Seeking Happiness Quotes

I've come to believe that seeking happiness is not a frivolous pursuit. It's honorable and necessary. And most people forget even to thing about it. ~ Goldie Hawn

Seeking happiness, I passed many travelers headed in the opposite direction, seeking happiness. ~ Robert Breault

Seeking happiness is not the problem. The problem is that we often do not know where and how to find genuine happiness and so make the mistakes that cause suffering for ourselves & others. ~ Sharon Salzberg

The very purpose of our life is to seek happiness. ~ Dalai Lama XIV

Blaming others for your unhappiness is a habit that's hard to give up because it triggers some happy chemicals. You feel important when you battle perceived injustice (serotonin), and you bond with others who feel similarly deprived (oxytocin). You get excited when you seek and find evidence that you have been denied your fair share of happiness (dopamine). You may even trigger endorphins by welcoming physical pain into your life as evidence of your deprivation. You keep building a circuit for seeking happiness by feeling wronged. ~ Loretta Graziano Breuning

We should be sure that in our pursuit of happiness and positivity, we do not lose our ability to experience the other side of life, as well. Feelings of grief and respect for the departed, are honourable thoughts to have and honourable feelings to feel. In seeking happiness, we must not be so afraid of sorrow, that we lose the ability to cope with it properly. There is a healthy way to cope with both sorrow and joy; both need to be looked straight in the face, in the eyes. ~ C. JoyBell C.

Everybody in the world is seeking happiness - and there is one sure way to find it. That is by controlling your thoughts. Happiness doesn't depend on outward conditions. It depends on inner conditions. ~ Dale Carnegie

There are as many kinds of beauty as there are habitual ways of seeking happiness. ~ Charles Baudelaire

The Ego uses the mind as a means of spiritual search. It is through the mind that the Ego intends to understand what is beyond mind and forms. The mind in this way prepares the mental image of enlightenment, seeking, happiness etc. ~ Frank M. Wanderer

But it is not emancipation that the great majority seeks. When pressed, most men will admit that it takes but little to be happy. (Not that they practice this wisdom!) Man craves happiness here on earth, not fulfillment, not emancipation. Are they utterly deluded, then, in seeking happiness? No, happiness is desirable, but it is a by-product, the result of a way of life, not a goal which is forever beyond one's grasp. Happiness is achieved en route. And if it be ephemeral, as most men believe, it can also give way, not to anxiety of despair, but to a joyousness which is serene and lasting. To make happiness the goal is to kill it in advance. If one must have a goal, which is questionable, why not self-realization? The unique and healing quality in this attitude toward life is that in the process goal and seeker become one. ~ Henry Miller

We believe we are seeking happiness in love, but what we are really after is familiarity. We are looking to re-create, within our adult relationships, the very feelings we knew so well in childhood and which were rarely limited to just tenderness and care. The love most of us will have tasted early on came entwined with other, more destructive dynamics: feelings of wanting to help an adult who was out of control, of being deprived of a parent's warmth or scared of his or her anger, or of not feeling secure enough to communicate our trickier wishes.

How logical, then, that we should as adults find ourselves rejecting certain candidates not because they are wrong but because they are a little too right - in the sense of seeming somehow excessively balanced, mature, understanding, and reliable - given that, in our hearts, such rightness feels foreign and unearnt. We chase after more exciting others, not in the belief that life with them will be more harmonious, but out of an unconscious sense that it will be reassuringly familiar in its patterns of frustration. ~ Alain De Botton

The moral of the story is that seeking truth, rather than fear of pain or the desire for happiness, is the correct orientation toward inner work, since seeking happiness makes you its prisoner just as surely as does pain. ~ Sandra Maitri

All human beings are alike in seeking happiness. Where they differ is in the objects from which they seek it and the strength they have to reach the objects they desire. ~ Os Guinness

Wanting help, I reached out to serve. Seeking happiness, I smiled and offered comfort. Yearning for love, I showed love. And now I understand. My life was never about me, it was always about you. ~ Richelle E. Goodrich

You know that saying 'A little knowledge is a dangerous thing'? That's so true of positive psychology. Our latest research tells us that the pursuit of happiness is a delicate art. Certain approaches to seeking happiness are now known to backfire, whereas others are effective. ~ Barbara Fredrickson

