151 Best Quotes for a Happier Life in 2023 [Quotes about Happiness]

When was the last time you felt truly happy?

In a recent survey, 45% of people said they haven’t felt truly happy in more than two years. And 88% of us are always on the hunt for new experiences to make us smile and laugh.

Here’s something guaranteed to make you smile right now — a long list of quotes for a happier life!

Keep reading below for a roundup of the best quotes about happiness, joy, success, and much more.

Interested in the best quote for happiness? You might also like these:

Best Quotes About Happiness

1. “Enjoy every moment of the journey, and appreciate where you are at this moment instead of always focusing on how far you have to go.” ― Mandy Hale

2. “The day you realize that you can create your happiness out of nothing is the day your life will change forever.” ― Bhuwan Thapaliya

3. “If you want to be happy, do not dwell in the past, do not worry about the future, focus on living fully in the present.” — Roy T. Bennett

4. “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.” — Albert Einstein

5. “The big lesson in life, baby, is never to be scared of anyone or anything.” — Frank Sinatra

6. “The most important thing is to enjoy your life — to be happy. It’s all that matters.” — Audrey Hepburn

7. “The moments of happiness we enjoy take us by surprise. It is not that we seize them, but that they seize us.” — Ashley Montagu

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

9. “Those who live with faith have a much better road, a much happier life.” ― Harris Faulkner

10. “They say a person needs just three things to be truly happy in this world: Someone to love, something to do, and something to hope for.” — Tom Bodett

11. “Be healthy and take care of yourself, but be happy with the beautiful things that make you, you.” — Beyonce

12. “If you can’t find happiness within yourself, you can’t find happiness anywhere.” ― Shiva Negi

13.

Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.

— Thomas A. Edison

14. “You cannot protect yourself from sadness without protecting yourself from happiness.” — Jonathan Safran Foer

15. “I do what makes me happy because I never want to be one of those people with a collection of “I almost” stories. Imagine me saying “I almost saw the sunset on the Adriatic.” It was beautiful, y’all.” ― Darnell Lamont Walker

16. “I figure, sometimes, bad things happen to us so we can achieve a higher purpose and attain greater happiness and fulfilment in life.” ― Omoakhuana Anthonia

17. “The biggest adventure you can ever take is to live the life of your dreams.” — Oprah Winfrey

18. “Happiness is not an end to reach. It’s not a goal to pursue. It is a state of being, so simply be it.” ― Anoir Ou-chad

19. “Cry. Forgive. Learn. Move on. Let your tears water the seeds of your future happiness.” — Steve Marabol

20. “It isn’t what you have or who you are or where you are or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about it.” — Dale Carnegie

21. “Happy life is not where you have everything, but appreciating everything you have at the moment.” ― Monika Rana

22. “There was more to life than chasing problems that would find you anyway. Why go looking when you could just be happy instead?” ― Nicole Snow

23. “If you wish to discover a person’s true nature, give them everything necessary to be happy.” ― Aegelis

24. “You have an absolute right to choose your life the way you want it to be until you have clear and pure intentions.” ― Giridhar Alwar

25. “If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things.” — Albert Einstein

Best Quotes to Be Happy With Your Life

26. “Sing like no one’s listening, love like you’ve never been hurt, dance like nobody’s watching, and live like it’s heaven on earth.” — Anonymous

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

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

29. “Do all the good you can, for all the people you can, in all the ways you can, as long as you can.” — Hillary Clinton

30. “Life is really simple, but men insist on making it complicated.” — Confucius

31. “It’s so hard to forget pain, but it’s even harder to remember sweetness. We have no scar to show for happiness. We learn so little from peace.” — Chuck Palahniuk

32. “The intent is to create a beautiful life or pursue happiness trying.” ― Germany Kent

33. “Rules for happiness: something to do, someone to love, something to hope for.” ― Immanuel Kant

34. “Life imposes things on you that you can’t control, but you still have the choice of how you’re going to live through this.” — Celine Dion

35.

Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content.

