100 Quotes to Inspire Happiness

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Feeling overwhelmed? Try reading these 100 inspirational quotes about happiness to bring more joy to your life. They’re perfect if you’re just looking for a good smile, or for wisdom. and motivation to maintain a more positive outlook.

It’s so easy to get overwhelmed when life gets busy, or the kids are throwing tantrums, or perhaps you’re just a little tired.

And maintaining a positive outlook when you’re overwhelmed can be difficult to say the least.

That’s why I chose the word “Joy” as my outlook and goal for 2016.

As a role model for our children, it’s important for us to show that being joyful is a choice that can be made even in the hardest times.

So, I’m working on filling our home with things to inspire joy. And thought it would be fun to find some quotes to inspire happiness while I’m at it.

I’ve even turned some of the quotes below into art prints. Then all I have to do is print them off on some decent card stock and put them in some pretty frames. Easy as pie.

You can get yours too! They’re part of the resources directory, which is a newsletter subscriber exclusive. Sign up today to get access to the inspirational art prints as well as dozens more free printables!

Read through them for yourself, and hopefully you will find a few that speak to you directly.

100 Quotes to Inspire Happiness

1. “I’ve got nothing to do today but smile.” – Paul Simon
2. “Some believe in destiny some believe in fate, but I believe that happiness is something we create. Sugar Land
3. “I believe… that every human mind feels pleasure in doing good to another.” — Thomas Jefferson
4. “One can be very happy without demanding that others agree with them.” -Ira Gershwin
5. “Laughter connects you with people. It’s almost impossible to maintain any kind of distance or any sense of social hierarchy when you’re just howling with laughter. Laughter is a force for democracy.” — John Cleese
6. “It’s a helluva start, being able to recognize what makes you happy. ” – Lucille Ball
7. “Find out where joy resides, and give it a voice far beyond singing. For to miss the joy is to miss all.” – Robert Louis Stevenson
8. “Nobody can take away your pain, so don’t let anyone take away your happiness.” – Unknown
9. “The grand essentials of happiness are: something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.” – Allan K. Chalmers
10. “Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” – Abraham Lincoln
11. “God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.” — Voltaire
12. “Happiness is a Swedish sunset -it is there for all, but most of us look the other way and lose it.” — Mark Twain
13. “There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.” -Epictetus
14. “Happiness is realizing that nothing is too important.” – Antonio Gala
15. “Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light” -Albus Dumbledore
16. “Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.” — Mohandas K. Gandhi
17. “It is only possible to live happily ever after on a day to day basis.” – Margaret Bonnano
18. “Being nice is one of many bridges on the road to happiness.” -Donna A. Favors
19. “Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened” -Dr. Seuss
20. “Happiness is a conscious choice, not an automatic response.” — Mildred Barthel
    
    
21. “Each morning when I open my eyes I say to myself: I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn’t arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I’m going to be happy in it.” – Groucho Marx
22. “Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action.” — Benjamin Disraeli
23. Against the assault of laughter, nothing can stand. — Mark Twain
24. “The moments of happiness we enjoy take us by surprise. It is not that we seize them, but that they seize us.” – Ashley Montagu
25. “The greatest part of our happiness depends on our dispositions, not our circumstances.” — Martha Washington
26. “Now and then it’s good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy.” -Guillaume Apollinaire
    
