A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of.
—Jane Austen, 1814Quotes
Human happiness never remains long in the same place.
—Herodotus, c. 430 BCHappiness does not dwell in herds, nor yet in gold.
—Democritus, c. 420 BCThat is happiness: to be dissolved into something complete and great.
—Willa Cather, 1918All those who suffer in the world do so because of their desire for their own happiness.
—Shantideva, c. 750One has to spend so many years in learning how to be happy.
—George Eliot, 1844Happiness is not something you can catch and lock up in a vault like wealth. Happiness is nothing but everyday living seen through a veil.
—Zora Neale Hurston, 1939I had rather be in a state of misery and envied for my supposed happiness than in a state of happiness and pitied for my supposed misery.
—Elizabeth Inchbald, 1793Just to fill the hour—that is happiness.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1844There will always be a lost dog somewhere that will prevent me from being happy.
—Jean Anouilh, 1934Happiness, whether in business or private life, leaves very little trace in history.
—Fernand Braudel, 1979The world owes all its onward impulses to men ill at ease. The happy man inevitably confines himself within ancient limits.
—Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1851Seize from every moment its unique novelty, and do not prepare your joys.
—André Gide, 1897