and not myself.”  

Sri Chinmoy

“Optimism is a happiness magnet. If you stay positive, good things and good people will be drawn to you.”  

Mary Lou Retton

“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion.”  

Dalai Lama

“Happiness consists of living each day as if it were the first day of your honeymoon and the last day of your vacation.”  

Leo Tolstoy

“There is only one happiness in this life, to love and be loved.” 

George Sand

“Happiness comes in waves. you will find it again.”  

Invajy

“The purpose of our lives is to be happy.” 

Dalai Lama

“The unhappy derive comfort from the misfortunes of others.” 

Aesop

“A table, a chair, a bowl of fruit and a violin; what else does a man need to be happy?”  

Albert Einstein

“Happy he who learns to bear what he cannot change.”  

Friedrich Schiller

“The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer someone else up.”  

Mark Twain

“The art of being happy lies in the power of extracting happiness from common things.”  

Henry Ward Beecher

“A happy life consists not in the absence, but in the mastery of hardships.”  

Helen Keller

“Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get.”  

Dale Carnegie

“Happiness is a choice. You can choose to be happy. There’s going to be stress in life, but it’s your choice whether you let it affect you or not.”

Valerie Bertinelli 

“If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy, and inspires your hopes.”  

Andrew Carnegie

“The key to being happy is knowing you have the power to choose what to accept and what to let go.”

Dodinsky 

“Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.”

Marthe Troly-Curtin

“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

“There is only one cause of unhappiness: the false beliefs you have in your head, beliefs so widespread, so commonly held, that it never occurs to you to question them.”

Anthony de Mello 

“Happy people plan actions, they don’t plan results.”  

Dennis Waitley

“What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.”  

Confucius

“Happiness is living in the present moment. Mindfulness makes you happier than ever before.”  

Invajy

“The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance, the wise grows it under his feet.”  

James Oppenheim 

“Happiness is inversely correlated with desire.”  

Invajy

“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 

“Happiness is the art of never holding in your mind the memory of any unpleasant thing that has passed.” 

Invajy

Happiness is a state where nothing is missing.”  

Naval Ravikant

“The greatest happiness you can have is knowing that you do not necessarily require happiness.”  

William Saroyan

“The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness.”  

Eric Hoffer

“If you do not mess with your mind, you will naturally be joyful.”  

Sadhguru

“The secret of happiness is low expectations.”  

Barry Schwartz

“Happiness comes from peace. Peace comes from indifference.”  

Naval Ravikant

“As people spin faster and faster in the pursuit of merely personal happiness, they become exhausted in the futile effort of chasing themselves.”  

Andrew Delbanco

“Happiness is always the serendipitous result of looking for something else.”  

Dr. Idel Dreimer 

“Happiness is a place between too much and too little.”  

Finnish proverb

“All happiness or unhappiness solely depends upon the quality of the object to which we are attached by love.”  

Baruch Spinoza

“Learn to value yourself, which means: fight for your happiness.”  

Ayn Rand

“The true secret of happiness lies in taking a genuine interest in all the details of daily life.” 

William Morris

“The moments of happiness we enjoy take us by surprise. It is not that we seize them, but that they seize us.”  

Ashley Montagu

“Happiness consists more in conveniences of pleasure that occur everyday than in great pieces of good fortune that happen but seldom.” 

Benjamin Franklin

“To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness.”  

Bertrand Russell

“Happiness in this world, when it comes, comes incidentally. Make it the object of pursuit, and it leads us a wild-goose chase, and is never attained.”  

Nathaniel Hawthorne 

“Happiness makes up in height for what it lacks in length.”  

Robert Frost

“There can be no happiness if the things we believe in are different from the things we do.”

Freya Stark 

“The secret of happiness is to admire without desiring.”

Carl Sandburg 

“Don’t postpone joy until you have learned all of your lessons. Joy is your lesson.”

Alan Cohen 

“Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls.”  

Mother Teresa

“Happiness is not the absence of problems, it’s the ability to deal with them.”   –

Steve Maraboli 

“If you want to be happy, do not dwell in the past, do not worry about the future, focus on living fully in the present.”  

Roy T. Bennett

“The only way to avoid being miserable is not to have enough leisure to wonder whether you are happy or not.”  

George Bernard Shaw

“Most of us believe in trying to make other people happy only if they can be happy in ways which we approve of.” 

Robert S. Lynd

“Plenty of people miss their share of happiness, not because they never found it, but because they didn’t stop to enjoy it.”  

William Feather

“Judge nothing, you will be happy. Forgive everything, you will be happier. Love everything, you will be happiest.”  

Sri Chinmoy

“One joy scatters a hundred griefs.”  

Chinese Proverb

“Stop feeling sorry for yourself and you will be happy.”

Stephen Fry

“We are no longer happy so soon as we wish to be happier.” 

Walter Savage Landor

“We have no more right to consume happiness without producing it than to consume wealth without producing it.”  

George Bernard Shaw

“The habit of being happy enables one to be freed, or largely freed, from the domination of outward conditions.” 

Robert Louis Stevenson

“Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life.” 

Omar Khayyam

“People say that money isn’t the key to happiness, but I always figured if you have enough money, you can have a key made.”  

Joan Rivers

“Personal happiness lies in knowing that life is not a checklist of acquisition or achievement. Your qualifications are not your life.”  

J. K. Rowling

“Children are happy because they don’t have a file in their minds called ‘all the things that could go wrong.”  

Marianne Williamson

“I’ve got nothing to do today but smile.”  

Paul Simon

“You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.”  

Maya Angelou

“Happiness is like a cloud — if you stare at it long enough, it evaporates.”  

Sarah McLachlan 

“Be happy in your body. It’s the only one you’ve got, so you might as well like it.”

Keira Knightley 

“Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.”  

Steven Kloves

“In order to have great happiness, you have to have great pain and unhappiness – otherwise, how would you know when you’re happy?” 

Leslie Caron

“Recognizing and appreciating what you have in life brings happiness.”  

Invajy

“Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.”  

Thich Nhat Hanh

Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.”  

Robert A. Heinlein

“Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city.” 

George Burns 

“To be stupid, selfish, and have good health are three requirements for happiness, though if stupidity is lacking, all is lost.”  

Gustave Flaubert

“Trouble knocked at the door, but, hearing laughter, hurried away.”   

Benjamin Franklin

Wrapping Up  

We hope these happiness quotes made you smile, especially if you’ve been going through a difficult time in your life. If you know someone else who needs some motivational words to inspire them to find happiness, make sure to share these quotes with them as well.   

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For more inspiration, you can also check our collection of inspirational quotes and quotes about new beginnings.

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Dani Rhys
Dani Rhys

Dani Rhys has worked as a writer and editor for over 15 years. She holds a Masters degree in Linguistics and Education, and has also studied Political Science, Ancient History and Literature. She has a wide range of interests ranging from ancient cultures and mythology to Harry Potter and gardening. She works as the chief editor of Symbol Sage but also takes the time to write on topics that interest her.