Top 175 Choose Happiness Quotes and Sayings
Everyone has a range of emotions and cannot always be happy in the present moment. But happiness means you are able to balance your emotions and usually experience more positive than negative feelings.
Happiness also means you have a grateful attitude and maintain an inner peace that helps you find moments of happiness even in the little things in life.
Even if you generally maintain a happy outlook on life, you will most likely enjoy this list of the Top 175 Choose Happiness Quotes and Sayings very inspirational. And if you struggle with a happy mindset, these quotes will probably be helpful!
Happiness is a state of mind. You’ll notice this theme recurring in these inspirational quotes and sayings. I’ve used many of these Choose Happiness Quotes to remember that I always have the option to CHOOSE HAPPINESS—every single day of my life. I hope they will help you, too! ENJOY!
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Choose Happiness Quotes
1. 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
2. Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life. Omar Khayyam
3. Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn, or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude. Denis Waitley
4. Happiness depends upon ourselves. Aristotle
5. Achievement of your happiness is the only moral purpose of your life, and that happiness, not pain or mindless self-indulgence, is the proof of your moral integrity, since it is the proof and the result of your loyalty to the achievement of your values. Ayn Rand
6. The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself. Benjamin Franklin
7. Happiness is a direction, not a place. Sydney J. Harris
8. Joy is prayer; joy is strength: joy is love; joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls. Mother Teresa
9. Happiness is an inside job. William Arthur Ward
10. Don’t wait around for other people to be happy for you. Any happiness you get you’ve got to make yourself. Alice Walker
11. True happiness consists not in the multitude of friends, but in the worth and choice. Ben Jonson
12. The person born with a talent they are meant to use will find their greatest happiness in using it. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
13. Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions. Dalai Lama
14. There is only one happiness in this life, to love and be loved. George Sand
15. The best way to pay for a lovely moment is to enjoy it. Richard Bach
16. Happiness can exist only in acceptance. George Orwell
17. True happiness is… to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future. Lucius Annaeus Seneca
18. Happiness often sneaks in through a door you didn’t know you left open. John Barrymore
19. The art of being happy lies in the power of extracting happiness from common things. Henry Ward Beecher
20. Happiness isn’t something you experience; it’s something you remember. Oscar Levant
21. Happiness is like a kiss. You must share it to enjoy it. Bernard Meltzer
22. I am determined to be cheerful and happy in whatever situation I may find myself. For I have learned that the greater part of our misery or unhappiness is determined not by our circumstance but by our disposition. Martha Washington
23. It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness. Charles Spurgeon
24. If you want to be happy, be. Leo Tolstoy
25. Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content. Helen Keller
Quotes About Choosing Happiness
26. A table, a chair, a bowl of fruit and a violin; what else does a man need to be happy? Albert Einstein
27. True happiness comes from the joy of deeds well done, the zest of creating things new. Antoine de Saint-Exupery
28. Try to make at least one person happy every day. If you cannot do a kind deed, speak a kind word. If you cannot speak a kind word, think a kind thought. Count up, if you can, the treasure of happiness that you would dispense in a week, in a year, in a lifetime! Lawrence G. Lovasik
29. The most worthwhile thing is to try to put happiness into the lives of others. Robert Baden-Powell
30. Nothing brings me more happiness than trying to help the most vulnerable people in society. It is a goal and an essential part of my life – a kind of destiny. Whoever is in distress can call on me. I will come running wherever they are. Princess Diana
31. Happiness is found in doing, not merely possessing. Napoleon Hill
32. Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony. Mahatma Gandhi
33. Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be. Abraham Lincoln
34. There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will. Epictetus
35. Remember that the happiest people are not those getting more, but those giving more. H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
36. Now and then it’s good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy. Guillaume Apollinaire
37. Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance, order, rhythm, and harmony. Thomas Merton
38. Happiness is dependent on self-discipline. We are the biggest obstacles to our own happiness. It is much easier to do battle with society and with others than to fight our own nature. Dennis Prager
39. Be happy with what you have and are, be generous with both, and you won’t have to hunt for happiness. William E. Gladstone
