Philosopher Quotes on Happiness
Happiness — eudaimonia in the ancient sources — is one of philosophy's oldest organizing concepts. Aristotle defined it as activity of the soul in accordance with virtue, the Epicureans identified it with stable pleasure and freedom from pain, and the Stoics tied it to inner consent to the order of nature. Modern utilitarians took aggregate happiness as the standard of right action, while critics from Kant onward argued that worth and happiness must be distinguished. The quotes below sample these competing accounts of what it is to live a happy life.
237 philosophers in this collection have quotes tagged with happiness, totalling 383 quotes.
Epicurus on Happiness
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“It is impossible to live a pleasant life without living wisely and well and justly, and it is impossible to live wisely and well and justly without living pleasantly.”
Οὐκ ἔστιν ἡδέως ζῆν ἄνευ τοῦ φρονίμως καὶ καλῶς καὶ δικαίως, οὐδὲ φρονίμως καὶ καλῶς καὶ δικαίως ἄνευ τοῦ ἡδέως. ὅτῳ δὲ τοῦτο μὴ ὑπάρχει ἐξ οὗ ζῆν φρονίμως, καὶ καλῶς καὶ δικαίως ὑπάρχει, οὐκ ἔστι τοῦτον ἡδέως ζῆν. -
Attributed to Epicurus:
“Of all the things which wisdom acquires to produce the blessedness of the complete life, by far the greatest is the possession of friendship.”
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Attributed to Epicurus:
“Nothing is enough for the man to whom enough is too little.”
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Attributed to Epicurus:
“If you wish to make Pythocles wealthy, do not give him more money; rather, reduce his desires.”
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Attributed to Epicurus:
“Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things only hoped for.”
Jeremy Bentham on Happiness
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“Priestley was the first (unless it was Beccaria ) who taught my lips to pronounce this sacred truth — that the greatest happiness of the greatest number is the foundation of morals and legislation.”
Extracts from Bentham's Commonplace Book", in Collected Works , x, p. 142; He credits Priestley in his Essay on the First Principles of Government (1768) or Beccaria with inspiring his use of the phrase, often paraphrased as " The greatest good for the greatest number ", but the statement "the greatest happiness for the greatest number" actually originates with Francis Hutcheson , in his Inquiry c -
“Create all the happiness you are able to create: remove all the misery you are able to remove. Every day will allow you to add something to the pleasure of others, or to diminish something of their pains . And for every grain of enjoyment you sow in the bosom of another, you shall find a harvest in your own bosom; while every sorrow which you pluck out from the thoughts and feelings of a fellow creature shall be replaced by beautiful peace and joy in the sanctuary of your soul .”
Advice to a young girl (22 June 1830) -
“To what shall the character of utility be ascribed, if not to that which is a source of pleasure?”
Théorie des peines et des récompenses (1811); translation by Richard Smith, The Rationale of Reward , J. & H. L. Hunt, London, 1825, Bk. 3, Ch. 1 -
Attributed to Jeremy Bentham:
“It is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong.”
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Attributed to Jeremy Bentham:
“Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure.”
Shantideva on Happiness
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“In the spiritual energy that relieves The anguish of beings in misery and Places depressed beings in eternal joy I lift up my heart and rejoice.”
Wikiquote -
“In the ocean-like virtue of the Bodhimind That brings joy to all beings And in accomplishing the well-being of others, I lift up my heart and rejoice.”
Wikiquote -
“Suffering is transcended by total surrender And the mind attains to nirvana. As one day all must be given up, Why not dedicate it now to universal happiness?”
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Attributed to Shantideva:
“All happiness in the world comes from desiring the welfare of others; all suffering comes from desiring one's own welfare.”
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Attributed to Shantideva:
“Patience is the noblest of virtues.”
Aristotle on Happiness
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Attributed to Aristotle:
“Happiness depends upon ourselves.”
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Attributed to Aristotle:
“The good for man is an activity of the soul in conformity with virtue.”
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Attributed to Aristotle:
“The end of labour is to gain leisure.”
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Attributed to Aristotle:
“Happiness is found to be something perfect and self-sufficient, being the end to which our actions are directed.”
George Santayana on Happiness
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“There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval.”
War Shrines -
“Pt. III, Form; § 30: "The average modified in the direction of pleasure.", p. 125”
On fact, the whole machinery of our intelligence, our general ideas and laws , fixed and external objects, principles , persons , and gods , are so many symbolic , algebraic expressions. They stand for experience ; experience which we are incapable of retaining and surveying in its multitudinous immediacy. We should flounder hopelessly, like the animals, did we not keep ourselves afloat and direct -
“Happiness is the only sanction of life; where happiness fails, existence remains a mad and lamentable experiment.”
Wikiquote -
Attributed to George Santayana:
“The earth has its music for those who will listen.”
