There is no private house in which people can enjoy themselves so well as at a capital tavern… No, Sir; there is nothing which has yet been contrived by man by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern or inn.

We were poor, but we smiled.

Italy, and the spring and first love all together should suffice to make the gloomiest person happy.

Money has never made man happy, nor will it, there is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. The more of it one has the more one wants.

His was a great sin who first invented consciousness. Let us lose it for a few hours.

It was as if all of the happiness, all of the magic of this blissful hour had flowed together into these stirring, bittersweet tones and flowed away, becoming temporal and transitory once more.

Sleep is the best meditation.

Maybe some people can wake up and play PlayStation all day, but that’s never been me.

Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do. Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do.

No one has a right to consume happiness without producing it.

Who is rich? He that rejoices in his portion.

I have never taken any exercise, except sleeping and resting, and I never intend to take any.

Sometimes too much to drink is barely enough.

I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.

I, personally, think there is a really danger of taking food too seriously. Food should be part of the bigger picture.

Never make friends with people who are above or below you in status. Such friendships will never give you any happiness.

To live happily is an inward power of the soul.

My wife and I are very affectionate.

Music keeps the heart porous in many ways.

I like to let things breathe.

I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve.

Be more dedicated to making solid achievements than in running after swift but synthetic happiness.

It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness.

A man’s delight in looking forward to and hoping for some particular satisfaction is a part of the pleasure flowing out of it, enjoyed in advance. But this is afterward deducted, for the more we look forward to anything the less we enjoy it when it comes.

There are trees of a thousand sorts, and all have their several fruits; and I feel the most unhappy man in the world not to know them, for I am well assured that they are all valuable. I bring home specimens of them, and also of the land.

I really wanted to retire and rest and spend more time with my children, my grandchildren and of course with my wife.

Truth is a deep kindness that teaches us to be content in our everyday life and share with the people the same happiness.

I was born poor and without religion, under a happy sky, feeling harmony, not hostility, in nature. I began not by feeling torn, but in plenitude.

When I retire I’m going to spend my evenings by the fireplace going through those boxes. There are things in there that ought to be burned.

When you have good friends you’ve been around, every time they talk, you don’t give them your full attention. You don’t look them in the eye and stop. Half the time, you’re listening, half the time, you are ignoring them.

I love the sea.

We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once. And we should call every truth false which was not accompanied by at least one laugh.

It is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust.

When we go out to the country and just sit there, what we’re really doing is just switching off various kinds of alertness that we don’t have to use. When we do that, we are stopping being defensive. We are no longer shutting ourselves off from different types of experiences, we are welcoming them in.

Happiness is not an ideal of reason, but of imagination.

The struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.

First and foremost comes my family and my life with Brad. We have so much joy in raising our children and teaching them about the world that nothing really compares to that.

It is possible to live happily in the here and the now. So many conditions of happiness are available – more than enough for you to be happy right now. You don’t have to run into the future in order to get more.

I can say I’d honestly rather be happy than have 30 to 40 songs that I’ve written about these thrilling, exciting, horrible, unhappy times.

When you get into your car, shut the door and be there for just half a minute. Breathe, feel the energy inside your body, look around at the sky, the trees. The mind might tell you, ‚I don’t have time.‘ But that’s the mind talking to you. Even the busiest person has time for 30 seconds of space.

Music, the greatest good that mortals know and all of heaven we have hear below.

Fun is one of the most important – and underrated – ingredients in any successful venture. If you’re not having fun, then it’s probably time to call it quits and try something else.

If selfishness is the key to being miserable, then selflessness must be the key to being happy!

Too many people measure how successful they are by how much money they make or the people that they associate with. In my opinion, true success should be measured by how happy you are.

You want to do good things, and once you’ve done a couple of good things in a row, you think ‚Well gee, let’s not mess this up.‘ But I am lucky at this point that I have something I really love to do, and it completely holds my attention. I never feel frustrated by it.

To enjoy good health, to bring true happiness to one’s family, to bring peace to all, one must first discipline and control one’s own mind. If a man can control his mind he can find the way to Enlightenment, and all wisdom and virtue will naturally come to him.

When I’m in my 50s, I kind of think I’ll want to be in a garden.

God Almighty first planted a garden. And indeed, it is the purest of human pleasures.

The soul is healed by being with children.

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.

For one swallow does not make a summer, nor does one day; and so too one day, or a short time, does not make a man blessed and happy.

Suspicion is not less an enemy to virtue than to happiness; he that is already corrupt is naturally suspicious, and he that becomes suspicious will quickly be corrupt.

Whoever is happy will make others happy too.

I first found delight in the Sabbath many years ago when, as a busy surgeon, I knew that the Sabbath became a day for personal healing. By the end of each week, my hands were sore from repeatedly scrubbing them with soap, water, and a bristle brush. I also needed a breather from the burden of a demanding profession.

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.

It is wrong to assume that men of immense wealth are always happy.

Every possession and every happiness is but lent by chance for an uncertain time, and may therefore be demanded back the next hour.

Until you have learned to be tolerant with those who do not always agree with you, you will be neither successful nor happy.

It is a vain hope to make people happy by politics.

You can know or not know how a car runs and still enjoy riding in a car.

I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion.