Happiness Seeking Quotes & Sayings

The real pleasure-seeking is the combination of luxury and austerity in such a way that the luxury can really be felt. — Gilbert K. Chesterton

If happiness comes at all: which is by no means prearranged; it comes by the way, while you are seeking for something else. Something outside yourself, beyond yourself: in a brief absorption of self-forgetfulness. — Caitlin Thomas

Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness.' What does it mean? Let me put it negatively like this. We are not to hunger and thirst after blessedness; we are not to hunger and thirst after happiness. But that is what most people are doing. We put happiness and blessedness as the one thing that we desire, and thus we always miss it; it always eludes us. According to the Scriptures happiness is never something that should be sought directly; it is always something that results from seeking something else. — D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Remember, the security and happiness you are seeking is not in your material possessions, your degrees, or relationships. It is much closer than you think. — Mabel Katz

There are many ways to achieve developer happiness, but making your core business products a playground for developers seeking novelty is the path to hell. — Anonymous

If you want a positive and happy life then stop feeling self-pity or seeking attention for your problems and take action towards creating a positive and fulfilling life. — Hina Hashmi

In desperate hope I go and search for her in all the corners of my room; I find her not.
My house is small and what once has gone from it can never be regained.
But infinite is thy mansion, my lord, and seeking her I have to come to thy door.
I stand under the golden canopy of thine evening sky and I lift my eager eyes to thy face.
I have come to the brink of eternity from which nothing can vanish
no hope, no happiness, no vision of a face seen through tears.
Oh, dip my emptied life into that ocean, plunge it into the deepest fullness. Let me for once feel that lost sweet touch in the allness of the universe — Rabindranath Tagore

O Lord, only you can satisfy my soul. — Lailah Gifty Akita

Millions of people never analyze themselves. Mentally they are mechanical products of the factory of their environment, preoccupied with breakfast, lunch, and dinner, working and sleeping, and going here and there to be entertained. They don't know what or why they are seeking, nor why they never realize complete happiness and lasting satisfaction. By evading self-analysis, people go on being robots, conditioned by their environment. True self-analysis is the greatest art of progress. — Paramahansa Yogananda

Seeking the kingdom of God leads to joy and happiness. — Allan F. Packer

I do not know what your destiny may be, but I do know this, that not one of you will find the happiness that each of you is seeking until you have first sought and found a way in which to unselfishly serve others. — Albert Schweitzer

The happiness you are seeking is not to be found in the flow of life, but in your attitude toward whatever life brings. — Ramesh S Balsekar

It's easy to get sidetracked with thoughts that involve much money and precious things, but before you launch into that mode, reason well. — Auliq Ice

One who, while seeking happiness, oppresses with violence other living beings who also desire happinesss, will not find happiness hereafter. — Gautama Buddha

There are as many kinds of beauty as there are habitual ways of seeking happiness. — Charles Baudelaire

Most of us spend our time seeking happiness and security without acknowledging the underlying purpose of our search. Each of us is looking for a path back to the present: We are trying to find good enough reasons to be satisfied now. Acknowledging that this is the structure of the game we are playing allows us to play it differently. How we pay attention to the present moment largely determines the character of our experience and, therefore, the quality of our lives. Mystics and contemplatives have made this claim for ages - but a growing body of scientific research now bears it out. — Sam Harris

Every answer I seek lies within me. Any outward seeking for my answers can only take me as far as my inner self permits. — Pooja Ruprell

The gold you have to dig for is not the real gold. — Marty Rubin

We stopped to browse in the cases, and now that William - with his new glasses on his nose - could linger and read the books, at every title he discovered he let out exclamations of happiness, either because he knew the work, or because he had been seeking it for a long time, or finally because he had never heard it mentioned and was highly excited and titillated. In short, for him every book was like a fabulous animal that he was meeting in a strange land. — Umberto Eco

