Philosophical and Psychological Foundations of Education

QUOTATIONS BY TOPIC

Happiness

A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately happy. What one can be, one must be. ~ Abraham Maslow

If we were to ask the question: "What is human life's chief concern?" one of the answers we should receive would be: "It is happiness." How to gain, how to keep, how to recover happiness, is in fact for most men at all times the secret motive of all they do, and of all they are willing to endure. ~ William James, Varieties of Religious Experience, p. 77

The first thing to learn in intercourse with others is non-interference with their own peculiar ways of being happy, provided those ways do not assume to interfere by violence with ours. No one has insight into all the ideals. No one should presume to judge them off-hand. The pretension to dogmatize about them in each other is the root of most hum an injustices and cruelties, and the trait in human character most likely to make the angels weep. ~ William James, What Makes a Life Significant, Talks to Teachers on Psychology and to Students on Some of Life's Ideals, p. 130

If I had to live my live over again, I would have made a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music at least once every week . . . The loss of these tastes is a loss of happiness, and may possibly be injurious to the intellect, and more probably to the moral character, by enfeebling the emotional part of our nature. ~ Charles Darwin, as cited in Wm. James's Talks to Teachers on Psychology

Happy is the hearing man; unhappy the speaking man. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Intellect"

Il est trois sortes de gens qui parlent peu, ce sont les savants et les gens fort heureux ou fort malheureux; ainsi l'on peut dire que le savoir, la douleur et le bonheur sont muets. ~ Gabriel Sénac de Mailhan

The deliberate adoption of an optimistic turn of mind thus makes its entrance into philosophy. And once in, it is hard to trace its lawful bounds. Not only does the human instinct for happiness, bent on self-protection by ignoring, keep working in its favor, but higher inner ideals have weighty words to say. The attitude of unhappiness is not only painful, it is mean and ugly. What can be more base and unworthy than the pining, puling, mumping mood, no matter by what outward ills it may have been engendered? What is more injurious to others? What less helpful as a way out of the difficulty? It but fastens and perpetuates the trouble which occasioned it, and increases the total evil of the situation. At all costs, then, we ought to reduce the sway of that mood; we ought to scout it in ourselves and others, and never show it tolerance. But it is impossible to carry on this discipline in the subjective sphere without zealously emphasizing the brighter and minimizing the darker aspects of the objective sphere of things at the same time. And thus our resolution not to indulge in misery, beginning at a comparatively small point within ourselves, may not stop until it has brought the entire frame of reality under a systematic conception optimistic enough to be congenial with its needs. ~ William James, Varieties of Religious Experience

If you have no goal other than your personal happiness, you'll never achieve it. If you want to be happy, pursue something else vigorously and happiness will catch up with you. ~ Ed Diener, coauthor of Happiness: Unlocking the Mysteries of Psychological Wealth

To fill the hour—that is happiness. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

[Happiness is] the full use of your powers along lines of excellence. ~ John F. Kennedy

Remember this,—that very little is needed to make a happy life. ~ Marcus Aurelius

The happiness and unhappiness of the rational, social animal depends not on what he feels but on what he does; just as his virtue and vice consist not in feeling but in doing. ~ Marcus Aurelius

This communicating of a man's self to his friend works two contrary effects; for it redoubleth joys, and cutteth griefs in half. ~ Aristotle

The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts: therefore, guard accordingly, and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature. ~ Marcus Aurelius

People are just as happy as they make up their minds to be. ~ Abraham Lincoln

That is happiness: to be dissolved into something complete and great. ~ Willa Cather

Derive happiness in oneself from a good day's work, from illuminating the fog that surrounds us. ~ Henri Matisse

Ask yourself whether you are happy and you cease to be so. ~ John Stuart Mill

We take greater pains to persuade others that we are happy than in endeavoring to think so ourselves. ~ Confucius

If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal. Not to people or things. ~ Albert Einstein

No man can be happy without a friend, nor be sure of his friend till he is unhappy. ~ Sigmund Freud

Happiness makes up in height for what it lacks in length. ~ Robert Frost

Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word 'happy' would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. ~ Carl Jung

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 which has been opened for us. ~ Helen Keller

You know what would make a good story? Something about a clown who makes people happy, but inside he's real sad. Also, he has severe diarrhea. ~ Jack Handey, Deep Thoughts

Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know. ~ Ernest Hemingway

If two people love each other, there can be no happy end to it. ~ Ernest Hemingway

The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved. ~ Victor Hugo

It is better to be happy for a moment and be burned up with beauty than to live a long time and be bored all the while. ~ Helen Keller

It is neither wealth nor splendor, but tranquility and occupation, which give happiness. ~ Thomas Jefferson

True happiness, we are told, consists in getting out of one's self, but the point is not only to get out, you must stay out; and to stay out you must have some absorbing errand. ~ Henry James, "Roderick Hudson"

The fountain of content must spring up in the mind, and he who hath so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition, will waste his life in fruitless efforts and multiply the grief he proposes to remove. ~ Samuel Johnson