One who, while seeking happiness, oppresses with violence other living beings who also desire happinesss, will not find happiness hereafter. ~ Gautama Buddha

All these years I had been sustained by an illusion-happiness through victory- and now that illusion was burned to ashes. I was no more happier, no more fullfilled, for all my achievements. Finally I saw through the clouds I saw that I had never learned how to enjoy life, only how to achieve. All my life i had been busy seeking happiness, but never finding it or sustaining it. ~ Dan Millman

People who know their purpose know where they're going, what they're doing, and, more importantly, they know why they're doing it. This shifts the basic emphasis of life from one of meeting needs, dealing with fears, and seeking happiness to following a path that leads to the greatest possible fulfillment, success, and meaning in life. Knowing your purpose satisfies a deep need that lives in everyone: the need for meaning, to have a positive impact, to have your presence and life felt by others. As people age, the yearning to leave some kind of legacy grows stronger. There is no greater legacy you can leave than living your life purpose to the fullest extent possible. ~ Tim Kelley

Don't seek to be happy; let everyone else chase after that rainbow.
Seek to be kind, and you'll find the rainbow follows you. ~ Richelle E. Goodrich

We learn in our guts, not just in our brain, that a life of joy is not in seeking happiness, but in experiencing and simply being the circumstances of our life as they are; not in fulfilling personal wants, but in fulfilling the needs of life ... ~ Joko Beck

In search for love, where love is some Oxytocin,seeking happiness related to Orexin. Sensations of glory, motivation and success, They are all some precious chemicals. Our mind is greedy, and falls into depression when he is no longer satisfied. LIFE IS A DRUG STORE WE ARE ALL JUNKIES. ~ Omar EL KADMIRI

the Buddha whimsically pointed out that seeking happiness in one's material desires is as absurd as "suffering because a banana tree will not bear mangoes. ~ Rolf Potts

Seeking happiness apart from a right relationship God is like trying to turn on a light that's unplugged. ~ Randy Alcorn

Seeking happiness in material things is a sure way of being unhappy. ~ Pope Francis

But if, through seeking happiness, my deeds are wrong, No matter where I turn my steps, The knives of misery will cut me down, The wage and retribution of a sinful life. ~ Santideva

I am more and more convinced that our happiness or unhappiness depends far more on the way we meet the events of life, than on the nature of those events themselves. ~ Wilhelm Von Humboldt

Life can sometimes feel like being trapped in the midst of a chaotic storm, swirling with darkness and debris, and no perceivable way out. But there is a way out. Seeking out the stillness of one's mind, challenging limiting perceptions and unloading the burdens of the past can allow a person to break free from the darkness and find a path to peace, joy and light. No one has to stay in the storm. Anyone can leave, if they choose. Hypnosis can help a person uncover the way to freedom. Once the path is revealed, all one needs to do is take it. And when they do, everything will seem possible. ~ Dawn Wheeler

Happiness can only be achieved by looking inward & learning to enjoy whatever life has and this requires transforming greed into gratitude. ~ John Chrysostom

When a film's heroine innocently coughs, you know that two scenes later, at most, she'll be in an oxygen tent; when a man bumps into a woman at the train station, you know that man will become the woman's lover and/or murderer. In everyday life, where we cough often and are always bumping into people, our daily actions rarely reverberate so lucidly. Once we love or hate someone, we can think back and remember that first casual encounter. But what of all the chance meetings that nothing ever comes of? While our bodies move ever forward on the time line, our minds continuously trace backward, seeking shape and meaning as deftly as any arrow seeking its mark. ~ Lucy Grealy

There exist words of mediocrity, songs of mediocrity, and life lessons of mediocrity. Advice of mediocrity, books of mediocrity and companions of mediocrity are also available.
One may also meet songs of purpose that can make us ponder to wonder and advice filled with authority to dare in life. We may also hear life lessons that can challenge and change us.
What do you listen to? If what you listen to will not make you, it will mar you. ~ Ernest Agyemang Yeboah

To speak of sparing anything because it is beautiful is to waste one's breath and incur ridicule in the bargain. The aesthetic sense- the power to enjoy through the eye, and the ear, and the imagination- is just as important a factor in the scheme of human happiness as the corporeal sense of eating and drinking; but there has never been a time when the world would admit it. ~ John Van Dyke