— Helen Keller

36. “By nature, humans are happy souls, but we choose to feel miserable.” ― Sukant Ratnakar

37. “Don’t settle for what life gives you; make life better and build something.” — Ashton Kutcher

38. “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking.” — Steve Jobs

39. “Happiness is a matter of one’s most ordinary mode of consciousness being busy and lively and unconcerned with self.” ― Iris Murdoch

40. “Never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game.” — Babe Ruth

41. “For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

42. “Happiness cannot be travelled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude” — Denis Waitley

43. “The more we focus on the good in others, the calmer and more peaceful we will feel.” ― Sarah Khalil

44. “Happiness is a state of mind. It’s just according to the way you look at things.” — Walt Disney

45. “The only state where happiness lives is your state of mind. You have to find happiness where you are.” ― Susie Newman

Famous Quotes About Happiness

46. “It’s hard to love someone you can never be with, but it takes courage to support that person to find the right path to their happiness.” ― Christen Kuikoua

47. “Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.” — Soren Kierkegaard

48. “Maturity is when you realize the universe is too big to get affected by your failure and success.” ― Dr Bhawna Sokta

49. “Everything negative – pressure, challenges – is all an opportunity for me to rise.” — Kobe Bryant

50. “The happiest people seem to be those who have no particular cause for being happy except that they are so.” —William Ralph Inge

51. “Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.” — Lao-Tze

52. “A calm and modest life brings more happiness than the pursuit of success combined with constant restlessness.” — Albert Einstein

53. “The best portion of a good man’s life is his little nameless, unencumbered acts of kindness and of love.” — Henry Wordsworth Longfellow

54. “If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway.” — Mother Teresa

55. “Life is ten per cent what happens to you and ninety per cent how you respond to it.” — Charles Swindoll

56. “Happiness is a way to get closer to God. Being happy we help more people in our world and in the entire universe. Happiness is contagious.” ― Caro Briones

57. “I think that a happy life is earned. Because life itself isn’t one thing or another. It’s not happy or sad. Like anything, it’s what you make of it.” ― Caitlin Crews

58.

Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship.

— Buddha

59. “It is normal to have two trusted friends than a huge social group. It is normal to find happiness in being alone.” ― Mitta Xinindlu

60. “A positive attitude eventually begets positive experiences. Choose to be happy. Decide you are well or happy instead of unwell or unhappy, and your experience of living will begin to shift.” — James K. Papp

61. “The whole secret of a successful life is to find out what is one’s destiny to do, and then do it.” — Henry Ford

62. “The pleasure which we most rarely experience gives us the greatest delight.” — Epictetus

63. “It does not matter how long you are spending on the earth, how much money you have gathered or how much attention you have received. It is the amount of positive vibration you have radiated in life that matters.” ― Amit Ray

64. “Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood.” — Helen Keller

65. “Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.” — Mark Twain

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

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

68. “Money and success don’t change people; they merely amplify what is already there.” — Will Smith

69. “Don’t feel guilty about what you didn’t know before; feel proud about the small step you already took by joining this great project.” ― Raad Ammari

70. “Gratitude produces happiness because it focuses your thoughts on the positive. And when you are in a positive mental attitude, you bring more good things to your life to be grateful for.” ― Caro Briones

Feel Happy Quotes for the Day

71. “Of what avail is all the colour in life if it can’t provide a shade of happiness to it!” ― B.S. Murthy

72. “Happiness is letting go of what you think your life is supposed to look like.” — Anonymous

73. “Happiness is that thing you get when you untie yourself from anything that weighs you down.” ― Gift Gugu Mona

74. “True happiness comes when you start embarking on a journey of doing something worthy of esteem and emulation.” ― Michael Bassey Johnson

75. “The best way to cheer yourself is to try to cheer someone else up.” — Mark Twain

76. “Happiness consists more in small conveniences or pleasures that occur every day, than in great pieces of good fortune that happen but seldom to a man in the course of his life.” — Benjamin Franklin

77. “Even if happiness forgets you a little bit, never completely forget about it.” — Jaques Prevert

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

79. “What is the call of your soul? What does it want? Your soul wants to be happy. Knowingly or unknowingly that is what you are working for, to make your soul happy.” ― Garima Dixit

80. “The thing everyone should realize is that the key to happiness is being happy by yourself and for yourself.” — Ellen Degeneres

81. “Optimism is a happiness magnet. If you stay positive, good things and good people will be drawn to you.” — Mary Lou Retton

82. “Happiness is not something you will miraculously find one day in the distant future. Happiness is something that you develop over time, with your actions, thoughts, feelings, connections, and experiences every day.” — David Paul

83. “If you can’t find happiness in yourself, it’s not possible to find it elsewhere.” ― Carlos Wallace

84.

If you’re unhappy or depressed, it might be because you’re hanging around the wrong people. Surround yourself with those who bring out the best in you, not the stress or worst in you.

