100 Inspiring Happiness Quotes To Lift Your Mood (2023)

We could all use a little more happiness in our life. That's why we put together our favorite happiness quotes to lift your mood. So whether you're looking for an inspirational saying for a toast or speech, or simply looking for joy in your own life, you'll find something from our list below to make your day.

These sayings would be great for Instagram bios or selfie captions, you could write them down as words of affirmation near your desk or mirror, or text in a group chat to friends to encourage and cheer them up no matter what kind of week they're having.

Ready to let that inner-light shine? Here are 100 thought-provoking quotes about happiness.

100 Best Happiness Quotes

1.“Happiness depends upon ourselves.” —Aristotle

2. “To be kind to all, to like many and love a few, to be needed and wanted by those we love, is certainly the nearest we can come to happiness.” —Mary Stuart

3. “Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions.” —Dalai Lama

4. “If you want happiness for an hour—take a nap. If you want happiness for a day—go fishing. If you want happiness for a year—inherit a fortune. If you want happiness for a lifetime—help someone else.” —Chinese Proverb

5. “It’s a helluva start, being able to recognize what makes you happy.” —Lucille Ball

6. “Don’t underestimate the value of Doing Nothing, of just going along, listening to all the things you can’t hear, and not bothering.” —Winnie the Pooh

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7. “Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.” —Oscar Wilde

8. “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

9. “It’s been my experience that you can nearly always enjoy things if you make up your mind firmly that you will.” —L.M. Montgomery

10. “Since you get more joy out of giving joy to others, you should put a good deal of thought into the happiness that you are able to give.” —Eleanor Roosevelt

11. “Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.” —Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

12. “I’d far rather be happy than right any day.” —Douglas Adams

13. “The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance, the wise grows it under his feet.” —James Oppenheim

14. “Happiness is nothing more than good health and a bad memory.” —Albert Schweitzer

15. “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

16. “If someone bases his/her happiness on major events like a great job, huge amounts of money, a flawlessly happy marriage or a trip to Paris, that person isn’t going to be happy much of the time. If, on the other hand, happiness depends on a good breakfast, flowers in the yard, a drink or a nap, then we are more likely to live with quite a bit of happiness.” —Andy Rooney

17. “The first recipe for happiness is: avoid too lengthy meditation on the past.” —Andre Maurois

18. “Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” —Marcel Proust

19. “Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” —Abraham Lincoln

20. "If you look to others for fulfillment, you will never be fulfilled. If your happiness depends on money, you will never be happy with yourself. Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the world belongs to you." —Lao Tzu

21. "If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy, and inspires your hopes." —Andrew Carnegie

22. "Tension is who you think you should be, relaxation is who you are." —Chinese Proverb

23. "Happiness is not a station you arrive at, but a manner of traveling." —Margaret Lee Runbeck

24. “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 (101 Buddha Quotes)

25. "True happiness is not attained through self-gratification, but through fidelity to a worthy purpose." —Helen Keller

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26. "Blessed are those who can give without remembering and take without forgetting." —Bernard Meltzer

27. "Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word happy would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. It is far better to take things as they come along with patience and equanimity." —Carl Jung

28. "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 that has been opened for us." —Helen Keller

29. "Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get." —Dale Carnegie

30. "We all get report cards in many different ways, but the real excitement of what you're doing is in the doing of it. It's not what you're gonna get in the end—it's not the final curtain—it's really in the doing it, and loving what you're doing." —Ralph Lauren

31. “The happiness of life is made up of the little charities of a kiss or smile, a kind look, a heartfelt compliment." —Samuel Taylor Coleridge

32. "Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs--even though checkered by failure--than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat." —Theodore Roosevelt

33. “Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.” —Mahatma Gandhi

34. “There's nothing like deep breaths after laughing that hard. Nothing in the world like a sore stomach for the right reasons.” ―Stephen Chbosky

35. “Count your age by friends, not years. Count your life by smiles, not tears.” ―John Lennon

36. “If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.” ―J.R.R. Tolkien

37. “The most important thing is to enjoy your life—to be happy—it's all that matters.” ―Audrey Hepburn

38. “Happiness is a warm puppy.” ―Charles M. Schulz

39. “Happiness is holding someone in your arms and knowing you hold the whole world.” ―Orhan Pamuk

40. “All happiness depends on courage and work.” ―Honoré de Balzac

41. “Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier.” —Mother Teresa

42. “So we shall let the reader answer this question for himself: who is the happier man, he who has braved the storm of life and lived or he who has stayed securely on shore and merely existed?” ―Hunter S. Thompson

43. “Now and then it's good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy.” ―Guillaume Apollinaire

44. “The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.” ―Marcus Aurelius

45. “Happiness is not the absence of problems, it's the ability to deal with them.” ―Steve Maraboli

46. “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.