40. Happiness is not a goal; it is a by-product. Eleanor Roosevelt
41. The secret of happiness is to admire without desiring. Carl Sandburg
42. Happiness is inward, and not outward; and so, it does not depend on what we have, but on what we are. Henry Van Dyke
43. Everyone chases after happiness, not noticing that happiness is right at their heels. Bertolt Brecht
44. Happiness is good health and a bad memory. Ingrid Bergman
45. Happiness is the absence of the striving for happiness. Zhuangzi
46. The first recipe for happiness is: avoid too lengthy meditation on the past. Andre Maurois
47. Research has shown that the best way to be happy is to make each day happy. Deepak Chopra
48. Happiness can only be found if you can free yourself of all other distractions. Saul Bellow
49. A hug is like a boomerang – you get it back right away. Bil Keane
50. I am a kind of paranoid in reverse. I suspect people of plotting to make me happy. J. D. Salinger
Choose Happiness Quotes to Guide Your Life
51. Doing what you like is freedom. Liking what you do is happiness. Frank Tyger
52. The greatest happiness of life it the conviction that we are loved – loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves. Victor Hugo
53. A man is happy so long as he chooses to be happy and nothing can stop him. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
54. How you choose to feel today should not be dependent on others. Anthon St. Maarten
55. 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
56. The best years of your life are the ones in which you decide your problems are your own. You do not blame them on your mother, the ecology, or the president. You realize that you control your own destiny. Albert Ellis
57. Don’t seek happiness. If you seek it, you won’t find it, because seeking is the antithesis of happiness. Eckhart Tolle
58. Some pursue happiness – others create it. Helen Rowland
59. Believe me! The secret of reaping the greatest fruitfulness and the greatest enjoyment from life is to live dangerously! Friedrich Nietzsche
60.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. Dale Carnegie
61. Don’t rely on someone else for your happiness and self-worth. Only you can be responsible for that. If you can’t love and respect yourself — no one else will be able to make that happen. Accept who you are — completely; the good and the bad — and make changes as YOU see fit — not because you think someone else wants you to be different. Stacey Charter
62. 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
63. It was only a sunny smile and little it cost in the giving. But like morning light it scattered the night and made the day worth living. George Sand
64. Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. Herman Cain
65. Nothing has to happen for me to feel good! I feel good because I’m alive! Life is a gift, and I revel in it. Tony Robbins
66. Blessed is he who has learned to laugh at himself for he shall never cease to be entertained. John Boswell
67. The real joy of life is in its play. Play is anything we do for the joy and love of doing it, apart from any profit, compulsion, or sense of duty. It is the real joy of living. Walter Rauschbusch
68. Cheerfulness keeps up a kind of daylight in the mind and fills it with a steady and perpetual serenity. Joseph Addison
69. The aim of life is to live and to live means to be aware — joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware. Henry Miller
70. When you finally allow yourself to trust joy and embrace it, you will find you dance with everything. Emanuel
71. Make one person happy each day and in forty years you will have made 14,600 human beings happy for a little time at least. Charles Wiley
72. There are souls in this world who have the gift of finding joy everywhere and leaving it behind them when they go. Faber
73. Happiness is like a plant: It must be watered daily with giving thoughts and actions. Swami Kriyananda
74. Happiness blooms naturally in the hearts of those who are inwardly free. It flows spontaneously, like a mountain spring after April showers, in minds that are contented with simple living. Paramhansa Yogananda
75. Happiness held is the seed. Happiness shared is the flower. John Harrigan
Happy Quotes that will Brighten Your Day
76. The thing everyone should realize is that the key to happiness is being happy for yourself and yourself. Ellen DeGeneres
77. The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved. Victor Hugo
78. Happiness is a gift and the trick is not to expect it, but to delight in it when it comes. Charles Dickens
79. If you want to find happiness, find gratitude. Steve Maraboli
80. The secret of a happy life is respect. Respect for yourself and respect for others. Ayad Akhtar
81. You have to be willing to get happy about nothing. Andy Warhol
82. There is a kind of happiness and wonder that makes you serious. It is too good to waste on jokes. C.S. Lewis
83. You must be the best judge of your own happiness. Jane Austen
84. Happiness depends on being free, and freedom depends on being courageous. Marie Rutkoski
85. My happiness is not the means to any end. It is the end. It is its own goal. It is its own purpose. Ayn Rand
86. Happiness consists in frequent repetition of pleasure. Arthur Schopenhauer