— Jeanette Coron

85. “I wake up every morning with a great desire to live joyfully.” — Anna Howard Shaw

86. “People expect their life to go the same way as others. But no one care for the hardships the other person has gone through to make things beautiful.” ― Giridhar Alwar

87. “The point is not to pay back kindness but to pass it on.” — Julia Alvarez

88. “Others may know pleasure, but pleasure is not happiness. It has no more importance than a shadow following a man.” — Muhammad Ali

89. “When we do the best we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life or the life of another.” — Helen Keller

90. “You’re never happy if your main focus in life is that you want to be happy. Then you’re always thinking about whether you’re happy. You have to find some other thing that isn’t happiness that makes you happy that you focus on.” ― Hank Green

91. “Life is like a coin. You can spend it any way you wish, but you only spend it once.” — Lillian Dickson

92. “Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come without leaving happier.” — Mother Teresa

93. “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.” — Mark Twain

94. “If you have good thoughts, they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.” — Roald Dahl

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

96. “Hold on to that one reason for being happy even when you have a hundred reasons to be unhappy.” ― Garima Soni

97. “Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” — Anais Nin

98. “Happiness often sneaks in through a door you didn’t know you left open.” — John Barrymore

99. “Don’t wait around for other people to be happy for you. Any happiness you get you’ve got to make yourself.” — Alice Walker

100. “Happiness is the secret to all beauty. There is no beauty without happiness.” — Christian Dior

Bonus: 51 Short & Sweet Quotes About a Happy Life

101. “Very little is needed to make a happy life.” ― Louise Erdrich

102. “Turn your wounds into wisdom.” — Oprah Winfrey

103. “The healthiest response to life is joy.” — Deepak Chopra

104. “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.” — Dr Seuss

105. “Happiness is not a goal…it’s a by-product of a life well-lived.” — Eleanor Roosevelt

106. “Life is the dancer and you are the dance.” — Eckhart Tolle

107. “Without hope, how can we be happy?” ― Lailah Gifty Akita

108. “The goal in life is to die young, as late as possible.” ― Ashley Montagu

109. “One of the secrets of a happy life is continuous small treats.” — Iris Murdoch

110. “If you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.” — Dolly Parton

111. “The purpose of our lives is to be happy.” — Dalai Lama

112. “Being happy never goes out of style.” — Lilly Pulitzer

113. “When you love what you have, you have everything you need.” — Anonymous

114. “Don’t worry. Be happy.” — Bobby McFerrin

115. “Embrace the glorious mess that you are.” — Elizabeth Gilbert

116. “And that’s the thing about joy, it spreads from smile to smile.” ― Anamika Mishra

117. “Live for each second without hesitation.” — Elton John

118. “Happiness is a candy wrapped in a foil of gratitude.” ― Sukant Ratnakar

119. “Happiness depends upon ourselves.” — Aristotle

120. “In order to write about life first you must live it.” — Ernest Hemingway

121. “You are the source of happiness.” ― Srinivart

122. “If you have only one smile in you, give it to the people you love.” — Maya Angelou

123. “You never really learn much from hearing yourself speak.” ― George Clooney

124. “I have chosen to be happy because it’s good for my health.” — Voltaire

125. “Every day is a new day.” — Carrie Underwood

126.

Sanity and happiness are an impossible combination.

— Mark Twain

127. “Not how long, but how well you have lived is the main thing.” — Seneca

128. “No medicine cures what happiness cannot.” — Gabriel Garcia Marquez

129. “It is only possible to live happily ever after on a daily basis.” — Margaret Bonanno

130. “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.” — John Lennon

131. “Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy.” — Anne Frank

132. “Beauty is everywhere. You only have to look to see it.” — Bob Ross

133. “Happiness is a warm puppy.” — Charles M. Schulz

134. “There is no path to happiness; happiness is the path.” — Buddha

135. “The only joy in the world is to begin.” — Cesare Pavese

136. “You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.” — Mae West

137. “If life were predictable it would cease to be life, and be without flavour.” — Eleanor Roosevelt

138. “You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to swim.” — Jon Kabat Zinn

139. “Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears.” – Les Brown

140. “The longer I live, the more beautiful life becomes.” —Frank Lloyd Wright

141. “Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.” ― Marthe Troly-Curtin

142. “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” — Gandhi

143. “Every moment is a fresh beginning.” — T.S. Eliot

144. “If you spend your whole life waiting for the storm, you’ll never enjoy the sunshine.” — Morris West

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

146. “I would always rather be happy than dignified.” ― Charlotte Bronte

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

148. “It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” — J. K. Rowling

149. “You must expect great things of yourself before you can do them.” — Michael Jordan

150. “Life is too short to be unhappy.” ― Roy T. Bennett

151. “Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life.” — Omar Khayyam

The Best Quotes for a Happier Life

Happiness is beautiful in every language, but these English quotes about happiness express everything we hope to feel.

Whether you’re feeling down and need a boost or you simply want a positive boost for the day, keep this list of quotes for a happier life nearby. Then you can always find the best quote for happiness to brighten your day!

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