We all want to be happier right?

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I don't know of any people who intentionally set out to be less happy? When you think about it - most of what we do in our lives is with the aim of trying to increase happiness somewhere down the line. But for many of us, our efforts of finding happiness are maybe a little misguided.....

Currently a lot of us focus too much effort on the material & financial aspect of life (which we mistakenly believe are the biggest route to happiness). Material comforts and financial security are a part of being happy, but they are not the best route to happiness (as any miserable rich person will tell you). So take a look at the happiness quotes below, which try to help us understand more about happiness and the best ways to increase our happiness...


Happiness quotes:


Happiness ~ Use it to give meaning to your life:

I don’t know whether the universe, with its countless galaxies, stars and planets, has a deeper meaning or not, but at the very least, it is clear that we humans who live on this earth face the task of making a happy life for ourselves.

Tenzin Gyatso, Dalai Lama

The purpose of our lives is to be happy.

Tenzin Gyatso, Dalai Lama

Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence

Aristotle

Success, in life, is most easily measured by the number of days you are truly happy.

Eric Edmeades

What are we really aiming for in our lives? What are all our efforts really trying to achieve? Surely increasing happiness is as worthwhile goal as any?

S.H

Happiness ~ Where is it?

Happiness is a state of mind, a way of perceiving and approaching ourselves and the world in which we reside. So if you want to be happy tomorrow, the day after, and for the rest of your life, you can do it by choosing to change and manage your state of mind.

Sonja Lyubomirsky

Happiness doesn’t depend upon who you are or what you have; it depends solely upon what you think.

Zig Ziglar

No one is responsible for your happiness, only you are responsible for it. 

Michael Malecki

The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts; therefore guard accordingly.

Marcus Aurelius

Happiness resides not in possessions and not in gold, the feeling of happiness dwells in the soul.

Democritus

The interesting thing about greed is that although the underlying motive is to seek satisfaction, even after obtaining what you want, you’re still not satisfied. It’s this endless, nagging desire for more that leads to trouble. On the other hand, if you’re truly contented, it doesn't matter whether you get what you want or not. Either way, you remain content.

Dalai Lama

There is only one person who could ever make you happy, and that person is you.

David Burns

Happiness depends upon ourselves.

Aristotle

Get the inside right. The outside will fall into place. 

Eckhart Tolle


People who learn to control inner experience will be able to determine the quality of their lives, which is as close as any of us can come to being happy.

Unknown

The wise man chooses the path of joy, the fool the path of pleasure

Katha Upanishad

How you think about yourself, your world and other people is more important to your happiness than the objective circumstances of your life

Sonja Lyubomirsky

I have learned a lesson from two of my friends, who made me realise on what happiness depends. They both have exactly equal things in life, a job, a car, a home and a wife. Yet one is happy the other is sad; one thinks life is good, the other thinks it bad. The difference is in their point of view, and the way they look at what they do.

Tycho

The mind is its own place, and in itself / Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven

John Milton, Paradise Lost

The mind is everything. What you think you become

Buddha

Our happiness is a result of the way we look at the world and what tinted glasses each of us wears. We are constantly filtering everything we come across, what we see and what happens to us, some of us see & enjoy & recall a lot of the good, positive things in life, some of us focus too much on the negative. Once you understand this, you go someway to wanting to learn to focus a bit more on the good things (if you want to be happy that is...)

S.H

Happiness - doesn't just happen by itself...

Happiness doesn't just happen to you, 
you have to work at it. 

Dalai Lama

Contrary to what most of us believe, happiness does not simply happen to us. It is something we make happen....

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Pursuing happiness takes work, it requires effort and comittment everyday [to change your patterns of thinking and behaving] but consider that this happiness work may be the most rewarding work you ever do

Sonja Lyubomirsky

We all have to learn to make our own happiness in life. We should take personal responsibility for our actions. No state of mind is permanent unless we choose to make it so. By examining our thinking and exercising the same control over our thoughts, we can all gain enough awareness to break free of our negative patterns. We all encounter difficult experiences in life, but we can use these and learn to grow from them.

Gordon Smith

Being happy is a skill, relating to a certain way of thinking that you bring into your every day life - and like any skill - you develop it by practicing it often.

S.H

Learn how to be happy with what you have while you pursue all that you want.

Jim Rohn

You only get one go at life, if your not happy change it, if you are then ENJOY IT.

S.H

Remember this, that very little is needed to make a happy life.

Marcus Aurelius

The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance; the wise grows it under his feet.

James Oppenheim

Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity, but in doing it.

Greg Anderson

Success is a journey not a destination, half the fun is just getting there.

Gita Bellin

Happiness is not a state to arrive at, but a manner of traveling.