87. Happiness is not a possession to be prized, it is a quality of thought, a state of mind. Daphne Du Maurier
88. Happiness is not the absence of problems, it’s the ability to deal with them. Steve Maraboli
89. Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom. Marcel Proust
90. I have chosen to be happy because it’s good for my health. Voltaire
91. If you want a happy ending, it just depends on where you close the book! Orson Welles
92. I’m a happy person. If you want to be around me, you can either choose to be happy too, or follow the signs to the nearest exit! Sharon Swan
93. If you come at four in the afternoon, I’ll begin to be happy by three. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
94. Make sure, as often as possible, you are doing something you’d be happy to die doing. Matt Haig
95. I feel like I’ve been split open and stuffed with sunshine. Tahereh Mafi
96. When you are joyful, when you say yes to life and have fun and project positivity all around you, you become a sun in the center of every constellation, and people want to be near you. Shannon L. Alder
97. Drink because you are happy, but never because you are miserable. G.K. Chesterton
98. Don’t waste your time in anger, regrets, worries, and grudges. Life is too short to be unhappy. Roy T. Bennett
99. 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
100. Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life. Omar Khayyam
Happiness is a Choice Quotes
101. Happiness is a choice. You can choose to be happy. There’s going to be stress in life, but it’s your choice whether you let it affect you or not. Valerie Bertinelli
102. When faced with the choice, choose happy. Valerie Bertinelli
103. The way to happiness; keep your heart free from hate, your mind free from worry, live simply, expect little, give much, scatter sunshine, forget self, and think of others. Norman Vincent Peale
104. Change your thoughts and you change your world. Norman Vincent Peale
105. Our happiness depends on the habit of mind we cultivate. So practice happy thinking every day. Cultivate the merry heart, develop the happiness habit, and life will become a continual feast. Norman Vincent Peale
106. A child can teach an adult three things: to be happy for no reason, to always be busy with something, and to know how to demand with all his might that which he desires. Paulo Coelho
107. Happiness is something that multiplies when it is divided. Paulo Coelho
108. Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been. Mark Twain
109. The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up. Mark Twain
110. When you’re tempted to be upset, ask yourself ‘Is this worth giving up my joy? Joel Osteen
111. God wants you to have a good life, a life filled with love, joy, peace, and fulfillment. That doesn’t mean it will always be easy, but it does mean that it will always be good. Joel Osteen
112. Don’t allow negative people to steal your joy. When you lose your joy, you lose your strength. Joel Osteen
113. Nothing can take your joy; you have to give it away. You’re in complete control of your happiness. Joel Osteen
114. No matter what comes your way, don’t lose your joy. Joel Osteen
115. Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy. Anne Frank
116. Whoever is happy will make others happy. Anne Frank
117. We all live with the objective of being happy; our lives are all different and yet the same. Anne Frank
118. The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely, or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be. Anne Frank
119. Live with the objective of being happy. Anne Frank
120. Happiness depends upon ourselves. Aristotle
121. Joy enters when we stop complaining about the troubles we have and offering thanks for all the troubles we don’t have. And be aware, you have to fight through some bad days to earn the best days of your life. Angie Karan
122. To be content doesn’t mean you don’t desire more, it means you’re thankful for what you have and patient for what’s to come. Tony Gaskins
123. It’s almost impossible to be satisfied in your own life if you’re constantly looking at what someone else has. Rachael Cruze
124. Be happy with what you have and are, be generous with both, and you won’t have to hunt for happiness. William E. Gladstone
125. Make peace with your now moment. Live in this very moment and be happy with what you have. Angie Karan
Choose Happiness Quotes
126. Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy. Norman Vincent Peale
127. Happiness doesn’t depend on any external conditions, it is governed by our mental attitude. Dale Carnegie
128. Happiness will never come to those who fail to appreciate what they already have. Bilal Zahoor
129. You are only a poor person if you are not happy with what you have. Debasish Mridha
130. Be happy about your own life and you’ll be amazed at just how much more beautiful you’ll find it to be. TemitOpe Ibrahim
131. Spend more time doing things that make you forget about the time. Charlotte Eriksson
132. Being happy on seeing others happy is happiness multiplied. Tapan Ghosh
133. Stop looking for happiness, you are alive, you are in this moment, nothing can be happier than this. Nitin Namdeo
134. A truly intelligent person is one who always finds a reason to be happy every moment. Nitin Namdeo