I say, I can not identify that thing which is called happiness, that thing whose token is a laugh, or a smile, or a silent serenity on the lip. I may have been happy, but it is not in my conscious memory now. Nor do I feel a longing for it, as though I had never had it; my spirit seeks different food from happiness, for I think I have a suspicion of what it is. I have suffered wretchedness, but not because of the absence of happiness, and without praying for happiness. I pray for peace
for motionlessness
for the feeling of myself, as of some plant, absorbing life without seeking it, and existing without individual sensation. I feel that there can be no perfect peace in individualness. Therefore, I hope one day to feel myself drank up into the pervading spirit animating all things. I feel I am an exile here. I still go straying. — Herman Melville

The saying goes that history repeats itself; personal histories do the same. We can gather the lessons of others' lives through observation, conversation, and by seeking advice. We can use the automatic system to find out who the happy people are, and the reflective system to evaluate how they got to be that way. Pursuing happiness need not be a lonely endeavor. In fact, throwing in our lot with others may be a very good way of coping with the disappointments of choice. — Sheena Iyengar

I don't believe in the search. I believe in happiness now. — Marty Rubin

All his life, at every moment, Tolstoy possessed the faculty of seeing phenomena in the detached finality of each separate instant, in perfectly distinct outline, as we see only on rare occasions, in childhood, or on the crest of an all-renewing happiness, or in the triumph of a great spiritual victory.

To see things like that, our eye must be directed by passion. For it is passion that by its flash illuminates an object, intensifying its appearance.

Such passion, the passion of creative contemplation, Tolstoy constantly carried with him. It was precisely in its light that he saw everything in its pristine freshness, in a new way, as if for the first time. The authenticity of what he saw differs so much from what we are used to that it may appear strange to us. But Tolstoy was not seeking that strangeness, was not pursuing it as a goal, still less did he apply it to his works as a literary method. — Boris Pasternak

Thus the key to happiness lies not in changing our genetic makeup (which is impossible) and not in changing our circumstances (i.e., seeking wealth or attractiveness or better colleagues, which is usually impractical), but in our daily intentional activities. — Sonja Lyubomirsky

As long as there is a lack of the inner discipline that brings calmness of mind, no matter what external facilities or conditions you have, they will never give you the feeling of joy and happiness that you are seeking. On the other hand, if you possess this inner quality, a calmness of mind, a degree of stability within, then even if you lack various external facilities that you would normally consider necessary for happiness, it is still possible to live a happy and joyful life. — Dalai Lama XIV

The reason why man seeks for happiness is not because happiness is his sustenance, but because happiness is his own being; therefore in seeking for happiness, man is seeking for himself. — Hazrat Inayat Khan

We should be sure that in our pursuit of happiness and positivity, we do not lose our ability to experience the other side of life, as well. Feelings of grief and respect for the departed, are honourable thoughts to have and honourable feelings to feel. In seeking happiness, we must not be so afraid of sorrow, that we lose the ability to cope with it properly. There is a healthy way to cope with both sorrow and joy; both need to be looked straight in the face, in the eyes. — C. JoyBell C.

May you find grace as you surrender to life. May you find happiness, as you stop seeking it. May you come to trust these laws and inherit the wisdom of the Earth. May you reconnect with the heart of nature and feel the blessings of Spirit. — Dan Millman

But isn't a life based on seeking personal happiness by nature self-centered, even self-indulgent? Not necessarily. In fact, survey after survey has shown that it is unhappy people who tend to be most self-focused and are often socially withdrawn, brooding, and even antagonistic. Happy people, in contrast, are generally found to be more sociable, flexible, and creative and are able to tolerate life's daily frustrations more easily than unhappy people. And, most important, they are found to be more loving and forgiving than unhappy people. — Dalai Lama XIV

Would it surprise you to hear that man's unhappiness is due in large measure to the way he is seeking after happiness? You know this already from your own life. For when you have been unhappy, you have been unhappy with others - with your father or mother, your sister or brother, your spouse, your son, your daughter. If unhappiness is with others, wouldn't it stand to reason that happiness must be with others as well? — Anasazi Foundation

Don't seek to be happy; let everyone else chase after that rainbow.
Seek to be kind, and you'll find the rainbow follows you. — Richelle E. Goodrich

