Happiness isn’t always easy to define, but these happy quotes can help you cultivate a greater sense of calm.
There is no magic trick to finding happiness, nor is there a single path that leads there. In fact, happiness is more often a byproduct of our actions, rather than an end result.
Happiness is also more than a passing emotion: practicing positive thinking and affirmationsyou can make a difference to your emotional and physical well-being.
In fact, a 2022 Study found that high levels of optimism were associated with greater longevity.
One way to improve your mood is to maintain a gratitude diary happy moments throughout the day so you can remember them when you’re feeling down.
During life’s most challenging times, it can be especially difficult to imagine a light at the end of the tunnel. There may be no one-size-fits-all guide to happiness, but there are many ways to find satisfaction even in your lowest days.
When you just need a little reminder to keep going, these happy quotes are the perfect pick-me-up.
Happy quotes to brighten your day
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“Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions.” – Dalai Lama
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“Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; It’s the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” -Marcel Proust
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“Those who do not seek happiness are more likely to find it, because those who do forget that the safest way to be happy is to seek happiness for others.” – Martin Luther King Junior.
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“It’s the moments when I stopped to just be, instead of do, that gave me true happiness.” -Richard Branson
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“You can’t have a positive life and a negative mind.” -Joice Meyer
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“People always say, ‘But you always look so happy.’ Well, that’s Botox! Nobody is happy all the time. But I work hard for it.” -Dolly Parton
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“True happiness… is not achieved through self-gratification, but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.” – Helen Keller
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“Remember that the happiest people are not those who receive the most, but those who give the most.” -H.Jackson Brown Jr.
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“The only thing that will make you happy is to be happy with who you are, not who people think you are.” -Goldie Hawn
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“Don’t ruin a good today by thinking about a bad yesterday. Nevermind.” – Hoda Kotb, “I Really Needed This Today: Words to Live By”
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“The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer someone else up.” -Mark Twain
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“Smile in the mirror. Do this every morning and you will start to see a big difference in your life.” – Yoko Ono
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“There is only one lasting happiness in life: living for others.” – Leo Tolstoy
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“A great obstacle to happiness is expecting too much happiness.” -Bernard de Fontenelle
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“It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness.” -Charles Spurgeon
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“The essence of philosophy is that a man should live in such a way that his happiness depends as little as possible on external things.” – Epictetus
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“Happiness does not reside in the mere possession of money; lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.” -Franklin D. Roosevelt
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“I try to treat whoever I meet like an old friend. It gives me a genuine feeling of happiness. It is the practice of compassion.” – Dalai Lama
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“True happiness does not consist in a multitude of friends, but in value and choice.” -Ben Jonson
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“Don’t want anything but the best for your friends, because when your friends are happy and successful, it will probably be easier for you to be happy.” – Roxane Gay, “Bad Feminist”
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“Happiness radiates like the fragrance of a flower and attracts all good things to you.” – Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
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“You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.” -Albert Camus
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“Take responsibility for your own happiness, never put it in other people’s hands.” —Roy T. Bennet, “The Light in the Heart”
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“Be a rainbow in someone else’s cloud.” -Maya Angelou
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“The world is so full of so many things that I am sure we should all be as happy as kings.” – Robert Louis Stevenson, “Happy Thought”
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“Happiness is not a goal, it is a byproduct.” -Eleanor Roosevelt
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“When we are unhappy, we doubt everything; When happy, you don’t doubt anything. ” – Joseph Roux
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“If you look to others for fulfillment, you will never feel fulfilled. If your happiness depends on money, you will never be happy with yourself. Be satisfied with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize that nothing is missing, the world belongs to you.” – Lao Tse
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“Happiness is not a good to be valued, it is a quality of thought, a state of mind.” -Daphne du Maurier, “Rebecca”
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“Optimism is a magnet for happiness. If you stay positive, good things and good people will be attracted to you.” -Mary Lou Retton
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“If you see someone without a smile, give them one of yours.” -Dolly Parton
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“Most of our happiness or misery depends on our dispositions, not on our circumstances.” -Marta Washington
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“Happiness is when what you think, what you say and what you do are in harmony.” -Mahatma Gandhi
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“No medicine cures what happiness cannot.” – Gabriel García Márquez
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“I felt my lungs inflate with the advance of the landscape – air, mountains, trees, people. I thought, ‘This is what being happy is.’” – Sylvia Plath, “The Bell Jar”
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“In my experience, you can almost always enjoy things if you firmly decide that you will.” – L.M. Montgomery, “Anne of Green Gables”
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“Happiness is like the top of the mountain. Sometimes it’s hidden by the clouds, but we know it’s there.” – Helen Keller
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“Let anyone who comes to you walk away feeling better and happier.” – Mother Teresa
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“I’d rather be happy than right any day.” – Douglas Adams, “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”
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“I’m choosing happiness over suffering, I know I am. I am making space for the unknown future to fill my life with surprises that are yet to come.” – Elizabeth Gilbert, “Eat, Pray, Love”
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“One reason cats are happier than people is that they don’t have newspapers.” -Gwendolyn Brooks
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“You cannot be happy unless you are sometimes unhappy.” ―Lauren Oliver, “Delirium”
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“Enjoy the little things in life, because one day you might look back and realize they were the big things.” -Robert Brault
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“I think happiness is what makes you beautiful. Period. Happy people are beautiful. They become like a mirror and reflect this happiness.” – Drew Barrymore
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“I would always rather be happy than worthy.” – Charlotte Brontë, “Jane Eyre”
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“The only way to find true happiness is to take the risk of being completely open.” -Chuck Palahniuk
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“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.” – Dalai Lama
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“Happiness is not the absence of problems, it is the ability to deal with them.” -Steve Maraboli
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“We should always make time for the things we enjoy. If we don’t, we may forget how to be happy.” – TJ Klune, “The House on the Cerulean Sea”
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“The moments of happiness we enjoy take us by surprise. It’s not that we grab them, but that they grab us.” -Ashley Montagu
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“There is always light. If only we are brave enough to see it. If only we are brave enough to be that.” —Amanda Gorman
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“We are all drafts of the people we are still becoming.” -Bob Goff
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“Most people are as happy as they choose to be.” -Abraham Lincoln
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“The power of finding beauty in the humblest things makes the home happy and the life lovely.” – Louisa May Alcott
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“Uninterrupted happiness is boring: it should have ups and downs.” – Molière
This article was originally published in TODAY.com