135. Spread love all over the world and in return, you will receive the gift of lifetime happiness. Nitin Namdeo
136. Find your happiness, not by seeking more, but by appreciating what you already have. Frank Sonnenberg
137. Happiness is never a step away, it is within you. You just need to unleash it. Ojingiri Hannah
138. Nobody really cares if you’re miserable, so you might as well be happy. Cynthia Nelms
139. Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort. Franklin D. Roosevelt
140. To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness. Bertrand Russell
141. Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go. Oscar Wilde
142. With freedom, books, flowers, and the moon, who could not be happy? Oscar Wilde
143. A flower blossoms for its own joy. Oscar Wilde
144. Happiness is not a feeling, it is a choice. To be happy, one must choose to be happy, not respond to a circumstance that now controls your happiness. Joyce Meyer
145. Our joy does not have to be based on our circumstances. Joyce Meyer
146. When you wish someone joy, you wish them peace, love, prosperity, happiness… all the good things. Maya Angelou
147. We need Joy as we need air. We need Love as we need water. We need each other as we need the earth we share. Maya Angelou
148. I think happiness is what makes you pretty. Period. Happy people are beautiful. They become like a mirror and they reflect that happiness. Drew Barrymore
149. I am fundamentally happy. Everyone has experiences that make them cynical, jaded, or unhappy – you just have to fight those things off. I have totally emotional days when I cry and get insecure. PMS weirded out, doomed and tragic. I mean, I’m definitely not just a lollipop, happy in the wind girl. I’m human just like everyone else, but I think that it would be tragic to be on your deathbed and think, ‘I could’ve I should’ve.’ That gets me out of bed everyday. I can’t even last like an hour in bed in the morning. I have to get out there and live. Drew Barrymore
150. Happiness, like unhappiness, is a proactive choice. Stephen R. Covey
Inspirational Quotes about Choosing to Be Happy
151. Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. Ralph Waldo Emerson
152. Happiness is a perfume you cannot pour on others without getting some on yourself. Ralph Waldo Emerson
153. Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action. William James
154. The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes. William James
155. We don’t laugh because we’re happy – we’re happy because we laugh. William James
156. I don’t sing because I’m happy; I’m happy because I sing. William James
157. The good we do today becomes the happiness of tomorrow. William James
158. Trust your own instincts, go inside, follow your heart. Right from the start. go ahead and stand up for what you believe in. As I’ve learned, that’s the path to happiness. Lesley Ann Warren
159. Dream as if you’ll live forever, live as if you’ll die today. James Dean
160. Today I choose life. Every morning when I wake up I can choose joy, happiness, negativity, pain… To feel the freedom that comes from being able to continue to make mistakes and choices – today I choose to feel life, not to deny my humanity but embrace it. Kevyn Aucoin
161.. No amount of makeup can mask an ugly heart. Kevyn Aucoin
162. Beauty might bring happiness, but happiness always brings beauty. Kevyn Aucoin
163. Today I see beauty everywhere I go, in every face I see, in every single soul, and sometimes even in myself. Kevyn Aucoin
164. For me, beauty is synonymous with uniqueness . . . perfection is mundane, boring, and emotionless. It is by celebrating the differences in others that we can begin to accept our own individuality. Kevyn Aucoin
165. My happiness grows in direct proportion to my acceptance, and in inverse proportion to my expectations. Michael J. Fox
166. Happiness is your nature. It is not wrong to desire it. What is wrong is seeking it outside when it is inside. Sri Ramana Maharshi
167. The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance. The wise grows it under his feet. James Oppenheim
168. You have everything you need for complete peace and total happiness right now. Wayne Dyer
169. Happiness is a choice that requires effort at times. Aeschylus
170. Everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you’re climbing it. Andy Rooney
171. It’s a helluva start, being able to recognize what makes you happy. Lucille Ball
172. The happiness of life is made up of minute fractions-the little, soon forgotten charities of a kiss or smile, a kind look, a heart-felt compliment, and the countless infinitesimals of pleasurable and genial feeling. Samuel Taylor Coleridge
173. Happiness is a state of mind. It’s just according to the way you look at things. Walt Disney
174. I laugh as much as I can and cry when I have to, without apology. I think that’s happy. Maya Angelou
175. For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Final Thoughts: Choose Happiness Quotes and Sayings
Choosing happiness is a subject we never tire of dissecting and a state of mind we must choose every day.
Use these inspirational quotes to make a conscious choice to make happiness your way of life. You can even find joy in small things if you have a positive attitude and grateful heart.
Love to All! ~ Susan
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