Happiness is your nature. It is not wrong to desire it. What is wrong is seeking it outside when it is inside. — Ramana Maharshi

The Ego uses the mind as a means of spiritual search. It is through the mind that the Ego intends to understand what is beyond mind and forms. The mind in this way prepares the mental image of enlightenment, seeking, happiness etc. — Frank M. Wanderer

If you have a big idea or plan that you desire to execute, don't depend solely on others to appreciate your efforts. You must have the ability to encourage yourself. At times seeking encouragement from others can lead to disappointment which sometimes leads you to neglect your obligation. Never build your hopes and dreams based primarily on the accolades from others. You may discover a rude awakening. — Amaka Imani Nkosazana

All the happiness, self-confidence, and support you're seeking is already within you. — Gabrielle Bernstein

The most beautiful moments in life are moments when you are expressing your joy, not when you are seeking it. — Jaggi Vasudev

I believe that the very purpose of our life is to seek happiness. That is clear. Whether one believes in relgion or not, whether one believes in this religion or that religion, we all are seeking something better in life. So, I think, the very motion of our life is toward happiness ... — Dalai Lama XIV

Dear young people, the happiness you are seeking, the happiness you have a right to enjoy has a name and a face: it is Jesus of Nazareth, hidden in the Eucharist. Only he gives the fullness of life to humanity! With Mary, say your own "yes" to God, for he wishes to give himself to you. — Pope Benedict XVI

Deep in her soul, however, she was waiting for something to happen. Like a sailor in distress, she would gaze out over the solitude of her life with desperate eyes, seeking some white sail in the mists of the far-off horizon. She did not know what this chance event would be, what wind would drive it to her, what shore it would carry her to, whether it was a longboat or a three-decked vessel, loaded with anguish or filled with happiness up to the portholes. But each morning, when she awoke, she hoped it would arrive that day. ... - GUSTAVE FLAUBERT, Madame Bovary — Lena Dunham

As man is so constituted that it is utterly impossible for him to attain happiness save by seeking the happiness of others, so does it seem to be of the nature of things that individuals and classes can obtain their own just rights only by struggling for the rights of others. — Henry George

All human beings are alike in seeking happiness. Where they differ is in the objects from which they seek it and the strength they have to reach the objects they desire. — Os Guinness

We may believe we are seeking happiness in love, but what we are really after is familiarity. — The School Of Life

The secret of human happiness is not in self-seeking but in self-forgetting. — Theodor Reik

The secret of happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less. - Socrates — Leo Babauta

Happiness must be a jealous pet. When you try seeking yours out, it tends to keep hidden. But as soon as you turn to help a friend find his, your own happiness comes bounding out of the darkness like some crazed animal. — Richelle E. Goodrich

Seeking happiness is not the problem. The problem is that we often do not know where and how to find genuine happiness and so make the mistakes that cause suffering for ourselves & others. — Sharon Salzberg

We've got to be long distance runners on the spiritual path. We want to run as fast as we can, but at the same time realize that if God isn't at the end of that 100 yards, we don't fall flat of exhaustion. We've got to have whatever rhythm it takes to be able to go on for incarnations until we find that state of perfection we've been seeking. — Goswami Kriyananda

Just make as much money as you can, but try your best not to rob or get robbed, it will sweep all that you have and leave your hands empty. — Auliq Ice

Are you seeking to know what is wrong with the world? All the disasters that have wrecked your world, came from your leaders' attempt to evade the fact that A is A. All the secret evil you dread to face within you and all the pain you have ever endured, came from your own attempt to evade the fact that A is A. — Ayn Rand

There are only two profound ways to reach enlightenment: Laugh by yourself, or get tickled. — Saurabh Sharma

Meditation ... puts into question more or less everything you tend to do in your search for happiness. But if you lose sight of this, it can become just another strategy for seeking happiness a more refined version of the problem you already have. — Sam Harris

When consent takes the form of seeking to possess the things we wish, this is called desire. When consent takes the form of enjoying the things we wish, this is called joy. — Augustine Of Hippo

Desperately seeking something is not what attracts it to us. When we dwell, in deep peace and kindness, whatever would add to our happiness just flows to our door. — Marianne Williamson