I only hope that for right now, you remember that there is no place for hate in a happy life. I don't care who you are, where you come from or what God you believe in. I can guarantee you that if you hate, you will never achieve true happiness. ~ A.S. King

The future happiness of the human race depends on good people who want to live at peace with their neighbors, and who are willing to protect their neighbors from those who don't want peace. ~ Orson Scott Card

Now, tell me again why I'm freezing my ass off in the middle of the woods?"
Legna chuckled.
"Because it is tradition. Your mate must find you and then carry you to the altar. Seeking you out is symbolic of his desire to let nothing come between you. Bringing you to the altar is a reflection of how it is his duty to help you over obstacles so that you may reach moments of joy together."
"It's very romantic," Isabella said, "if a little chauvinistic."
"Not in the least. The sharing of responsibility within a joining is symbolized just as strongly. The bride must tie the handfasting ribbon around her mate's wrist. The white ribbon symbolizes honesty and love and fidelity, and by allowing himself to be so tied means the groom must provide for her at all times, as she will provide for him. The black is a promise that they will forever do all in their power to protect their union, their children, and the perpetuation of the essentials of our culture."
"But you've tied a red ribbon to the end of the black, Legna. What does thatmean?"
"Actually" - the Demon woman smiled - "there is no precedent for the red ribbon. However, I felt it only fair to have a physical reminder that you have a culture of your own and will have just as much right to perpetuate that within your children as Jacob does."
"Legna," Isabella giggled, giving her an admonishing look, "that is positively rebellious and feminist of you."
"I never claimed to be an old-fashioned gi ~ Jacquelyn Frank

Living beautifully and justly are the source of all joy and happiness. ~ Debasish Mridha

Happiness is a by-product. You cannot pursue it by itself. ~ Sam Levenson

Prayer is vastly superior to worry. With worry, we are helpless; with prayer, we are interceding. When I hear sad news, I try to say a prayer for the victims. When I am troubled, I will say a prayer that asks for relief for myself and for all those who suffer as I do. When I am concerned about my relatives or friends I say a short prayer to myself - "May they be happy and free of suffering." Book: Seeking Peace: Chronicles of the Worst Buddist in the World ~ Mary Pipher

Why, I never!" Waving a letter covered with spidery handwriting, she said, "What a surprise! After all these years, Hannah wants to pay me a visit. She'd love to see the house she grew up in."
At the sound of Hannah's name, my heart beat faster. Speechless with happiness, I listened to my aunt chatter excitedly.
"She says John died last winter and she's staying in Riverview to straighten out his estate." Aunt Blythe paused to scrutinize the letter. "Listen to this, Drew: 'You'll find me a bit long in the tooth, Blythe, but, never fear, I still have my wits about me. You might warn Edward I'm not a jot sweeter than I was the last time we met!"
Aunt Blythe laughed. "In other words, Hannah hasn't changed a bit! ~ Mary Downing Hahn

So everything we believe about happiness is wrong," I said.
He nodded.
Everything?" I asked, when what I meant was, Everything? Including you? Including me?
And Marcus, being Marcus, knew what I really wanted to know, and answered my silent, more significant question. He held up his hand to shield the rays and looked me in the eyes.
Almost. ~ Megan McCafferty

The pursuit of material-external things as if they can provide deep and lasting happiness is contributing to a dwindling of real meaning and is a factor contributing to an increase in mental health problems. It just isn't possible to fill the hole inside us by piling up the things outside us. pg9 ~ Dr Stephen McKenzie And Dr Craig Hassed

If one departs from the bliss of the Eternal, he will come across the happiness that is obtained from the temporary. ~ Dada Bhagwan

Time destroys, Time heals.
Time will take your happiness away,
Time will give you a reason to live.
The wind is stormy,
Tomorrow it will be placid.
Time is making things fall apart today,
But eventually time itself will create a new pathway! ~ Somya Kedia

If you enslave me with fake money, and I realize enslavement is fake. Its in your best interest to set me free! ~ Tice Davids Aka David T. Parker

Buddhism is really, one of its main practices is understanding and experiencing compassion, and how that ultimately is a road to happiness. ~ Goldie Hawn

He is the best fighter who fights with love for the world peace. ~ Debasish Mridha

Young poets are too apt to consider themselves "children of the mist" – they must dwell apart from men and contemn their kind, or they fear they shall be only taken for common-place characters. They forget that poetry is the language which speaks to all hearts - and that instead of cherishing the sacred fire as a lonely light, as one that burns in a charnel house, they should bring it forth in its beauty and brightness as a guide to the pleasant places and sparkling waters of earth's happiness and the radiant messenger of heaven's exalted hopes. And they should rejoice and be glad that to them the kindling of such high imagination is given.

