happiness

"An ordinary man can surround himself with two thousand books and thenceforward have at least one place in the world in which it is always possible to be happy."

"I learned from a very young age that if I persued the things that truly excited me, that they would reward in more important ways, like happiness."

"Love, I thought to myself abstractedly. Not 'This is love' or 'Is this love?' Not a sentence, not a certainty, not a thought with moving parts or direction. Just love, all of it, as it is. Whether it's enough or not. Wthether it's real or we're making it up. However shoddy it gets, or bent out of shape. It's still extraordinary. However foolish, however vain. However badly it ends. Love."

"Every day has its great grief or its small anxiety. ... One cloud is dispelled, another forms. There is hardly one day in a hundred of real joy and bright sunshine."

"How simple and frugal a thing is happiness: a glass of wine, a roast chestnut, a wretched little brazier, the sound of the sea. . . . All that is required to feel that here and now is happiness is a simple, frugal heart."

"There were two ways to be happy: improve your reality, or lower your expectations"

"Not that happiness is dull. Only that it doesn't tell well. And of our consuming diversions as we age is to recite, not only to others but to ourselves, our own story."

"I've got nothing to do today but smile."

"Ah, happiness courts the light so we deem the world is gay. But misery hides aloof so we deem that misery there is none."

"All who joy would winMust share it -- Happiness was born a twin."

"If you have two friends in your lifetime, you're lucky. If you have one good friend, you're more than lucky."

"And he, like many jaded people, had few pleasures left in life save good food and drink."

"You will be your best self when you take time to understand what you really need, feel and want."

"The process of discovering your fearless self is of refinement, not adding. The best way to reconnect with your freedom is to look at the rules you have that govern your freedom."

"I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow, than a man swear he loves me."

"It almost seemed as if there must be some random and of course unfair thrift in the emotional housekeeping of the world, if the great happiness--however temporary, however flimsy--of one person could come out of the great unhappiness of another."

"Happiness is not in things; happiness is in you."

"Do the best you can, and don't take life too serious."

"I don't think two people could have been happier than we have been."

"We will never be happy until we make God the source of our fulfillment and the answer to our longings. He is the only one who should have power over our souls."