“Happiness is a Serious Problem” title of book by Dennis Prager (b.
1948) (Book’s
thesis: Happiness is a moral obligation because happy people tend to make the world
a better place and the unhappy tend to make the world worse. Therefore: A Happiness
Challenge exists for each of us.)
"Happiness is not the absence of sadness," says David Spiegel, MD, medical director
of the Center for Integrative Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine.
“We all live with sadness, but we need not live sadly”. Anonymous
“Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” Abraham Lincoln
“The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a heav’n of hell, a hell of heav’n.”
From John Milton’s _Paradise Lost_
“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”
Mahatma Gandhi
"There is no personal charm so great as the charm of a cheerful temperament." Henry
Van Dyke
TOP 10 REASONS TO SMILE
It makes you attractive.
It changes your mood.
It is contagious.
It relieves stress.
It boosts your immune system.
It lowers your blood pressure.
It releases endorphins, natural pain killers and serotonin - natural antidepressant.
It lifts the face and makes you look younger.
It makes you seem successful.
It helps you stay positive.
Excerpt from “A Prayer for My Daughter” by W B Yeats
My mind, because the minds that I have loved,
The sort of beauty that I have approved,
Prosper but little, has dried up of late,
Yet knows that to be choked with hate
May well be of all evil chances chief.
If there's no hatred in a mind
Assault and battery of the wind
Can never tear the linnet from the leaf.
An intellectual hatred is the worst,
So let her think opinions are accursed.
"Happiness is inward and not outward; and so it does not depend on what we have, but
on what we are." Henry Van Dyke
"For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness." Ralph Waldo
Emerson
"I don't know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know: The only ones among you
who will be really happy are those who sought and found out how to serve." Albert
Schweitzer
“Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living
expression of God's kindness: kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness
in your smile.” Mother Teresa
"If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else" Booker T Washington
“If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most
probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” C.S. Lewis
"Success is waking up in the morning and bounding out of bed because there's
something out there that you love to do, that you believe in, that you're good at -
something that's bigger than you are, and you can hardly wait to get at it again." Whit
Hobbs
"...the greater part of our happiness or misery depends on our attitude and not on our
circumstances." Martha Washington
"Freedom means the opportunity to be what we never thought we would be." Daniel J.
Boorstin
“Happiness is a virtue, not its reward.” Baruch Spinoza
"False happiness renders men stern and proud, and that happiness is never
communicated. True happiness renders them kind and sensible, and that happiness is
always shared." Charles de Montesquieu
“I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in
another world; but still I am not what I once used to be, and by the grace of God I am
what I am.” John Newton
“It is difficult to make a man miserable while he feels he is worthy of himself and claims
kindred to the great God who made him.” Abraham Lincoln
"No medicine cures what happiness cannot." Gabriel García Márquez
“The Constitution only guarantees the American people the right to pursue happiness.
You have to catch it yourself.” Benjamin Franklin
“The older you get the more you realize that kindness is synonymous with happiness.”
Lionel Barrymore
“Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort.” Franklin D.
Roosevelt
"Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. Love what you
are doing, you'll be a success." Albert Schweitzer
"Indeed, man wishes to be happy even when he so lives as to make happiness
impossible." St. Augustine
“Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.”
Carl Jung
"The happiest people don't have the best of everything, they just make the best of
everything." Anonymous
"How little a thing can make us happy when we feel that we have earned it." Mark
Twain
"Human happiness and human satisfaction must ultimately come from within oneself."
Dalai Lama
"I have decided to be happy because it is good for my health." Voltaire (Francois-Marie
Arouet)
"if we can but prevent the government from wasting the labours of the people, under
the pretence of taking care of them, they must become happy." Thomas Jefferson to
Thomas Cooper, November 29, 1802
“Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.” Dr. Seuss.
“The best things are nearest: breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your
feet, duties at your hand, the path of God just before you. Then do not grasp at the
stars, but do life's plain, common work as it comes, certain that daily duties and daily
bread are the sweetest things of life.” Robert Louis Stevenson
“I get satisfaction of three kinds. One is creating something, one is being paid for it and
one is the feeling that I haven't just been sitting on my ass all afternoon.” William
Buckley
“Cheerfulness and contentment are great beautifiers and are famous preservers of
youthful looks.” Charles Dickens (1812-1870)
"It is the very pursuit of happiness that thwarts happiness." Viktor Frankl
“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts, therefore guard
accordingly; and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue, and
reasonable nature.”
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Roman Emperor, A.D. 161-180 (121 AD - 180 AD)
“There is no happiness where there is no wisdom; No wisdom but in submission to the
gods…And proud
men in old age learn to be wise.” The closing lines in the play, “Antigone” by
Sophocles.
“We meet no ordinary people in our lives.” C.S. Lewis
"Look at a day when you are supremely satisfied at the end. It's not a day when you
lounge around doing nothing; it's when you've had everything to do, and you've done
it." Margaret Thatcher RIP (1925-2013)
“A man's wisdom illumines him and causes his stern face to beam.” Eccl. 8:1b
Solomon @ 10th Century BC
“The surest sign of wisdom is constant cheerfulness.” Montaigne (February 28, 1533 –
September 13, 1592)