~ Sarah Josepha Hale
Ladies Magazine, November 1830

From the Introduction to Cherishing the Sacred Fire ~ Deborah L. Halliday

Not merely by rules of conduct and religious observances, nor by much learning either, nor even by attainment of concentration, nor by sleeping alone, do I reach the happiness of freedom, to which no worldlings attain. If you have not put an end to compulsions, nurse your faith ~ Gautama Buddha

In America, we are entitled to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

There is no such expression in France. In fact, in France, the equivalent expression is la recherche du bonheur (looking for happiness). On the surface, this might seem as if I am splitting hairs, but if you really examine the idea of "looking" for happiness as opposed to "pursuing" happiness, you'll see there's actually a big difference.

If we're looking for something, it feels as if it's there hiding in plain sight. And all we have to do is be patient and when the room is quiet, quickly lift up the tablecloth and voilà! There it is! Happiness!

On the other hand, pursuing implies a kind of chasing after something.

"Looking for happiness" seems gentler. There is happiness and we just need to look. ~ Jamie Cat Callan

You see how people get through their misfortunes, if they have but a heart to bear up against them, and do nothing that can lie on their conscience afterwards; and how suddenly one comes to be happy, just when one is beginning to think one never is to be happy again! ... who would have thought we should ever know what it is to be happy! Yet here we are all abroad once more! All at liberty! And may run, if we will, straight forward, from one end of the earth to the other, and back again without being stopped! May fly in the sea, or swim in the sky, or tumble over head and heels into the moon! For remember, my good friends, we have no lead in our consciences to keep us down! ~ Ann Radcliffe

You never settle for anything less than a man who will fight for you. The man who gives you that feeling from your scalp to your toes. The one who will always be by your side and it may be the new man or an old man, but it doesn't matter. ~ Kim Carmichael

Happiness feels like a privilege to struggling kids, but inspiration feels like home. ~ Elaina Marie

Life, like the boring drunk at the office party, keeps seeking you out, leaning on you, killing you with pointless yarns and laughing bad-breathed in your face at its own unfunny jokes. ~ Glen Duncan

Are you sure about this?" I wring my hands. "I was a homeless druggie, a beggar and an escort. I'm prone to breakdowns and poor decisions. Have you picked up strays before and let them into your house?" He laughs, not taking me seriously at all. "I don't give a flying fuck as long as you're here." He rubs my abs to soothe me. "Liam. You make me happy. Life's too short not to grab hold of happiness when it comes knocking at my door." Fuck. He has done it again. Tears surge in my eyes. "And you just seem to make me cry like a fucking twat!" He smiles, comes closer and kisses me. Before I know it, he wraps his arms around my waist and thighs and tries to lift me up and carry me. I am pretty lithe but I'm still too tall and heavy for him. He manages to half-lug, half-drag me up the stairs and into the bedroom while laughing his head off. ~ A. Zukowski

When did other people's happiness start feeling like assault? But the answer comes quickly, and brings a bad taste to my mouth. Always. I didn't ever stop feeling excluded. I just started to wear it and pretend it was my choice. Maybe that's why I was drawn to the law of poisoned things, and hurt people, and scabby chemical earth. Maybe toxic is the only thing I really understand. ~ Krysten Ritter

The prayer that is heard is not of many words ... but of Oneness ~ Vivian Amis

It's like everyone has their own little recipe for happiness, but no one really seems all that happy. ~ Brent Jones

You never enjoy the world aright, till the Sea itself floweth in your veins, till you are clothed with the heavens, and crowned with the stars: and perceive yourself to be the sole heir of the whole world, and more than so, because men are in it who are every one sole heirs as well as you. Till you can sing and rejoice and delight in God, as misers do in gold, and Kings in sceptres, you never enjoy the world.
Till your spirit filleth the whole world, and the stars are your jewels; till you are as familiar with the ways of God in all Ages as with your walk and table: till you are intimately acquainted with that shady nothing out of which the world was made: till you love men so as to desire their happiness, with a thirst equal to the zeal of your own: till you delight in God for being good to all: you never
enjoy the world. ~ Thomas Traherne

