Virtues

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with inherent and inalienable rights; that among these, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness."

"We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable; that and independent, that from that equal creation they derive rights inherent and inalienable, among which are the preservation of ."

"Perfect happiness I believe was never intended by the deity to be the lot of any one of his creatures in this world; but that he has very much put in our power the nearness of our approaches to it, is what I as stedfastly believe."

"Reason, Observation and Experience — the Holy Trinity of Science — have taught us that happiness is the only good; that the time to be happy is now, and the way to be happy is to make others so."

"The happiest people seem to be those who have no particular cause for being happy except that they are so."

"Our Ford himself did a great deal to shift the emphasis from truth and beauty to comfort and happiness. Mass production demanded the shift. Universal happiness keeps the wheels steadily turning; truth and beauty can't."

"I'd rather be unhappy than have the sort of false, lying happiness you were having here."

"Happiness is not achieved by the conscious pursuit of happiness; it is generally the by-product of other activities."

"Happy, even in anguish, is he to whom God has given a soul worthy of love and of grief!"

"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. Follow some other object, and very possibly we may find that we have caught happiness without dreaming of it."

"Freud's prescription for personal happiness as consisting of work and love must be taken with the proviso that the work has to be loved, and the love has to be worked at."

"Scholars began to study the history of happiness only a few years ago, and we are still formulating initial hypotheses and searching for appropriate research methods."

"For 2500 years, Buddhists have systematically studied the essence and cause of happiness. which is why there is a growing interest among the scientific community both in their philosophy and their meditation practices."

"It is the law of life that if you are kind to someone you feel happy. If you are cruel you are unhappy."

"Still to ourselves in every place consign'd, Our own felicity to make or find."

"Happiness is the consequence of personal effort."

"We call “happiness” a certain set of circumstances that makes joy possible. But we call joy that state of mind and emotions that needs nothing to feel happy."

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

"Cause happiness throws a shower of sparks"

"Happiness in the ordinary sense is not what one needs in life, though one is right to aim at it. The true satisfaction is to come through and see those whom one loves come through."

"I should say that happiness is being where one is and not wanting to be anywhere else."

"Of all the means which wisdom acquires to ensure happiness throughout the whole of life, by far the most important is friendship."

"We can't be happy or healthy if we don't take care of our life support system, the planet."

"I am every day more convinced that happiness in Heaven is for those who know how to be happy on earth."

"I, for one, live only by and for happiness."

"Happy is the man that has not walked in the counsel of the wicked ones, And in the way of sinners has not stood, And in the seat of ridiculers has not sat. But his delight is in the law of Jehovah, And in his law he reads in an undertone day and night. And he will certainly become like a tree planted by streams of water, That gives its own fruit in its season And the foliage of which does not wither, And everything he does will succeed. The wicked are not like that, But are like the chaff that the wind drives away."

"The lower animals, like man, manifestly feel pleasure and pain, happiness and misery. Happiness is never better exhibited than by young animals, such as puppies, kittens, lambs, &c., when playing together, like our own children."

"Do you, good people, believe that Adam and Eve were created in the Garden of Eden and that they were forbidden to eat from the tree of knowledge? I do. The church has always been afraid of that tree. It still is afraid of knowledge. Some of you say religion makes people happy. So does laughing gas. So does whiskey. I believe in the brain of man. I'm not worried about my soul."

"The only way to make people good, is to make them happy."

"Happiness is not an end — it is only a means, and adjunct, a consequence. The Omnipotent Himself could never be supposed by any, save those who out of their own human selfishness construct the attributes of Divinity, to be absorbed throughout eternity in the contemplation of His own ineffable bliss, were it not identical with His ineffable goodness and love."

"I fear, the inevitable conclusion we must all come to is, that in the world happiness is quite indefinable. We can no more grasp it than we can grasp the sun in the sky or the moon in the water. We can feel it interpenetrating our whole being with warmth and strength; we can see it in a pale reflection shining elsewhere; or in its total absence, we, walking in darkness, learn to appreciate what it is by what it is not."

"Happiness! Can any human being undertake to define it for another?"

"It is not the smallest use to try to make people good, unless you try at the same time — and they feel that you are trying — to make them happy. And you rarely can make another happy, unless you are happy yourself."

"Thus happiness depends, as Nature shows, Less on exterior things than most suppose."

"Domestic Happiness, thou only bliss Of Paradise that hast survived the Fall!"

"Happiness lies in the fulfillment of the spirit through the body."

"Those who were never defeated seem happy and superior, masters of a truth they never had to lift a finger to achieve. They are always on the side of the strong. They’re like hyenas, who only eat the leavings of lions."

"Stay close to those who sing, tell stories, enjoy life and whose eyes sparkle with happiness. Because happiness is contagious and will always manage to find a solution whereas logic can find only an explanation for the mistake made."

"Joy. That is one of the main blessings of the All-Powerful. If we are happy, we are on the right road."

"In the cycle of nature there is no such thing as victory or defeat; there is only movement. The winter struggles to reign supreme, but in the end is obliged to accept spring’s victory, which brings with it flowers and happiness."

"Does a young man, rejected by his first love, declare that love does not exist? The young man says to himself: “I’ll find someone better able to understand what I feel. And then I will be happy for the rest of my days.""

"The soul of the world is nourished by people's happiness."

"The achievement of happiness requires not the ... satisfaction of our needs ... but the examination and transformation of those needs."

"The Philosopher of this age is not a Socrates, a Plato, a Hooker, or Taylor, who inculcates on men the necessity and infinite worth of moral goodness, the great truth that our happiness depends on the mind which is within us, and not on the circumstances which are without us; but a Smith, a De Lolme, a Bentham, who chiefly inculcates the reverse of this,—that our happiness depends entirely on external circumstances."

"One does not discover the absurd without being tempted to write a manual of happiness. "What! — by such narrow ways — ?" There is but one world, however. Happiness and the absurd are two sons of the same earth. They are inseparable. It would be a mistake to say that happiness necessarily springs from the absurd discovery. It happens as well that the feeling of the absurd springs from happiness."

"Both were so young, and one so innocent, That bathing pass'd for nothing; Juan seem'd To her, as 'twere, the kind of being sent, Of whom these two years she had nightly dream'd, A something to be loved, a creature meant To be her happiness, and whom she deem'd To render happy; all who joy would win Must share it,––Happiness was born a twin."

"Happy indeed we live, free from avarice amidst the avaricious. Amidst the avaricious men we dwell free from avarice.Happy indeed we live, we who possess nothing. Feeders on joy we shall be, like the Radiant Gods.Victory begets enmity; the defeated dwell in pain. Happily the peaceful live, discarding both victory and defeat."

"Happiness lies only in a divine unrest; and if you are lapped in comfort you stagnate and miss it."

"Do not fall prey to seeking pure happiness. Instead, seek lifelong progress toward happierness."

"Oompa Loompa doom-pa-dee-da If you're not greedy, you will go far You will live in happiness too Like the Oompa Loompa doom-pa-dee-do."