47. “I'm choosing happiness over suffering, I know I am. I'm making space for the unknown future to fill up my life with yet-to-come surprises.” ―Elizabeth Gilbert

48. “True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future, not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears but to rest satisfied with what we have, which is sufficient, for he that is so wants nothing. The greatest blessings of mankind are within us and within our reach. A wise man is content with his lot, whatever it may be, without wishing for what he has not.” ―Seneca

49. “Whoever is happy will make others happy.” ―Anne Frank

50. “The greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions, and not upon our circumstances.” ―Martha Washington

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51. “Happiness is not a possession to be prized, it is a quality of thought, a state of mind.” ―Daphne du Maurier

52. “Letting go gives us freedom, and freedom is the only condition for happiness. If, in our heart, we still cling to anything - anger, anxiety, or possessions - we cannot be free.” ―Thich Nhat Hanh

53. “The power of finding beauty in the humblest things makes home happy and life lovely.” —Louisa May Alcott

54. “Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action. ” ―William James

55. “If only we'd stop trying to be happy, we could have a pretty good time.” —Edith Wharton

56. “Happiness is a risk. If you’re not a little scared, then you’re not doing it right.” ―Sarah Addison Allen

57. “The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.” ―Oprah Winfrey

58. “All I ask is one thing, and I’m asking this particularly of young people: please don’t be cynical. I hate cynicism, for the record, it’s my least favorite quality and it doesn’t lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen.” ―Conan O'Brien

59. “There is no happiness like that of being loved by your fellow creatures, and feeling that your presence is an addition to their comfort.” ―Charlotte Brontë

60. “There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power or our will. ” ―Epictetus

61. “Happiness is a perfume you cannot pour on others without getting some on yourself.” ―Ralph Waldo Emerson

62. “Everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you're climbing it.” ―Andy Rooney

63. “Just because you are happy it does not mean that the day is perfect but that you have looked beyond its imperfections” ―Bob Marley

64. “One must believe in the possibility of happiness in order to be happy.” —Leo Tolstoy

65. “The secret of happiness is not in doing what one likes, but in liking what one does.” ―J.M. Barrie

66. “[F]or just one second, look at your life and see how perfect it is. Stop looking for the next secret door that is going to lead you to your real life. Stop waiting. This is it: there's nothing else. It's here, and you'd better decide to enjoy it or you're going to be miserable wherever you go, for the rest of your life, forever.” ―Lev Grossman

67. “Happiness only real when shared.” ―Christopher McCandless

68. “You must be the best judge of your own happiness.” ―Jane Austen

69. “One is happy as a result of one's own efforts once one knows the necessary ingredients of happiness: simple tastes, a certain degree of courage, self-denial to a point, love of work, and above all, a clear conscience.” ―George Sand

70. “There is a kind of happiness and wonder that makes you serious. It is too good to waste on jokes.” ―C.S. Lewis

71. “The reason people find it so hard to be happy is that they always see the past better than it was, the present worse than it is, and the future less resolved than it will be.” ―Marcel Pagnol

72. “I shall take the heart. For brains do not make one happy, and happiness is the best thing in the world.” ―L. Frank Baum

73. “My happiness grows in direct proportion to my acceptance, and in inverse proportion to my expectations.” ―Michael J. Fox

74. “You can't buy happiness” ―Kurt Cobain

75. “Most people would rather be certain they're miserable, than risk being happy.” ―Robert Anthony

76. “Happiness is a choice that requires effort at times.” ―Aeschylus

77. “I do not think we have a ‘right’ to happiness. If happiness happens, say thanks.” ―Marlene Dietrich

78. “Of all the means to insure happiness throughout the whole life, by far the most important is the acquisition of friends.” ―Epicurus

79. “Got no checkbooks, got no banks. Still I'd like to express my thanks—I've got the sun in the mornin' and the moon at night.” ―Irving Berlin

80. “Do not look for happiness outside yourself. The awakened seek happiness inside.” ―Peter Deunov

81. “Why should we build our happiness on the opinions of others, when we can find it in our own hearts?” ―Jean-Jacques Rousseau

82. “A flower blossoms for its own joy.” ―Oscar Wilde

83. “Happiness is like those palaces in fairytales whose gates are guarded by dragons: We must fight in order to conquer it.” ―Alexandre Dumas

84. “Some day you will find out that there is far more happiness in another's happiness than in your own.” ―Honoré de Balzac

85. “Happiness and confidence are the prettiest things you can wear” ―Taylor Swift

86. “Laughter is a sunbeam of the soul.” ―Thomas Mann

87. “The thing everyone should realize is that the key to happiness is being happy for yourself and yourself.” ―Ellen DeGeneres

88. “The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved.” —Victor Hugo

89. “Why not seize the pleasure at once? -- How often is happiness destroyed by preparation, foolish preparation!” ―Jane Austen

90. “I needed to stop being what everyone thought I was.” ―Sarah Addison Allen

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91. “It is necessary to the happiness of man that he be mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving, it consists in professing to believe what he does not believe.” ―Thomas Paine

92. “Happiness is a gift and the trick is not to expect it, but to delight in it when it comes.” ―Charles Dickens

93. “Happiness doesn't come from achievements, or money, or any sort of treasure. Happiness is a frame of mind, not a destination. It's appreciating what you've got and building relationships with those around you.” ―Janette Rallison

94. “If you want to find happiness, find gratitude.” ―Steve Maraboli

95. “The secret of a happy life is respect. Respect for yourself and respect for others.” ―Ayad Akhtar

96. “Happiness comes from living as you need to, as you want to. As your inner voice tells you to. Happiness comes from being who you actually are instead of who you think you are supposed to be.” —Shonda Rhimes

97. “We are all happy if we but knew it.” ―Fyodor Dostoyevsky

98. “It is essential to happiness that our way of living should spring from our own deep impulses and not from the accidental tastes and desires of those who happen to be our neighbors, or even our relations.” ―Bertrand Russell

99. “I've learned ....That when you harbor bitterness, happiness will dock elsewhere.” ―Andy Rooney

100. “You have to be willing to get happy about nothing.” ―Andy Warhol

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