Whatever talents, gifts, opportunities, happiness, and blessings someone has, are granted by God. Some people for whatever reason are bothered by those touched by His grace. There's nothing you can do about that. They should bring those grievances directly to Him. If they really feel that way, that talk is overdue anyway. ~ Carlos Wallace

Happiness is a moral obligation. ~ Dennis Prager

There are two natures in the believer, and so two ways of seeking holiness, as we allow the principles of the one or the other nature to guide us. The one is the carnal way, in which we put forth our utmost efforts and resolutions, trusting Christ to help us in doing so. The other is the spiritual way, in which, as those who have did and can do nothing, our one care is to receive Christ day by day and at every step to let Him live and work in us. ~ Andrew Murray

Inattention to he world's ecological state is well advised. Because attention to it mitigates against your happiness, contentment your sense of well being. ~ Stephen Jenkinson

To fill your world with happiness, fill your heart with happy thoughts. ~ Debasish Mridha

In neo-classical economic theory, it is claimed without evidence that people are basically self-seeking, that they want above all the satisfaction of their material desires: what economists call "maximising utility". The ultimate objective of mankind is economic growth, and that is maximized only through raw, and lightly regulated, competition. If the rewards of this system are spread unevenly, that is a necessary price. Others on the planet are to be regarded as either customers, competitors or factors of production. Effects upon the planet itself are mere "externalities" to the model, with no reckoning of the cost - at least for now. Nowhere in this analysis appears factors such as human cooperation, love, trust, compassion or hatred, curiosity or beauty. Nowhere appears the concept of meaning. What cannot be measured is ignored. But the trouble is that once our basic needs for shelter and food have been met, these factors may be the most important of all. ~ Carne Ross

I'm by no means an expert at giving advice on depression, but I would say that a lot of my show is about making the decision to be happy. We all think that happiness is something that just falls into our lap. But it's something you have to really work on. ~ Lilly Singh

Happiness and depression cannot blossom on the same vine. Some people affirm their woes and beg for sympathy. Others, unfortunately, cast gloom wherever they go. These poor souls were born sick and tired. ~ Louis Sullivan

We need to learn how to want what we have NOT to have what we want in order to get steady and stable Happiness ~ Dalai Lama XIV

We do not know either unalloyed happiness or unmitigated misfortune. Everything in this world is a tangled yarn; we taste nothing in its purity; we do not remain two moments in the same state. Our affections as well as bodies, are in a perpetual flux. ~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau

The bitterness of joy lies in the knowledge that it cannot last. Nor should joy last beyond a certain season, for, after that season, even joy would become merely habit. ~ Tanith Lee

There is a wonderful mythical law of nature that the three things we crave most in life
happiness, freedom, and peace of mind
are always attained by giving them to someone else. ~ Peyton C. March

Coming between a trader and his book is like coming between a blue-haired old lady and her lucky slot machine: You will be denying them their pursuit of happiness. ~ Katya G. Cohen

If the Lowland farmer spoke with an uncouth accent, dressed in rags, lived in a miserable hovel, and fed on the same grain he fed his animals, it was not because he was a savage but because the relentless marauding of the English left him with very little choice. As for why he didn't simply cut his throat, the answer is that he was a Presbyterian and did not expect much in the way of earthly happiness. ~ William Maxwell

My request today is simple. Today. Tomorrow. Next week. Find somebody, anybody, that's different than you. Somebody that has made you feel ill-will or even hateful. Somebody whose life decisions have made you uncomfortable. Somebody who practices a different religion than you do. Somebody who has been lost to addiction. Somebody with a criminal past. Somebody who dresses "below" you. Somebody with disabilities. Somebody who lives an alternative lifestyle. Somebody without a home.
Somebody that you, until now, would always avoid, always look down on, and always be disgusted by.
Reach your arm out and put it around them.
And then, tell them they're all right. Tell them they have a friend. Tell them you love them.
If you or I wanna make a change in this world, that's where we're gonna be able to do it. That's where we'll start.
Every. Single. Time. ~ Dan Pearce

Your greatest difficulty is with yourself; for you are your own stumbling-block. You do not know what you want. You are better at approving the right course than at following it out. You see where the true happiness lies, but you have not the courage to attain it. ~ Seneca.