Archive

Quotes

How sad a sight is human happiness to those whose thoughts can pierce beyond an hour!

—Edward Young, 1741

Where happiness fails, existence remains a mad and lamentable experiment.

—George Santayana, c. 1905

He who would be happy should stay at home.

—Greek proverb

A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of.

—Jane Austen, 1814

I take it as a prime cause of the present confusion of society that it is too sickly and too doubtful to use pleasure frankly as a test of value.

—Rebecca West, 1939

Men who are unhappy, like men who sleep badly, are always proud of the fact.

—Bertrand Russell, 1930

Human happiness never remains long in the same place.

—Herodotus, c. 430 BC

One has to spend so many years in learning how to be happy.

—George Eliot, 1844

There is no greater disaster than not to know contentment.

—Laozi, c. 550 BC

All those who suffer in the world do so because of their desire for their own happiness.

—Shantideva, c. 750

Happiness, whether in business or private life, leaves very little trace in history.

—Fernand Braudel, 1979

There will always be a lost dog somewhere that will prevent me from being happy.

—Jean Anouilh, 1934

One of the secrets of a happy life is continuous small treats.

—Iris Murdoch, 1978