Roland Barthes on Happiness
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“The Pleasure of the Text (1975)”
Encratic language (the language produced and spread under the protection of power) is statutorily a language of repetition; all official institutions of language are repeating machines: schools, sports, advertising, popular songs, news, all continually repeat the same structure, the same meaning, often the same words. -
“The bastard form of mass culture is humiliated repetition: content, ideological schema, the blurring of contradictions—these are repeated, but the superficial forms are varied: always new books, new programs, new films, news items, but always the same meaning.”
La forme bâtarde de la culture de masse est la répétition honteuse: on répète les contenus, les schèmes idéologiques, le gommage des contradictions, mais on varie les formes superficielles: toujours des livres, des émissions, des films nouveaux, des faits divers, mais toujours le même sens. -
“Modern," in The Pleasure of the Text (1975)”
La forme bâtarde de la culture de masse est la répétition honteuse: on répète les contenus, les schèmes idéologiques, le gommage des contradictions, mais on varie les formes superficielles: toujours des livres, des émissions, des films nouveaux, des faits divers, mais toujours le même sens. -
“Sentence," in The Pleasure of the Text (1975)”
The politician being interviewed clearly takes a great deal of trouble to imagine an ending to his sentence: and if he stopped short? His entire policy would be jeopardized!
Shao Yong on Happiness
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“Some people, many who profess to be yogis , argue that vegetarianism is not a healthful diet for everyone. We agree that vegetarianism is not for everybody; it is only for those who desire happiness and peace. It is definitely a must for those who are interested in enlightenment.”
Jivamukti Yoga: Practices for Liberating Body and Soul , coauthored with David Life (New York: Ballantine Books, 2002), p. 65 . -
“If yogis are to come to the realization of the interconnectedness of life, then we must free ourselves from the conditioning that has caused us to think it is all right to exclude all the other animals from our own goals of peace, freedom, and happiness. … By working to alleviate the suffering of animals you are working at the cause level of human suffering.”
Sharon Gannon on Veganism”, in JivamuktiYoga.com (16 November 2016) . -
“Jivamukti Yoga is a path to enlightenment through compassion for all beings. Jivamukti is a Sanskrit word that means to live liberated in joyful, musical harmony with the Earth. The Earth does not belong to us—we belong to the Earth. Let us celebrate our connection to life by not enslaving animals and exploiting the Earth, and attain freedom and happiness for ourselves in the process. For surely, the best way to uplift our own lives is to do all we can to uplift the lives of others. Go vegan !”
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“To be a joyful vegan in the world today is to become involved in the most radical, positive, political revolution ever. A fork can be a weapon of mass destruction or an instrument of peace. Everything a vegan eats or consumes reflects a choice that takes into account the well-being of others rather than just ourselves—and that is a big difference. Each one of us can make a huge difference by choosing not to eat animals. By choosing kindness over cruelty, we contribute to the sustainability of our planet Earth and can even change the destiny of our species and all the species on Earth.”
Wikiquote
Aristippus on Happiness
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Attributed to Aristippus:
“It is not abstinence from pleasures that is best, but mastery over them without being worsted.”
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Attributed to Aristippus:
“I possess, but I am not possessed.”
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Attributed to Aristippus:
“Time present is the only thing we possess.”
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Attributed to Aristippus:
“The wise man would not seek pleasure if it were always followed by pain.”
Crates of Thebes on Happiness
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Attributed to Crates of Thebes:
“I have a country that is not consumed by famine, nor besieged by enemies, nor inhabited by strangers; this country is poverty.”
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Attributed to Crates of Thebes:
“True wealth is to want little.”
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Attributed to Crates of Thebes:
“The poor are friends of the wise.”
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Attributed to Crates of Thebes:
“He who is content with his lot is rich.”
Marcus Aurelius on Happiness
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“Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.”
ἐν ὀλιγίστοις κεῖται τὸ εὐδαιμόνως βιῶσαι | VII, 67 -
“Of my grandfather Verus I have learned to be gentle and meek, and to refrain from all anger and passion... I have learned both shamefastness and manlike behaviour. Of my mother I have learned to be religious, and bountiful; and to forbear, not only to do, but to intend any evil; to content myself with a spare diet, and to fly all such excess as is incidental to great wealth.”
I, 1 -
Attributed to Marcus Aurelius:
“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.”
Cicero on Happiness
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“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”
Si hortum in bibliotheca habes, deerit nihil. -
“We should never take pleasure in causing pain to others, even to those who have wronged us, but rather strive to do good to all.”
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Attributed to Cicero:
“While there's life, there's hope.”
Voltaire on Happiness
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“Let us cultivate our garden.”
Candide, closing line -
“L'homme doit être content, dit-on; mais de quoi?”