Margaret Lee Runbeck

It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that maters most in the end

Ursula K Leguin

Live your life each day as you would climb a mountain. An occasional glance toward the summit keeps the goal in mind, but many beautiful scenes are to be observed from each new vantage point. Climb slowly, steadily, enjoying each passing moment; and the view from the summit will serve as a fitting climax for the journey.

Harold V. Melchert

Things

Do more of the things you love doing.

Unknown

Always find time for the things that make you happy to be alive.

Unknown

The happiest people do not have the best of everything they make the best of everything

Sam Cawhorn

The best things in life are free.

Proverb

The most important things in life aren't things.

Anthony J. D'Angelo

The richest people are not those who have the most - but those who need the least.

Unknown

Whether you have a Maruti or a BMW, the road remains the same. Whether you travel economy class or business, your destination doesn’t change. Whether you have a Titan or a Rolex, the time is the same.  There is nothing wrong in dreaming of a luxurious life. What needs to be taken care of is to not let the NEED become GREED. Because needs can always be met.. but greed can never be fulfilled.

Rajinikanth

Happiness ~ Gratitude:

In daily life we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy.

David Steindl-Rast

We tend to forget that happiness doesn't come as a result of getting something we don't have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have.

Frederick Keonig

The happiest people take time to appreciate things that others take for granted

Unknown

Happiness is not having what you want. It is wanting what you have.

Hyman Schachtel

He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.

Epictetus

Every time we seek something we cannot afford, we grow poorer, whatever our resources. And every time we feel satisfied with what we have, we can be counted as rich, however little we may actually own.

Jean Jacques Rousseau


Gratefulness is the key to a happy life that we hold in our hands, because if we are not grateful, then no matter how much we have we will not be happy -- because we will always want to have something else or something more.

David Steindl-Rast

Look closely and you will find that people are happy because they are grateful. The opposite of gratefulness is just taking everything for granted. 

David Steindl-Rast


Learn to appreciate what you have, before time makes you appreciate what you had.

Unknown

You don't know what you've got 'till it's gone.

Proverb

What a wonderful life I've had, I only wish I'd realised it sooner.

Collette

Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.

Robert Brault

The little things? The little moments? They aren't little.

Jon Kabat-Zinn

Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing.

Camille Pissarro


Just an observation: it is impossible to be both grateful and depressed.

Steve Maraboli

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the 
highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.

John F. Kennedy


Mindfullness:

Here and now is all we've got.

Buddha

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

Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Realize deeply that the present moment is all you ever have. Make the Now the primary focus of your life.

Eckhart Tolle

It is possible to live happily in the here and now. So many conditions of happiness are available—more than enough for you to be happy right now. You don’t have to run into the future in order to get more.

Thich Nhat Hanh

Nothing is worth more than this day.

Goethe

In the hopes of reaching the moon men fail to see the flowers that blossom at their feet.

Albert Schweitzer

Take time to smell the roses

Proverbs

Mindfulness practice means that we commit fully in each moment to be present; inviting ourselves to interface with this moment in full awareness, with the intention to embody as best we can an orientation of calmness, mindfulness, and equanimity right here and right now.

Jon Kabat-Zinn

An awareness of the fleeting & ephemeral nature of existence helps us to fully appreciate every moment of our lives.

Stuart Hodgson

Are you experiencing or are you spending most of your time thinking about what you experienced or what you will experience?

Richard Hittleman

Give whatever you are doing and whoever you are with the gift of your attention

Jim Rohn

Happiness is a butterfly, which, when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you sit down quietly, may alight upon you.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

By living our lives one day at a time, we live all the days of our life

Anoymous

If you are depressed you are living in the past. If you are anxious you are living in the future. If you are at peace you are living in the present.

Lao Tzu


Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.

Buddha

Breathe. Let go. And remind yourself that this very moment is the only one you know you have for sure.

Oprah Winfrey


Happiness ~ It's in your own hands, you can make yourself happier simply by changing your thoughts:

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

Epictetus

Men are disturbed not by things, but by the view which they take of them

Epictetus

I know I'm not seeing things as they are, I'm seeing things as I am.

Laurel Lee

[ Happiness - Live & Learn ]

Simply Live, and Learn from your experiences. If you do that - then every experience is beneficial to your ultimate happiness.

Stuart Hodgson

Happinesss is not the absence of problems, but the ability to deal with them.

H. Jackson (Jack) Brown Jr

If you will call your troubles experiences, and remember that every experience develops some latent force within you, you will grow vigorous and happy, however adverse your circumstances may seem to be.