We learn in our guts, not just in our brain, that a life of joy is not in seeking happiness, but in experiencing and simply being the circumstances of our life as they are; not in fulfilling personal wants, but in fulfilling the needs of life ... — Joko Beck

You know that saying 'A little knowledge is a dangerous thing'? That's so true of positive psychology. Our latest research tells us that the pursuit of happiness is a delicate art. Certain approaches to seeking happiness are now known to backfire, whereas others are effective. — Barbara Fredrickson

Don't Seek Happiness. If you seek it, you won't find it, because seeking is the antithesis of happiness — Eckhart Tolle

Even the darkest cloud had a silver lining; you can either miss it as you run away to a hiding place as darkness approaches you or you can go seeking it, empowered with the ardent desire to find happiness in life. — Maliny Mohan

Don't let your ego put you in a compromising situation. Don't allow your pride to keep you from seeking the help you need. And don't give in to your fears. Stay focused. — Amaka Imani Nkosazana

Seeking happiness apart from a right relationship God is like trying to turn on a light that's unplugged. — Randy Alcorn

A Speechmaker's Prayer:
"Let each word of mine be tender and sweet,
Just in case someone might make me eat it. — Ana Claudia Antunes

Life should be continually brighter. We are continually seeking our own innocence. We want to recapture it for eternity. It's in there, but we lose touch with it. — Frederick Lenz

America's Declaration of Independence speaks of "the pursuit of happiness," but nowhere in the Bible are we told to pursue this. Happiness is elusive, and we don't find it by seeking it. — Billy Graham

Devotion to God brings great delight. — Lailah Gifty Akita

All the external adoration, respect and adulation in the word, can't drown out the internal voices that tell us, we are not good enough and unworthy of; happiness, love and an abundant life. When we need others to tell us were amazing, worthy and lovable, in order to feel good about ourselves, it is never enough. It goes into the bottomless pit where our inherent self-worth should be. It may feel like we are reaching out to receive love, but in actuality, we are seeking external noise to help drown out our negative core beliefs.
Love blossoms from the inside out. That is why it is so important to do the work necessary to heal our emotional wounds, to love ourselves and stand strong in who we are. Only then, are we truly free to give and receive love, unconditionally and in abundance. — Jaeda DeWalt

Alvin was an explorer, and all explorers are seeking something they have lost. It is seldom that they find it, and more seldom still that the attainment brings them greater happiness than the quest. — Arthur C. Clarke

People enter different paths seeking for happiness and fulfillment. We must respect other people's individuality. Just because they're not on your path doesn't mean they are on the wrong track. — Ogwo David Emenike

Instead of belittling, judging, or getting angry at others or at yourself, develop empathy for yourself and others. Remind yourself: Just like me, this person is seeking happiness in their life. — Kayla Moore

If you investigate the matter deeply enough and widely enough, you will find that happiness eludes nearly all men despite the fact that they are forever seeking it. The fortunate and successful few are those who have stopped seeking with the ego alone and allow the search to be directed inwardly by the higher self. They alone can find a happiness unblemished by defects or deficiencies, a Supreme Good which is not a further source of pain and sorrow but an endless source of satisfaction and peace. — Paul Brunton

The key to lasting happiness and real pleasure in this world is not found in seeking gratification, but in pleasing God. And while the Lord desires that we enjoy His gifts and the people to whom we are joined, He wants us to know that we were created first for His pleasure. — Francis Frangipane

I don't want to risk my personal sanity or happiness, or my family, or the love of my life. That's a mistake. And I think a lot of people make that mistake, they're always kind of, like, seeking out the next thing that's gonna happen. — Summer Phoenix

Seeking happiness in material things is a sure way of being unhappy. — Pope Francis

You cannot have everyone else's happiness in mind as well when you go out seeking your own. It's not as if what you wish to of with your life is going to take away anything from theirs. — Musharraf Ali Farooqi

Wanting help, I reached out to serve. Seeking happiness, I smiled and offered comfort. Yearning for love, I showed love. And now I understand. My life was never about me, it was always about you. — Richelle E. Goodrich