Believe me! The secret of reaping the greatest fruitfulness and the greatest enjoyment from life is to live dangerously! ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Le bonheur m'est un singulier aiguillon à la modération et modestie. ~ Michel de Montaigne, 1533-1592

On n'est jamais si heureux ni si malheureux qu'on s'imagine. ~ François de la Rochefoucauld

Pour parler franchement, j'aime mieux avoir été moins heureux que d'être mort jeune. ~ Bussy-Rabutin, in a letter to Mme Sévigné, 1672

Et goûtât-on cent fois un bonheur tout parfait,
On n'en est pas content, si quelqu'un ne le sait.
~ Molière, l'École des femmes

On est beaucoup plus heureux, . . . on sent quelque chose de bien plus touchant, quand on aime violemment, que lorsqu'on est aimé. ~ Guillerages, 1628-1685, Lettres de la religieuse portugaise

Il n'est pas au pouvoir de notre volonté de ne pas souhaiter d'être heureux. ~ Nicolas de Malebranche, 1638-1715, De la recherche de la vérité

Un bonheur si commun n'a pour moi rien de doux.
Ce n'est pas un bonheur, s'il ne fait des jaloux. ~ Jean Racine, La Thébaïde

L'homme qui dit qu'il n'est pas né heureux pourrait du moins le devenir par le bonheur de ses amis ou de ses proches. L'envie lui ôte cette dernière ressource. ~ Jean de la Bruyère, Les Caractères, de l'homme

Ne sortez pas de vous-même, et vous serez heureux. ~ Jean-Baptiste Massillon

L'habitude de rentrer en moi-même me fit perdre enfin le sentiment et presque le souvenir de mes maux, j'appris ainsi par ma propre expérience que la source du vrai bonheur est en nous, et qu'il ne dépend pas des hommes de rendre vraiment misérable celui qui sait vouloir être heureux. ~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Les Rêveries du promeneur solitaire

Independence is happiness. ~ Susan B. Anthony

Le bonheur est un état permanent qui ne semble pas fait ici-bas pour l'homme. Tout est sur la terre dans un flux continuel qui ne permet à rien d'y prendre une forme constante. Tout change autour de nous. Nous changeons nous-mêmes et nul ne peut s'assurer qu'il aimera demain ce qu'il aime aujourd'hui. ~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Les Rêveries du promeneur solitaire

Après le rare bonheur de trouver une compagne qui nous soit bien assortie, l'état le moins malheureux de la vie est sans doute de vivre seul. ~ Jacque Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre

Les gens n'aiment pas plus à tenir leur bonheur des mains d'un autre que les anguilles à être écorchées vives! ~ Théodore de Banville

Un grand plan et un grand but laissent du bonheur dans l'âme, chaque jour qu'on se met à l'oeuvre. ~ Marie-Jean Hérault de Séchelles

Le vrai bonheur coûte peu; s'il est cher, il n'est pas d'une bonne espèce. ~ François-René de Chateaubriand, Mémoires d'outre-tombe

Il n'est pas encore bien prouvé si le bonheur se comopose des biens qu'on a ou de ceux qu'on croit avoir. ~ Alphonse Esquiros

Happiness cannot be pursued; it must ensue. ~ Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning, p. 162

Dare we be happy in such a troubled world? ~ Ozzie Harris, "The Challenge of Happiness," Emory Report, August 25, 2008

Il y a sur terre de telles immensités de misère, de détresse, de gêne et d'horreur, que l'homme heureux n'y peut songer sans predre honte de son bonheur. Et pourtant ne peut rien pour le bonheur d'autrui celui qu ne sait être heureux lui-même. ~ André Gide

Voilà donce le bonheur! Il remplit la capacité d'une petite cuiller! Le bonheur avec toutes ses ivresses, toutes ses folies, tous ses enfantillages! Vous pouvez avaler sans crainte; on n'en meurt pas. ~ Charles Baudelaire, Les Paradis Artificiels, "Le poème du haschisch"

Rien n'empêche le bonheur comme le souvenir du bonheur. ~ André Gide

Plus le désir avance, plus la possession véritable s'éloigne. De sorte que si le bonheur, ou du moins l'absence de souffrance peut être trouvé, ce n'est pas la satisfaction mais la réduction progressive, l'extinction finale du désir qu'il faut chercher. ~ Marcel Proust

Le bonheur n'est que chaleur des actes et contentement de la création. ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Citadelle

Now we call that which is in itself worthy of pursuit more complete than that which is worthy of pursuit for the sake of something else … We call complete without qualification that which is always desirable in itself and never for the sake of something else … Now such a thing happiness, above all, is held to be; for this we choose always for itself and never for the sake of something else, but honor, pleasure, reason, and every excellence we choose indeed for themselves (for if nothing resulted from them we should still choose each of them), but we choose them also for the sake of happiness, judging that through them we shall be happy … Happiness is something complete and self-sufficient, and is the end of action. ~ Aristotle

Back to top

Last updated:
September 20, 2008 10:32 PM