The Quotes canon
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Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
Biography4 quotes
There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced as by: a good tavern or inn. — Samuel Johnson · 1776Happiness only real when shared. — Chris McCandless · 2007That all who are happy, are equally happy, is not true. A peasant and a philosopher may be equally satisfied, but not equally happy. Happiness consists in the multiplicity of agreeable consciousness. — Samuel Johnson · 1784But you're wrong if you think the joy of life comes principally from human relationships. God's placed it all around us. It's in everything, in anything we can experience. People just need to change the way they look at those things. — Chris McCandless · 2007Drama (play)4 quotes
For all the happiness Mankind can gain
Is not in pleasure, but in rest from pain. — John Dryden · 1665A lifetime of happiness! No man alive could bear it: it would be hell on earth. — George Bernard Shaw · 1903We have no more right to consume happiness without producing it than to consume wealth without producing it. — George Bernard Shaw · 1894Take the life-lie away from the average man and straight away you take away his happiness. — Henrik Ibsen · 1884Philosophical literature4 quotes
Who hath so entire happiness that he is not in some part offended with the condition of his estate? — Boethius · 524Nothing is miserable but what is thought so, and contrariwise, every estate is happy if he that bears it be content. — Boethius · 523Happiness and freedom begin with a clear understanding of one principle: Some things are within our control, and some things are not. — Epictetus · 135On all plausible theories, everyone’s well-being consists at least in part in being happy, and avoiding suffering. — Derek Parfit · 2011Autobiography and memoir3 quotes
Human felicity is produc'd not so much by great pieces of good fortune that seldom happen, as by little advantages that occur every day. — Benjamin Franklin · 1790Don't aim at success. The more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one's personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one's surrender to a person other than oneself. — Viktor Frankl · 1946One cannot divine nor forecast the conditions that will make happiness; one only stumbles upon them by chance, in a lucky hour, at the world's end somewhere, and holds fast to the days, as to fortune or fame. — Willa Cather · 1902Adventure drama2 quotes
Happiness only real when shared. — Chris McCandless · 2007But you're wrong if you think the joy of life comes principally from human relationships. God's placed it all around us. It's in everything, in anything we can experience. People just need to change the way they look at those things. — Chris McCandless · 2007Adventure drama (film)2 quotes
Happiness only real when shared. — Chris McCandless · 2007But you're wrong if you think the joy of life comes principally from human relationships. God's placed it all around us. It's in everything, in anything we can experience. People just need to change the way they look at those things. — Chris McCandless · 2007Biography (film)2 quotes
Happiness only real when shared. — Chris McCandless · 2007But you're wrong if you think the joy of life comes principally from human relationships. God's placed it all around us. It's in everything, in anything we can experience. People just need to change the way they look at those things. — Chris McCandless · 2007Drama2 quotes
Happiness is in doing, not in the getting what you want. — Jesse · 2004The universe is a cruel, uncaring void. The key to being happy isn't to search for meaning. It's to just keep yourself busy with unimportant nonsense, and eventually, you'll be dead. — Mr. Peanutbutter · 2014Historical literature2 quotes
Happiness depends on being free, and freedom depends on being courageous. — Pericles · 430 BCPleasure is the beginning and the end of living happily. — Epicurus · 240Modernist literature2 quotes
He was unheeded, happy and near to the wild heart of life. — James Joyce · 1915Happiness is beneficial for the body, but it is grief that develops the powers of the mind. — Marcel Proust · 1922Comedy1 quote
The universe is a cruel, uncaring void. The key to being happy isn't to search for meaning. It's to just keep yourself busy with unimportant nonsense, and eventually, you'll be dead. — Mr. Peanutbutter · 2014Comedy (TV)1 quote
The universe is a cruel, uncaring void. The key to being happy isn't to search for meaning. It's to just keep yourself busy with unimportant nonsense, and eventually, you'll be dead. — Mr. Peanutbutter · 2014Comedy (play)1 quote
We have no more right to consume happiness without producing it than to consume wealth without producing it. — George Bernard Shaw · 1894Coming of age story1 quote
I would always rather be happy than dignified. — Charlotte Bronte · 1847Drama (TV)1 quote
The universe is a cruel, uncaring void. The key to being happy isn't to search for meaning. It's to just keep yourself busy with unimportant nonsense, and eventually, you'll be dead. — Mr. Peanutbutter · 2014Drama (film)1 quote
Happiness is in doing, not in the getting what you want. — Jesse · 2004Dystopian fiction1 quote
The choice for mankind lies between freedom and happiness, and that, for the great bulk of mankind, happiness is better. — George Orwell · 1949Greek theater1 quote
The happiest life consists in ignorance. — Sophocles · 442 BCHistory (play)1 quote
My crown is in my heart, not on my head;
Not decked with diamonds and Indian stones,
Nor to be seen. My crown is called content;
A crown it is that seldom kings enjoy. — William Shakespeare · 1595Neo-noir1 quote
So you lie to yourself to be happy, there's nothing wrong with that, we all do it. — Teddy · 2000Political speech1 quote
Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. — Franklin D. Roosevelt · 1933Post-colonial literature1 quote
If you're happy in a dream... does that count? — Arundhati Roy · 1997Religious literature1 quote
Of all the calamities, all the sufferings, all the terrors of this world, the only principle is the feeling or love of the self: it must be renounced. — Shantideva · 700Romantic comedy1 quote
Did I tell you how divinely and utterly happy I am? — Holly Golightly · 1961Romantic comedy (film)1 quote
Did I tell you how divinely and utterly happy I am? — Holly Golightly · 1961Romantic drama1 quote
Happiness is in doing, not in the getting what you want. — Jesse · 2004Romantic drama (film)1 quote
Happiness is in doing, not in the getting what you want. — Jesse · 2004Satire1 quote
True happinesse
Consists not in the multitude of friends,
But in the worth, and choice. — Ben Jonson · 1600Thriller1 quote
So you lie to yourself to be happy, there's nothing wrong with that, we all do it. — Teddy · 2000Thriller (film)1 quote
So you lie to yourself to be happy, there's nothing wrong with that, we all do it. — Teddy · 2000