If one takes meaning into consideration, happiness might best be described as "a zest for life in all its complexity," as Sissela Bok writes in her book. To achieve it means to "attach our lives to something larger than ourselves." To be happy, one must do. It could be something as simple as teaching Sunday school or as grand as leading nonviolent protests. It could be as cerebral as seeking the cure for cancer or as physical as climbing mountains. It could be creating art. And it could be raising a child - my "best piece of poetrie," as Ben Jonson said in his elegy for his seven-year-old son. — Jennifer Senior

To every description of citizens, let praise be given. but let them persevere in their affectionate vigilance over that precious depository of American happiness, the Constitution of the United States. Let them cherish it, too, for the sake of those who, from every clime, are daily seeking a dwelling in our land. — George Washington

Seeking happiness, I passed many travelers headed in the opposite direction, seeking happiness. — Robert Breault

Wealth is evidently not the good we are seeking; for it is merely useful and for the sake of something else. — Aristotle.

In the family, happiness is in the ratio in which each
is serving the others, seeking one another's good,
and bearing one another's burdens. — Henry Ward Beecher

How would you describe the spiritual aroma of your home? The source of this aroma is the relationship between husband and wife. Many can fake an attempt at keeping God's standards in some external way. What we cannot fake is the resulting, distinctive aroma of pleasure to God. Most marriage books address the mere externals of marriage, without seeking to understand the heart issues. Godly marriages proceed from an obedient heart, and the greatest desire of an obedient heart is the glory of God, not the happiness of the household. — Douglas Wilson

So the first step in seeking happiness is learning. We first have to learn how negative emotions and behaviors are harmful to us and how positive emotions are helpful. — Dalai Lama

Where, then, lies the mistake, since all men crave the happy life? It is that they regard the means for producing happiness as happiness itself, and, while seeking happiness, they are really fleeing from it. For — Seneca.

the Buddha whimsically pointed out that seeking happiness in one's material desires is as absurd as "suffering because a banana tree will not bear mangoes. — Rolf Potts

Now the need for seeking something outside will completely disappear. Once you are blissful by your own nature, your life becomes an expression of your blissfulness, not a pursuit of happiness. — Sadhguru

Sonnets To Orpheus, Part Two, XII
Want the change. Be inspired by the flame
where everything shines as it disappears.
The artist, when sketching, loves nothing so much
as the curve of the body as it turns away.
What locks itself in sameness has congealed.
Is it safer to be gray and numb?
What turns hard becomes rigid
and is easily shattered.
Pour yourself like a fountain.
Flow into the knowledge that what you are seeking
finishes often at the start, and, with ending, begins.
Every happiness is the child of a separation
it did not think it could survive. And Daphne, becoming a laurel,
dares you to become the wind. — Rainer Maria Rilke

But it is not emancipation that the great majority seeks. When pressed, most men will admit that it takes but little to be happy. (Not that they practice this wisdom!) Man craves happiness here on earth, not fulfillment, not emancipation. Are they utterly deluded, then, in seeking happiness? No, happiness is desirable, but it is a by-product, the result of a way of life, not a goal which is forever beyond one's grasp. Happiness is achieved en route. And if it be ephemeral, as most men believe, it can also give way, not to anxiety of despair, but to a joyousness which is serene and lasting. To make happiness the goal is to kill it in advance. If one must have a goal, which is questionable, why not self-realization? The unique and healing quality in this attitude toward life is that in the process goal and seeker become one. — Henry Miller

You are rich if you have enough money to satisfy all your desires. So there are two ways to be rich: You earn, inherit, borrow, beg, or steal enough money to meet all your desires; or, you cultivate a simple lifestyle of few desires; that way you always have enough money. "A peaceful warrior has the insight and discipline to choose the simple way - to know the difference between needs and wants. We have few basic needs but endless wants. Full attention to every moment is my pleasure. Attention costs no money; your only investment is training. That's another advantage of being a warrior, Dan - it's cheaper! The secret of happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less." I — Dan Millman

