Societies and people that come close to being happy are those that do well in narrowing the disparity between their desires and their needs, especially the material things of life.

Where else can we find happiness for a day other than from something that can offer momentary relief, something like the booze?

The first person who is on your mind the moment you open your eyes after a long sleep is the reason either of your happiness or pain.

Why, then, should we ever sink overwhelmed with distress, when life is so soon over, and death is so certain an entrance to happiness – to glory?

Buddhism has a term for the happiness we feel at someone else’s success or good fortune. Sympathetic joy, as it is known, invites us to celebrate for others.

It is awareness of both our shared pain and our longing for happiness that links us to other people and helps us to turn toward them with compassion.

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.

With my eyes closed, I would touch a familiar book and draw its fragrance deep inside me. This was enough to make me happy.

She had received ideas which disposed her to be courteous and kind to all, and to pity every one, as being less happy than herself.

An ordinary man can surround himself with two thousand books and thenceforward have at least one place in the world in which it is always possible to be happy.