The Happiness Project Quotes
“We seldom think of what we have but always of what we lack.”
-Schopenhauer
“To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness.”
-Bertrand Russell
“If better were within, better would come out.”
-Simon Patrick
“Choose which seems best and, in the doing, it will become agreeable and easy.”
-Pythagoras
“One of the secrets of a happy life is continuous small treats.”
-Iris Murdoch
“No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good. . . Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is.”
-C.S. Lewis
“What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for a worthwhile goal, a freely chosen task. What he needs is not the discharge of tension at any cost but the call of a potential meaning waiting to be fulfilled by him.”
-Viktor Frankl Man’s Search for Meaning
“One should not wish anyone disagreeable conditions of life; but for him who is involved in them by chance, they are touchstones of characters and of the most decisive value to man.”
-Goethe
“Routine shortens and variety lengthens time, and it is therefore in the power of men to do something to regulate its pace. A life with many landmarks, a life which is much subdivided when those subdivisions are not of the same kind, and when new and diverse interests, impressions, and labours follow each other in swift and distinct successions, seems the most long…”
-Lecky, The Map of Life
“Everything that frees our spirit without giving us control of ourselves is ruinous.”
-Goethe
“The disturbers of happiness are our desires, our griefs, and our fears.”
-Samuel Johnson
“A man is not only happy but wise also, if he is trying, during his lifetime, to be the sort of man he wants to be found at his death.”
-Thomas à Kempis
“Happiness is neither virtue nor pleasure nor this thing nor that, but simply growth. We are happy when we are growing.”
-William Butler Yeats
“On the whole, tho’ I never arrived at the Perfection I had been so ambitious of obtaining, but fell far short of it, yet as I was, by the Endeavor, a better and a happier Man than I otherwise should have been if I had not attempted it.”
-Benjamin Franklin
“He who chases two hares will catch neither.”
-Publius Syrus
“The thankful receiver bears a plentiful harvest.”
-William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
“I suppose the more you have to do, the more you learn to organize and concentrate-or else get fragmented into bits. I have learned to use my ‘ten minutes’. I once thought it was not worth sitting down for a time as short as that; now I know differently and, if I have ten minutes, I use them, even if they bring only two lines, and it keeps the book alive.”
-Rumer Godden, A House with Four Rooms
“Talent is insignificant. I know a lot of talented ruins. Beyond talent lie all the usual words: discipline, love, luck, but, most of all, endurance.”
-James Baldwin, Paris Review Interviews II
“There is almost one time that is important- Now! It is the most important time because it is the only time when we have any power.”
-Leo Tolstoy
“Such as are your habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of your mind; for the soul is dyed by the thoughts.”
-Marcus Aurelius
“The true secret of happiness lies in the taking a genuine interest in all the details of daily life.”
-William Morris
-Schopenhauer
“To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness.”
-Bertrand Russell
“If better were within, better would come out.”
-Simon Patrick
“Choose which seems best and, in the doing, it will become agreeable and easy.”
-Pythagoras
“One of the secrets of a happy life is continuous small treats.”
-Iris Murdoch
“No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good. . . Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is.”
-C.S. Lewis
“What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for a worthwhile goal, a freely chosen task. What he needs is not the discharge of tension at any cost but the call of a potential meaning waiting to be fulfilled by him.”
-Viktor Frankl Man’s Search for Meaning
“One should not wish anyone disagreeable conditions of life; but for him who is involved in them by chance, they are touchstones of characters and of the most decisive value to man.”
-Goethe
“Routine shortens and variety lengthens time, and it is therefore in the power of men to do something to regulate its pace. A life with many landmarks, a life which is much subdivided when those subdivisions are not of the same kind, and when new and diverse interests, impressions, and labours follow each other in swift and distinct successions, seems the most long…”
-Lecky, The Map of Life
“Everything that frees our spirit without giving us control of ourselves is ruinous.”
-Goethe
“The disturbers of happiness are our desires, our griefs, and our fears.”
-Samuel Johnson
“A man is not only happy but wise also, if he is trying, during his lifetime, to be the sort of man he wants to be found at his death.”
-Thomas à Kempis
“Happiness is neither virtue nor pleasure nor this thing nor that, but simply growth. We are happy when we are growing.”
-William Butler Yeats
“On the whole, tho’ I never arrived at the Perfection I had been so ambitious of obtaining, but fell far short of it, yet as I was, by the Endeavor, a better and a happier Man than I otherwise should have been if I had not attempted it.”
-Benjamin Franklin
“He who chases two hares will catch neither.”
-Publius Syrus
“The thankful receiver bears a plentiful harvest.”
-William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
“I suppose the more you have to do, the more you learn to organize and concentrate-or else get fragmented into bits. I have learned to use my ‘ten minutes’. I once thought it was not worth sitting down for a time as short as that; now I know differently and, if I have ten minutes, I use them, even if they bring only two lines, and it keeps the book alive.”
-Rumer Godden, A House with Four Rooms
“Talent is insignificant. I know a lot of talented ruins. Beyond talent lie all the usual words: discipline, love, luck, but, most of all, endurance.”
-James Baldwin, Paris Review Interviews II
“There is almost one time that is important- Now! It is the most important time because it is the only time when we have any power.”
-Leo Tolstoy
“Such as are your habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of your mind; for the soul is dyed by the thoughts.”
-Marcus Aurelius
“The true secret of happiness lies in the taking a genuine interest in all the details of daily life.”
-William Morris