Man ought to be content, it is said; but with what? | Pensées, Remarques, et Observations de Voltaire; ouvrage posthume (1802) Posthumously published "Thoughts, remarks and observations" believed to be by Voltaire -
“Man ought to be content, it is said; but with what?”
L'homme doit être content, dit-on; mais de quoi?
Zhuangzi on Happiness
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Attributed to Zhuangzi:
“When the shoe fits, the foot is forgotten.”
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Attributed to Zhuangzi:
“Happiness is the absence of striving for happiness.”
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Attributed to Zhuangzi:
“The wise man knows that it is better to sit on the banks of a remote mountain stream than to be emperor of the whole world.”
Albert Einstein on Happiness
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“Un homme heureux est trop content du présent pour trop se soucier de l'avenir.”
A happy man is too satisfied with the present to dwell too much on the future. | From "Mes Projets d'Avenir", a French essay written at age 18 for a school exam (18 September 1896). The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein Vol. 1 (1987) Doc. 22. -
“A happy man is too satisfied with the present to dwell too much on the future.”
Un homme heureux est trop content du présent pour trop se soucier de l'avenir. -
Attributed to Albert Einstein:
“Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe on Happiness
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“He alone is great and happy who fills his own station of independence, and has neither to command nor to obey. [ 1 ]”
So gewiß ist der allein glücklich und groß, der weder zu herrschen noch zu gehorchen braucht, um etwas zu sein! -
“Alternative translation: So certain is it that he alone is great and happy, who requires neither to command nor to obey, in order to secure his being of some importance in the world. [ 2 ] Götz von Berlichingen , Act I (1773), p. 39”
So gewiß ist der allein glücklich und groß, der weder zu herrschen noch zu gehorchen braucht, um etwas zu sein! -
“I hold to faith in the divine love — which, so many years ago for a brief moment in a little corner of the earth, walked about as a man bearing the name of Jesus Christ — as the foundation on which alone my happiness rests.”
(1773), translated by Albert Schweizer in Goethe: Five Studies (1961), Beacon Press, p. 53
Rabindranath Tagore on Happiness
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“The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.”
Stray Birds -
“Let your life lightly dance on the edges of time like dew on the tip of a leaf.”
45 -
Attributed to Rabindranath Tagore:
“Faith is the bird that feels the light and sings when the dawn is still dark.”
Henry Sidgwick on Happiness
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“How far we are to consider the interests of posterity when they seem to conflict with those of now-existing human beings? The answer to this, though, seems clear: the time at which a man exists can’t affect the value of his happiness from a universal point of view; so the interests of posterity must concern a utilitarian as much as those of his contemporaries —except in that the effect of his actions on the lives and even the existence of posterity must be more uncertain.”
Book 4, chapter 1, section 2 (7th ed., 1907) -
Attributed to Henry Sidgwick:
“I see no escape from the conclusion that we ought to be guided by ultimate good, which is happiness.”
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Attributed to Henry Sidgwick:
“It is reasonable to take as one's ultimate end one's own greatest good and equally reasonable to take as one's ultimate end the greatest good of all; this is the dualism of practical reason.”
Julian of Norwich on Happiness
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“This is a Revelation of Love that Jesus Christ , our endless bliss, made in Sixteen Shewings, or Revelations particular. Of the which the First is of His precious crowning with thorns; and therewith was comprehended and specified the Trinity, with the Incarnation, and unity betwixt God and man's soul ; with many fair shewings of endless wisdom and teachings of love: in which all the Shewings that follow be grounded and oned.”
First lines -
“We shall suddenly be taken from all our pain and from all our woe, and of His Goodness we shall come up above, where we shall have our Lord Jesus for our meed and be fulfilled with joy and bliss in Heaven.”
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Attributed to Julian of Norwich:
“The greatest honour we can give Almighty God is to live gladly because of the knowledge of His love.”
Liezi on Happiness
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“To be truly happy and contented, you must let go of the idea of what it means to be happy or content. When you understand there is really nothing to be happy or sad about, then you will be truly contented.”
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Attributed to Liezi:
“Those who dream of feasting awake to lamentation.”
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Attributed to Liezi:
“When the heart is at peace, the body is at ease.”
Mary Astell on Happiness
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“Is it the being tied to One that offends us? Why this ought rather to recommend it to us, and would really do so, were we guided by reason, and not by humor and brutish passion. He who does not make friendship the chief inducement of his choice, and prefer it before any other consideration does not deserve a good wife, and therefore should not complain if he goes without one... The Christian institution of marriage provides the best that may be for domestic quiet and content, and for the education of children.”
As quoted in Women's Political & Social Thought: An Anthology , p. 112. Editors Hilda L. Smith, Berenice A. Carroll. Editorial Indiana University Press, 2000. ISBN 0253337585 . -
“Thus, whether it be wit or beauty that a man’s in love with, there are no great hopes of a lasting happiness; beauty, with all the helps of arts, is of no long date; the more it is , the sooner it decays; and he, who only or chiefly chose for beauty, will in a little time find the same reason for another choice.”