    
27. “Remember that the happiest people are not those getting more, but those giving more.” -H. Jackson Brown Jr.
28. “Love like you’ve never been hurt because every 60 seconds you spend angry or upset is a minute of happiness you’ll never get back…” -Unknown
29. “It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness.” – Charles H. Spurgeon
30. “Whoever said you can’t buy happiness forgot little puppies” -Gene Hill
31. “The habit of being uniformly considerate toward others will bring increased happiness to you” – Grenville Kleiser
32. “All happiness depends on a leisurely breakfast” – John Gunther
33. “The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up” -Albert Einstein
34. “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
35. “It’s pretty hard to tell what does bring happiness. Poverty and wealth have both failed.”— Kin Hubbard
36. “It isn’t what you have, or who you are, or where you are, or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about.” – Dale Carnegie
37. “Remember this, that very little is needed to make a happy life” – Marcus Aurelius
38. “We are happy in proportion to the things we can do without.” -Henry David Thoreau
39. “Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared” – Buddha
40. “But what is happiness except the simple harmony between a man and the life he leads?” — Albert Camus
41. “Happiness is as a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but which if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.” — Nathaniel Hawthorne
42. “Always laugh when you can. It is cheap medicine.” — Lord Byron
43. “Happiness is when your mind is thinking through your heart.” — Judi Singleton
44. “A good laugh is sunshine in the house.” — William Thackeray
45. “The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.” -Benjamin Franklin
46. “Money has never made man happy, nor will it, there is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. The more of it one has the more one wants.” -Benjamin Franklin
47. “Count your age by friends not years. Count your life by smiles, not tears.” – John Lennon
48. “There is the happiness which comes from  creative effort. The joy of dreaming, creating, building, whether in painting a picture, writing an epic, singing a song, composing a symphony, devising new invention, creating a vast industry.” -Henry Miller
49. “Whoever is happy will make others happy, too.” — Mark Twain
50. “If you want to be happy, value and cherish every little thing in life, even the small things. Everything and every second in life is valuable and precious to our own existence, happiness and self-worth.” -Brandon Hofer
51. “Laugh as much as you breathe and love as long as you live” -Johnny Depp
52. “Happiness is an attitude of mind, born of the simple determination to be happy under all outward circumstances.” — J. Donald Walters
53. “What makes us discontented with our condition is the absurdly exaggerated idea we have of the happiness of others.” -French Proverb
54. “It’s not easy to find happiness in ourselves, and it is not possible to find it elsewhere.” -Agnes Repplier
55. “If you’re happy in what you’re doing, you’ll like yourself, you’ll have inner peace. And if you have that, along with physical health, you will have had more success than you could possibly have imagined.” -Johnny Carson
56. “May you never forget what is worth remembering, nor ever remember what is best forgotten.” -Irish Blessing
57. “Happiness is a perfume you cannot pour on others without getting a few drops on yourself.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
58. “The art of living does not consist in preserving and clinging to a particular mode of happiness, but in allowing happiness to change its form without being disappointed by the change; happiness, like a child, must be allowed to grow up. ” – Charles L. Morgan
59. “A smile is a curve that sets everything straight.” — Phyllis Diller
60. “It is of immense importance to learn to laugh at ourselves.” — Katherine Mansfield
61. “Happiness is a how; not a what. A talent, not an object.” -Herman Hesse
62. “Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. ” – Bl. Mother Teresa
63. “Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.” – Herman Cain
64. “Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace and gratitude.” — Denis Waitley
65. “Happiness is a choice that requires effort at times.” -– Aeschylus
66. “Happiness? That’s nothing more than a good health and a poor memory” -Albert Schweitzer
67. “Happiness is not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt
    
    
68. “Happiness, not another place, but this place…not for another hour, but for this hour.” -Walt Whitman
69. “As soap is to the body, so laughter is to the soul.” — A Jewish Proverb
70. “Wisdom is the supreme part of happiness.” — Sophocles
71. “Be happy. Talk happiness. Happiness calls out responsive gladness in others. There is enough sadness in the world without yours…never doubt the excellence and permanence of what is yet to be.” -Helen Keller
72. “There is only one happiness in life, to love and be loved.” — George Sand
73. “Happiness is a thing to be practiced, like the violin.” — John Lubbock
74. “Being happy doesn’t mean everything is perfect. It means you have decided to look beyond the imperfections.” –Unknown
75. “If only we’d stop trying to be happy we’d have a pretty good time.” — Edith Wharton
76. “I have found that if you love life, life will love you back.” — Arthur Rubinstein
77. “A Joyful heart is the normal result of a heart burning with love. She gives most who gives with joy.” – Blessed Mother Teresa
78. “If you would not be laughed at, be the first to laugh at yourself.” — Benjamin Franklin
79. “A smile starts on the lips, a grin spreads to the eyes, a chuckle comes from the belly; but a good laugh bursts forth from the soul, overflows, and bubbles all around.” — Carolyn Birmingham
80. “Some days there won’t be a song in your heart. Sing anyway” -Emory Austin
81. “Happiness held is the seed; happiness shared is the flower.” -– Unknown
82. “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 Conway March
83. “May brooks and trees and singing hills join in the chorus too, and every gentle wind that blows send happiness to you” – Irish Blessing
84. “Happiness is an attitude. We either make ourselves miserable, or happy and strong. The amount of work is the same.” — Francesca Reigler
85. “In the pursuit of happiness, the difficulty lies in knowing when you have caught up.” — R. H. Grenville
86. “Those who are not looking for happiness are the most likely to find it, because those who are searching forget that the surest way to be happy is to seek happiness for others.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.
    
87. “From there to here, from here to there, funny things are everywhere.” — Dr. Seuss
88. “Happiness is largely a matter of self-hypnotism. You can think yourself happy or you can think yourself miserable” -Dorothy Dix
89. “Happiness is a gift and the trick is not to expect it, but to delight in it when it comes.” –Charles Dickens
90. “If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.” – J.R.R. Tolkien
91. “The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.” – Oprah Winfrey
92. “I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.” -G.K. Chesterton
93. “Success is getting what you want. Happiness is liking what you get.” -H. Jackson Brown Jr.
94. “If you can’t find joy in the path you are on and what you are working toward now, how do you expect to find joy once you get there?” – Unknown
95. “Happiness is not a goal; it is a by-product.” — Eleanor Roosevelt
96. “If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things.” – Albert Einstein
97. “You must try to generate happiness within yourself. If you aren’t happy in one place, chances are you won’t be happy anyplace” -Ernie Banks
98. “Happiness is a habit—cultivate it.” — Elbert Hubbard
99. “Happiness is a direction, not a place.” — Sydney J. Harris
100. “The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance, the wise grows it under his feet.” – James Oppenheim

Which quote is your favorite?
How do you stay joyful in the tough moments?

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