A life devoted to seeking pleasure, is a life committed to being discontent. — David Guerrero

He who, seeking his own happiness, punishes or kills beings who also long for happiness, will not find happiness after his death. — Gautama Buddha

It's time for you to move, realizing that the thing you are seeking is also seeking you. — Iyanla Vanzant

Often we imagine that we will work hard until we arrive at some distant goal, and then we will be happy. This is a delusion. Happiness is the result of a life lived with purpose. Happiness is not an objective. It is the movement of life itself, a process, and an activity. It arises from curiosity and discovery. Seek pleasure and you will quickly discover the shortest path to suffering. Other people, friends, brothers, sisters, neighbors, spouses, even your mother and I are not responsible for your happiness. Your life is your responsibility, and you always have the choice to do your best. Doing your best will bring happiness. Do not be overconcerned with avoiding pain or seeking pleasure. If you are concentrating on the results of your actions, you are not dedicated to your task. — Ethan Hawke

We Americans often say that marriage is hard work. I'm not sure that the Hmong would understand this notion. Life is hard work, of course, and work is very hard work
I'm quite certain they would agree with those statements - but how does marriage become hard work? Marriage becomes hard work once you have poured the entirety of your life's expectations for happiness into the hands of one mere person. Keeping that going is hard work. A recent survey of young American women found that what women are seeking these days in a husband - more than anything else - is a man who will "inspire" them, which is, by any measure, a tall order. As a point of comparison, young women of the same age, surveyed back in the 1920s, were more likely to choose a partner based on qualities such as "decency" or "honesty," or his ability to provide for a family. But that's not enough anymore. Now we want to be INSPIRED by our spouses! Daily! Step to it, honey! — Elizabeth Gilbert

Seeking validation, inner peace, and happiness outside of yourself is like trying to find a bus to take you home when you're already at home. The only source of inner peace and happiness exists within you already. — Derek Doepker

All the suffering in the world comes from seeking pleasure for oneself. All the happiness in the world comes from seeking pleasure for others. — Shantideva

Happiness arises when you relax into the reality of your natural condition. The secrets of the universe are already in you as you. Seeking anything implies that you don't have it; every search for the idea of enlightenment leads you further away from it. The magnificance of life does not await you - it actually is you. — Mark Whitwell

Ambition is your own yoke, not His! And the lust of wealth, the desire for power, the craving for human love - all that is a yoke of your own making - and if you will wear it, it will gall you. There is more joy in being unknown than in being known and there is less care in having no wealth than in having much of it. We often go the wrong way to work in seeking true restfulness and happiness. — Jennifer Dukes Lee

It is not your passing thoughts or brilliant ideas so much as your plain everyday habits that control your life ... Live simply. Don't get caught in the machine of the world - it is too exacting. By the time you get what you are seeking your nerves are gone, the heart is damaged, and the bones are aching. Resolve to develop your spiritual powers more earnestly from now on. Learn the art of right living. If you have joy you have everything,so learn to be glad and contented ... Have happiness now. — Paramahansa Yogananda

People who know their purpose know where they're going, what they're doing, and, more importantly, they know why they're doing it. This shifts the basic emphasis of life from one of meeting needs, dealing with fears, and seeking happiness to following a path that leads to the greatest possible fulfillment, success, and meaning in life. Knowing your purpose satisfies a deep need that lives in everyone: the need for meaning, to have a positive impact, to have your presence and life felt by others. As people age, the yearning to leave some kind of legacy grows stronger. There is no greater legacy you can leave than living your life purpose to the fullest extent possible. — Tim Kelley

I've come to believe that seeking happiness is not a frivolous pursuit. It's honorable and necessary. And most people forget even to thing about it. — Goldie Hawn

Pleasure is a by-product of doing something that is worth doing. Therefore, do not seek pleasure as such. Pleasure comes of seeking something else, and comes by the way. — Abbott Lawrence Lowell

Whenever you put happiness before righteousness, you will be doomed to misery. That is the great message of the Bible from beginning to end. They alone are truly happy who are seeking to be righteous. — David Lloyd-Jones