Everyone is tied down in some way. Work, family, medical problems. It's what you make of it. That's why it's so important to surround yourself with the things that make you happy. If you have a bad day at work but get to come home to a woman you love or your favorite hobby, the rest doesn't matter as much.
—Nichole Chase in Suddenly Royal
There's so much more to life than finding someone who will want you, or being sad over someone who doesn't. There's a lot of wonderful time to be spent discovering yourself without hoping someone will fall in love with you along the way, and it doesn't need to be painful or empty. You need to fill yourself up with love. Not anyone else. Become a whole being on your own. Go on adventures, fall asleep in the woods with friends, wander around the city at night, sit in a coffee shop on your own, write on bathroom stalls, leave notes in library books, dress up for yourself, give to others, smile a lot. Do all things with love, but don't romanticize life like you can't survive without it. Live for yourself and be happy on your own. It isn't any less beautiful.
—Emery Allen
I love you. And I love you enough to let you go, if I have to. If it's what will make you happy, I'm okay with that. Whatever you decide.
—Selena Kitt in Baumgartner Generations
I cried at first… and then, it was such a beautiful day, that I forgot to be unhappy.
—Frances Noyes Hart
I would never be popular. I didn't want to be; I liked being shy. I'd never be the smartest or the hottest or the happiest.
—Laurie Halse Anderson in Wintergirls
Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city.
—George Burns
I grasped two things: I wasn't as happy as I could be, and my life wasn't going to change unless I made it change.
—Gretchen Rubin in The Happiness Project
Although people sometimes assume that the happy are self-absorbed and complacent, just the opposite is true. In general, happiness doesn't make people want to drink daiquiris on the beach; it makes them want to help rural villagers gain better access to clean water.
—Gretchen Rubin in Happier at Home
When one has a famishing thirst for happiness, one is apt to gulp down diversions wherever they are offered.
—Alice Caldwell Rice
The pursuit of happiness is a most ridiculous phrase; if you pursue happiness you'll never find it.
—C. P. Snow
Happiness isn't something you experience; it's something you remember.
—Oscar Levant
The moments of happiness we enjoy take us by surprise. It is not that we seize them, but that they seize us.
—Ashley Montagu
The belief that unhappiness is selfless and happiness is selfish is misguided. It's more selfless to act happy. It takes energy, generosity, and discipline to be unfailingly lighthearted, yet everyone takes the happy person for granted. No one is careful of his feelings or tries to keep his spirits high. He seems self-sufficient; he becomes a cushion for others. And because happiness seems unforced, that person usually gets no credit.
—Gretchen Rubin in The Happiness Project
Peace begins with a smile.
—Mother Teresa
The worst part of success is trying to find someone who is happy for you.
—Bette Midler