Whatever the philosophers may say, it remains true that, from the first hour of man's waking consciousness until that consciousness ceases, his most ardent desire is to be happy, and that the moment of his most profound regret is when he becomes convinced that on this earth perfect happiness cannot be found.
—Carl Hilty in Happiness: Essays on the Meaning of Life
A week feels like a year when you're seventeen and in love. A twenty minute drive might as well be an ocean. But we were together again and the whole world was rejoicing, even the gravel crunched melodiously under our feet as we danced onward through the night.
—Chloe Rattray in Sacré Noir
For the happiest life, days should be rigorously planned, nights left open to chance.
—Mignon McLaughlin
We could have been happy. I know that, and it is perhaps the hardest thing to know.
—Ally Condie in Matched
Sometimes I wore smiles but didn't feel them. Sometimes I felt them and didn't wear them.
—Penelope Douglas in Rival
I saw you happy. Happier than you've been in a long time. With someone you like that much, the lows are as low as the highs are high.
—Simone Elkeles in Perfect Chemistry
When you're grieving, the times you're happy are so much more tragic than the times that you aren't. Because being happy feels fake and it feels temporary and it feels meaningless.
—Hannah Moskowitz in Invincible Summer
The happiness of life… is made up of minute fractions—the little, soon-forgotten charities of a kiss, a smile, a kind look, a gentle word, a heartfelt compliment.
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge
The happier you are, the less you need.
—Francesca Lia Block in Ecstasia
Money doesn't always bring happiness. People with ten million dollars are no happier than people with nine million dollars.
—Hobart Brown
Happiness is an imaginary condition, formerly attributed by the living to the dead, now usually attributed by adults to children, and by children to adults.
—Thomas Szasz
The secret to happiness… be satisfied and be grateful.
—Mitch Albom in Have a Little Faith
Some people don't like being happy. They're much more comfortable when they have a problem.
—Elin Hilderbrand in The Beach Club
She knew that this was happiness, this was living as she had always wished to live.
—Daphne du Maurier in Frenchman's Creek
He'd learned that when you love someone purely enough, all you wanted was for that person to be happy.
—Elin Hilderbrand in Summerland