Reflection upon Marriage , as quoted in Astell: Political Writings , p. 42. -
Attributed to Mary Astell:
“Nothing is, in truth, a Pleasure to us, but what is rationally so.”
Crantor on Happiness
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Attributed to Crantor:
“Time is the gentle physician of grief.”
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Attributed to Crantor:
“Grief shared with friends is grief lessened.”
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Attributed to Crantor:
“Virtue is sufficient for happiness, though external goods may yet adorn it.”
Eduard von Hartmann on Happiness
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“Let one consider, further, that the foolish vanity of man goes so far as to prefer to seem rather than to be not merely well but also happy, so that every one carefully hides where the shoe pinches, and tries to make a show of opulence, contentment, and happiness which he does not at all possess.”
trans. William Chatterton Coupland, Routledge (2010), p. 619 ISBN 978-0-415-61386-6 -
Attributed to Eduard von Hartmann:
“Pessimism is the only honest response to the structure of existence.”
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Attributed to Eduard von Hartmann:
“The progress of culture deepens rather than relieves the unhappiness of conscious life.”
Henry Suso on Happiness
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“Be steadfast and never rest content until you have obtained the now of eternity as your present possession in this life, so far as this is possible to human infirmity.”
Quoted in Gerald Vann , The Divine Pity (1945). London: Fontana Books, 1956, p. 25 -
“In the darkness beyond distinct manner of existing, all multiplicity disappears and the spirit loses what is its own. It disappears with regard to its own activity. This is the highest goal and the 'where' beyond boundaries. In this the spirituality of all spirits ends. Here to lose oneself forever is eternal happiness. To lose oneself forever is eternal happiness”
Wikiquote -
Attributed to Henry Suso:
“Suffering rightly borne is the gold of the spiritual life.”
Philo of Alexandria on Happiness
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“Moses … denied to the members of the sacred commonwealth unrestricted liberty to use and partake of the other kinds of food. All the animals of land, sea or air whose flesh is the finest and fattest, thus titillating and exciting the malignant foe pleasure, he sternly forbade them to eat, knowing that they set a trap for the most slavish of the senses, the taste, and produce gluttony, an evil very dangerous both to soul and body.”
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“The holy Moses … discarded passion in general and detesting it, as most vile in itself and in its effects, denounced especially desire as a battery of destruction to the soul, which must be done away with or brought into obedience to the governance of reason, and then all things will be permeated through and through with peace and good order, those perfect forms of the good which bring the full perfection of happy living.”
75-77. -
“The road that leads to pleasure is downhill and very easy, with the result that one does not walk but is dragged along; the other which leads to self-control is uphill, toilsome no doubt but profitable exceedingly. The one carries us away, forced lower and lower as it drives us down its steep incline, till it flings us off on to the level ground at its foot; the other leads heavenwards the immortal who have not fainted on the way and have had the strength to endure the roughness of the hard ascent.”
77.
Thich Nhat Hanh on Happiness
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“Smiling is the most basic kind of peace work.”
Being Peace -
“Birds' songs express joy , beauty, and purity, and evoke in us vitality and love . So many beings in the universe love us unconditionally. The trees, the water, and the air don't ask anything of us; they just love us. Even though we need this kind of love, we continue to destroy them. By destroying the animals, the air, and the trees, we are destroying ourselves.”
Love in Action: Writings on Nonviolent Social Change (1993), p. 131 -
“When you understand the roots of anger in yourself and in the other, your mind will enjoy true peace, joy and lightness”
Teachings on Love (2005) Full Circle Publishing ISBN 81-7621-167-2
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- Albert Camus
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- Adam Smith
- Democritus
- Erasmus
- Iris Murdoch
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- Avicenna
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- Fyodor Dostoevsky
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- Al-Ghazali
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- Patanjali
- Petrarch
- Ramana Maharshi
- Solon
- Teresa of Avila
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- Antisthenes
- Bernard Mandeville
- Catherine of Genoa
- Charles Fourier
- Cheng Yi
- Claude Adrien Helvetius
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- Derek Parfit
- Ernst Bloch
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- Gorgias
- Henri Poincare
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- Joseph Raz
- Justin Martyr
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- Lou Andreas-Salome
- Margaret Fell
- Sarah Grimke
- Sri Ramakrishna
- William Stanley Jevons
- G. E. Moore
- Nicolas Malebranche
- Henry More
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- Musonius Rufus
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- Emilie du Chatelet
- Eugen Fink
- Hecato of Rhodes
- Hermarchus
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- Polemo
- Teles of Megara
- Friedrich Nietzsche
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