John Heyward

If you live by the idea of 'Live & Learn', then you can enjoy all the good times in life, and use the bad times as opportunities to learn & grow as a person, and learn how to become more resilient and deal with difficult situations. In that sense, you place value in the so-called bad/difficult times too - and then view every experience as a potentially useful experience to helping you become a wiser, happier person. In essence, it's all good :)

Stuart Hodgson

[ Happiness - worry?]

Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, it only saps today of its joy.

Leo F. Buscaglia

You cannot plough a field by 
turning it over in your mind.

Proverb

Don't cross the bridge until you come to it, is a proverb old, and of excellent wit.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

You can’t have a better tomorrow if you are thinking about yesterday all the time.

Charles F. Kettering

By living life as best you can in this very moment - the past and future take care of themselves.

Stuart Hodgson

When I look back on all these worries, I remember the story of the old man who said on his deathbed that he had had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which had never happened

Winston Churchill

Procrastination is the grave in which opportunity is buried.

Anonymous

The mind that is anxious about future events is miserable.

Seneca

I never think of the future - it comes soon enough.

Albert Einstein

Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.

Buddha

Live life one day at a time--this is enough. Do not look back and grieve over the past for it is gone; and do not be troubled about the future, for it has not yet come. Live in the present, and make it so beautiful it will be worth remembering.

Unknown

[ Optimism ]

Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. 
We have only today. Let us begin.

Mother Teresa

The future is undecided.

Joe Strummer

The best way to predict the future is to create it.

Abraham Lincoln

I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else.

Winston Churchill

A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.

Winston Churchill

When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.

Alexander Graham Bell

Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.

Maria Robinson

Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.

William Jennings Bryan

I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.

Thomas Jefferson


[ Happiness & It's Effect on our lives: ]

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

ALBERT SCHWEITZER

People with many interests live, not only longest, but happiest.

George Matthew Allen

All that we are is the result of what we have thought. If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him. If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him, like a shadow that never leaves him.

Buddha

[ Happiness and people ]

Our connections with other people are at the heart of happiness - theirs and ours. Whether these connections are with our partners, families, friends, work colleagues, neighbours or people in our broader communities, they all contribute to our happiness. 

Action for happiness

Life is too short to spend time with people who always suck the happiness out of you

Uknown

People either radiate happiness to others or drain happiness from others. Choose which you want to be, and choose who you want to be around wisely.

Stuart Hodgson

There comes a time in life when you have to let go of all the pointless drama & the people who create it and surround yourself with people who make you laugh so hard that you forget the bad and focus solely on the good. After all, lifes too short to be anything but happy.

Karl Marx (composer)

[ Compassion ]

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

Tenzin Gyatso, The Dalai Lama

My Father was always very happy and content. He told me the secret before he died. He said "You won't find happiness if you pursue happiness for yourself. You will only find it when all your focus is on trying to make other people happy."

Unknown

 [Happiness & it's effect on others]

Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Just as the candle won't be shortened, one's happiness never decreases by being shared.

Buddha

Choosing to live a happy life is not only our greatest gift to ourselves, it is also the greatest gift we can give to those around us. When we are happy, we radiate happiness, and that is infectious. Consider giving the gift of happiness to yourself as being your gift to all humanity.

Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

When we look back on our lives, what are our happiest moments? Really have a think about it. Spending time with the people we love? Doing the things we enjoy? or Watching TV? Buying stuff? Working? Spend your time in life wisely! As once it’s gone, you cant get it back...

Stuart Hodgson


Recommended Reading:



Short Stories

There is no better than here.

Many people believe that they will be happy once they arrive at some specific goal that they have set for themselves. Whatever your "there" is, and most of us have one, we become convinced that once we arrive "there" we will finally find the peace, happiness and contentment we have always dreamed of.

However, more often than not, once we arrive "there", we will still feel disatisfied and move our "there" vision to yet another point in the future. By always chasing after another 'there", we are never really appreciating what we already have right "here". 

Think of past situations in which you have said "I will be happy when..." and then ask yourself, "Was I really any happier when I actually arrived there?" Perhaps for a brief moment, but the same longing arises, and we must emabark on yet another quest.

So if we are not content in the "here" how can we be so sure that we will be content when we get "there"? By continually engaging in a cycle of longing, we never actually allow our self to be in the present. We end up living our life always at some point just off in the future.

We only ever have one moment – the one right here, right now. If we skip over "here" in the rush to get "there", we deny ourselves the full range of feelings and sensations that can only be experienced in the present momennt.

It is important that being human means coming to terms with the age old drive to look beyond the place where we now stand. On the one hand, life is enhanced by dreams and aspirations – these are what drive us forward. On the other hand, these drives can pull us further and further from our enjoyment of our life right now. There is nothing wrong with wanting to improve our circumstances. But the challenge is to focus on the present, and on appreciating what we have right now, while simultaneously holding the intention of future goals.